In its proposal, Iran had called for an end of the war on all fronts including Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, as well as a halt to the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports in place since April 13. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

Israelis take part in an anti-government protest calling for an end to the conflict with Lebanon, amid a two-week ceasefire between U.S. and Iran, in Tel Aviv on April 11, 2026.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

 Pakistan said on Sunday (March 29, 2026) that it was ready to broker and host “meaningful talks” between the United States and Iran to bring an end to their war, outlining growing support for its peace efforts, including from the United Nations and China.

The government in Islamabad has emerged as a key facilitator, relaying messages between the two sides to try to stop the conflict from escalating.

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar hosted his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey for several hours in the Pakistani capital on Sunday, with concern high about the impact of the fighting, including the choking of maritime traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

In a televised statement, Mr. Dar, who is also Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister, said the visitors “expressed their full support” for potential U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad.

“The Foreign Ministers advocated dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable pathway to prevent conflicts and to promote regional peace and harmony,” he added.

Pakistan is seeking to capitalise on its longstanding links with Tehran and close contacts in the Gulf, as well as the personal rapport that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s powerful Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, have struck up with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mr. Dar and Mr. Sharif have held several calls with senior government ministers in Iran, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and were “actively engaged” with the US administration, the foreign minister said.

“In this context, Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the US have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks,” he added.

“Pakistan will be honoured to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in coming days, for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the ongoing conflict.”

Mr. Dar has spoken to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. They “fully support” Pakistan’s push for peace, as do other governments around the world, he added.

‘Event planner’

Sunday’s talks, held under tight security and with no U.S—, Israeli or Iranian representation, addressed efforts to stop the conflict from spreading and to encourage “a negotiations track” between Tehran and Washington to prevent the region “slipping into a state of complete chaos”, Cairo said.

All three visiting ministers — Badr Abdelatty from Egypt, Hakan Fidan from Turkey, and Saudi Arabia’s Faisal bin Farhan — also met Sharif as well as Munir.

Tehran has refused to admit to holding official talks with Washington but has passed a response to Trump’s 15-point plan to end the war via Islamabad, Iran’s Tasnim news agency has reported.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Friday he expected a direct US-Iran meeting in Pakistan “very soon”.

But Shuja Nawaz, founder director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council, said Pakistan had taken on a “challenging task” in trying to get Washington and Tehran to the table.

“It could only do this with Saudi blessing,” Nawaz, author of “The Battle for Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighbourhood”, told AFP.

“The real challenge for Pakistan is to bring together a single person in the White House who changes his mind frequently and an Iranian government that is debating whether to fight a long war or find an end to its economy being further devastated.

“Israeli autonomous decision-making will further complicate any Trump decision to claim victory and end a conflict that is hurting his popularity at home. Pakistan has limited leverage over both the US and Iran; none with Israel.

“Will it remain an event planner only?”

Pakistan’s efforts make economic sense: it relies on oil and gas imports through the Strait of Hormuz. Continued disruption to shipping could worsen fuel supplies, driving up prices and forcing further austerity measures.

Mr. Dar said late on Saturday that Iran had allowed 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels — or two ships daily — to pass through the Strait.

Published – March 29, 2026 11:28 pm IST

The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli has arrived in the West Asia, U.S. Central Command said on Saturday, March 28, 2026. Photo credit: X/@CENTCOM

President Donald Trump speaks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a roundtable discussion on public safety at a Tennessee Air National Guard Base, on March 23, 2026, in Memphis, Tenn.
| Photo Credit: AP

Last Tuesday (March 10, 2026) night, the skies above Erbil — the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region — flashed with the streaks of air defence interceptors. According to Erbil’s governor, at least 17 drones targeted the city in a single night, triggering sirens and sending residents scrambling indoors — a stark reminder that one of the West Asia’s most stable corners is now being drawn into a widening regional confrontation.

Debris crashed into a civilian home near the United States consulate and landed close to a major public venue. Northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, which hosts several Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, has seen a slew of such attacks since the war in what officials describe as a rapidly escalating campaign in the region.

In the latest attack, multiple explosions on Monday (March 16, 2026) night rocked Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, with at least four persons killed in an air strike on a building used by an Iran-backed group, and drone strikes targeting the United States Embassy. The deadly attack in Baghdad’s Jadriyah district followed the sound of an explosion from near the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone early on Tuesday (March 17, 2026).

Also read | ‘Kurds seek a democratic Iran; we do not fight other powers’ wars’, says Iranian Kurdish party

The strikes hitting the region now come from multiple directions: Iranian missile attacks targeting Kurdish opposition groups based in northern Iraq, drone strikes by Iran-aligned militias targeting U.S. bases, and retaliatory operations linked to the widening confrontation between Tehran and Washington.

Kurdish lawmakers in Baghdad warn that the federal government’s muted response risks further destabilising the country. Civilian areas have also been affected: among those wounded in recent strikes were a delivery driver in Erbil, a nurse in a camp near Koya, and a child in the Qalawa neighbourhood of Sulaimaniyah, heightening anxiety among residents who had long regarded the Kurdistan Region as a relative refuge from the violence affecting the rest of Iraq.

Since February 28, when the United States and Israel intensified their attack on Iran, the Kurdistan Region has endured 307 strikes by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups, killing eight persons and injuring 51, according to Community Peacemaker Team-Iraqi Kurdistan, which monitors movements and violations along the Iraq-Iran border.

“In addition to the loss of life, the attacks carried out by the IRGC, and its affiliated groups have caused damage to civilian homes, oil fields, telecommunications infrastructure, hotels, public spaces, and government and civil institutions,” said Kamaran Osman, a member of the CPT Iraqi Kurdistan team. “During the past week alone, 21 civilian homes were hit by fragments of suicide drones and remnants of explosive ordnance.”

Among the dead were a security employee at Erbil International Airport, four Kurdish fighters linked to Iranian opposition groups, and a French soldier killed in a drone strike on a joint military base southwest of Erbil. The confrontation between Iran, the U.S. and Israel are increasingly spilling across borders and threatening to pull Iraq back into a conflict it has struggled for years to escape.

‘Boots on ground’

Iranian Kurdish opposition groups have suffered casualties in the latest wave of attacks. At least five fighters from different Iranian Kurdish organisations have been killed in the recent attacks. Iranian Kurdish refugee camps and the military headquarters of Iranian Kurdish parties in the Kurdistan Region were targeted 43 times, according to CPT.

Northern Iraq has long served as a sanctuary for Iranian Kurdish dissidents. Several organisations, including the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Komala Party of the Toilers of Kurdistan, PAK and Khabat, maintain armed camps, political offices and refugee camps in the region.

On February 22, six of these groups announced the formation of the Alliance of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan, an umbrella coalition opposing the Iranian government, a rare move given their longstanding disagreement.

Some of these groups maintain armed wings and have historically conducted operations against Iranian forces inside Iran’s Kurdish regions. In recent weeks, speculation surfaced in Washington that such fighters could potentially play a role in a broader pressure campaign against Tehran.

U.S. President Donald Trump, at one point, suggested it would be “wonderful” if Iranian Kurdish forces based in Iraq crossed into Iran to attack the regime, a remark that alarmed Kurdish leaders and risked provoking Tehran.

Mr. Trump later appeared to walk back the suggestion, saying the United States did not want to complicate the war further. The Iranian Kurdish groups themselves have denied any coordinated role in the conflict so far, even as they remain targets of Iranian attacks.

U.S. involvement

The escalation is pulling U.S. forces in Iraq back into confrontation against their old adversary: Iran-backed Shia militias that battled U.S. forces during the years following the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Militias allied with Tehran have launched dozens of drone and rocket attacks on American targets, including facilities near Erbil International Airport, a base used by U.S. forces at Harir, and even the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad.

According to CPT, during the past week, consulates, military bases, and facilities connected to the U.S. government in the Kurdistan Region were targeted 39 times, bringing the total number of such attacks to 97 since the start of the conflict. Condemning the attacks, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani described them as a “terrorist act” carried out by “rogue groups”.

For years, the U.S. sought to wind down its military involvement in the country, but the latest attack could change things on the ground. Iran holds deep influence in the country through Shia political parties and armed factions collectively known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), while the United States still holds significant leverage through security cooperation, economic ties and remaining troop presence.

The widening conflict is also threatening to draw international troops: a drone last week also struck a joint Peshmerga-French military base at Mala Qara, about 60 km southwest of Erbil, killing a French soldier and injuring six others. France, which keeps troops in the Kurdistan Region as part of the international coalition that continues training local forces, called the strike “unacceptable.”

Increasing tensions

Tensions between Erbil and Baghdad are also increasing over oil exports and financial controls.

Kurdish leaders have called for urgent dialogue to resolve the growing political and economic dispute after Baghdad proposed exporting up to 3,00,000 barrels per day through the Kurdistan pipeline to Turkiye’s Ceyhan port.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), however, has accused Iraq of imposing what it describes as a “suffocating embargo” by restricting Kurdish access to dollars through the ASYCUDA customs system, a financial lever that can affect the KRG’s oil exports and revenues, and failing to prevent attacks by Iran-aligned groups. Iraqi political blocs rejected their demand, insisting that oil exports remain a federal authority under Baghdad.

Oil exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan Region remain largely stalled, with energy facilities repeatedly targeted by drone and missile strikes, further disrupting already fragile energy infrastructure. Iraq announced on Monday that it will begin exporting oil directly from Kirkuk to Turkiye, bypassing the Kurdistan Region.

For Iraq, whose economy depends heavily on oil exports, a prolonged conflict risks disrupting energy exports and deepening the country’s already fragile political divisions and economic tensions.

Caught in the midst

On Monday (March 16, 2026) night, a drone struck the Al-Rasheed Hotel, one of the most high-profile hotels known to host dignitaries on a regular basis, in central Baghdad. Eyewitnesses captured flames and thick smoke billowing from the upper floors of the landmark building, in one of the biggest attacks on the Iraqi capital since the war began. Iraq’s former Deputy Minister Hoshyar Zebari called it an “all-out war” by Iraqi militias. “Tonight attacks on Al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad & U.S. Embassy in Green Zone in Baghdad and Victory base in BIAP plus attacks on Erbil mean an all-out war by the Iraqi militias to broaden the conflict and engulf the country in the current military conflict,” he wrote on X.

For decades, Iraq has served as a geopolitical crossroads where regional and international actors compete for influence, a rivalry now playing out on its soil once again.

Tens of thousands of fighters belonging to Iranian-aligned militias operate across the country, while U.S. forces maintain several military facilities — many now concentrated in the Kurdistan Region.

Kurdish authorities have also stepped-up criticism of Baghdad’s response. Safeen Dizayee, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Foreign Relations, condemned what he described as militia drone strikes targeting civilian and diplomatic sites in the region.

“We strongly condemn the militia drone attacks on the Kurdistan Region’s infrastructure and civilian sites, including the recent targeting of the UAE Consulate General in Erbil and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad,” Mr. Dizayee said in a statement on Sunday, urging the federal government and security forces to disarm the “lawless groups.”

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani also held a telephone conversation with Tom Barrack, the United States Ambassador to Turkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, during which both sides condemned the recent attacks on the Kurdistan Region and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

So far, the conflict has seen more than 7,000 strikes carried out on Iranian targets by the United States and Israel, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), while Iran has responded by launching over 2,000 drones and 600 missiles. It has also begun to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for global oil trade.

Anisha Dutta is a journalist based in New York

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in Jerusalem, on March 19, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

President Donald Trump’s administration is considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its ​operation in West Asia, as the U.S. military prepares for possible next steps in its campaign against Iran, said a U.S. official and three people familiar with the ‌matter.

The deployments could help provide Mr. Trump with additional options as he weighs expanding U.S. operations, with the Iran war well ​into its third week.

Iran-Israel war updates on March 18, 2026

Those options include securing safe passage for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a mission that would ⁠be accomplished primarily through air and naval forces, the sources said. But securing the Strait could also mean deploying U.S. troops to Iran’s shoreline, said four sources, including two U.S. officials.

Reuters granted the sources anonymity to speak about military planning.

The Trump administration has also discussed options to send ground forces to Iran’s Kharg Island, the hub for 90% ‌of Iran’s oil exports, the three people familiar with the matter and three U.S. officials said. One of the officials said such an operation would be very risky. Iran has the ability to reach the island with missiles and drones.

The United States carried out ‌strikes against military targets on the island on March 13 and Trump has threatened to also strike its critical oil infrastructure. However, given its vital ‌role ⁠in Iran’s economy, controlling the island would likely be viewed as a better option than destroying it, military experts say.

Any use ⁠of U.S. ground troops – even for a limited mission – could pose significant political risks for Mr. Trump, given low support among the American public for the Iran campaign and Mr. Trump’s own campaign promises to avoid entangling the U.S. in new West Asia conflicts.

Trump administration officials have also discussed the possibility of deploying U.S. forces to secure Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium, one of the ​people familiar with the matter said.

The sources did not believe a ‌deployment of ground forces anywhere in Iran was imminent but declined to discuss specifics of U.S. operational planning. Experts say the task of securing Iran’s uranium stockpiles would be highly complex and risky, even for U.S. special operations forces.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There has been no decision to send ground troops at this time, but President Trump wisely keeps all options at his disposal.

“The president is focused on ‌achieving all of the defined objectives of Operation Epic Fury: destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capacity, annihilate their navy, ensure their terrorist proxies cannot destabilize ​the region, and guarantee that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”

The Pentagon declined to comment.

The discussions come as the U.S. military continues to attack Iran’s navy, its missile and drone stockpiles and its defense industry.

The U.S. has carried out ⁠more than 7,800 strikes since launching the war on February 28 and damaged or destroyed more than 120 Iranian vessels so far, according to a factsheet released on Wednesday by the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the roughly 50,000 U.S. troops in the West Asia.

U.S. casualties

Mr. Trump has said his goals go beyond degrading ‌Iran’s military capabilities and could include securing safe passage through the Strait and preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Ground forces could help broaden his options to address those goals, but carry significant risk. Even without any direct conflict in Iran, 13 U.S. troops have been killed so far in the war and about 200 have been wounded, although the vast majority of the injuries have been minor, the U.S. military says.

For years, Mr. Trump has railed against his predecessors for getting involved in conflicts and has vowed to keep the United States out of foreign wars. But more recently he has refused to rule out the possibility of “boots on the ground” in Iran.

A senior White House official told Reuters that Trump has various options for acquiring Iran’s nuclear material ‌but has not decided how to proceed. “Certainly there are ways in which it could be acquired,” the official said, adding: “He hasn’t made a decision yet.”

In written testimony to lawmakers on Wednesday (March 18, 2026), ​Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Iran’s nuclear enrichment program had been obliterated by strikes in June and the entrances to those underground facilities had been “buried and shuttered with cement.”

The sources said the discussions on U.S. reinforcements go beyond the arrival of an ⁠Amphibious Ready Group next week in the West Asia, with an attached Marine Expeditionary Unit that includes more than 2,000 Marines.

But one of the sources noted ⁠that the U.S. military was losing a significant number of forces with the decision to send the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier to Greece for maintenance after a fire on board the vessel.

Mr. Trump has also oscillated on whether the U.S. should secure the Strait of ‌Hormuz.

After initially saying the U.S. Navy could escort vessels, he called on other countries to help open the key water way. With little interest from allies, Trump on Wednesday mused about simply leaving.

“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let ​the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Strait?,’” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social.

Published – March 19, 2026 05:52 am IST