Submit your Article

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on March 29 he had ordered the military to further expand its operations in southern Lebanon, citing continued rocket fire by Hezbollah, Reuters reported. 

Israel said last week it was enlarging a “buffer zone” up to the Litani River. It was not immediately clear whether Mr Netanyahu was referring to that area or to the seizure of additional territory.

“I have now instructed to further expand the existing security zone in order to finally thwart the threat of invasion and to push the anti-tank missile fire away from our border,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video statement from Israeli Northern Command, according to Reuters. 

Pakistan said on Sunday it was preparing to host "meaningful talks" to end the conflict over Iran in coming days even though Tehran said it is ​ready to respond if the United States moves in with soldiers on the ground, Reuters reported. 

Speaking after talks between regional foreign ministers, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said they had covered possible ways to bring an ‌early and permanent end to the war in the region as well as potential U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad.

"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," he said. It was not immediately clear whether the U.S. and Iran had agreed to attend, according to Reuters. 

The risk of an expanded Iran war grew on Saturday as Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday launched their first attacks on Israel since the start of the conflict, ​even as additional U.S. forces reached the Middle East, Reuters reported. 

Speaking before the strike, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States expected to conclude military operations within weeks, although a new ‌deployment of U.S. Marines started arriving in the region. The Houthis said they would continue their operations until the "aggression" on all fronts ended.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government hosts a meeting with the Turkish and Saudi foreign ministers on Sunday to seek to ease regional tensions, according to Reuters. 

The debate among Iranian hardliners over whether Tehran should seek a nuclear bomb in defiance of an escalating U.S.-Israeli attack is getting louder, more public and more insistent, sources in the country say, Reuters reported. 

With the Revolutionary Guards ​now dominant following the killing of veteran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the war on February 28, hardline views on Iran's nuclear approach are in the ascendant, two senior Iranian sources said.

While Western countries have long believed that Iran wants the bomb - or at least the ability to make one very quickly - it has always denied that, saying Khamenei had banned nuclear arms as forbidden in Islam and citing its membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, according to Reuters.