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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A top Iranian official warned the U.S. against a ground invasion, saying its troops would be set “on fire,” as regional diplomats met Sunday in Pakistan in hopes of opening direct U.S.-Iran talks and ending the month-long war.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to Iranian state media.
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He also dismissed the talks as a cover after some 2,500 U.S. Marines trained in amphibious landings arrived in the Middle East.
“We don’t know at what moment our homes could be targeted,” said Razzak Saghir al-Mousawi, 71, describing relentless airstrikes as Iranians crossing into Iraq urged the United States to end the war. “I am definitely afraid.”
More than 3,000 people have been killed in the war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered Iranian attacks on Israel and neighbouring Gulf Arab states.
Expert says world economy is a ‘crisis point’
The Houthis joined the war over the weekend with a missile attack on Israel. Their entry has raised concerns that they could resume attacks on vessels in the Red Sea further disrupting the global shipping industry and sending oil prices much higher.
Nomi Bar-Yaacov, fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, said the Houthis’ potential disruption of oil export in the Red Sea will create a “point where we have not been before.”
At this time, both the Homuz and Bab al-Mandab straits will be closed, she said.
“All eyes are on the mediation, but the oil crisis is, I think, at an unprecedented state,” she said.
The head of the U.S. oil and natural industry’s top lobbying group says “the only real solution” to rising energy and consumer prices as a result of the war with Iran is to get the Strait of Hormuz open.
“If we can do that this week with targeted regime actions, I think we have to take that opportunity because it’s only going to get worse over time,” said Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.
Sommers told Fox News Channel’s The Sunday Briefing that “that artery has to be reopened and fast” because “the longer this goes on, the higher prices are going to go.”
Sommers is also troubled by the entry of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
“If the Houthis start attacking ships going through the Red Sea, that could really put us on the cusp of a major energy crisis throughout the world. That is a top concern this week, as well,” he says.
Pakistan hosts Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt
Pakistan said the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt met in Islamabad without U.S. or Israeli participation, days after the U.S. offered Iran a 15-point “action list” as a framework for a possible peace deal. The ministers are expected to meet again Monday.
Egypt’s Badr Abdelatty said the meetings are aimed at opening a “direct dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators. Both this war and last year’s 12-day war began during rounds of indirect talks.
Iranian officials have rejected the U.S. framework and publicly dismissed the idea of negotiating under pressure.
But Press TV, the English-language arm of Iran’s state broadcaster, reported last week that Tehran had drafted its own five-point proposal that reportedly called for a halt to killing Iranian officials, guarantees against future attacks, reparations and Iran’s “exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran has eased some restrictions on commercial ships in the strait, agreeing late Saturday to allow 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels to pass through.
It “sends a clear signal that Iran remains open for business with the world, provided the United States abandons coercion,” said Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Iran.
An adviser to the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, called for any settlement to the war to include “clear guarantees” that Iranian attacks on neighbors will not be repeated.
Gargash said Iran’s government has become “the main threat” to Persian Gulf security and called for compensation for attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Iran threatens retaliatory strikes
Iran on Sunday warned of escalation after Israeli airstrikes hit several universities, including ones that Israel claimed were used for nuclear research and development. Concerns over Iran’s nuclear program are at the heart of tensions.
The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned that Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of U.S. universities in the region “legitimate targets” unless offered safety assurances for Iranian universities, state media reported.
U.S. colleges have campuses in Qatar and the UAE, including Georgetown, New York and Northwestern universities.
“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment” of Iranian universities by midday Monday, the Guard said in a statement.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said Saturday that dozens of universities and research centers have been hit, among them the Iran University of Science and Technology and Isfahan University of Technology.
Both sides in the war have threatened to attack civilian facilities, which critics have warned could be a war crime.
Death toll continues to climb
Iranian authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed in the Islamic Republic, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.
In Lebanon, officials said more than 1,100 people have been killed.
In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have died.
In Gulf states, 20 people have been killed. Four have been killed in the occupied West Bank.
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