ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — 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 monthlong 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. He also dismissed the talks as a cover after some 2,500 U.S. Marines trained in amphibious landings arrived in the Middle East.
The war has threatened global supplies of oil, natural gas and fertilizer and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices, and now the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels’ entry into the war could threaten shipping on another crucial waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea.
“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 neighboring gulf Arab states. Meanwhile, Israel has invaded Lebanon, targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants there, though many civilians have displaced or killed. The war continues on the digital front as well.
Pakistan hosts diplomats
Pakistan said the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt met in Islamabad without U.S. or Israeli participation, days after the United States 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 with U.S. attacks during rounds of indirect U.S.-Iranian 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 advisor to the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, called for any settlement of 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 strikes on U.S., Israeli universities
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 have been at the heart of tensions that led to this war and last year’s.
The paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps 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 United Arab Emirates, 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 Revolutionary 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 Israel has reported 19 killed there.
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.
Thirteen U.S. troops have been killed and hundreds injured.
Ahmed, Metz and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Metz reported from Ramallah and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writer Samya Kullab in Basra, Iraq, contributed to this report.
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