Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned that his country will retaliate if its infrastructure and economic centers are attacked after Tehran suffered a wave of strikes from Israel as the region marked a month into the conflict.
Pezeshkian said in a post on X on Saturday that Iran “does not carry out preemptive attacks”, but that Tehran “will retaliate strongly if our infrastructure or economic centers are targeted”.
“To the countries of the region: If you want development and security, don't let our enemies run the war from your lands,” he added.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also threatened to target US and Israeli universities across the Middle East after the bombing of Iran’s University of Science and Technology.
In a statement published by Iran’s Tasnim News agency on March 29, the IRGC advised all employees, professors, and students at US universities in the region, as well as residents in the surrounding areas, “to stay at least one kilometer away from the mentioned universities to protect their lives”.
“If the US administration wants its universities in the region not to be among the two targeted for retaliation at this stage, they must by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time, issue an official statement condemning the bombing of universities,” the statement read.
“And if it wants its universities in the region to not be hit thereafter, it must prevent its savage allied forces from attacking universities and research centers; otherwise, the threat remains valid and will be carried out.”
The escalating threats follow the arrival of 3,500 US troops in the Middle East. The US Central Command announced on Saturday on its X account that a task force of marines and sailors arrived in the region on Friday.
Coupled with this news was a report in the Washington Post on the same day that the US Department of Defense is considering options for a ground operation in Iran, which would fall short of a full-scale invasion but could involve thousands of troops and take weeks or months.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the US “openly sends messages of negotiation, while secretly planning a ground attack”.
He said US President Donald Trump once sought to bring down Iran, but now his practical goal “is merely to reopen a strait that was accessible prior to the war”.
Across the region on March 29, the United Arab Emirates activated its air defenses and reported intercepting missiles and drones. Sirens were activated in Kuwait and Bahrain while Saudi Arabia also intercepted 10 drones.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Egypt and Turkiye arrived in Islamabad to hold talks in an effort to deescalate tensions in the region. They are also expected to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
In a post on X, Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said it was great news that the government of Iran “has agreed to allow 20 more ships under the Pakistani flag to pass through the Strait of Hormuz; two ships will cross the strait daily”.
“This is a welcome and constructive gesture by Iran and deserves appreciation. It is a harbinger of peace and will help usher stability in the region. This positive announcement marks a meaningful step toward peace and will strengthen our collective efforts in that direction,” said Dar.
“Dialogue, diplomacy, and such confidence-building measures are the only way forward,” he added.
Arhama Siddiqa, a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad in Pakistan, told China Daily, the quadrilateral engagement in Islamabad “carries measured but not decisive significance in the current escalation cycle”.
On one hand, she said the presence of senior diplomats from regional middle powers, particularly the governments of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkiye and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, “signals a coordinated attempt to create a diplomatic off-ramp at a moment when the situation risks further militarization, especially with the forward positioning of US troops”.
However, the limited impact of prior calls for restraint reflects the reality that regional actors possess influence, but not decisive leverage over the core drivers of escalation, said Siddiqa.
“Israeli actions, particularly the targeting of critical infrastructure, have continued to shape the tempo of the crisis, narrowing space for diplomacy and compelling reactive postures from others,” she added.
“So honestly, the Islamabad meeting should be viewed less as an immediate de-escalation mechanism and more as an effort to consolidate a regional consensus that could, over time, constrain further escalation and reintroduce diplomatic channels into an otherwise rapidly, for lack of a better word, hardening security environment.”
Contact the writers at jan@chinadailyapac.com
