Iran war updates: Pezeshkian urges US public to question gov’t war motives

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Here are some of the day’s top developments:

• The White House has said Trump will provide an “important update on Iran” in an address to the nation at 9pm (01:00 GMT).
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has written an open letter to the US public saying Iran has “never initiated a war” and that portraying it as an aggressor is not consistent with history.
• Lebanon’s Health Ministry says 1,318 people have now been killed in Israeli attacks.
• US and Israeli forces have continued to attack Iran, with an Iranian official saying a pharmaceutical research department was destroyed, dealing a “blow to the national medical supply chain”.
• Iran continues to fire drones and missiles across the region, with falling shrapnel killing a person from Bangladesh on a farm in the UAE.
• Qatar’s Defence Ministry says a missile launched from Iran hit an oil tanker in the country’s economic waters.

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has called on countries across the world to thwart Israel’s stated strategy of destroying border villages and preventing hundreds of thousands of civilians from returning to their homes in southern Lebanon.

“States should take immediate action, including imposing an arms embargo and sanctions, to stop Israel from committing further abuses and indefinitely occupying southern Lebanon before its latest expansionist push becomes a fait accompli,” the rights group said.

Its statement comes after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz admitted that Israel is planning to follow the Gaza “model” in razing southern Lebanon to the ground and depopulating the area, a push that rights advocates say would amount to ethnic cleansing.

Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the Litani River, which flows about 30km (18 miles) deep into Lebanese territory, should be Israel’s new northern border.

“Under the cover of the war with Iran, Israel is quite openly putting into practice and accelerating its agenda to take over more land, this time in Lebanon,” said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director for Israel-Palestine at DAWN.

“Its track record in Palestine and across the region makes clear it won’t stop without concrete consequences – and states should act before it’s too late.”

Nearly four weeks after the US president said that a new plan to provide insurance to ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz was “effective IMMEDIATELY”, there are “no known users”, according to Lloyd’s List, the shipping journal.

Lloyd’s also reported that “strings attached” to the new insurance scheme may mean that it is only appropriate for ships linked to the United States.

According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the cost of insuring a $100m vessel was already around $250,000 per voyage before the current crisis.

The Lebanese group says it carried out 60 military operations against Israel on Wednesday.

The attacks included rocket and drone launches against sites inside Israel, as well as targeting invading Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said it struck and disabled four Israeli tanks.

Iran’s Mehr news agency is reporting that about 400 cargo ships and oil tankers are waiting for Iran’s permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.

The ships are stopped behind the strait or around the Iranian islands of Larak, Hormuz and Qeshm, Mehr’s correspondent reported from Larak Island.

Jason Campbell, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, tells Al Jazeera that the US government is projecting a deeply ambiguous message as it struggles to build international support for its regional objectives.

He suggested that the White House’s move to reopen the Strait of Hormuz – whether through diplomacy or military force – is being met with a “lukewarm” response from NATO allies.

“We’re seeing a very ambiguous messaging coming from senior ranks of the US government. I think this is at least partly due to some of the efforts they’ve made in recent weeks in trying to, in this case, build a coalition of nations to collectively reopen the Strait of Hormuz, either through strong diplomatic pressure or, if necessary, military options.”

He continued, “But the response thus far from NATO allies and from other countries has been, I would say, lukewarm at best, very noncommittal, and it’s a product of the White House engaging in Operation Epic Fury without first doing some of those planning steps you would take in terms of both building a coalition and planning for any eventuality.”

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, has praised demonstrations that took place across Syria condemning Israel for approving a law to impose the death penalty on certain Palestinian prisoners.

“From the heart of proud Gaza – and from Jerusalem and its surroundings – we extend our salute to the steadfast people of Syria, and to the masses who have taken to the streets to chant in support of the resistance, and in solidarity with Al-Aqsa and the prisoners,” Abu Obeida said in a statement.

“We say to them: Your voices have reached us; we take immense pride in you.”

Since the fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Israel has been expanding and regularly carrying out raids across southern Syria.

The new Syrian authorities, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, have sought to resolve the issues with Israel diplomatically, but efforts to reach a security agreement between the two countries have faltered amid regional tensions.

Over the past week, the Syrian government has said it found and blocked two tunnels used for smuggling weapons to Hezbollah, which is locked in fierce fighting with Israel in southern Lebanon.

A new poll has suggested that a majority of Iranian Americans reject the US-Israeli war on their homeland.

More than 66 percent of respondents to the survey, commissioned by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said they opposed the war while 32.7 percent said they support it.

The findings mark a shift from an earlier NIAC poll at the start of the war that found Iranian American respondents nearly evenly split.

“Trump’s decisions and resulting carnage have soured Iranian Americans on the war, including those who may previously have supported it,” NIAC said in a statement.

“When asked why they now oppose the war, respondents cited civilian deaths and injuries and destabilization of the country as leading reasons for their position.”

🚨 A new poll shows Iranian American community opinion has shifted firmly against the war – 66.1% of Iranian Americans now oppose war on Iran.

Zogby Analytics conducted this polling commissioned by NIAC from March 24-27.

One month into this war, here’s how Iranian Americans see…

— NIAC (@NIACouncil) April 1, 2026

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson has said that Tehran has received messages through intermediaries and that these messages are being reviewed.

“What is important for the Iranian nation is to defend itself against this aggression, and we are ready for any type of attack, including a ground attack,” the spokesman said, according to Iran’s IRIB news agency reported.

Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera earlier this week that while Iran had received messages from US special envoy Steve Witkoff, “this does not mean that we are in negotiations.”

We’ve published several stories covering various aspects of the conflict in recent hours. Here are a few highlights:

• Open letter: ‘Which interests being served by war?’ Iran’s Pezeshkian asks US public
• From the ground: Iran authorities await war ‘victory’ as supporters mark 1979 anniversary
• Explainer: What a Marine Expeditionary Unit is – and other US military terms
• Opinion: Mojtaba Khamenei’s rumoured injury or death won’t change Iran’s trajectory
• Video: Smoke and embers seen over Iran’s Isfahan after strike

And there’s plenty more here.

We have this letter, which the Iranian president addressed directly to the American people and the Iranian leaders are denying Trump’s claim he asked for a ceasefire.

In the letter, instead, the Iranian president is reminding the Americans that Iran is not an aggressive nation. It is not a nation that has been waging wars against others near and far.

Since the inception of the United States, and even before that, Iran hasn’t initiated a war against any foreign country.

And these threats depicting Iran as a threat to the region and beyond is a constructive narrative in order to justify aggression on Iran.

He also mentioned that, for him, the miserable fact is that the Americans are waging a proxy war on behalf of Israel.

Remember, this letter is addressed not to Trump, but to the American people.

Basically, Pezeshkian is trying to give what he thinks is the correct image of Iran as a friendly country in the region that is defending itself.

A country that has the right to build its own weapons and the right to defend itself, considering that the Americans have been present in the region in a very, very strong and threatening manner.

The kingdom’s Defence Ministry has reported the latest interception and destruction of an incoming drone.

Israelis have had to go repeatedly to bomb shelters and safe rooms across the country, mainly in what Israel calls the central area – Tel Aviv and the surrounding cities – where 44 percent of the population lives, meaning millions of people.

Missiles have also reached, and sirens have blared, in cities like Ashdod and Ashkelon further to the south. In addition to the injuries and damage, this reminds Israelis that the war is nowhere near over. Sirens have become part of life, have kept children at home in online schooling, and have left the airport operating at a fraction of its capacity.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is watching very closely all the statements we’re hearing and reporting on about whether the war will end or not, and it is preparing for various contingencies.

It is escalating the bombardment of Iranian targets to include strategic assets, such as steel factories and pharmaceutical companies, in an effort to deny Iran the possibility of recovery when and if the war stops.