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Abdul Rahman for Peoples Dispatch
Iran dismissed reports and claims of any ongoing talks with the US, calling them fake news and repeating that its position “regarding the Strait of Hormuz and conditions to end the imposed war” remain the same.
Spokesperson of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Esmail Baghaei, while acknowledging that there had been messages from some friendly countries regarding the US willingness to talk, said that Iran had replied to those messages in an appropriate way without compromising the country’s principles about the current war.
Iran has refused to have negotiations with the US over a ceasefire and has set three conditions for any future negotiations, including:
- the end of strikes on Iran and a guarantee that such attacks will not be carried out in future;
- the withdrawal of US military bases from the region;
- proper compensation for all the damages caused by the war in Iran;
Iran has stated that the claims made by US President Donald Trump about the ongoing talks are false, calling them a stunt as a part of his administration’s attempt to control the rise in the global energy prices. It has also dismissed reports in various western media organizations about the emergence of Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf as the possible point of contact.
Trump, in a social media post on Monday, declared he was postponing the attacks on Iranian power plants as there was a “very good and productive conversation” between the two countries over the last two days. Trump also claimed that the talks will continue for the next five days.
Trump had given an “ultimatum” to Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, threatening to attack its power plants if it fails to do so.
Iran had refused Trump’s demands, claiming the strait would not be open for the US and its allies. It has warned of massive retaliation if its power plants were targeted.
“No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” Ghalibaf tweeted on Monday.
Iranians and Iraqis mobilize against the war
Hundreds of thousands of people continue to mobilize on the streets of various cities in Iran and neighboring Iraq to demand an end to the US-Israeli war and the establishment of peace in the region.
On the midnight of Monday, March 23, which was the 24th day of the war, people took to the streets in various cities across Iran, including Tehran, once again to denounce the war.
Waving Iranian flags and chanting slogans against the US-Israeli bombings, they expressed solidarity with the Iranian armed forces trying to defend the country.
Tehran has been one of the main targets of the US-Israeli bombings since February 28, with large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure and thousands of casualties. Protesters in Tehran and other major cities defied those threats of death and destruction.
Similarly, thousands took to the streets in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, late Monday night in support of Iranian people.
There is no middle ground
Ghalibaf, meanwhile, demanded that the global community take a side in the war, arguing that there is no middle ground now.
In a post on X, Ghalibaf claimed that “Iran is fighting for humanity” and against the Israeli colonial regime which tortures and kills children everywhere.
“The world is either with Gaza and against this colonial terror regime, or it stands with the Epstein class and child tortures. There is no middle ground,” he said, referring to the news of Israeli soldiers caught on camera torturing a one-year-old Palestinian child to force his father to make confessions.
The child was kept under Israeli detention for around 10 hours before being released to his family. However, the father remains in Israeli custody, TRT reported.
Thousands of Palestinian children have been killed in the Israeli war in Gaza since October 2023. Israeli bombardment in Iran and its attacks and ground invasions in Lebanon have also killed over hundreds of children.
According to the Iranian Health Ministry, over 210 Iranian children have been killed in Iran in the war, including 168 school girls killed on the first day of US-Israeli strikes.
US-Israeli strikes damaged nearly 500 schools and 292 medical facilities in Iran
A total of over 82,000 civilian structures have been damaged or destroyed in the US-Israeli strikes inside Iran, including some of the historic monuments, according to a report by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) on Monday.
US-Israeli strikes in the country have damaged or destroyed 498 schools and 292 medical facilities in the 24 days of the war, with over a dozen hospitals in Tehran going completely out of service.
In a letter to WHO Director-General Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the IRCS also noted that at least 22 Iranian medical staff have been killed and 113 others have been injured in the US-Israeli attacks on the country since February 28.
Attacks on health facilities and medical staff violate international humanitarian laws and the fourth Geneva convention and its additional protocols, the IRCS said, demanding that the WHO condemn such attacks.
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