Tehran has agreed to “facilitate and expedite” humanitarian aid through the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said on Friday, March 27.
Ali Bahreini said Tehran has accepted a request from the UN to let humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments move through the critical waterway, even as it endured strikes on its nuclear facilities.
The aid plan would be the first breakthrough at the shipping chokepoint after a month of war. While markets and governments have largely focused on blocked supplies of oil and natural gas, the restriction of fertiliser threatens farming and food security around the world.
“This measure reflects Iran’s continued commitment to supporting humanitarian efforts and ensuring that essential aid reaches those in need without delay,” Bahreini said in a post on X.
Iran says will ‘exact heavy price’ for Israel attack on nuclear facilities
Iranian state media said two nuclear facilities had come under attack. Israel, which had threatened to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran, claimed responsibility, and Iran quickly threatened to retaliate.
“Attack contradicts POTUS extended deadline for diplomacy,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X, referring to US President Donald Trump. ”Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes.”
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the Shahid Khondab Heavy Water Complex in Arak and the Ardakan yellowcake production plant in Yazd Province were targeted, IRNA reported. The strikes did not cause any casualties and there was no risk of contamination, it said. The Arak plant has not been operational since Israel attacked it last June.
Yellowcake is a concentrated form of uranium after impurities are removed from the raw ore. Heavy water is used as a moderator in nuclear reactors.
The Israeli military later said raw materials are processed for enrichment at the Yazd plant and that the strike was a major blow to Iran’s nuclear program.
Later in a third attack at a nuclear site, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation reported that a projectile hit near the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. The attack caused “no casualties, financial or technical damage,” the organisation said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Iran would retaliate, IRNA reported. Seyed Majid Moosavi, IRGC’s Aerospace Force commander, posted on X that employees of companies tied to the US and Israel should abandon their workplaces.
“This time, the equation will no longer be an eye for an eye,’ just wait,” he said.
Israel targets Iran’s weapons production while Iran attacks Gulf neighbours
Air raid sirens sounded in Israel and the military said it has been intercepting Iranian missiles on a daily basis. Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iran “will pay heavy, increasing prices for this war crime.”
Israel’s military said its attacks Friday targeted sites “in the heart of Tehran” where ballistic missiles and other weapons are produced. It said it also hit missile launchers and storage sites in Western Iran.
Smoke rose over Beirut after a pre-dawn strike, and Lebanon’s Health Ministry later reported two people were killed.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry meanwhile said it shot down missiles and drones targeting the capital, Riyadh.
Kuwait said its Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City and the Mubarak Al Kabeer Port to the north, which is under construction as part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, sustained “material damage” in attacks. It appeared to be one of the first times a Chinese-affiliated project in the Gulf Arab states has come under assault in the war. China has continued to purchase Iranian crude.
82,000 buildings damaged in Iran
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said 82,000 civilian buildings in Iran, including hospitals and the homes of 180,000 people, are damaged.
“If this war continues, we risk a far wider humanitarian disaster,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement. “Millions could be forced to flee across borders, placing immense pressure on an already overstretched region.”
