Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has said the BRICS alliance, which India currently chairs, should “play an independent role in halting aggression against Iran.”

In a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pezeshkian also proposed establishing a regional security framework made up of West Asian countries “aimed at ensuring peace and stability in the region through regional cooperation without foreign interference.”

“Expressing deep concern over the escalation of tensions and conflict in West Asia, the Prime Minister of India strongly condemned any attacks on energy infrastructure in the region, noting that such actions pose serious threats to global food and energy security and to agricultural exports worldwide. He also emphasized the importance of ensuring the continued security of the Strait of Hormuz and the freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf,” the Iranian Embassy in India wrote in a statement.

The CIA, Mossad and other intelligence agencies still have no clear picture as to the physical condition, whereabouts and the role in Iran’s power structure of recently-elected Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, according to Axios. The publication says that despite Khamenei not releasing any video address to date, both the US and Israeli intelligence services believe that he is alive.

Earlier this month, Iranian authorities confirmed that the supreme leader had sustained some injuries in the first wave of the US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28, which killed his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei. Contrary to media claims, the senior official “is in excellent health” and remains “in control of the situation,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last Sunday.

North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis has bemoaned an apparent lack of “strategic articulation of the strategy” by the Trump administration regarding the US campaign against Iran.

Sen. Thom Tillis speaks to a reporter as he arrives for the Senate Republicans’ lunch meeting in the US Capitol on Wednesday, March 11, 2026. ©  Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The Republican lawmaker said that while he generally supports the military action, “the real question is: What ultimately are we trying to accomplish?” as quoted by AP.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that the ongoing US-Israeli aggression against Iran is bound to have grave ramifications that will reverberate for a long time to come.

The leaders of 22 countries, including the UK, France, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates, have issued a joint statement on the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. The signatories “condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces.”

The joint statement urges Tehran to cease the laying of mines and drone and missile attacks on commercial vessels attempting to pass through the strategically important waterway.

“We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait,” the signatories said.

The IDF has claimed to have conducted a “wide-scale strike sortie in Tehran,” attacking dozens of targets, including ballistic missile production facilities. According to the Israeli military, the strikes have significantly degraded Iran’s capacity to manufacture key missile components.

Iranian air defense forces destroyed an Israeli F-16 fighter jet early on Saturday, IRNA media outlet has claimed, citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) public relations department.

According to Iran’s Fars News, it was the third enemy warplane struck in Iranian airspace since late February, when the US and Israel launched their campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The Israeli Air Force, in turn, has confirmed that a “surface-to-air missile launch was detected toward an Israeli fighter jet,” with no damage inflicted on the warplane.

The US military has struck more than 8,000 targets in Iran since the start of the conflict late last month, Chief of the US Central Command, Brad Cooper, has estimated. According to the admiral, these have included 130 Iranian vessels as well as “thousands of Iranian missiles [and] advanced attack drones.”

“Iran’s combat capability is on a steady decline as our offensive strikes ramp up,” Cooper claimed.

Russia has condemned the attack on Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility, calling it a “blatant violation of international law,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

The “irresponsible actions” of the US and Israeli militaries are creating risks of a “catastrophe” that could affect the entire Middle East, she warned.