Saturday, March 21, 2026

22 countries say ready to help secure Strait of Hormuz - JNS Staff

 

by JNS Staff

Meanwhile, Washington has issued a short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea.

 

Strait of Hormuz 

Nearly two dozen nations, most of them European, said in a joint statement on Saturday that they are ready “to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage” through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We 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,” read the statement of 22 countries.

“We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning,” the statement added, while urging an “immediate comprehensive moratorium on attack on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations.”

The countries committed to helping the United States are: Australia, Bahrain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

Some 20% of the world’s oil and gas flows routinely through the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in Iran and Gulf Arab states have led to rising energy prices globally.

Analytics firm Kpler recorded a decrease of 95% in the naval passageway from peacetime averages, AFP reported.

Meanwhile on Friday, the Trump administration announced that it had temporarily lifted sanctions on Iranian crude oil currently stranded at sea.

Explaining the decision, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X that sanctioned Iranian oil “is being hoarded by China on the cheap. By temporarily unlocking this existing supply for the world, the United States will quickly bring approximately 140 million barrels of oil to global markets, expanding the amount of worldwide energy and helping to relieve the temporary pressures on supply caused by Iran. In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against Tehran to keep the price down as we continue Operation Epic Fury.”

He said the short-term authorization is strictly limited to oil that is already in transit and does not allow new purchases or production. According to the Treasury Department, the permit applies to oil loaded onto ships by 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, and will remain in effect until April 19.

“Further, Iran will have difficulty accessing any revenue generated and the United States will continue to maintain maximum pressure on Iran and its ability to access the international financial system,” Bessent continued.

The secretary added that “Any short-term disruption now will ultimately translate into longer-term economic gains for Americans—because there is no prosperity without security.”

The New York Times reported on Friday that Tehran has allowed some friendly countries, including China, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Iraq, free passageway through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian legislators are mulling a transit fee for any ship crossing the narrow sea passage, the Times cited Iranian media as saying.

It moreover cited the International Maritime Organization as reporting that approximately 2,000 ships and 20,000 seafarers are currently trapped in the area.

Since the start of the war on Feb. 28, crossings through the Strait have plummeted from 130 vessels per day to three or four daily, the report added.


JNS Staff

Source: https://www.jns.org/news/world/22-countries-say-ready-to-help-secure-strait-of-hormuz

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Iran confirms its Natanz nuclear facility was hit in an airstrike - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

Iran fired missiles at the U.K.-U.S. Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, according to reports on Saturday 

 

Iran confirmed on Saturday that its Natanz nuclear facility was hit in an airstrike.

The extent of the damage is unclear at this time.

Iran has fired missiles at the U.K.-U.S. Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.

Britain responded, calling the attack "reckless."

There haven't been any reports of damage from the attack.  


Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/world/middle-east/iran-confirms-its-natanz-nuclear-facility-was-hit-airstrike

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Iran’s ability to threaten Strait of Hormuz has been 'degraded,' CENTCOM says - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

"My operational assessment continues to be Iran's combat capability is on the steady decline," says Adm. Brad Cooper

 

The head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, said Saturday that Iran’s ability to threaten the Strait of Hormuz has been "degraded" and that U.S. forces "remain on plan to eliminate Iran's ability to project meaningful power outside its borders."

Cooper said the U.S. carried out strikes using multiple 5,000-pound bombs on an underground facility along Iran’s coastline. The site was being used to store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile launchers and other equipment that presented a "dangerous risk to international shipping."

"We not only took out the facility but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements," Cooper said in the video posted on X. "Iran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result and we will not stop pursuing these targets."

He also said that "we have built the most extensive air defense umbrella in the world over the Middle East right now," adding that the U.S. has hit 8,000 targets and 130 Iranian vessels in the three-week war.

"My operational assessment continues to be Iran's combat capability is on the steady decline," he said.

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical artery for global commerce, with about 20% of the world’s oil and gas supply passing through it under normal conditions. Iran’s de facto blockade of the waterway, along with repeated attacks on energy infrastructure across the region, has driven energy prices sharply higher. 


Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/irans-ability-threaten-strait-hormuz-has-been-degraded-centcom-says

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A Historic Moment: The Case for Ending Both the Iranian Regime and Hamas Once and for All - Majid Rafizadeh

 

by Majid Rafizadeh

If Iran's regime and Hamas are allowed to recover, their primary strategic objective will likely become to rearm as quickly as possible, and we will be right back at war again.

 

  • The critical question is whether we will stop at weakening the Iranian regime or Hamas or move toward ensuring that they can never again recover as long-term threats to their neighbors or global security. At this moment, leaving those regimes in place – the ruling mullahs in Iran or Hamas in Gaza — is probably the most dangerous option.

  • Authoritarian regimes such as Iran's, and terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic State and the Taliban, rarely respond to setbacks by abandoning their ambitions. Instead, they pause, regroup, and rebuild.

  • Russia and China, each with its own anti-American calculations, could provide political cover, technological assistance, and indirect support that would allow Iran to resume its nuclear program. China has already been supplying Iran with "almost everything but troops" during this war, and supplying Russia with military materiel for its war against Ukraine.

  • If Iran's regime and Hamas are allowed to recover, their primary strategic objective will likely become to rearm as quickly as possible, and we will be right back at war again.

  • Stopping halfway through such efforts only allows threats to reemerge dangerously in the future. History will judge whether these two opportunities presented today were seized — or allowed to slip away.

If Iran's regime and Hamas are allowed to recover, their primary strategic objective will likely become to rearm as quickly as possible, and we will be right back at war again. Pictured: Iran's then "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal (center) and Mussa Abu Marzuk (left) in Tehran on February 1, 2009. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

What has taken place in recent weeks is nothing short of historic. For decades, the Iranian regime and its proxies, including Hamas, have operated with a sense of impunity. For decades, Iran's rulers have expanded their regional influence, armed their proxy militias, threatened their neighbors, and steadily advanced their weapons or mass destruction programs. While various countries imposed sanctions and Israel and the United States occasionally conducted limited military responses, no large-scale effort was ever undertaken to fundamentally weaken the political and military power deep inside Iran. That reality has now changed dramatically.

Now, for the first time, both the Iranian regime and Hamas have experienced direct and sustained military campaigns at a scale they had long assumed would never occur.

Strategic air strikes have damaged key Iranian facilities, command centers, and military infrastructure. Defense networks, missile production facilities and launchers and military bases have been targeted -- significantly limiting Iran's ability to project power beyond its borders. Many elements of its naval capabilities have also been struck, reducing its capacity to threaten international shipping lanes and regional maritime security.

These developments already represent a remarkable shift in the strategic balance of the Middle East. No American president or coalition of countries had ever dared to seriously challenge the Iranian regime or any of its proxies. The military infrastructures that both Iran and Hamas had spent decades building and protecting, have now been significantly degraded. Their leadership structures have been shaken, and their ability to coordinate attacks, disrupted. These developments demonstrate that malign actors, long viewed as untouchable, are in fact quite vulnerable when confronted with sustained and coordinated pressure.

Despite these achievements, however, the world now faces an extremely dangerous turning point. The question is no longer whether the Iranian regime or Hamas can be weakened — they clearly can. The critical question is whether we will stop at weakening the Iranian regime or Hamas or move toward ensuring that they can never again recover as long-term threats to their neighbors or global security. At this moment, leaving those regimes in place – the ruling mullahs in Iran or Hamas in Gaza — is probably the most dangerous option.

Authoritarian regimes such as Iran's, and terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic State and the Taliban, rarely respond to setbacks by abandoning their ambitions. Instead, they pause, regroup, and rebuild. If the Iranian regime is allowed to survive this moment and regain stability, it will almost certainly dedicate its remaining resources to achieving what it has long sought: nuclear weapons. Such weapons in Iran's hands would fundamentally change the strategic landscape of the Middle East and provide the regime with a powerful shield against future military pressure.

It would be naïve to assume that the Iranian regime and Hamas will abandon their ambitions even after the destruction they have experienced. On the contrary, the leaders in Tehran will most likely conclude that their greatest strategic mistake was not obtaining nuclear weapons sooner. If they had possessed nuclear deterrence before this conflict, they might believe that the United States and Israel would never have dared to launch such a campaign against them. This realization could accelerate their determination to acquire nuclear weapons at any cost.

There are several potential pathways through which the regime could attempt to achieve this objective. One path is that Iran still possesses hidden stockpiles of enriched uranium or possibly undisclosed facilities capable of rapidly producing nuclear material. Over the years, the regime has demonstrated considerable skill in concealing aspects of its nuclear program. Even if many facilities have been destroyed, the possibility that covert infrastructure remains cannot be dismissed.

Another possibility involves rapid reconstruction of the nuclear program once the conflict subsides. If the regime survives and external pressure weakens, it could quietly rebuild its nuclear infrastructure in secret locations. Advances in technology, as well as lessons learned from past international inspections, could allow the regime to move faster and more discreetly than before.

There is also the possibility of external assistance. Countries that view the United States and its allies as strategic rivals may see value in preserving the Iranian regime as a geopolitical partner. Nations such as North Korea and Pakistan already possess nuclear capabilities and have historically engaged in military technology exchanges with other states. Russia and China, each with its own anti-American calculations, could provide political cover, technological assistance, and indirect support that would allow Iran to resume its nuclear program. China has already been supplying Iran with "almost everything but troops" during this war, and supplying Russia with military materiel for its war against Ukraine.

If Iran's regime and Hamas are allowed to recover, their primary strategic objective will likely become to rearm as quickly as possible, and we will be right back at war again.

For Iran, a single nuclear weapon can destroy an entire city. In a region as densely populated and strategically sensitive as the Middle East, the consequences would be catastrophic not only to Israel but to its neighbors in the Gulf. Even the possibility of nuclear weapons use would introduce a level of instability and fear that would reshape global politics.

Finally, today, the strategic landscape has shifted. The regimes have been weakened and their military infrastructures severely damaged. This situation represents a historic turning point. What has already been accomplished by the United States and Israel is breathtaking. Stopping halfway through such efforts only allows threats to reemerge dangerously in the future. History will judge whether these two opportunities presented today were seized — or allowed to slip away.


Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22360/end-iranian-regime-hamas

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The UAE Will Not Be Bullied by Iran — Nor Derailed From Peace - Robert Williams

 

by Robert Williams

In a region too often dominated by arsonists, the United Arab Emirates stands for something rarer and far more valuable: order, courage, legitimacy, and the conviction that peace is not weakness, but strength.

 

In a region too often dominated by arsonists, the United Arab Emirates stands for something rarer and far more valuable: order, courage, legitimacy, and the conviction that peace is not weakness, but strength. Pictured: The city skyline is pictured in Dubai on March 11, 2026.(Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/ AFP via Getty Images)

At a time when much of the Middle East remains trapped between revolutionary slogans and recurring violence, the United Arab Emirates has chosen a different path: order over chaos, statehood over militias, modernity over ideological ruin. For years, the UAE has worked to build a future-focused nation anchored in innovation, economic dynamism, strategic openness, and institutional strength. It has sought to project the image — and the reality — of an Arab state confident enough to embrace progress, invest in peace, and defend stability.

That is precisely why Iran and its proxies find the UAE so intolerable.

The success of the Emirates is not merely economic. It is political, strategic, and civilizational. It demonstrates that an Arab country does not need to surrender to the logic of militias, sectarian intimidation, or permanent confrontation in order to be strong. It can be sovereign, modern, secure, and globally connected. It can invest in opportunity instead of grievance. It can build instead of destroy. That example is a direct rebuke to the worldview promoted by the Iranian regime and the armed networks it has spent decades cultivating across the region.

Recent events have made that reality impossible to ignore. The dismantling by Emirati authorities of a terrorist network allegedly linked to Iran and Hezbollah is not simply a law-enforcement success story. It is the exposure of a method. The network reportedly operated under fictitious commercial cover and was allegedly involved in money laundering, terrorism financing, and activities threatening the country's national security and financial stability. This is not incidental. It reflects the deeper logic of Iranian power projection: not merely open confrontation, but covert penetration; not only military pressure, but financial infiltration; not just proxies on battlefields, but shadow networks working quietly inside sovereign states.

In other words, Iran's aggression is not confined to missiles, drones, or inflammatory rhetoric. It extends into the commercial sphere, the banking sphere, and the strategic vulnerabilities of the modern state. The aim is not only to intimidate, but to corrode. To create insecurity from within. To force governments to operate under the permanent shadow of destabilization.

What the UAE has shown is that it will not yield to that pressure.

This is what makes the Emirati response so important. The UAE has not retreated into panic. It has not allowed aggression to derail its national ambitions. It has not abandoned its model of development, its investment climate, or its strategic commitment to regional stability. Instead, it has responded as a serious state should respond: by defending its citizens, protecting its territory, reinforcing its institutions, and continuing to move forward.

That is resilience — not as a slogan, but as a governing doctrine.

Under international law, every sovereign state has the right, and indeed the obligation, to defend its population and territory against armed threats, covert subversion, and terrorist penetration. The UAE's determination to protect its infrastructure, its economy, and its public safety is therefore not an act of excess. It is an affirmation of sovereignty and legality. A state does not need to apologize for defending itself. Nor should it be expected to tolerate networks designed to weaken its security from within.

This is where the credibility of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan becomes central. Under his leadership, the UAE has become one of the clearest examples in the Arab world of disciplined strength. He has guided the country with a strategic vision that rejects both passivity and recklessness. The Emirati model under Mohamed bin Zayed is not built on theatrical rage or ideological posturing. It is built on patience, institutional seriousness, technological advancement, and a clear understanding that national strength comes not only from deterrence, but from the ability to build, endure, and inspire confidence.

He has driven the UAE into modernity without allowing it to lose its strategic bearings. He has strengthened the state without allowing extremism to define its posture. He has shown that leadership in the modern Middle East requires more than rhetoric: it requires composure under pressure, clarity of purpose, and the ability to transform national ambition into durable policy.

Nowhere is that clearer than in the UAE's commitment to peace with Israel.

For the Iranian regime and its regional clients, normalization, coexistence, and regional cooperation are intolerable because they threaten the very foundations of their political narrative. Peace weakens the appeal of revolutionary confrontation. Prosperity undercuts the politics of grievance. Partnership exposes the bankruptcy of endless militancy. The Abraham Accords were therefore never merely diplomatic symbolism. They represented a strategic reordering of the region — one in which Arab states could openly choose cooperation, innovation, trade, and stability over perpetual conflict.

The UAE has not allowed Iranian aggression to reverse that choice.

That matters profoundly. Because the true answer to Tehran's model is not simply retaliation. It is the construction of an alternative order: one based on sovereignty, lawful statehood, economic growth, and pragmatic peace. Iran exports coercion. The UAE invests in connectivity. Iran relies on proxies and destabilization. The UAE has chosen development and strategic partnership. Iran thrives on fear. The UAE continues to build a future.

That is why the Emirates deserves recognition. Not only for dismantling covert threats and defending its citizens, but for refusing to let intimidation dictate its destiny. The country's message is unmistakable: the path to peace will not be abandoned, the march toward modernity will not be halted, and a sovereign Arab state has every right to defend itself while continuing to pursue prosperity.

In a region too often dominated by arsonists, the UAE stands for something rarer and far more valuable: order, courage, legitimacy, and the conviction that peace is not weakness, but strength.


Robert Williams is based in the United States.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22361/the-uae-will-not-be-bullied-by-iran

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Pakistan: Exponentiating Persecution of Religious Minorities - Uzay Bulut

 

by Uzay Bulut

"The year 2025 was marked by a deepening crisis for religious minorities in Pakistan, characterized by entrenched legal discrimination, rising mob violence, and a climate of near-total impunity for perpetrators." — 2025 report by "Voice of Pakistan Minority."

 

  • Pakistan, included by US President Donald J. Trump in his "Board of Peace" for the Gaza Strip, nevertheless continues to be one of the most dangerous countries for Christians and other non-Muslims. International watchdog organizations continue to rank Pakistan among the most difficult countries for Christians.

  • The same day Masih was murdered, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) thankfully issued its 2026 report, in which it urged the US government to redesignate Pakistan as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC), under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, over systematic and ongoing violations of religious freedom.

  • USCIRF also called for lifting an existing waiver that exempts Pakistan from penalties available with the designation. In addition, USCIRF calls for targeted sanctions on Pakistani officials and government agencies responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals' assets and/or barring their entry into the US under human rights-related financial and visa authorities, citing specific religious freedom violations.

  • USCIRF additionally called for holding accountable individuals who incite or participate in vigilante violence, targeted killings, forced conversion, and other religiously based crimes. It noted: "The U.S. Congress should incorporate religious freedom concerns into its larger oversight of the U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship through hearings, letters, resolutions, and congressional delegations and advocate for the release of FoRB [Freedom of Religion or Belief] prisoners in Pakistan."

  • Pakistan would seem hardly the most helpful member for any real "Board of Peace."

In March 2025, Zohaib Iftikhar, a Muslim, slit the throat of his coworker, Waqas Masih, a 22-year-old Christian, after accusing him of committing blasphemy by touching an Islamic textbook with "unclean hands." Pictured: Thousands of people at a rally in Karachi, demanding the execution of Asia Bibi, on November 21, 2018. Bibi, a Christian woman, spent 8 years on death row because of a false accusation of blasphemy, before being released and exiled. (Photo by Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images)

Pakistan, included by US President Donald J. Trump in his "Board of Peace" for the Gaza Strip, nevertheless continues to be one of the most dangerous countries for Christians and other non-Muslims. International watchdog organizations continue to rank Pakistan among the most difficult countries for Christians.

On Open Doors' 2026 World Watch List, which assesses persecution faced by Christians worldwide, Pakistan again ranks eighth. The report cited systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions, bonded labor, and gender-based abuses, noting that perpetrators often act with impunity.

According to a 2025 report by the organization "Voice of Pakistan Minority":

"The year 2025 was marked by a deepening crisis for religious minorities in Pakistan, characterized by entrenched legal discrimination, rising mob violence, and a climate of near-total impunity for perpetrators.

"Christians, Hindus, and other non-Muslim minorities faced a combination of physical attacks, forced displacement, and structural exclusion. The Christian community remained particularly vulnerable to accusations of blasphemy that rapidly escalated into collective punishment, with mobs burning churches, targeting homes, and destroying livelihoods in affected neighborhoods. Hindus and smaller communities continued to report forced conversions, abductions, and coerced marriages of women and girls, often in contexts where access to effective legal remedies was severely constrained by corruption, intimidation, and bias."

On March 4, a 21-year-old Christian farmworker in Pakistan's Punjab Province, Marcus Masih, was tortured to death by his Muslim employers, who then tried to stage the murder scene as a suicide by hanging, the victim's brother said.

The same day Masih was murdered, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) thankfully issued its 2026 report, in which it urged the US government to redesignate Pakistan as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC), under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, over systematic and ongoing violations of religious freedom.

USCIRF also called for lifting an existing waiver that exempts Pakistan from penalties available with the designation. In addition, USCIRF calls for targeted sanctions on Pakistani officials and government agencies responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals' assets and/or barring their entry into the US under human rights-related financial and visa authorities, citing specific religious freedom violations.

USCIRF additionally called for holding accountable individuals who incite or participate in vigilante violence, targeted killings, forced conversion, and other religiously based crimes. It noted:

"The U.S. Congress should incorporate religious freedom concerns into its larger oversight of the U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship through hearings, letters, resolutions, and congressional delegations and advocate for the release of FoRB [Freedom of Religion or Belief] prisoners in Pakistan."

The Christian Daily International reported that Marcus Masih's murder reflects broader vulnerabilities faced by religious minorities in Pakistan. The country's stratified social system confines Christians, Hindus, and other religious minorities to low-wage and dangerous jobs in informal sectors. In recent years, several high-profile cases have underscored these concerns.

In February 2025, Christian laborer Wasif George was abducted by Muslim landowners, humiliated and paraded on a donkey after being accused of stealing wood. Images and videos of the assault circulated widely on social media. Despite pleas from his family, none of the main perpetrators was arrested.

In March 2025, Zohaib Iftikhar, a Muslim, slit the throat of his coworker, Waqas Masih, a 22-year-old Christian, after accusing him of committing blasphemy by touching an Islamic textbook with "unclean hands."

In May 2025, Christian laborer Kashif Masih was tortured to death by a group of Muslims, including a former police officer, over an unproven allegation of theft. The murder sparked outrage among minority-rights groups, who criticized authorities for failing either to prevent or promptly prosecute such crimes.

In June 2024, 18-year-old Catholic worker Waqas Salamat was tortured to death by his Muslim employer and others for allegedly leaving his job without permission. His family said he was subjected to hours of eventually fatal electric shocks.

USCIRF said in its latest report:

"In 2025, religious freedom conditions in Pakistan continued along a troubling trajectory. The government continued to enforce its strict blasphemy law, impacting people of all faiths, including religious minorities. Increasing vigilante attacks and mob violence targeting religious minorities, specifically Ahmadiyya Muslims and Christians, contributed to an intensified climate of fear and intolerance.

"Authorities continued to wield the blasphemy law and its death penalty provision to punish those deemed to have insulted Islam."

In January 2025, four individuals were sentenced to death for allegedly posting blasphemous content on social media.

Also, a mentally challenged Christian man, Farhan Masih, was imprisoned on charges of blasphemy and terrorism. Despite being acquitted, he could not return to his village due to fear for his safety.

In March 2025, the Lahore High Court removed from its case list Junaid Hafeez's appeal hearing related to charges of blasphemy. Hafeez — a former visiting lecturer at the Department of English Literature of the Bahauddin Zakariya University — was arrested by police in 2013, and his trial started in 2014. Authorities have held Hafeez in solitary confinement since 2014. He was sentenced to death in 2019 on blasphemy charges. His appeal against the sentence has been pending since 2020.

In October, a high court finally acquitted Christian pastor Zafar Bhatti of blasphemy charges after 13 years in prison. Days after his release, after years of medical neglect, Bhatti succumbed to cardiac arrest.

Violent attacks against religious minorities continue with impunity. Days after a Christian man's throat was slit over a false blasphemy allegation arising from his refusal to renounce his faith, a Hindu man, Nadeem Naath, a 56-year-old Hindu, was shot to death in Peshawar by a Muslim, Muhammad Mushtaq, after refusing to convert to Islam, on March 29.

Last September, two gunmen attacked Christian pastor Kamran Naz as he traveled to Islamabad to lead a church service. He had previously received death threats and was accused of "proselytizing among Afghan refugees."

Reports of forced conversions among Hindu and Christian girls in Punjab and Sindh Provinces persisted throughout 2025.

In February, a 12-year-old Christian, Saba Shafique, was reportedly abducted in Sindh Province, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to a 35-year-old man, Muhammad Ali.

In July, the Sindh Human Rights Commission expressed concern about the abduction and forced conversion to Islam of a 15-year-old Hindu girl, Shahneela. Her uncle said in a police report that two armed men had forcibly entered the family's home in Matli and kidnapped Shahneela.

Additionally, although Pakistan's constitution establishes Islam as the state religion, a 1974 amendment declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims, thereby excluding them from political representation and equal voting rights.

In 2025, USCIRF reported:

"Throughout Pakistan, authorities continued to impose restrictions on Ahmadiyya Muslims' ability to practice their faith and allowed for assaults against Ahmadiyya mosques. In February, a mob of TLP members destroyed minarets of an Ahmadiyya mosque in Sialkot without police intervention. In October, three gunmen attacked an Ahmadiyya mosque in Rabwah, wounding six worshipers. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

"In March, authorities arrested dozens of Ahmadiyya Muslims, including children, for offering Friday prayers. Days later, police issued two First Instance Reports against two dozen Ahmadiyya Muslims, based on a complaint from TLP members that the community was sacrificing animals for Eid-ul-Adha.

"In April, a mob affiliated with the TLP stormed an Ahmadiyya mosque to prevent the community from offering Friday prayers. During the attack, the mob beat to death an Ahmadiyya man, Laeeq Cheema. Police allegedly did not intervene to stop the attack."

Christian community members criticized the Pakistani government for failing to deliver justice and accountability for the 2023 Jaranwala attacks, during which mobs destroyed homes belonging to Christians and churches, after allegations of blasphemy.

Last June, Christian communities accused authorities of ignoring evidence after a Pakistani court acquitted 10 Muslims involved in burning a church during the 2023 Jaranwala attacks. In August, victims of those attacks held protests to mark the two-year anniversary and repeated calls for government action.

In May, Pakistan's National Assembly unanimously passed the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill to curb child marriages and, by extension, the forced conversions of underage girls. Under this legislation, those who facilitate or coerce a child into marriage, including family members or clerics, can face up to seven years' imprisonment. The question remains: Will anyone actually enforce this law?

Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology strongly opposed the bill and declared it "un-Islamic" for not conforming with Islamic injunctions. Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman called for rallies protesting the law. Leaders of the Mili Yakjethi Council (MYC) similarly condemned the bill, calling it "un-Islamic" and unconstitutional.

In 2025, several attacks or threats of violence against places of worship took place. In February, the US Embassy in Islamabad reported that Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) threatened to attack Faisal Mosque. In response, the embassy prohibited US employees from traveling to the area. In March, at least six people, including a chief clerk, were killed by a suicide attack after Friday prayers at an Islamic seminary in northern Pakistan.

Pakistan's estimated population is 252 million, of which 96.5% are Muslim (85-90% Sunni and 10-15% Shi'a) and 3.5% belong to other religious communities, including Christians and Hindus, and perhaps fewer than 200 elderly Jews, if that, who might try to pass as Parsis.

Pakistan would seem hardly the most helpful member for any real "Board of Peace."


Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22354/pakistan-persecution-of-religious-minorities

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Building collapses in Dimona as Iran targets Israel, five injured in northern barrage from Lebanon - Tobias Siegal, Goldie Katz, Corinne Baum

 

by Tobias Siegal, Goldie Katz, Corinne Baum

Magen David Adom paramedics were earlier dispatched to a scene in northern Israel to treat five individuals for mild, shrapnel-related injuries.

 

View of Dimona, in southern Israel. August 13, 2016.
View of Dimona, in southern Israel. August 13, 2016.
(photo credit: MOSHE SHAI/FLASH90)

 

A building in Dimona collapsed as a result of an impact from an Iranian munition on Saturday evening after sirens sounded in southern and northern Israel.

Israeli media reported that the shrapnel potentially hit a school in the southern Israeli city.

Magen David Adom teams are treating some 20 people with mild injuries from shrapnel at various locations in Dimona. Notably, a 10-year-old child is in moderate condition.

Israel Police and Border Guard officers were dispatched to conduct scans for shrapnel that reportedly fell in the Negev region and the western Galilee area after the IDF intercepted the missiles.

Earlier, MDA paramedics were dispatched to a scene in northern Israel to treat five individuals for mild, shrapnel-related injuries.

Footage circulated from Israeli media showed impacted buildings, and reported that at least three people were injured in Ma'alot.

Rishon Lezion kindergarten damaged

Earlier on Saturday, a kindergarten in Rishon Lezion was reportedly damaged after a suspected cluster missile launched from Iran targeted the Gush Dan area in central Israel.

Security forces working at the Kindergarten damaged during an Iranian missile barrage.
Security forces working at the Kindergarten damaged during an Iranian missile barrage. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI)

Initial reports suggest that shrapnel caused significant damage tothe structure, with no direct missile impact reported. MDA said a man in his 70s was lightly injured while making his way to a shelter. The Shamir Medical Center said a man in his 40's was treated for mild injuries sustained from a blast in Rishon Lezion.

The missile is believed to have weighed around 100 kilograms, according to Hebrew media, though this has not been officially confirmed. The incident appears to be another example of a splitting warhead, which has been used in previous missile strikes on central Israel.

Initial reports suggested over 20 impact sites across central Israel, including in Rishon Lezion, Bnei Brak, Shoham, and Rosh Ha'ayin. MDA later confirmed at least seven impact sites in Rishon Lezion, including damage to two residential buildings.

The IDF said Home Front Command search and rescue forces were operating at several impact sites and urged the public to avoid gathering in these areas.

In a missile barrage launched from Lebanon targeting northern Israel early Saturday afternoon, a residential building in Metula was damaged. No injuries were reported.

Sirens sounded across northern Israel on Saturday afternoon amid reports that several drones had entered Israeli territory from Lebanon. The IDF said it was working to intercept the threats. No injuries were reported.

“The strength of the home front is what allows us to keep going"

Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that Israel would continue its campaign against Iran for as long as necessary, stressing that the operation would not be halted by the upcoming Passover holiday.

Talking to reporters at a missile impact site in Rishon Lezion, Katz said Israel’s ability to press ahead depends in large part on the resilience of the civilian home front, and said the fighting would continue until its objectives are met.

“The strength of the home front is what allows us to keep going, and we will continue until the objectives are achieved,” he said.

Katz said 11 impact sites had been identified in the city, and accused Iran of using weapons that amount to a war crime. Katz added that such conduct was consistent with what he described as the behavior of a terror regime.

Education system in Rishon Lezion to remain closed, mayor says

“We will restore everything to its original state,” Rishon Lezion Mayor Raz Kinstlich said while visiting the site of the struck kindergarten on Saturday morning.

“The windows were blown out, with some landing on the other side of the street,” he said. “This is a kindergarten, a place where children were supposed to learn,” he continued, emphasizing that, fortunately, the children were not at the kindergarten during the strike, as schools are closed on Shabbat.

"There’s a hole in the ceiling. You can see it outside. Until I feel secure, the education system in Rishon Lezion will not return. I want to thank the residents for their discipline.”

Cluster bombs challenge Israel's missile defense shield

Iran has launched dozens of missiles with cluster munition warheads ​at Israel since the beginning of Operation Roaring Lion, posing a challenge for Israel's missile defense shield, as they need to be ‌hit before they split and disperse into smaller explosives.

Cluster munitions open in mid-air and scatter as many as several hundred "bomblets" over a wide area. They ​often fail to explode, creating virtual minefields that can kill or injure anyone who finds them later.

Shrapnel hits Jerusalem's Old City

On Friday, sirens rang across the country as Iran launched a missile barrage targeting large areas in central Israel and the Jerusalem area. Shrapnel fell in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City and Rehovot, causing damage but no major injuries. MDA reported that an elderly woman was injured while running to the shelter, and another elderly man was treated for minor injuries in Rehovot.

Later, a second barrage hit Rehovot, injuring a woman and starting a fire in a building. Two others were treated for shrapnel injuries, and several others for panic-related causes. Shrapnel also fell in the Judean Foothills, with two people lightly injured.

In Haifa, shrapnel caused damage at the Bazan oil refinery, prompting controlled explosions over the weekend.

On Thursday night, additional missile strikes caused shrapnel damage in Jerusalem and northern Israel, but no casualties were reported.

Reuters and James Genn contributed to this report.


Tobias Siegal, Goldie Katz, Corinne Baum

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-890699

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Iranian cluster bomb hits empty kindergarten in Rishon Letzion - JNS Staff

 

by JNS Staff

“This is a war crime, but it is not surprising because the Iranian regime is a terrorist regime,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said at the scene.

 

Damaged kintergarted in Rishon LeZion
A bomb from an Iranian cluster munition struck a kindergarten in Rishon Letzion, south of Tel Aviv, on March 21, 2026. Credit: IDF.

Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon continued to fire missiles at Israel on Saturday, wounding at least one person and damaging property, including a kindergarten in the central city of Rishon Letzion.

The morning strike in Rishon Letzion was caused by a cluster munition whose bombs struck 11 sites in the city.

 

“We were lucky there were no children here. A major disaster was averted,” Deputy Mayor Avi Haim was quoted as saying while visiting the scene.

The mayor, Raz Kinstlich, told Ynet that as long as incidents such as this can occur, the city will not reopen its education system.

“Tell me if you would send your children to a kindergarten like this. Granted, it’s Saturday, but it could have happened on a Sunday [when schools are open]. Look at the time of day this happened—children were supposed to be there,” Kinstlich was cited as saying.

Shamir Medical Center (formerly Assaf Harofeh Medical Center), located in the nearby city of Be’er Ya’akov, said that a man in his 40s was lightly wounded by the shock-wave from the cluster bomb, the report added.

Defense Minister Israel Katz visited the kindergarten and told reporters at the scene that the country’s education system will be reopened in a controlled manner, avoiding unnecessary risks while allowing the economy to function.

“I came to strengthen the mayor of Rishon Letzion and the residents of the city. There are 11 impact sites in the city as a result of the use of this weapon [a cluster bomb],” public broadcaster Kan quoted Katz as saying.

“This is a war crime, but it is not surprising because the Iranian regime is a terrorist regime. The fighting will continue as long as necessary; there are very significant achievements. The amazing and unprecedented cooperation between Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and [U.S. President Donald] Trump, on both the diplomatic and operational levels, needs to continue. We are doing everything to eliminate Iran’s offensive capabilities,” he said.

The Israel Defense Forces posted images and footage on X of the damage in Rishon Letzion.

Soon after the Iranian attack, Hezbollah in Lebanon fired 10 rockets at northern Israel, with one projectile scoring a direct hit on a building in the Jewish state’s northernmost town of Metula. No injuries were reported.


JNS Staff

Source: https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/iranian-cluster-bomb-hits-empty-kindergarten-in-rishon-letzion

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U.S. citizen takes helm of Mexico’s fiercest cartel, exposing ugly truth on birthright citizenship - Steven Richards

 

by Steven Richards

The new cartel boss Juan Carlos Valencia González possession of dual citizenship presents challenges for U.S. intelligence surveillance, which led the Mexican government to his predecessor.

 

A California-born U.S. citizen whose mother is a Mexican national and is reportedly part of a drug and money laundering cartel herself, has now taken the helm of Mexico’s most dangerous cartel as the Supreme Court is set to consider a Trump administration challenge to the very birthright policy that granted him that citizenship. 

Multiple reports indicate that the 41-year-old Juan Carlos Valencia González, a dual U.S. and Mexican citizen, took charge of the notorious "Jalisco New Generation" cartel (CJNG) in the aftermath of a Mexican special forces raid that took out the cartel’s former boss, El Mencho, last month.

The raid was the most direct action Mexican authorities have taken against the cartels in coordination with the United States, which, under President Donald Trump, ramped up pressure on the drug trafficking organizations after naming them designated foreign terrorist organizations. 

U.S. intelligence helped locate past cartel kingpin in Mexico

As a result, the American administration has increased surveillance of the cartels and, at times, has threatened to take direct military action if Mexico didn’t step up. It was reportedly U.S. intelligence that provided Mexico with the location of El Mencho, precipitating the successful operation. 

CJNG was shepherded to prominence by that former leader, Ruben Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” and grew into Mexico’s most powerful and well-equipped cartel. Based in Mexico’s coastal Jalisco state, the cartel’s network operates a global drug trafficking empire spanning from China to North Africa and has for years smuggled drugs into the United States. 

But now, with El Mencho dead, and his biological son in an American prison for life, the cartel has turned to Valencia González, his stepson, to assume leadership of the sprawling enterprise. Valencia González’s American citizenship is likely to complicate the U.S. government’s efforts to gather intelligence but could also stand in the way of any future military strikes against him as head of CJNG.  

"Exploiting U.S. birthright citizenship" author says

The ascension of a U.S. citizen to head of the designated terrorist organization also comes at the same time that the Supreme Court is considering a Trump administration challenge to U.S. birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, which, under the current interpretation, grants citizenship to most children born in the country–just like Valencia González. 

“This is another example of adversaries exploiting the U.S. birthright citizenship for their benefit, to the detriment of America,” investigative journalist and author Peter Schweizer told Just the News. Last month, Schweizer’s new book, The Invisible Coup, outlined the ways in which China in particular exploits the standard by encouraging birth tourism.

Schweizer pointed to the similar example of infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán of the Sinaloa cartel. El Chapo’s wife, Emma Coronel, traveled to Los Angeles to give birth in the United States in 2011. Though she was already a U.S. citizen, giving birth in the country would ensure that she wouldn’t have to apply for citizenship for her children later, which would require her to provide their father’s name.  

“A US citizen who has a baby in another country must apply for citizenship for the child through the consulate, which would have been complicated by being married to the most famous criminal in North America,” Schweizer wrote in his book. “It was easier [for her], as a US citizen, to travel freely to the United States, give birth here, and leave the father’s name blank on the birth certificate.”

Mark Morgan, the former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the ascension of a birthright American citizen to the head of a Mexican cartel lens Creedence to the Trump administration's effort to end the concept.

"It's something we don't talk enough about ... just simply because you're born here does not mean that you fully assimilated, and does not mean your allegiance is to this country," he said. "So it's a righteous issue for the Trump administration to push back on."

SCOTUS to hear arguments in Trump v. Barbara

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering a challenge to the Trump administration’s efforts to end birthright citizenship. The court will hear oral arguments in the case, Trump v. Barbara, on April 1. 

The president issued an executive order intended to prevent babies born in the United States from automatically receiving U.S. citizenship if their parents are in the country illegally or only temporarily. However, the order was challenged and never went into effect.

The challengers argue that the order contradicts the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause, which provides that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 

The Trump administration argues that the amendment’s framers only intended for the clause, which was added to the Constitution in 1868, to grant citizenship to former slaves and their children. 

How Valencia González came to U.S. citizenship: a family's tale

Valencia González was born in Santa Ana, California to Rosalinda González Valencia, reportedly a drug kingpin in her own right and known as La Jefa, Spanish for “the boss” for her association with the “Cuinis” gang which later allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Though details of La Jefa’s early life are murky, she was born in Mexico in the 1960s where her family grew avocados in a plantation field. Later, she and several of her 18 siblings eventually moved to the United States, possibly illegally. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to inquiries about La Jefa’s immigration status. 

It was there that she gave birth to Valencia González, whose father was Armando Valencia Cornelio, head of the Milenio Cartel, for whom several of her siblings worked. Valencia Cornelio was arrested by Mexican authorities in 2003 but the public record is vague on his fate. He was designated by the United States under the Kingpin Act as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker in 2004.   

At some point, La Jefa and Valencia Cornelio separated, and she returned to Mexico. She married El Mencho in 1996, uniting her clan with the growing CJNG and putting Valencia González into the cartel’s line of succession.

Emerging as a globe-spanning drug trafficking empire

CJNG rose to power in Jalisco following a dispute with El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel. The U.S. Department of State has described CJNG as a “transnational organization with a presence in nearly every part of Mexico” that traffics fentanyl, engages in extortion, smuggles migrants, steals oil and minerals, and trades in weaponry. 

Since building its globe-spanning drug trafficking empire, the group has also increasingly employed military grade weaponry like drones, improvised explosive devices, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, posing a novel problem for Mexican authorities and the United States, Just the News previously reported. 

Recent battles between CJNG and rival cartel cells have terrorized villages, some within just a few hundred miles of the U.S. border. The use of drones in particular has made them more dangerous, which they use to drop explosives on their enemies, both Mexican police and rivals. 

Surveillance requires approval from the U.S. Attorney General and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

Juan Carlos Valencia González’s U.S. citizenship creates hurdles for American intelligence agencies that did not exist when targeting his predecessor, El Mencho. Under U.S. law, surveillance and data collection on American citizens abroad are subject to stricter regulations. 

While high-resolution CIA drone surveillance was instrumental in the operation that eliminated El Mencho, using similar methods against a U.S. citizen requires additional steps, including seeking approval from the U.S. Attorney General and convincing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that Valencia González is acting as an “agent of a foreign power,” The Wall Street Journal reported. President Trump’s designation of CJNC as a foreign terrorist organization could smooth this process, however. 

Previously, the Obama administration cited the 2001 congressional authorization for the use of force against terrorist groups deemed responsible for the 9/11 attacks to justify the strike. Currently, no such authorization exists for the use of force against Mexican cartels. 

Mexican authorities have been reluctant to take President Trump up on his offer of U.S. military assets to strike against the cartels, and a future strike against Valencia González would certainly spark constitutional questions. The Constitution recognizes a right to a “speedy and public trial.” Advocacy groups have also argued that the extrajudicial killing of American citizens abroad is in violation of the Fifth Amendment right to due process.  

When President Barack Obama ordered a drone strike against Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who assumed leadership of Yemen’s al-Qaeda branch, the administration justified the strike as an act of self-defense against a terrorist organization.  


Steven Richards

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/us-citizen-takes-helm-mexicos-strongest-cartel-putting-birthright-citizenship

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Trump threatens to send ICE agents to U.S. airports amid DHS shutdown fight - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

"If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before," he wrote.

 

President Donald Trump on Saturday said he is prepared to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to airports across the United States if congressional Democrats do not agree to pass a bill that ends the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

In a social media post, Trump warned that ICE agents could be reassigned to handle airport security.

"If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia, who have totally destroyed, with the approval of a corrupt Governor, Attorney General, and Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, the once Great State of Minnesota. I look forward to seeing ICE in action at our Airports," Trump wrote.

The post came as lawmakers remain deadlocked over funding for DHS, including aviation security. 

The dispute has already strained airport security operations, resulting in long lines.

The DHS shutdown began about 4 and a half weeks ago. 


Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/trump-threatens-send-ice-agents-us-airports-amid-dhs-shutdown-fight

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