Russian, Omani FMs discuss Iran, call for swift end to hostilities
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi held a phone conversation to discuss the situation in Iran and ongoing regional developments.
According to statements released following the call, the two ministers expressed support for an early cessation of hostilities and a return to a political and diplomatic settlement.
Russia and Oman said they are prepared to facilitate efforts aimed at finding peaceful solutions based on international law.
The two sides also stressed the need to take into account the legitimate interests of all Arab countries of the Persian Gulf in any future arrangements.
A senior adviser to the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Tehran would strike regional economic and oil facilities if its main centers are attacked.
“America is thirsty for oil. Let them know that for now we have closed the Strait of Hormuz and will not allow ships to pass. We have also announced to the world that any country that wants to take fuel from here, we will strike.” Ebrahim Jabbari said.
Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesman said the country’s military capabilities would soon force its adversaries into a deadlock and compel them to stop the war, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Reza Talaei-Nik said Iran’s “jihadi will,” tactical capabilities and weapons power are at a level that will leave the enemy facing a stalemate in the coming days and ultimately force a halt to the fighting.
He added that Iran’s “offensive defense" would continue with strength.
Israel’s air force struck the building housing Iran’s Council of Experts in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday in an attempt to disrupt the process of appointing a new supreme leader, Axios reported, citing an Israeli defense official.
The official said the strike occurred while votes were being counted and that the aim was to prevent the clerical body from selecting a successor to former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on Saturday in the first wave of Israeli strikes.
"We wanted to prevent them from picking a new supreme leader," Axios quoted the unnamed Israeli official as saying.
It was not immediately clear how many of the council’s 88 members were in the building at the time or the extent of the damage, the report said.
US and Israeli forces struck the office of Iran’s Assembly of Experts in the city of Qom on Tuesday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported, in the latest attack on senior state institutions.
Tasnim, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also cnfirmed that the Assembly’s compound in Tehran – located at the former parliament building – had also been struck overnight.
Separately, a Telegram channel known as Zed TV reported that an airstrike had targeted a formal session of the Assembly of Experts convened to select the Islamic Republic’s next supreme leader.
The channel claimed that many members of the body had been killed or wounded.
The Assembly of Experts is the clerical body responsible under Iran’s constitution for appointing and overseeing the supreme leader.
The reported attacks come amid heightened tensions following the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and as Iranian officials have said the process of selecting his successor is under way.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson held a televised press conference on Tuesday from a Tehran classroom that state-linked media said had been damaged in recent strikes, as questions persist over the authorities’ use of civilian sites during wartime.
Images from the briefing showed spokesperson Esmail Baghaei speaking from a podium inside Mahalati School in Tehran. Iranian outlets said the school had been hit in recent attacks and presented the setting as evidence that educational facilities were being targeted.
Holding an official briefing in a classroom also prompted renewed speculation online that some officials may be seeking to operate from civilian buildings.
In recent days, social media users have circulated videos and photographs that appear to show security forces stationed inside schools in Tehran and Shiraz.
Iran International has also reported on security activity inside medical facilities. In one case, it cited a hospital employee who said military commanders held meetings inside a Tehran hospital.
Teachers’ unions have voiced alarm. The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations published an image a day before US-Israeli strikes began showing what it said was military equipment positioned inside a school, warning that classrooms were being turned into “shields for deadly equipment.”
Uniformed officers sit in a school courtyard beneath an Iranian flag in an image shared on social media on March 3, 2026.
Earlier this week, an image was released from a meeting of the interim leadership council, attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and cleric Alireza Arafi.
Hours later, social media posts suggested the meeting had taken place in a ward at Tehran’s Arman Hospital.
Members of Iran’s leadership council meet at an undisclosed location on March 1 with social media users saying the low ceiling and iron door behind them suggest the meeting was held inside Tehran’s Arman Hospital.
International humanitarian law requires parties to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives.
Schools and hospitals are protected unless, and for such time as, they are used for military purposes, and the use of civilians to shield military objectives is prohibited.
Disputed strike in Minab
The controversy intensified after Iranian media reported that an elementary and preschool complex in Minab, Hormozgan province, adjacent to an IRGC compound, was struck on February 28, killing more than 160 people.
Asked about the incident, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would not deliberately target a school and that its objectives were focused on missiles, related manufacturing and launch capabilities, and drones.
"We would have no interest and frankly no incentive to target civilian infrastructure.”
Security forces gather with motorcycles and armored vehicles inside a school courtyard in an image shared on social media in January ahead of a crackdown.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said on Monday he had seen differing accounts of what happened in Minab, including claims that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were responsible. He said Israel targets military assets and expressed regret for civilian casualties.
“We regret the loss of life of any civilian. And we pray for the people of Iran. But we have the intelligence and we target military assets. That’s what we do. The Iranians, they do exactly the opposite,” he said.
As the conflict deepens, any overlap between official or security activity and civilian sites could increase the risks for densely populated areas and raise further legal and humanitarian concerns.
