• Any strike, even limited, would be considered aggression: Iran.
• EU calls for diplomatic solution ahead of talks.
• Talk schedule confirmed by Iran, Oman but not by US.
  

Iran said on Monday that a US attack of any scale would spur the Islamic republic to respond “ferociously”, after President Donald Trump said he was considering limited strikes against the country.

The United States has built up forces in the Middle East to pile pressure on Iran to make a deal at negotiations due to restart on Thursday, with Trump weighing a limited strike if no agreement is reached.

On Monday Iran’s foreign ministry reiterated that any strike, even limited, would be “would be regarded as an act of aggression. Period”.

“And any state would react to an act of aggression as part of its inherent right of self-defence ferociously so that’s what we would do,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said at a briefing in Tehran attended by an AFP journalist.

The two countries concluded a second round of indirect talks in Switzerland on Tuesday under Omani mediation.

Further talks, confirmed by Iran and Oman but not by the United States, are scheduled for Thursday.

The European Union, which has been sidelined in mediation on Iran, called for a diplomatic solution ahead of the talks.

“We don’t need another war in this region. We already have a lot,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

“It is true that Iran is at its weakest point that they have been. We should be really using this time to find a diplomatic solution.”

Fears of conflict

Iran has, however, insisted only discussions on the country’s nuclear programme are on the table at mediated talks. The West believes the programme is aimed at making a bomb, which Tehran denies.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is leading the negotiations for Iran, while the United States is represented by envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Trump is wondering why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military deployment, Witkoff said in an interview with Fox News broadcast over the weekend.

Baqaei responded Monday by saying that Iranians had never capitulated at any point in their history.

Trump had initially threatened military action over the violent crackdown on the protests that rights groups say saw thousands of people killed by security forces, but his attention soon shifted to Iran’s nuclear programme.

Scattered anti-government protests have continued in the country, despite the threat of suppression and arrests.

Students rallied to commemorate those killed in competing pro- and anti-government demonstrations as the university semester restarted over the weekend.

Iranians’ fears of a new conflict have grown and the concerns have also prompted several foreign countries to urge their citizens to leave Iran.

India on Monday joined Sweden, Serbia, Poland and Australia in calling for its citizens — estimated at 10,000 in the country by the foreign ministry — to leave Iran.

KATHMANDU: A bus in Nepal skidded off a mountain road and plunged into an icy river, police said Monday, killing at least 19 people, including a British tourist.

The bus, en route from the tourist city of Pokhara to the capital city Kathmandu, fell more than 200 metres (655 feet) into the Trishuli River in Dhading district in the early hours of Monday morning.

“Out of 44, in total 19 people died, and 25 are undergoing treatment,” senior local police officer Prakash Dahal told AFP, confirming one British citizen was among the dead.

One Chinese person and a New Zealander were injured, he said, without giving further details.

Mohan Prasad Neupane, information officer at the district administration office, said the rescue operation had been completed by dawn.

“The injured are undergoing treatment,” Neupane said.

In July 2024, two buses with more than 50 people on board were swept off the highway into the same river after a landslide.

Deadly crashes are relatively common in the Himalayan republic because of poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

China is making a “full assessment” of the US Supreme Court’s tariff ruling and has urged Washington to lift “unilateral tariff measures” on its trading partners, warning that fighting between the two countries is “harmful”.

The comments from China’s Commerce Ministry on Monday came days after the highest US court dealt President Donald Trump a stinging defeat by striking down many of the tariffs he has used in a global trade war, including some against rival China.

Within hours of the ruling, Trump said he would impose a new 10% duty on US imports from all countries starting on Tuesday, only then to lift it to 15% in a move that seemed to surprise some of his own officials.

“US unilateral tariffs … violate international trade rules and US domestic law, and are not in the interests of any party,” the Chinese ministry said.

“Cooperation between China and the United States is beneficial to both sides, but fighting is harmful,” it added.

Trade and tariffs are expected to dominate the agenda for both China and the US ahead of a highly anticipated visit by Trump to China in late March and early April — when he will meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Trump’s planned new levies are grounded in a separate but untested law, known as Section 122, that allows tariffs up to 15% but requires congressional approval to extend them after 150 days. No president has previously invoked Section 122, and its use could lead to further legal challenges.

“China will continue to pay close attention to this and firmly safeguard its interests,” the Commerce Ministry said.

Gao Lingyun, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was cited by state-run Global Times as saying the US tariff decisions are “highly arbitrary” and were being wielded as a “political weapon.”

“Tariff policy should be based on rigorous assessment, not political preference,” he was quoted as saying.

The US court’s ruling invalidated a number of tariffs that the Trump administration had imposed on Asian export powerhouses from China and South Korea to Japan and Taiwan, the world’s largest chipmaker and a key player in tech supply chains.

Uncertainty looms amid new global tariffs

South Korea said it would continue to consult with the US to maintain a “balance of interests” between the two countries, while its industry minister said there was concern among officals across industries, including cars, batteries and chips.

“The public and private sector need to work together to secure Korean companies’ export competitiveness and diversify their markets,” Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said on Monday.

India said it had delayed plans to send a trade delegation to Washington this week to finalise an interim trade deal, chiefly because of fresh tariff uncertainty out of the US, according to a source in its trade ministry.

US tariffs on Indian goods were set to be cut to 18%, while India agreed to buy US items worth $500 billion over five years, ranging from energy supplies to aircraft and parts, precious metals and technology products.

In Europe, meanwhile, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned of business risks, saying companies want predictability, not legal battles. She said any new tariff plans must be clearly defined to avoid further challenges and ensure they comply with the US Constitution.

“To sort of shake it up again is going to bring about disruptions,” Lagarde said on CBS‘ “Face the Nation”.