Emily Fang

Iran also demanded the U.S.

recognize its sovereign right to control the Strait of Hormuz.

Emily Fang, NPR News, Van, Turkey.

City authorities say a strike hit a natural gas pipeline in southwestern Iran.

Iranian state media say another strike overnight also hit natural gas facilities in the central city of Isfahan and that there were no casualties.

Iran has warned it will mount reciprocal attacks on water, energy and technology infrastructure in the Middle East as long as joint U.S.

and Israeli strikes continue.

President Trump has said the U.S.

and Iran have had talks.

Iran's deputy foreign minister said that it received and responded to messages from the U.S.

passed on through intermediary countries.

But Iran's powerful multi-branch security forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, denies being in talks with the U.S.

Emily Fang, NPR News, Van, Turkey.

Iran's government continues to maintain a near total telecommunications blackout, but an Iranian living just north of Tehran managed to send a text to NPR that it was, quote, unacceptable for the U.S.

to end the war without toppling Iran's government first.

Iranians, they wrote, are, quote, only tolerating war, hoping that it will lead to their freedom.

Another Iranian who participated in mass anti-government demonstrations this past winter says the government killed three of his friends this January in a crackdown, leading him to believe a popular uprising would never end the Iranian regime.

He says our only hope is that Trump and Bibi, speaking of Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu, make the right moves.

Emily Fang, NPR News, Van, Turkey.

Iran's president wrote on Twitter yesterday that the Strait of Hormuz is, quote, So Iran has been letting through some ships owned by or carrying cargo from countries it perceives as neutral.