A (0:04)

You are listening to an art media podcast. It's Monday, march 30, 2026. This news update was recorded at 7:00pm new york time on Sunday. I'm deborah pardes and this is arknews daily. Iran is growing more defiant as the war enters its second month. The regime appears to be betting it can wait out the war and repel American forces. As the US sent ground troops in over the weekend, Iran's parliament speaker welcomed an invasion, saying it would be an opportunity to kill Americans. He said the regime's determination has increased and that, quote, our missiles are in place in preparation for a fight. Iran has launched a recruitment campaign called Janfada, imploring volunteers to sacrifice their lives for the regime. On Sunday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened to target American universities across the Middle East. That's in response to alleged US And Israeli strikes in two Iranian universities. In the meantime, Iran has already ramped up its attacks. On Friday, an Iranian missile and drone strike hit a US Airbase in Saudi Arabia. Photos showed one of the American Air Force's most important surveillance planes burning on the tarmac. At least 12American troops were injured. On top of all that, the regime has activated another proxy. Yemen's Houthi rebels launched two missile attacks at Israel this weekend, their first since the October 2025 ceasefire with Hamas. Both missiles were intercepted without causing damage, but the group spokesman said the attacks will persist. All signs indicate that the ceasefire negotiations are going nowhere. ARC Media contributor Nadav Eyal reported on today's episode of Call Me Back that this is because the Iranians think they're holding all the cards.

B (2:10)

The Iranians aren't bluffing. The Iranians think that they're winning the war. This is not posturing. This is really what they're saying.

A (2:18)

The full episode is in the show notes. With diplomacy apparently stalled, Israel and the United States carried out some of their heaviest strikes yet. On Saturday, a human rights group documented 701 strikes inside Iran in a single 24 hour period. That makes it one of the deadliest days for Iranian civilians since the war began. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the war may go on for two more weeks. He remained ambiguous as to the possibility of a ground operation.

B (2:48)

We can achieve them without any ground troops, but we are always going to be prepared to give the President maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust to contingencies should they emerge.

A (2:58)

Still, diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan are set to meet in Islamabad on Monday. They hope to bring the United States and Iran to the negotiating table. Israel has begun rationing its best missile interceptors, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Arrow interceptors are running low. That's the system designed to stop Iranian ballistic missiles. As a result, the military has been substituting lower range systems in its place, which don't always work against Iran's more advanced artillery, according to the Journal. Also, the military has reportedly grown more selective about when to use the interceptors, allowing some missiles through when there's low risk to human life. The report did not cite any current officials and Israel hasn't commented. But the Journal's account is consistent with earlier reporting from multiple Israeli and international outlets. All have described Israel's interceptor stocks as critically low. Iran's ability to attack Israel has been greatly degraded during the war. Its missile launches are down about 90% from the first days of fighting to roughly 10 a day. But if the reports are true, the missiles that do get launched are now more likely to cause damage due to the interceptor shortage. On Sunday, a missile struck an open area in Beersheva. The blast shattered windows in nearby homes and lightly injured 11 people. A separate missile or fragment hit a nearby chemical plant, starting a fire and triggering a hazardous materials alert. On Saturday, a missile struck a town near Jerusalem. Interceptors were fired but failed to bring it down. 19 people were lightly injured and on Friday night, cluster munitions from an Iranian missile struck central Israel. 52 year old Vyacheslav Wiedmont was killed by shrapnel. He was a security guard hired by Tel Aviv to watch over residential buildings that had been evacuated after an earlier missile strike. He was the first Israeli civilian death in the war in 10 days and the 19th overall. More than 5,000 people have been injured in attacks on Israel by Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed over the weekend. On Thursday night, 21 year old Ori Greenberg died in a firefight with Hezbollah and overnight Friday, 22 year old Moshe Yitzhak Hakouin Katz was killed in southern Lebanon. A total of five Israeli soldiers have died in the war. Hakou and Katz immigrated to Israel from New Haven, Connecticut and enlisted in the Paratroopers brigade. According to a family friend, he was supposed to go to his parents for the Passover holiday this week, but he elected to stay in ISRA and fight alongside his unit. Concern is mounting among Israeli officials that violence in the west bank is becoming a strategic liability as well as a security threat. While Israel's counterterrorism operations have driven West Bank Palestinian attacks to historic lows, the violence by extremist settlers has moved in the opposite direction. Attacks on Palestinian villages are now almost a daily occurrence. There have been fires and beatings, shootings and in several cases settlers have turned on Israeli soldiers sent to stop them. The issue has drawn criticism from across the Israeli political spectrum. ARC Media contributor Amit Segal on Friday described the violence as terrorism and said addressing it must be a national priority. The need to police settler violence is further stretching Israel's military as it's already fighting a multi front war. Last week, the military diverted an infantry battalion from its planned deployment to Lebanon and sent it to the west bank instead. The cabinet also approved a new unit in the Defense Ministry to deal specifically with Hilltop Youth, a small group of radical and often violent young settlers at a high level security meeting. Israeli Major General Avi Bluth, who's responsible for the west bank, reportedly said that the government's policy of settlement expansion was part of the problem. This comes as Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir warned that the military as a whole is overextended and at risk of collapsing under growing operational demands. Settler violence is also taking a diplomatic toll. Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Yahiel Lader, told Israeli media on Wednesday that violent extremists are, quote, not only tarnishing the settlement enterprise, they are tarnishing the entire state of Israel. He said that even Israel's closest friends in Washington are dismayed. On Friday, Marco Rubio told reporters that the Trump administration is not happy with the situation.