China said on Tuesday it hopes parties will seize a chance for peace after a US proposal for a ceasefire involving Iran, and backed Pakistan’s mediation efforts.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Beijing “welcomes all efforts that are conducive to peace” and supports Pakistan’s active role in promoting talks.
China also urged relevant parties to bridge differences through dialogue.
Iran’s judiciary chief said on Tuesday that legal cases against people accused of helping the country’s adversaries should be handled more quickly.
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said verdicts involving execution or confiscation of assets should be issued faster against “enemy agents.”
“The Islamic Iran is exercising its undeniable right to legitimate self-defense, and we will continue this defense in the most powerful manner possible until our national security is guaranteed,” he said.
His remarks came as Iran has intensified arrests since US and Israeli strikes began with the authorities detaining people accused of aiding adversaries.
Iran’s police arrested a person over accusations of selling VPN services to more than 300 people as authorities continue sealing off global internet access.
The police commander in southeast-central province of Kerman said the suspect was running an organized VPN sales network across several Iranian provinces to create "unauthorized access to social media networks across the country and facilitate communication with hostile networks.”
He said the network’s activities had been halted, describing them as illegal and threatening amid the ongoing internet shutdown imposed by the government.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly moved against VPNs as officials seek to tighten control over internet access even further.
The Pentagon is expanding its list of Iranian energy sites that could be targeted to include facilities supplying fuel and electricity to both civilians and the military, Politico reported on Tuesday.
The report, citing two defense officials, said US war planners were revising the target list as American and Israeli warplanes looked for new objectives after five weeks of strikes on military sites.
Politico said the change could provide legal cover if the administration faces accusations of war crimes for hitting basic infrastructure.
The officials said the dual-use nature of the facilities could make them legitimate military targets.
A wave of overnight strikes appeared to sweep across Iran early on Tuesday, based on witness accounts sent to Iran International, hitting areas from the capital’s outskirts to southern coastal regions.
In the greater Tehran area, multiple residential locations were reportedly struck within minutes of each other. Explosions were heard around 3:00 a.m. in Karaj, a city west of Tehran, while nearby Shahriar, on the capital’s western edge, saw blasts at residential buildings. Further east of Tehran, in Pardis, explosions were reported in two different parts of the town.
Along Iran’s southern coast, activity appeared to focus on strategic and military-linked areas. In Jask, a port in Hormozgan province near the Strait of Hormuz, witnesses reported a drone strike near a naval zone alongside air defense fire. In Chabahar, a key southeastern port on the Gulf of Oman, explosions were heard near Shahid Kalantari port, Tis port, and the Imam Ali base. Earlier, three missiles were reportedly launched from Jam in Bushehr province, a hub near major energy facilities.
Further inland, central and southern cities also reported attacks. Yazd, in central Iran, was hit by several strikes around dawn. In Ahvaz, the main city of the oil-rich Khuzestan province in the southwest, residents reported repeated fighter jet activity overhead. In Fars province, missiles were launched from a Revolutionary Guards air base in Larestan.
The strikes continued into daylight hours with two consecutive explosions heard in Shiraz, the provincial capital of Fars in southern Iran.
Iran’s petrochemical sector is now openly under threat, marking a significant escalation in the conflict and raising the prospect of far-reaching economic consequences for the country and potentially the wider region.
Israeli strikes in recent days have hit Iran’s two main petrochemical hubs, Mahshahr and Assaluyeh, while US President Donald Trump has warned that further attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure could follow if no deal is reached by Tuesday night.
Iranian authorities said Monday that industrial facilities in the Mahshahr petrochemical zone are being evacuated ahead of Trump’s deadline.
On Saturday, April 4, Israeli forces targeted at least eight major petrochemical complexes in the Mahshahr region, along with critical supporting infrastructure, including power plants that supply electricity to the industrial zone.
Two days later, similar strikes hit the vast petrochemical facilities in Assaluyeh, the center of Iran’s South Pars gas and petrochemical operations.
Although the full extent of the damage remains unclear, Iranian officials have acknowledged that operations in both regions have been halted.
Mahshahr accounts for approximately 28 percent of Iran’s petrochemical production, while Assaluyeh contributes more than 48 percent. Together, the two hubs represent roughly three-quarters of the country’s total petrochemical output.
Iran’s petrochemical industry is the second-largest source of export revenue after crude oil. The country has a nominal production capacity of about 95 million tons per year, although actual output is closer to 75 million tons due to persistent shortages of electricity and natural gas.
Around half of this production—valued at approximately $13 billion annually—is exported, accounting for more than one-fifth of Iran’s non-oil exports.
The shutdown of these facilities therefore represents more than a temporary industrial setback. It directly threatens one of Iran’s most important sources of foreign currency earnings.
If the damaged infrastructure cannot be restored in the medium term, the second-largest producer of petrochemicals in the Middle East could even face shortages.
Over the past decades, Iran has invested an estimated $70 billion in developing petrochemical infrastructure. In the event of severe damage, rebuilding these facilities would pose a major financial and technical challenge.
Given the constraints imposed by sanctions, limited access to international capital and broader economic pressures, Iran is unlikely to have the resources required for rapid reconstruction.
Even if external financing were secured, restoring production capacity would take years, and possibly more than a decade.
Petrochemical plants are highly complex systems that depend not only on physical infrastructure but also on stable energy supply, advanced technology and efficient logistics networks—all of which are currently under strain in Iran.
The strikes on petrochemical facilities come alongside recent attacks on major steel plants in Isfahan and Khuzestan, which together account for roughly half of Iran’s steel output. Taken together, the pattern suggests a broader strategy aimed at weakening Iran’s industrial backbone rather than targeting isolated sectors.
The timing of these strikes is particularly significant given Iran’s pre-existing structural weaknesses.
In recent years, the country has faced chronic shortages of natural gas, electricity and refined fuels, forcing many industries to operate well below capacity. These constraints have already reduced industrial output and increased production costs.
At the same time, Iran’s logistics sector suffers from deep inefficiencies. According to World Bank data, the country ranks near the bottom in regional logistics performance, second only to Afghanistan. This limits Iran’s ability to reroute supply chains, manage disruptions or quickly recover from large-scale damage to infrastructure.
The combined effect of these factors could push Iran into a deeper economic crisis. A sustained disruption in petrochemical exports would significantly reduce foreign currency inflows, putting additional pressure on the national currency and exacerbating inflation.
Ultimately, the burden of this crisis will fall disproportionately on ordinary Iranians who are already struggling with high inflation, energy shortages and rising unemployment.
If Trump follows through on his threat, the conflict could move further into the economic domain, reshaping the trajectory of Iran’s economy and potentially sending shockwaves through regional—and even global—energy markets.