Developing Story Brings New Details to Light Across the Nation

When the spring equinox arrived over Tehran on March 20 at exactly 18:15:59 local time, air defense batteries scattered across the capital fired into the sky. For a few intermittent minutes, the launches were not a response to incoming strikes but something closer to a salute: Iran had crossed into its new year, Nowruz, for the first time during active wartime since the eight-year Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

The juxtaposition defined the holiday. Shoppers still moved through the narrow alleys of Tajrish Bazaar in northern Tehran in the days beforehand, the smell of hyacinths threading through the stalls in the traditional signal of spring, even as US and Israeli warplanes conducted bombardments overnight and intermittently throughout the day. Many families gathered at home for the moment of the new year rather than in public spaces, a quiet, collective retreat from streets where the security and military presence has grown unmistakable.

The war, now in its fifth week, has sharpened economic pressures that were already severe before the first strike landed on February 28. Point-to-point inflation reached above 68 percent in February 2026, and food costs climbed to nearly double what they were a year earlier, gutting household budgets at the precise moment families traditionally stock up on sweets, nuts, new clothing, and gifts. One Tehran resident told CNN that while they intended to mark the New Year, they could not justify the expense of buying flowers or preparing traditional foods, noting: "Markets are well stocked, but a shortage is not the issue for me right now." The scarcity is financial, not logistical, and for many that distinction carries its own particular sting.

Public celebrations that would normally draw crowds have been scaled back or canceled outright. The tourism surge that Nowruz typically delivers to Iranian-frequented destinations in Iraqi Kurdistan, particularly around Erbil, Duhok, and Sulaymaniyah, has thinned considerably, as economic uncertainty and security concerns on both sides of the border dampened travel plans. Nationwide protests that erupted in late December 2025 and were met with a violent crackdown by security forces added another layer of political tension to the holiday's atmosphere.

The strikes themselves have left marks that will outlast the season. US and Israeli forces have targeted a century-old medical research center in Tehran, a bridge near the capital, steel plants in Isfahan and Farokhshahr, and the research and development department of the Tofigh Daru pharmaceutical facility. As of March 27, Iranian authorities reported damage to at least 120 historical sites across the country. On March 9, an Israeli strike in Tehran's Resalat neighborhood killed between 40 and 50 people, destroying a Basij-affiliated building along with three adjacent residential blocks, according to BBC analysis, which identified Mark 82 bombs as the munition used.

Iran's intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, and members of his family were among those killed in US-Israeli attacks. His funeral procession passed through the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran on the same day the New Year began. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, threatened to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Ages," while Iranian military officials warned the conflict would continue until the "humiliation" and "surrender" of their enemies. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he had no faith in talks with Washington.

On April 1, Trump suggested the war could conclude within two to three weeks. Whether that timeline holds or not, the Nowruz that ordinary Iranians just navigated, scaled back, expensive, shadowed by funerals and airstrikes, has already written its own chapter in a holiday that has endured for millennia.