The person released is believed to be Japanese broadcaster NHK’s Tehran bureau chief, Shinnosuke Kawashima.

A Japanese citizen has been released on bail in Iran, according to Japan’s top government spokesperson, months after their detention amid the country’s antigovernment protests.

The Embassy of Japan in Iran confirmed on Tuesday that “a Japanese national who was detained by Iranian authorities on January 20 was released on April 6 local time,” said government spokesman Minoru Kihara.

In February, United States-funded Radio Free Europe reported that public broadcaster NHK’s Tehran bureau chief, Shinnosuke Kawashima, had been arrested in Iran and transferred to a local prison. The person released on Tuesday is believed to be Shinnosuke.

The individual appeared to have no health issues, Kihara told a press briefing, without providing further details or revealing their identity or what charges they faced.

Japan’s Kyodo News reported that the individual is not allowed to leave Iran. The wire also reported that the person has been charged with security-related offences and is expected to stand trial.

At the time of the Japanese national’s arrest, NHK said “there is nothing we can answer at this stage” and that staff safety was a top priority.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in February quoted a source as saying that another NHK journalist had dealt with Iranian authorities. The broadcaster’s longtime videographer, Mehdi Mohammedi, had his passport confiscated along with his personal devices.

Another NHK staff member – whose identity CPJ said it was withholding for safety reasons – fled Iran in early February after being summoned several times, the journalist rights organisation said.

Last month, Iran released another Japanese citizen who was being held, and who also was not named, with Tokyo saying on March 22 that the person would return to Japan.

The Japanese national released on bail on Tuesday had been arrested shortly after demonstrations erupted over the high cost of living in Iran, triggered by the worsening economic situation following decades of US sanctions, which ultimately led to large antigovernment protests.

The rallies were held before the US and Israeli militaries began “Operation Epic Fury” on February 28 and killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggering the current regional war.

Japan and Iran have historically had relatively friendly relations. But more recently, close US ally Tokyo has drastically reduced its once-substantial imports of Iranian oil as part of international pressure over Tehran’s nuclear activities.

On Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, held a call to discuss the war.

‌The Israeli ⁠⁠⁠⁠military has told people in Iran not to ⁠⁠⁠⁠use trains or go near railway ⁠⁠⁠⁠lines, indicating it intends to strike the civilian infrastructure before United States President Donald Trump’s deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz expires.

“For the sake of your security, we kindly request that ‌‌‌‌from this moment until 21:00 Iran time [17:30 GMT], you refrain from using and travelling by train throughout Iran,” the ⁠⁠⁠⁠military posted on X.

“Your presence on trains and ⁠⁠⁠⁠near railway lines endangers your ⁠⁠⁠⁠life,” it added on its Persian-language account.

US President Donald Trump had threatened to bomb Iran’s bridges and power plants unless Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday at 8pm EST (01:00 GMT Wednesday).

Iran, in turn, has threatened “devastating” retaliation if the country’s civilian infrastructure is hit.

Earlier, the Israeli military said it had recently completed a new wave of air attacks on infrastructure across the country, including Tehran.

According to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency, a residential building in central Tehran was hit in one of the latest strikes, and a synagogue adjacent to the residential building was also destroyed.

On Monday, Israeli forces attacked a petrochemical facility on Iran’s side of the South Pars gasfield, which it shares with Qatar.

At least 2,076 people in Iran have been killed by US-Israeli attacks since the war began more than five weeks ago, Iran’s Ministry of Health says.

Saudi-Bahrain bridge temporarily closed

Amid Trump’s threats, an important bridge linking Saudi Arabia and Bahrain has been indefinitely closed to traffic over fears of attacks from Iran, according to reports.

In a post on X, the authority overseeing the King Fahd Causeway said traffic over the bridge had been “suspended as a precautionary measure” over Iranian attacks targeting Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

The 25km (16-mile) bridge is the only connection by road for Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, to the Arabian Peninsula.

Since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28, Iran has retaliated with drone and missile attacks against Israel, Gulf nations hosting US military assets, along with Jordan and Iraq.

“The Gulf has borne the brunt of this conflict, and just today in the morning, we saw numerous alarms being sounded in Bahrain, and in the UAE just a couple of hours ago,” said Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina, reporting from Kuwait City.

“Earlier … we heard from the Saudi Ministry of Defense that they intercepted seven ballistic missiles in the eastern area.”

UN vote on Hormuz expected today

The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on Tuesday on a watered-down resolution calling for the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz, far from sponsoring the Gulf countries’ initial goal of obtaining clearance to free it by force.

A draft seen by the AFP news agency on Monday no longer mentions authorisation to use force, even defensively. However, Russia, a longstanding ally of Iran, as well as China, could still veto the text. For this reason, a vote scheduled for last Friday was delayed.

Iran’s blocking of the strait has led to widespread disruption of global energy markets, forcing countries to implement austerity measures to lessen the impact of skyrocketing oil and gas prices.

Discussing whether Trump would go ahead with his threat to obliterate Iran’s civilian infrastructure if the strait were to remain closed, Trita Parsi, vice president of the Quincy Institute, told Al Jazeera the US president still has the option to extend the deadline to reopen without losing face if he sees a diplomatic way out.

“One of the benefits Trump has is that, frankly, he doesn’t have much credibility, so he doesn’t have much to lose,” he added.

“I can definitely see a scenario in which, if he thinks that there is some reason for him to extend the deadline, he would just do so. He’s already done so several times in the last 35 days.”

Trump has issued a strict deadline, but a defiant Iran says the threats by the US president are ‘delusional’.

United States President Donald Trump has warned of the “complete demolition” of Iran’s key infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened by a looming deadline, signalling a sharp escalation in tensions. He described Tehran’s response to a US ceasefire proposal as “significant” but ultimately “not good enough”.

Iran’s military has dismissed Trump’s threats as “delusional”, saying they cannot mask what it described as US “disgrace and humiliation” in the region, according to the Iranian media.

Meanwhile, US-Israeli attacks across Iran have intensified, with universities and oil facilities among civilian targets. Iranian missiles and drones also continue to target sites across the Gulf region.

In Iran

• Israel’s military said it had carried out strikes on three airports in Tehran, targeting several Iranian planes and helicopters.
• It also claimed to have struck Iran’s largest petrochemical complex, which serves the South Pars gasfield, the world’s largest natural gas reserve.
• The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said attacks near Iran’s Bushehr atomic power plant “pose a very real danger to nuclear safety and must stop”.
• Iran said an Israeli strike at dawn killed the intelligence chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major-General Majid Khademi.
• Two units that produce electricity for the South Pars gasfield were targeted in recent strikes. Iranian officials view this as a “huge escalation” and a sign that the US and Israel intend to destroy the survival capabilities of the Iranian people.

War diplomacy

• US ultimatum: Trump has issued a strict deadline, threatening the “complete demolition” of Iran’s power plants and bridges by Tuesday evening (00:00 GMT, Wednesday) if Tehran does not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Experts say targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime.
• Iran rejects pause offer: Iran has rejected a proposal for a temporary ceasefire, arguing it would give the US and Israel time to regroup and launch further attacks, citing past ceasefire violations in Gaza and Lebanon. Instead, Iranian officials have put forward a 10-point proposal calling for a comprehensive and permanent end to the war.
• Iran demands: Tehran is also demanding the lifting of longstanding sanctions, a compromise on uranium enrichment, and the establishment of a new order in the Strait of Hormuz.
• Turkish ship passes through Hormuz: A third Turkish-owned ship passed through the war-torn Strait of Hormuz, Turkiye’s Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said.
• South Korea takes Saudi option: South Korea will send five Korean-flagged ships to the Saudi Red Sea port of Yanbu to establish alternative oil supply routes to the Strait of Hormuz, a governing party parliamentarian said.
• Energy shocks: Global fuel price shocks have prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to call for the accelerated construction of a new energy system.

In the Gulf

• Kuwait: According to a report by CBS, an Iranian drone strike on the Ali al-Salem airbase wounded 15 Americans overnight.
• Saudi Arabia: A Saudi military spokesperson said the country’s air defences intercepted at least 18 drones over the past few hours. In a post on X, the Ministry of Defence said all drones were destroyed.
• Earlier, the kingdom’s Defence Ministry reported intercepting up to seven ballistic missiles over its Eastern province, with debris falling near critical energy facilities. The Saudi National Early Warning Platform also issued alerts of potential danger in the region.
• Bahrain: An important bridge linking the island nation to Saudi Arabia has been indefinitely closed to traffic over fears of attacks from Iran, according to reports. In a post on X, the authority overseeing the King Fahd Causeway said traffic over the bridge had been “suspended as a precautionary measure” over Iranian attacks targeting the Saudi province of Eastern.
• UAE: The Ministry of Defence of the United Arab Emirates reported that its air defences intercepted incoming missiles and drones originating from Iran.

In the US

• Trump and other senior US officials gave details of the high-risk mission to rescue two airmen whose fighter was shot down over Iran, saying more than 170 aircraft and hundreds of soldiers were involved in the operation.
• The president lashed out at a journalist who reported on a US rescue operation for a downed airman in Iran, demanding the source be revealed and threatening jail time.
• Trita Parsi, a foreign policy expert, told Al Jazeera that Trump could again extend military deadlines if diplomacy emerges, noting he has already done so several times in recent weeks. Parsi argues Trump has little credibility to lose, and may ultimately accept a new status quo in the Strait of Hormuz, including Iranian transit fees.
• The Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for US military operations in the Middle East and is leading the attacks on Iran, said its forces have attacked more than 13,000 Iranian targets.

In Israel

• An Iranian missile attack on a residential building in the port city of Haifa killed at least four people.

In Iraq, Lebanon

• Widening campaign in Lebanon: Israel’s ongoing bombardment and invasion of Lebanon are deepening fissures within the country, with recent attacks striking beyond predominantly Shia Muslim areas to hit Ain Saadeh, a Christian suburb east of Beirut.
• Two separate Israeli air attacks on southern Lebanon have killed five people and injured several, according to the country’s National News Agency.
• Two US-made GBU-39 bombs struck a residential building in Beirut, killing three people.
• The United Nations said more than 1.1 million people have now been registered as displaced in Lebanon as Israel continues its ground invasion in the country’s south.
• Two killed in Iraq: A drone “coming from Iran” killed a couple in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq after crashing into their home, local authorities reported. Separately, two blasts were heard near Erbil airport.

During the first month of the US-Israel war on Iran, the Houthis adopted a cautious approach, even though many expected them to move faster based on the nature of their close relationship with Tehran. This assessment is not wrong — the relationship is indeed strong — but what this view misses is that decision-making within the Yemeni group has increasingly become the product of an extended internal debate.

This debate goes back to the Houthis’ decision to launch military action in support of Gaza after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023. After the United States and Israel launched retaliatory strikes in March 2025, which lasted for two months, an agreement was brokered by Oman in May, bringing the fighting to a halt. This experience had a deep impact on the group.

Some Houthi leaders believe that the cost of that involvement over the past two years was high, not only in terms of military and leadership losses and civilian casualties, but also in terms of draining resources, damaging infrastructure and complicating the political track, especially with Saudi Arabia, which had put forward a roadmap for peace in Yemen in 2022.

This assessment did not remain at the level of abstract analysis; it became the basis for an internal discussion that produced two clear currents.

The first current leans towards caution. It seems that the previous experience proved that direct involvement does not yield strategic gains, but it does open costly fronts. This camp pushes for avoiding open confrontation, preserving existing understandings — especially with Saudi Arabia — and limiting action to political support or small, contained operations that do not drag the group into a large-scale escalation.

In contrast, there is another current that believes the present moment is crucial for the so-called “axis of resistance” created by Iran, and that absence or hesitation could cost the group its place in the post-war equation. For this current, this is a decisive moment to assert the Houthis’ presence, especially amid an expanding conflict and the likelihood of a reshuffling of the regional balance of power.

Two currents have shaped the Houthis’ decision-making over recent weeks. As a result, today the group has embraced neither full-scale engagement nor total absence. This was evident first in the escalation of political rhetoric during the first month of the war, then in the execution of limited, carefully calculated operations that began on March 27. There was a clear declaration of gradual intervention, close monitoring of developments, and a deliberate effort not to cross the red lines identified by the group’s military spokesperson, particularly those related to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

However, the balance between the two currents may become unstable at some point as the war escalates and widens regionally, and as Iranian and Houthi talk of a “unity of fronts” intensifies. The longer the conflict lasts, the less able the group will be to remain in this grey zone, and the stronger the pressure will be for deeper involvement.

With each new development on the ground, this internal debate may edge closer to a moment of decision: either entrenching caution as a long-term strategic choice, or shifting to broader involvement that may not be as gradual as was declared in Houthi statements.

What remains constant, however, is that the group has entered this phase with the accumulated experience of past years — a record that has taught it the cost of involvement and made it aware that entering a war is not merely a military decision, but an open-ended political, security, and economic trajectory. It has already paid that price in its previous confrontations with the US and Israel.

Thus, the question is no longer whether the Houthis will enter the war, but how they will enter and at what cost. Will they be able to set and maintain limits on their involvement? Will their calibrated entry avoid paying the full price? The answers to these questions will be made clear in the weeks to come.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.