Chinese fishing ‘militia’ formations signal rising gray-zone pressure on Taiwan

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan: Last Christmas Eve, satellite tracking and ship-transponder data revealed an unusual maritime event in the East China Sea: thousands of Chinese fishing vessels gathered into tight, linear formations and holding position for extended periods. It happened again two weeks later.

Analysts from a geospatial analytical firm were the first to identify two large stationary formations involving roughly 1,400 and 2,000 fishing vessels. Cargo ships in the area were forced to reroute or carefully thread between thousands of stationary vessels that had ceased normal fishing activity. This flotilla behavior by Chinese fishing boats, analysts believe, was a “gray zone” exercise.

“There have been proposals by defense experts in the United States that the U.S. Navy should treat China’s maritime militia as a real naval force,” Holmes Liao, a defense expert who is currently a senior advisor for the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), told Fox News Digital.

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“I think Taiwan may need to adhere to that mentality and mindset,” said Liao. “If these Chinese vessels are operating under clear military direction, then their status under the law of armed conflict could be subject to reassessment, potentially affecting claims of civilian immunity.”

Liao said that Taiwan should consider deploying surveillance drones or air patrols over maritime militia formations to demonstrate presence and reinforce deterrence. “Taiwan has so far been very timid in response to PRC aggression,” said Liao. “They may be fishing boats, but they are actually under the PLA’s command… part of the maritime militia.” 

Indeed, several editions of the U.S. Department of Defense’s annual “Military and Security Developments involving the People’s Republic of China,” describe the People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM) as a “state-organized, trained, and equipped” force that actively supports China’s navy and coast guard.

Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative have previously documented swarms of dozens or even hundreds of Chinese vessels in the South China Sea near contested reefs, often remaining stationary for long periods. But the incidents late last year and early this year highlight how the scale of this fishing militia appears to be expanding.

Fishing vessels are inexpensive, numerous and legally ambiguous. When deployed in mass, they complicate navigation, create radar clutter and raise operational risks for commercial shipping. The civilian status of these boats also conveniently allows Beijing to frame any incidents as “rogue actions not sanctioned by authorities,” or as accidents.

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The United States frequently cites freedom of navigation as the reason for navy patrols in the Indo-Pacific, with a U.S. State Department fact sheet noting that the region “accounts for 60% of global GDP.” The area around Taiwan is already treated by maritime insurers and shipping firms as a “higher-risk environment,” meaning even temporary flotilla formations could influence shipping decisions and significantly affect both regional and global economies.

Taipei-based security analyst Sasha Chhabra, however, warned of the risks China would face should it deploy civilian fishing vessels in an active conflict. “A U.S. Navy convoy could easily break through these lines, and the large commercial vessels that carry Taiwan’s much-needed imports would easily splinter most fishing vessels in a ramming incident.”

He noted that there is precedent for Beijing using Chinese fisherman as “live bait” during a conflict. “In 1973, China used civilian fishing vessels to bait the South Vietnamese Navy into conflict and seize full control over the Paracels (islands),” said Chhabra. “But what worked against teetering South Vietnam in 1973 won’t work against the U.S. Navy.” 

However, for independently ruled Taiwan, the concern could be cumulative pressure rather than a single dramatic incident. Encounters between Taiwanese patrol vessels and Chinese fishing boats have grown more frequent around outlying islands and in parts of the Taiwan Strait, with vessels sometimes operating in coordinated groups that shadow or crowd Taiwanese ships. The maritime militia could also be used as a tool to discourage the global shipping industry from doing business with Taiwan.

Taiwan’s major ports are the energy and industrial lifelines for this de facto independent state. The port of Kaohsiung in the south, for example, handles large volumes of LNG imports and petrochemical shipments. Even partial disruption or perceived instability in surrounding sea lanes could ripple through supply chains and sharply raise costs for the global economy.

Jason Wang, CEO of ingeniSPACE, the company that revealed the fishing fleets on their satellite systems, told Fox News Digital that despite Taiwan’s semiconductor advantage, China is winning in space. Wang said data fusion and satellite-based maritime awareness are now strategic necessities. “Intelligence is deterrence without provocation. Intelligence ensures efficient targeted spending and is a force multiplier by shaping a more effective military force,” he said. “Taiwan, like all First Island Chain nations, must be prepared for a new kind of warfare.”

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Wang and other experts note that countries like Japan and South Korea have, for roughly a decade, aggressively augmented their satellite spy constellations with commercial satellites to “ensure sufficient coverage and revisit rates so that their leadership has the capability to distinguish both overt military and gray zone activity.”

Analysts say the broader lesson is that sea control no longer depends solely on destroyers and submarines. In the immediate future, the most consequential maritime pressure may come not from warships, but from vessels that look, at first glance, entirely harmless.

State Department urges Americans to leave Middle East as airspace closures disrupt travel

Phoenix, Ariz. – The U.S. State Department is urging Americans in the Middle East to leave the region immediately as escalating conflict and widespread airspace closures disrupt travel and evacuation efforts. However, attacks from Iran, closed embassies and shuttered airspace have created difficulties for Americans who find themselves trapped with few options.

Shanice Day was one of thousands of Americans who said they found themselves stranded in the Middle East after the conflict began. She and her best friend had traveled to Dubai to celebrate her 30th birthday. 

“We did like a whole desert day,” Day said, “They started calling me their ‘habibi,’ and they let me play with the falcon.”

Once airspace closed, only a limited number of flights began leaving the region as safety allowed.

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Day only had a few days of vacation, before the U.S. and Israel struck Iran on February 28. Even though the airstrikes began that Saturday morning, Day didn’t realize there was an issue until that afternoon. By the time Day realized what had happened, Iran was already sending missiles towards the Gulf.

“As soon as I got open my phone, it says like ‘U.S., Israel strikes Iran.’ So, I told my friend that’s back at the hotel, and she’s at the beach at the moment. So, I’m actually like, ‘Hey, have you seen what’s going on?” Day recounted, “She explains that she sees like a missile, almost go across the sky.”

Iran responded to the American and Israeli attacks almost immediately, raining missile and drone strikes across the United Arab Emirates, even hitting Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest in the world. With their return flights canceled as the UAE closed its airspace, Day and her friend scrambled to find a way home while also trying to process the seriousness of the situation.

“We just kind of cried. That first 48 hours was so tough for us. Just having to break the news to our parents, because it was so early here. To hear my friend’s mom be so devastated, and then to hear my own mom’s voice crack like that. I would not wish this on anyone,” Day said.

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Emirati airspace would continue to open intermittently to limited flights, but every rebooked flight would eventually get canceled. Day and her friend eventually made it home to Houston, Texas, by first flying to Australia.

Unlike the UAE, which has long marked itself as a safe oasis for foreigners, travel to Israel has always brought the possibility of conflict.

Jenna Fonberg and Jetlyn Toledo landed at Ben Gurion Airport the day before Israel and the U.S. hit Iran. The friends had planned to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim with Fonberg’s older brother, Blake, who lives in Tel Aviv. 

By the time Fonberg and Toledo landed in Israel, there were already talks of a conflict breaking out in the region.

“The thing about Israel is there’s always talk about war breaking out or always talk about conflict. So, if you cancel every single trip based on, I guess rumors of violence coming, you would essentially never come,” Toledo said.

The next day, the trio woke up to sirens telling them to get to the nearest bomb shelter. They said, overtime, they made friends with the familiar faces who repeatedly showed up to the same shelters.

“There’s a lot of new faces today, because it’s kind of close to the beach, so a lot of people just walking on the boardwalk run in here,” Fonberg said while taking cover during a missile threat.

Blake said he lost his home to a strike during a 12-day conflict with Iran in 2025. He said this time, he’s focusing on staying positive.

“We have to stay positive. If we are not positive, we lose. And, I think I really tried to instill that into them [Fonberg and Toledo] day one. I was like, ‘Everything’s going to be fine,’” Blake said.

Throughout the sirens and strikes, the trio said they kept faith that both the U.S. and Israel’s militaries would keep them safe. They said it was most important to stay calm through it all.

Fonberg and Toledo looked at options to leave the country, but with Israeli airspace completely closed at the start of the conflict, they were left with few options. Instead of driving to another country with open airspace, they chose to wait to see if the skies would open in time for their scheduled flight on March 8.

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“I feel safer being by a bomb shelter and being able to run in if I need it. Rather than driving 3 hours, 5 hours to Jordan or Egypt and just covering my head if I hear a siren,” Fonberg said.

Israeli airspace slowly began opening on March 4. Fonberg and Toledo returned to the U.S. on their originally scheduled flights.

Ben Suster and his wife were at the end of their honeymoon in Israel when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran. Similar to Fonberg and Toledo, the newlyweds knew there was a possibility of conflict but felt safe in Israel. Suster and his wife landed in the country days before the strikes began.

“Our flight was for Saturday night. We woke up Saturday morning, and literally we had a minute of peace, and we thought, ‘Oh my goodness,’ like we made it through the night, like we’re in the clear and our flights should be good tonight,” Suster said.

The first sirens began moments later.

Without a bomb shelter inside their Airbnb, the couple made a home out of a nearby public shelter.

“Obviously, sitting in a gloomy garage was not how we expected to end our honeymoon,” Suster said.

They stayed in the garage full-time, before meeting up with friends in another shelter.

“We spent the entire day and night in this garage, making friends, you know, Israelis making the most of the situation,” Suster said.

After a few days, Suster and his wife left Tel Aviv to join their family in Geva Binyamin, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank near Jerusalem. The couple eventually evacuated with the non-profit Grey Bull Rescue. For security reasons, Suster could not share details about the operation. 

“We don’t even know what tomorrow’s going to look like. We were told what the final destination would be, but when that happens, how we’re getting there, not a clue,” Suster said.

Similar to Fonberg and Toledo, Suster said he felt safe and was sad to leave. He only left because they were on a time crunch, getting home to Florida in time for his sister’s wedding.

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According to the State Department, more than 32,000 Americans have returned to the United States since the U.S. strikes on Iran began on February 28. 

Exiled Iranian crown prince says he’s ready to lead Iran ‘as soon as the Islamic Republic falls’

Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said Saturday he is ready to lead Iran’s transition “as soon as the Islamic Republic falls.”

As the war in Iran entered its third week, Pahlavi — the son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — said he has been working in recent months to develop a transition plan should the Iranian regime collapse to ensure the country does not experience a disruption in governance.

Pahlavi said in a social media post that “capable individuals” have been identified both inside and outside Iran to lead what he called a “transitional system.”

“The transitional system, under my leadership, will be ready to assume governance of the country as soon as the Islamic Republic falls and, in the shortest possible time, establish order, security, freedom and the conditions for Iran’s prosperity and flourishing,” he said.

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Pahlavi has lived in exile since the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled Iran’s monarchy and established the Islamic Republic.

He has in recent years sought to position himself as a unifying opposition figure and has said he would help guide a transition of power from theocracy to democracy in Iran.

In a message addressed to his “compatriots,” Pahlavi said his plan for governing the country would fall within the framework of the “Iran Prosperity Project.”

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He said that many compatriots with valuable experience and expertise have declared “their readiness to participate in the rebuilding of the country and to serve the homeland.”

Since joint operations between the U.S. and Israel began, nearly 50 regime figures have been killed, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was elected this week by Iran’s Assembly of Experts as the country’s new supreme leader.

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In an appearance last week on Fox News’ “My View with Lara Trump,” Pahlavi said the Iranian people would not accept any outcome moving forward tied to the current regime.

“Only a clean break will ensure that not only we achieve a democratic solution and alternative to this regime, but there will be people who are not in any form or shape directly associated with this regime,” he said.

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Pahlavi said the Iranian people must decide their country’s leadership and that “only the ballot box should determine the outcome and who will be responsible for our country in the future.”

“I think what we will expect any government, including, of course, the current Trump administration to recognize that indeed the best way to help the Iranian people is to allow them to make that choice freely and to support that choice as a Western democracy, as the leading democracy in the world,” he said.

Kim Jong Un appears with teenage daughter at live-fire rocket test in North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watched a live-fire test of multiple rocket launch systems alongside his teenage daughter Saturday, as the regime escalates weapons demonstrations amid joint U.S.–South Korea military exercises, state media reported.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim oversaw a strike drill involving twelve 600mm ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers along North Korea’s east coast, according to The Associated Press.

South Korea’s military said it detected about 10 ballistic missiles launched from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

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South Korea’s National Security Council condemned the launches as a provocation and said they violated United Nations Security Council resolutions that prohibit North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests, The Associated Press reported.

Kim said the drill was meant to demonstrate the destructive capability of the country’s tactical nuclear forces, according to state media.

“If this weapon is used, the opponent’s military infrastructure within its striking range can never survive,” Kim said.

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Photos released by state media showed Kim and his daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju Ae, about 13 or 14 years old — walking near launch trucks, The Associated Press reported.

Kim’s daughter has appeared alongside him at numerous military events, missile tests and parades since late 2022, fueling speculation that he may be positioning her as a future successor.

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The live-fire test followed annual military drills by the U.S. and South Korea earlier this week, which North Korea routinely condemns as rehearsals for an invasion. 

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Last month, Kim reportedly gave his teenage daughter a leadership role in the regime’s powerful “Missile Administration,” the body that oversees Pyongyang’s nuclear forces.

Son of British couple detained in Iran ‘let down’ by Starmer’s leadership on parent’s imprisonment amid war

The son of a British couple who have remained jailed in Iran for more than a year is appealing to President Donald Trump as the war in Iran complicates the situation.

“Conditions have intensified over the last couple of weeks, to say the least, as you might imagine with the complexity of war,” Joe Bennett told Fox News Saturday.

He said the notorious Evin Prison, where his parents are being held in Tehran, was already at capacity, and a recent surge of protesters has created severely crowded conditions.

“Food is scarce,” he added. “We’re worried about the replenishment of their stocks of food. I mean, it’s unsanitary conditions. It has been described as ‘hell on Earth’ by them.

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“With the bombs that are dropping and the activity that’s happening there at the moment, the anxiety is heightened for us and for them as well.”

Craig and Lindsay Foreman were arrested in January 2025 by Iranian authorities while on a global motorcycling trip and were later sentenced to 10 years in prison on suspicion of spying.

Bennett spoke in Washington, D.C., Thursday at the McCain Institute’s US-UK Transatlantic Conference on Hostage-Taking and Arbitrary Detention, criticizing British leaders’ — namely Prime Minister Keir Starmer — “non-existent” advocacy for his parents, BBC News reported.

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“The clear message to the U.K. government and Starmer is to stop hiding behind this as a consular case,” Bennett told Fox News. “I think that was put out the window when they were sentenced to 10 years for espionage, accused of being spies for the Israeli Mossad and the U.K. government.

“What we haven’t seen is leadership qualities from Keir Starmer. We haven’t seen him advocate since their sentencing to, as you say, condemn this sham process and the treatment of U.K. nationals.” 

Starmer’s silence has left Bennett’s family feeling “let down,” he said. “We feel there’s an opportunity to do so and there still is.”

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Bennett stressed that his parents’ detention and sentencing “is hostage taking.”

“It affects not just the U.K., the U.S. as well and Western civilization,” Bennett added. 

“Innocent people are being targeted for leverage as political pawns.”

He also urged Trump to be “concise” with Iranian strikes and not to forget that Brits and Americans are in that prison.

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“Two things I’d like to say to Mr. Trump is, firstly, that safety is important,” Bennett told Fox News. “Missiles have hit Evin in June of last year but also were very close.

“So, I think the target — I just want him to be concise that, you know, so that Evin isn’t a part of that, and, secondly, is to not forget that they are there.”

He noted that, along with his parents, U.S. nationals are also imprisoned at Evin.

“And as a humanitarian plea, from a son for his mother’s release is what I’m asking for,” he said.

With dogs, dance and uncovered hair, Iranians defy ‘unholy alliance’ of socialists, radicals: ‘Hypocrites!’

Washington, D.C. – “You’re hypocrites!”

The shout cut across H Street NW last week as about 500 Iranian Americans supporting regime change in Iran marched toward a smaller group of pro-China socialists gathered two blocks away across from the White House, backing the radical clerics leading Iran.

“We are here for freedom of Iran,” Jay Gorbani, an Iranian American, explained as he held his Labradoodle puppy, Bella, while other members of a fledgling group, the National Solidarity Group for Iran, marched by. 

“We are against the religious mafia regime of Iran.”

The far-left activists they confronted had assembled under bright green and yellow signs pulled out again this weekend that said, “STOP WAR IN IRAN.” But the organizers aren’t simply “peace” activists, a Fox News Digital analysis of scores of pages of communications by protest organizers revealed. 

Fox News Digital has identified at least 75 organizations that have protested in support of the regime in Iran since the war began, including 50 organizations that are far-left, Marxist, socialist or communist; 22 that are Muslim organizations that support Islamism, or political theocracy; and the remaining three that are socialist-Islamist adjacent.

They parrot the pro-regime messages that the Chinese Communist Party has expressed in recent days as China sends military equipment to Iran, according to national security experts.

Last weekend, they coordinated demonstrations in 63 cities across 29 states and Washington, D.C., using identical signs, chants and protest infrastructure, which are available now in a digital toolkit, and they are replicating the protests this weekend and in the coming days. 

The main organizers are funded by an American-born tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, who is based in Shanghai, and lawmakers in the House Ways and Means Committee and House Oversight Committee have accused the network of promoting the interests of the People’s Republic of China. 

Singham didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

The Singham-funded network includes the People’s Forum Inc., the ANSWER Coalition, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, CodePink Women for Peace and the Palestinian Youth Movement, which has helped organize these protests. 

The Democratic Socialists of America, which helped elect Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, also co-sponsored the protests. The organizations didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Global defiance

The confrontation in the nation’s capital reflects a broader struggle unfolding not only in Iran but also in the West.

From Phoenix to Dallas, Indianapolis, Toronto and Manchester in the U.K., members of the diaspora are increasingly challenging far-left activists they accuse of amplifying propaganda that favors the clerical rulers Islamic Republic.

This weekend, Gorbani and other Iranian Americans took to the streets again. They argue their advocacy for a secular democracy — and rejection of Islamism, or theocracy — offers the strongest response to rising acts of extremism by Muslim ideologues. 

In recent days, incidents of violence in Austin, Texas; New York; and Norfolk, Virginia, have been punctuated by shouts of “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”

‘Unholy alliance’

These tensions reflect a political dynamic with deep historical roots.

In 1965, Time magazine published an article, “Unholy Alliance,” bluntly describing “the Communists and fanatical Moslems” working together to oppose ​​Iranian leader Shah Reza Pahlavi’s efforts to “modernize and Westernize Iran” as a secular democracy.

Time quoted Pahlavi warning of “an unholy alliance between two extremist wings,” communist revolutionaries that he called “unpatriotic, destructive Reds,” and radical Muslims, many wearing black robes, turbans and headscarves.

“This is the very familiar, what we call, unholy alliance between the black and the red that is the communists and the very reactionary people or strata. We always see it because they are both against the progress and happiness of the country,” Pahlavi said years later.

It’s an alliance now called the “red-green alliance,” with green symbolizing the color of Islam.

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‘Freedom for Iran’ v. the regime

Last weekend, an Iranian American woman with another nascent group, DCProtests4Iran, faced off against women in black robes from the Manassas Mosque in northern Virginia, where mosque leaders support the Iranian theocracy. Her hair loose in the wind, she flashed a “V” for victory and shouted, “Down with the Islamic regime!”

Staring down H Street NW at the socialists, Reza Rezavi, an engineer from Rockville, Maryland, and a volunteer with DCProtests4Iran, said his group supports Pahlavi’s son, Reza Pahlavi, as the leader of a new transitional government that would realize a “democratic Iran.”

“Freedom for Iran!” screamed another Iranian American woman, holding her Lhasa Apso dog, Cocoa, rescued in 2019 from Tehran, where the regime has ruled dog walking illegal in many cities.

At protests from London to Washington, D.C., Iranian diaspora activists say they are confronting far-left groups they accuse of stealing democracy from them dating back to 1979, when they defended radical clerics who came to power in 1979, overthrowing Pahlavi.

“It’s cultural warfare,” said Paul Mauro, an attorney, former New York Police Department counterterrorism inspector and a current Fox News contributor.

“Marxism is probably the most malevolent single idea ever devised,” Mauro said. “And our culture has now become infected with a tolerance for Marxism that is being translated into a very dangerous political energy that is working with Islamists to undermine America as we know it.”

‘Would you like a sign?’

LIke clockwork, members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition and other socialist organizations had arrived at 2:28 p.m. last weekend at the corner of 16th and H Street NW. One woman sipped an iced coffee, while another pulled a red wagon piled with megaphones. A third pushed a grocery cart filled with a marching drum and fluorescent yellow signs that said, “STOP THE WAR ON IRAN!” 

A young woman dragged a dozen or so signs, asking, “Would you like a sign? Sign? Anyone like a sign?”

Tourists looked away as far-left activists, including CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and DC coordinator Olivia DiNucci arrived with a new protest banner. Ignoring the approaching crowd of Iranian Americans, Benjamin posed for a photo with Korean Americans who support China, Iran and North Korea’s communism. 

Soon, the group broke into familiar anti-American chants heard at protests for years, but this time they were muffled by the chants of the Iranian protesters, chanting, “USA! USA!”

Asked about Singham’s funding of the protest’s socialist sponsors, Benjamin said, “I’d rather not talk about it.”

Dancing in the streets in defiance

Minutes later, the Iranian American groups rounded the corner from L Street NW and stopped about 200 yards from the far-left activists on 16th Street NW. They blasted Iranian music and danced.

In defiance of strict interpretations of Islam, families walked pet dogs near Bella and Cocoa as women shouted with their hair in the wind, and men and women freely danced beside each other to Iranian pop music, acts mostly banned in Iran. The scene stood in defiance of the strict religious rules imposed by Iran’s clerics, who have barred pet dogs, forced women to cover their hair and suppressed music, dancing and dissent.

An Iranian American woman smiled and slowly raised her middle finger at the socialist activists, their chants of “Down, down with the USA,” drowned out by music blaring in Farsi.

Across the police line, field marshals from the Party for Socialism and Liberation corralled elementary-aged girls swaddled in black headscarves to the microphone, filming them close up as the children stumbled over their words, reading chants from a phone as activists egged them on.

When a girl got in the shot, the field marshal filming the canned chanting tried to shoo her away. 

“Those people are supporting terrorists,” said one Iranian American with the reform-era Iranian flag draped over his shoulder like a cape that featured a lion emblem. “We are against them.”

“We do not support the regime,” said Siamak Aran, an organizer with the National Solidarity Group for Iran, as Iranian Americans marched behind him, chanting, “USA! USA!”

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Some Iranian soccer players granted asylum by Australia chose to return home, local official says

Three of the six Iranian women’s soccer players who accepted asylum in Australia are returning to Iran, according to Tina Kordrostami, a councilor for the Australian City of Ryde. 

Kordrostami told Fox News Channel’s “Fox Report With Jon Scott” Saturday that the three players are returning, calling it an “upsetting update,” but she could not discuss exact reasons why. 

“They are heavily intimidated and being communicated to directly by the regime,” Kordrostami said. 

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When asked if the players are being threatened, Kordrostami said, “I don’t think that, I know that.

“I know families have even been detained. I know family members are missing. One thing I really would like for people in the West to understand is that Iranians within the country have in many ways given up on the West, and they are only relying on one another to survive this regime. 

“So, when we do offer them a way out, it’s not often that easy for them to understand that it is in fact a way out. They are more so used to relying on one another and this is survival for them.”

Kordrostami added that the women who return face potential severe consequences. 

“We are very worried about them. We know for a fact that they will not be safe. I’ve mentioned this before. When you do break a contract as an athlete in Iran, you can face the death penalty. So, I know these women are young. I know that they are making an incredibly difficult decision, and I have the utmost respect for them,” she said.

“Coercion is being used here, intimidation tactics. And we even had an individual amongst the girls within Sydney and Brisbane who was influencing them constantly in their ear, letting them know that whatever Australia is offering them, it will not work.

The team arrived in Australia before Israel and the U.S. launched a joint offensive against Iran Feb. 28. The strikes led to the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

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Iranian players refused to sing their national anthem before an opening loss to South Korea March 2, which was viewed by some as an act of resistance described by an Iranian commentator as the “pinnacle of dishonor.”

Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke announced at a news conference Tuesday that another Iranian women’s soccer player and a team staffer had accepted asylum in Australia amid fear of punishment upon returning to Iran after five players accepted asylum on Sunday.

Burke added that almost all the Iranian players and many of the support staff were taken aside individually as they passed through Australian Customs at an airport before they boarded their flight back to Iran.

And they were each given the opportunity to accept an asylum offer without Iranian state officials present, but other players or staff accepted the offer to stay.

The asylum bids came amid increased pressure from President Donald Trump and Iranian groups in Australia.

“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed. Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM. The U.S. will take them if you won’t,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump later wrote, “I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team.

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“He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way. Some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return. In any event, the Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia!”

Iran head coach Marziyeh Jafari was quoted as saying on Australia’s national news agency that the team wants “to come back to Iran as soon as we can.”