DAY 10: Iran attacks Israel, Gulf countries
DUBAI: Iran launched new attacks on Tuesday at Israel and Gulf Arab countries as it kept up pressure on the Middle East in a war started by Israel and the United States that has rattled world markets and shows no signs of a letup.
In Bahrain, authorities said an Iranian attack hit a residential building in the capital, Manama, killing a 29-year-old woman and wounding eight people. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed two drones over its oil-rich eastern region, and Kuwait’s National Guard said it shot down six drones.
In the United Arab Emirates, firefighters battled a blaze in the industrial city of Ruwais — home to petrochemical plants — after an Iranian drone strike. No injuries were reported.
Sirens also sounded in Jerusalem, and sounds of explosions could be heard in Tel Aviv as Israel’s defence systems worked to intercept barrages from Iran.
At the Pentagon, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that Tuesday “will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran: The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever.”
Shortly before the statement, he said, “The last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest amount of missiles they have fired yet.”
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US forces hit more than 5,000 targets, and that their three objectives included destruction of Iranian ballistic missile and drone capability; hitting Iran’s navy to allow movement through the Strait of Hormuz; and hitting “deeper into Iran’s military and industrial base.”
The rhetoric was equally sharp from Tehran. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said on X that Iran was “definitely not looking for a ceasefire.”
“We believe that the aggressor should be punched in the mouth so that he learns a lesson so that he will never think of attacking our beloved Iran again,” he said.
Along with firing missiles and drones at Israel and at American bases in the region, Iran has also been targeting energy infrastructure and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for traded oil, sending oil prices soaring.
The attacks appear aimed at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the US and Israel to end their strikes.
Brent crude, the international standard, spiked to nearly USD 120 on Monday before falling back, but was still at around USD 90 a barrel on Tuesday, nearly 24 per cent higher than when the war started on Feb. 28.
Trump, who has previously said that the war could last for a month or longer, sought to downplay growing fears that it could take even longer, saying it was “going to be a short-term excursion.”
Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the strikes on Iran would continue.
“Our aim is to bring the Iranian people to cast off the yoke of tyranny, (but) ultimately it depends on them,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with Israel’s hospital and health system leaders.
“There is no doubt that with the actions taken so far, we are breaking their bones.”
Iran has effectively stopped tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman — the gateway to the Indian Ocean — through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil is carried. Attacks on merchant ships near the strait have killed at least seven sailors, according to the International Maritime Organisation.
In a post on social media, Trump seemed not to acknowledge that, saying that “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard doubled down, saying it “will not allow the export of even a single litre of oil from the region to the hostile side and its partners until further notice.”
Meanwhile, Amin Nasser, the president and CEO of Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco, said tankers were being rerouted to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, and that its East-West pipeline would reach its full capacity of 7 million barrels a day, being brought to the Red Sea port of Yanbu this week.
As the conflict spread across the region, Israel launched multiple attacks on the militant Hezbollah group in Lebanon, which responded by firing missiles into Israel.
Israel’s military, meanwhile, reiterated a call for all residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes, saying it planned to “operate forcefully” there against Hezbollah.
Since the war began, at least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials. A total of seven US service members have been killed.
Meanwhile, President Trump dialled his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin late Monday night amid global energy disruption caused by American-Israeli strikes on Iran, leading to the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, the two leaders discussed the conflicts between the US and Iran and between Russia and Ukraine during an hour-long telephonic conversation.
“The conversation focused on the Iran conflict and the trilateral talks between Moscow, Washington and Kyiv aimed at settling the Ukraine conflict. The dialogue between the two presidents was business-like, open and constructive,” Ushakov said.
Briefing the Kremlin pool reporters shortly before midnight, Ushakov said President Putin also shared his thoughts on the ongoing conflict in Iran and briefed Trump on his last week’s conversations with the leaders of the Gulf states and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
“Trump, in turn, expressed his opinion about the situation. They had a very substantive discussion on the issue,” Ushakov said.
This was Putin and Trump’s 11th phone conversation and first this year. Last time they had talked in December, Ushakov noted.
In another development, five members of the Iranian women’s soccer team who were in Australia for a tournament when the Iran war began were granted asylum, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters in Brisbane.
