Iran FM calls on neighbors to expel US forces; US embassy attacked in Baghdad, strikes hit Iran-backed fighters
Smoke rises towards an energy facility in the Gulf emirate of Fujairah. Photo: AFP
WASHINGTON/TEHRAN/BAGHDAD:
US President Donald Trump urged other countries to help secure a vital shipping lane clogged by the war with Iran that showed no signs of slowing on Saturday as strikes hit the US embassy in Baghdad and a major Emirati energy facility, with Iran threatening to reduce US-linked oil facilities to “a pile of ashes” as the two-week-old Middle East war spiraled into a global oil price crisis.
Oil prices jumped 40 percent as Iran blocked the vital Strait of Hormuz and attacked Gulf energy facilities.
Clouds of black smoke rose on Saturday over Fujairah, home to a major Emirati oil storage and export terminal, AFP journalists noted, shortly after the Iranian military warned UAE civilians to avoid port areas.
Washington’s embassy in Iraq was hit by a drone, security sources told AFP, the second time it has been targeted in the war, and the Emirati consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan was also hit for the second time in a week.
Five U.S. Air Force aerial refueling planes were damaged in an Iranian missile strike on a key military installation in Saudi Arabia, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The plane was struck while parked at Prince Sultan Air Base, a major installation hosting U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia. Officials said the attack occurred in recent days during a wave of Iranian missile launches targeting U.S. military assets in the region.
After promising that the US Navy would begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz “very soon”, Trump appeared to call for reinforcements on Saturday.
“Many countries…will send warships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the strait open and secure,” he wrote on Truth Social, saying China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom would “hopefully” be among them.
US forces struck Kharg Island, where almost all of Iran’s oil is exported, on Friday, with Trump saying they had “annihilated all MILITARY targets” while sparing its energy facilities.
The attack on Kharg could be a turning point, with both sides escalating the conflict in a bid to force capitulation, analyst Vali Nasr of Johns Hopkins University said on social media.
“The end will probably not be a retreat of Iran, but an inflammation of the Gulf.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes showed the war was entering a “decisive phase”, while warning it would “continue as long as necessary”.
Yet despite the superiority of American and Israeli firepower, Iran seemed determined to continue the fight.
Explosions were heard by AFP journalists above Jerusalem after the army detected missiles launched from Iran on Saturday.
Qatar evacuated the city center and intercepted two missiles, the detonations of which were heard by AFP journalists.
Hamas has urged Iran to refrain from targeting its Gulf neighbors, many of whom have supported its cause. It is a rare break between the allies, even though Hamas has asserted Tehran’s right to defend itself.
Iran continued to face heavy bombardment, with local media reporting strikes in several provinces through Saturday.
The Israeli army, meanwhile, warned residents of an industrial zone in Tabriz, northern Iran, to evacuate, signaling an imminent attack.
Iran’s Health Ministry says more than 1,200 people have been killed by U.S. and Israeli attacks, figures that could not be independently verified, while up to 3.2 million people have been displaced, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
Trump described Iran as “totally defeated” and as seeking a deal he was not willing to consider.
More than 15,000 targets in Iran were hit by the United States and Israel, the Pentagon said. A report released this week says the first six days alone cost the United States $11.3 billion, while 13 service members died during the war.
Transition
US media have raised the possibility of US troops being on the ground in Iran, with the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reporting that the Pentagon had sent the Japan-based amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli to the region, accompanied by around 2,500 Marines.
In Iran, the country’s leaders appeared determined to show they would survive the war and maintain control, despite the death of their supreme leader Ali Khamenei on the first day.
Iranian Foreign Minister
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi mocked the United States on Saturday, saying it was now “begging others” to make the Strait of Hormuz safer again.
In an article on The United States is now pleading with others, including China, to help secure Hormuz. Iran calls on its brotherly neighbors to expel foreign aggressors, especially since their only concern is Israel.
Similarly, Alireza Tangsiri, naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said: “The Americans falsely claimed to have destroyed the Iranian navy. They then falsely claimed they were escorting oil tankers. Now they are asking others for reinforcements. Of course, we remind that the Strait of Hormuz has not yet been closed militarily, it is simply controlled.
Araghchi also said separately that the US attacks on Kharg Island on Friday showed “clearly that they are using the territory of our neighbors to attack us with this type of rockets, and this is absolutely unacceptable.”
He said the attacks were followed by Iranian forces. “Now it is clear that they are being fired from the UAE – from two places in the UAE – from Ras Al Khaimah and from a place very close to the city of Dubai. And it is very dangerous that they are using highly populated areas to launch rockets against us,” Araghchi added.
Earlier, President Masoud Pezeshkian pledged to rebuild everything destroyed in Israeli and US airstrikes even better than before, as the Middle East conflict continues.
In an article on With your company, noble people of Iran, we will overcome these conditions and rebuild everything they destroyed even better than before. »
The comments come after US President Donald Trump said warships from the US military and other countries were en route to ensure the Strait of Hormuz remained “open and safe” to traffic.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday called on neighboring countries to expel US forces from the Middle East.
The US security posture in the region “has proven to be full of flaws and encourages unrest rather than deterring it”, the top diplomat posted on X, adding that Iran has called on its neighbors “to expel foreign aggressors”.
Iran will target US businesses in the region if its energy facilities are attacked as part of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday.
“Our armed forces have already responded that they will retaliate if our oil and energy infrastructure is attacked,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told MS NOW.
Iran “will attack any energy infrastructure in the region that is owned or owned by an American company,” he added.
The US embassy in Baghdad was hit by an attack on Saturday following strikes that killed three members of a powerful Iranian-backed group in the capital, security sources said.
Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, was quickly drawn into the Middle East war sparked by U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28.
A cloud of black smoke rose above the American diplomatic mission shortly after the sound of the explosions on Saturday morning, noted an AFP journalist.
Two security officials told AFP the embassy compound had been struck by a drone.
The US embassy did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment on the incident.
This is the second time that the American embassy has been attacked in Baghdad since the start of the war.
