Jerusalem (AFP) – Iran said it was ready to take the Middle East war “as far as necessary” as it launched strikes across the region Monday, while Donald Trump piled pressure on world powers to help reopen a shipping lane choked off by the Islamic Republic. Global oil prices have surged by 40 to 50 percent as Iran has attacked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and launched waves of strikes in the Gulf, in retaliation for the war launched against it by the United States and Israel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Monday they had targeted Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, as well as military bases used by US forces in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. “By now they have learned a good lesson and understood what kind of nation they are dealing with, one that does not hesitate to defend itself and is ready to continue the war wherever it may lead, and take it as far as necessary,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Tehran.
A drone sparked a fuel tank fire near Dubai airport, disrupting travel, while a missile killed a civilian in their car in Abu Dhabi, and another drone ignited a blaze in an area housing oil infrastructure in the eastern emirate of Fujairah. “It has been a difficult few weeks hearing explosions regularly, but the Iranian attacks followed me in my last hours before I could fly back home,” a witness at Dubai airport told AFP, adding that passengers had been evacuated to a lower floor after the attack.
Explosions hit the Iranian capital on Monday as air defense systems were activated, an AFP journalist reported, and Israel said it had also targeted the cities of Shiraz and Tabriz. More than two weeks into the Middle East war, Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said they still had “thousands of targets in Iran, and we are identifying new targets every day.”
EU foreign ministers were gathering Monday to discuss extending the bloc’s Red Sea naval mission, the bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said. US President Trump called this weekend for countries including China, France, Japan, South Korea, and Britain to send warships to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of global crude. Trump told the Financial Times it would be “very bad for the future of NATO” if they refused, and he has threatened to delay a planned summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was working with allies on a “viable” plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but he emphasized that any effort would not be a NATO mission. Japan and Australia have stated they are not planning deployments.
On another key front in the wider war, Israel announced the launch of “limited ground operations” against Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon “aimed at enhancing the forward defense area.” Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“We have identified Hezbollah is intending to expand their operations… and firing hundreds of rockets a day” toward Israel, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in a briefing. The army’s announcement echoed statements issued in 2024, when Israel and Hezbollah fought a major war in Lebanon, and during the start of operations in Gaza in 2023. There were fresh Israeli strikes on Sunday on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah bastion usually home to hundreds of thousands of people. Israel has ordered evacuations on an unprecedented scale across vast areas of Lebanon since the war began, sparking a major displacement crisis.
The war has engulfed much of the region, with Iran responding to Israeli and US strikes with attacks against at least 10 countries that host US forces. Saudi Arabia intercepted more than 60 drones overnight, its defense ministry reported on Monday, and Iraqi authorities said rockets wounded five people at Baghdad’s airport, which houses a US diplomatic facility. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed expressed solidarity against “the continued and blatant Iranian attacks” in a call on Monday, according to a statement published by Emirati media. The statement did not make explicit reference to US and Israeli strikes in Iran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported that around 700 missiles and 3,600 drones had been fired at US and Israeli targets so far. Despite the violence and 17 days of internet blackout, some Iranians have sought to restore some normalcy in recent days. Traffic was busier over the weekend, AFP journalists observed, with some cafes and restaurants reopening and more than a third of stalls in the Tajrish bazaar, a popular shopping hub, open ahead of the upcoming Persian New Year. More than 1,200 Iranians have been killed by US and Israeli strikes, according to the last toll from Iran’s health ministry on March 8, which could not be independently verified. The UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people have been displaced in Iran.
© 2024 AFP
