Paris (France) (AFP) – US and Israeli strikes hit targets across Tehran on Tuesday as President Donald Trump boasted of widespread damage and said it was “too late” for talks. Iran retaliated with drone and missile attacks on US embassies and economic targets around the Gulf on the fourth day of the war, while Israel pushed deeper into Lebanon to fight the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia.
Here are the latest developments:
– **Trump hails impact of strikes** – “Just about everything’s been knocked out,” Trump said of US-Israeli strikes on Iran, as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Washington. Trump told reporters he acted to stop Iran attacking first, and “might have forced Israel’s hand.”
– **Most potential new Iran leaders are dead: Trump** – Trump said two waves of US-Israeli attacks on Iran had killed figures he had eyed as potential new leaders. “Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” Trump said. He said the “worst case” would be “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”
– **EU and Gulf foreign ministers to talk** – EU and Gulf foreign ministers will hold talks by videolink on Thursday, officials told AFP.
– **Russia calls for de-escalation** – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged de-escalation in a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Moscow said.
– **UK dispatches warship** – Britain will send a warship and helicopters with anti-drone capabilities for “defensive operations” to Cyprus after a UK military base there was hit by a drone, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
– **Iran threatens economic centres** – An Islamic Revolutionary Guard general warned that continued US-Israeli attacks would see Iran conduct reprisals against “all economic centres” in the Middle East.
– **Iran system resilient: shah’s widow** – Farah Pahlavi, widow of Iran’s last shah, told AFP the death of supreme leader Ali Khamenei would not necessarily bring down the government. “The passing of a man — however central he may be to the architecture of power — does not automatically mean the end of a system,” said Pahlavi, who lives in exile in Paris.
– **Israel targets Iran missile production** – Israel’s military said it struck Iranian industrial sites used to produce weapons, “particularly ballistic missiles.”
– **Tehran airport hit** – Tehran’s Mehrabad airport — which mainly handles domestic flights — was targeted by strikes, according to the Mehr news agency.
– **Stocks slip, oil rises** – US stocks tumbled while oil prices soared as the war disrupted supplies, with the crucial Strait of Hormuz effectively closed and energy infrastructure across the Middle East hit. The price of Brent crude was at $83.79 a barrel after earlier going above $85 a barrel. Gold and silver prices fell sharply as traders piled into bets on energy and the US dollar.
– **’Large scale’ blasts in Tehran** – Loud explosions rocked Tehran, with Israel’s military later saying it had launched a new “large scale” wave of strikes on the capital “targeting the Iranian terror regime’s infrastructure in Tehran.” Iranian media said central Tehran was struck, as well as the religious city of Qom, where the building used by the official body that selects Iran’s new supreme leader was hit.
– **’Too late’ for talks** – Trump said that it was “too late” for talks with Iran, writing on his Truth Social platform that Iran’s “air defense, Air Force, Navy, and Leadership is gone.” “They want to talk. I said ‘Too Late!'” Trump said — two days after saying he had agreed to talks.
– **Reported Israeli and Iranian tolls** – Israeli authorities said at least 12 people in Israel were wounded in the latest Iranian missile salvo. Earlier, the Iranian Red Crescent said more than 780 people have been killed nationwide in Iran since the conflict began. AFP was not able to verify the figure.
– **Strikes on Beirut** – Israeli air strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area where Hezbollah holds sway, with Lebanon’s state news agency reporting “extensive damage to buildings.”
– **Iran threatens foes** – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned of more intense attacks on US forces and Israel, with a spokesman telling state TV: “The gates of hell will open more and more.”
– **Israel wants Lebanon ‘buffer’** – Israel ordered its forces to take control of more positions inside Lebanon to create a buffer zone. In response, the Lebanese army pulled back some of its forces after Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israeli bases.
© 2024 AFP
