Tehran (AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Friday that only Tehran’s unconditional surrender would bring an end to the escalating Middle East war as Israel declared its forces were “crushing” the Iranian ruling system. Now in its seventh day, the war has embroiled nations beyond the region, upended the world’s energy and transport sectors, and brought chaos to even usually peaceful areas around the Gulf.
It has spread to Lebanon, whose prime minister warned of an impending humanitarian disaster as the death toll rose and tens of thousands fled heavy Israeli strikes. With the world facing a “situation that could spiral beyond anyone’s control,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for countries to start “serious diplomatic negotiations.” However, Trump, who has given varying reasons for starting the war, has opposed fresh talks. “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Despite the comments, the White House later insisted that US aims for the war remain unchanged. Trump also promised to help rebuild the country’s economy if Tehran installs someone “acceptable” to him to replace Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed last weekend. The main US crude oil price — already surging with the critical energy waterway the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf effectively blocked — soared by 11 percent after Trump’s comments.
– ‘Very scary’ –
Tehran was pummelled by Israeli strikes on Friday, which AFP journalists described as among the heaviest days of bombardments yet on the Iranian capital. “It’s really very scary,” a Tehran businessman who gave his first name as Robert told AFP. Israel and the US have said they were escalating their attacks on Iran, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warning that strikes were “about to surge dramatically.” Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir said on Friday his country’s forces were “crushing the Iranian terrorist regime.” According to Iran’s health ministry, the US and Israeli strikes on the country have killed 926 people, a number AFP could not independently verify. Iran has launched missile and drone attacks at Israel and Gulf states since the war began, with AFP journalists in Tel Aviv reporting hearing several blasts on Friday. In Israel, at least 10 people have been killed, according to first responders. The US military has reported the deaths of six of its personnel.
– ‘I am trembling’ –
The conflict has sucked in Lebanon after Tehran’s proxy group Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel in response to Khamenei’s killing. Israel’s military pounded the country on Friday, including fresh strikes on Beirut’s battered southern suburbs, considered a Hezbollah stronghold and home to hundreds of thousands of people. AFP correspondents saw scenes of panic on Thursday as residents fled en masse after an unprecedented Israeli order to evacuate the suburbs immediately. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that a “humanitarian disaster is looming,” while the Norwegian Refugee Council said 300,000 people in the country had been forced to flee. Lebanon’s health ministry said the death toll in the country rose to 217 on Friday. Two UN Ghanaian peacekeepers were critically wounded when their base in southern Lebanon was hit on Friday.
– ‘Extraordinary mistake’ –
Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, has also been dragged into the war. Several airports in Iraq were hit by attacks on Friday, including a Baghdad airport complex that hosts a military base and a US diplomatic facility, Iraqi authorities said. The US embassy in Baghdad warned that Iranian-backed fighters may target hotels in Iraqi Kurdistan frequented by foreigners. Shortly afterwards, an explosion was heard in the city of Erbil, and smoke was seen rising from a hotel there, an AFP journalist said. Azerbaijan has also become caught up in the war, saying that it had prevented a series of Iranian attacks on its territory. Also on Friday, the United Nations refugee agency declared the crisis a major humanitarian emergency.
– ‘Trying to say goodbye’ –
The war has not spared the rich countries of the Gulf, formerly seen as a tourist hot spot and a rare Middle East safe haven. Qatar intercepted a drone attack on a US air base on its territory on Friday, while Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a cruise missile near the central Al-Kharj area. Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in Gulf countries since the war began, including an 11-year-old girl, Elena Abdullah Hussein, in Kuwait. Two hours before she died, the girl called her father at work to tell him she loved him. “It was as if she was trying to say goodbye,” the girl’s father Abdullah Hussein told AFP at the funeral.
The conflict has also expanded as far afield as the Sri Lankan coast, off of which a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian frigate. Nations have scrambled to repatriate holidaymakers in the Gulf caught up in the fighting, with air traffic severely limited as missiles and drones dominate the skies above the region.
© 2024 AFP
