Israel strikes Tehran on Persian New Year

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel pounded Tehran with airstrikes Friday as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year, within the midst of to war that has despatched shock waves by means of the worldwide economic system and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbors straight into the battle.

Activists reported listening to strikes round Iran’s capital. The assaults got here a day after Israel pledged to chorus from extra strikes on a key Iranian gas field and Iran intensified assaults on oil and pure gasoline services across the Gulf.

Heavy explosions shook Dubai early Friday as air defenses intercepted incoming fireplace over the town, the place folks had been observing Eid al-Fitr, the top of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and mosques made the day’s first name to prayers.

Iran saved up its wave of assaults launched at Israel that despatched thousands and thousands of individuals to shelters, with sirens sounding throughout a large swath of the north, from Haifa to the Galilee to the border with Lebanon. It got here after an intense day that noticed greater than a dozen missile launches on Thursday alone, in accordance with Israel’s army.

Global gas provides have been underneath intense strain due to Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuza strategic waterway by means of which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned late Thursday that, on the request of President Donald TrumpIsrael will maintain off any additional assaults on Iran’s offshore South Pars gasoline subject. Iranian strikes in retaliation have led to already elevated world energy prices further surging and spurred Gulf allies to name for Trump to reign in Netanyahu.

Since the US and Israel launched the battle on Feb. 28, Iran’s top leaders have been killed and the nation’s army capabilities have been severely degraded. Netanyahu mentioned in a televised handle that Iran not has the power to complement uranium or make ballistic missiles, though he didn’t present proof.

Still, Iran — now led by the son of the supreme leader killed within the battle’s opening salvo — stays capable of missile and drone attacks.

Brent crude oilthe worldwide normal, briefly emerged above $119 a barrel, up greater than 60% because the battle began. The European benchmark for pure gasoline costs additionally rose sharply and has roughly doubled prior to now month.

UN Security Council meets over Iran’s assaults on Gulf states

The United Nations Security Council held an pressing closed assembly Thursday throughout which Gulf nations confused the necessity for Iran to halt assaults on them, mentioned Bahrain’s UN Ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei, the Arab consultant on the UN’s strongest physique.

But Iran has proven no indicators of backing down. Saudi Arabia mentioned its SAMREF refinery within the Red Sea port metropolis of Yanbu was hit. Saudi Arabia had begun pumping giant volumes of oil west towards the Red Sea to keep away from the Strait of Hormuz.

Qatar, a key supply of pure gasoline for world markets, mentioned Iranian missiles that induced intensive injury to the Ras Laffan liquefied pure gasoline facility, lowered its exports by about 17 p.c and can value about $20 billion in misplaced income a 12 months. The injury will take as much as 5 years to restore, despite the fact that manufacturing on the facility had already been halted after earlier assaults.

Two oil refineries in Kuwait and gasoline operations in Abu Dhabi had been additionally focused by Iran, authorities mentioned.

Underscoring the danger to ships in the regiona vessel was set ablaze Thursday off the United Arab Emirates’ coast and one other was broken off Qatar. Efforts to bypass the strait had been additionally underneath strain: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea, which the nation had hoped to make use of as a substitute route.

Meanwhile, the UAE mentioned Friday it disrupted what it known as “a terrorist network funded and operated by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran,” arresting its operations. It accused the lads of laundering cash whereas “operating within the country under a fictitious commercial cover” that sought to hold out schemes that will threaten the nation’s monetary stability.

It revealed photos of 5 prisoners on its state-run WAM information company, with out figuring out the lads.

Netanyahu says Iran’s army has been severely hit

At Thursday’s information convention, Netanyahu mentioned: “Iran’s air defenses have been rendered useless, their navy is lying at the bottom of the sea. … Their air force is nearly destroyed.”

He mentioned he hopes the Iranian folks will stand up in opposition to the Islamic Republic that has dominated for practically a half-century. There’s been no signal of any organized opposition because the battle started, after Iranian authorities crushed mass protests in January.

The prime minister’s feedback to overseas journalists got here amid troublesome days for Trump and Netanyahu, with a prime US intelligence official resigning and claiming Israel Trump pushed into the battle, and Israel’s assaults on South Pariswhich led to Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the area’s oil and gasoline fields.

“I misled no one,” Netanyahu mentioned. “And I didn’t have to convince President Trump about the need to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program.”

Iran has lengthy insisted its program was peaceable, though it was enriching uranium as much as 60% purity, a brief, technical step from weapons-grade ranges. That stockpile of extremely enriched uranium nonetheless stays in Iran.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned that US forces had been attacking deeper into Iranian territory, with warplanes searching Iranian boats within the strait and dropping 5,000-pound bombs on underground weapons-storage services.

Trump says he isn’t deploying troops to Iran

Iran condemned Israel’s assault on South Paristhe Iranian a part of the world’s largest gasoline subject, situated offshore within the Persian Gulf and owned collectively with Qatar.

With some 80% of energy generated in Iran coming from pure gasoline, in accordance with the International Energy Agency, the assault threatens the nation’s electrical energy provides.

After Trump requested Israel not assault South Africa, he additionally warned on social media that if Iran continued putting Qatar, the US would “massively blow up the entirety” of the sphere.

Asked later about the potential for US floor troops being deployed to Iran, Trump responded: “No. I’m not putting troops anywhere.”

Death toll climbs in third week of battle

More than 1,300 folks in Iran have been killed in the course of the battle. Israeli strikes in opposition to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon have displaced greater than 1 million folks, in accordance with the Lebanese authorities, which says greater than 1,000 folks have been killed. Israel says it has killed greater than 500 Hezbollah militants.

In Israel, 15 folks have been killed by Iranian missile fireplace. Four folks had been additionally killed within the occupied West Bank by an Iranian missile strike.

At least 13 US army members have been killed.

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Melzer reported from Tzukim, Israel, Watson from San Diego. Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, Edith M. Lederer in New York, Lisa Mascaro in Washington, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.