DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s president apologized Saturday for attacks on regional countries at the same time as its missiles and drones flew toward Gulf Arab states, indicating that Tehran’s political leadership couldn’t exercise full command over Iran’s armed forces. He also rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated demands for give up.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, one member of a tripartite leadership council overseeing Iran since a Feb. 28 airstrike began the war and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered the defiant message exactly one week right into a conflict that has spread across the region, rattled global markets and air travel and left Iran’s own leadership greatly weakened by a whole bunch of Israeli and American airstrikes.
The message, seemingly filmed in a rush without skilled broadcast equipment, again underlined the limited powers being exercised by the theocracy’s leaders over its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the ballistic missiles targeting Israel and others. It answered only to Khamenei and now appears to be picking its own targets because the conflict widens.
Shortly after Pezeshkian’s message, Trump warned in a social media post Saturday that more Iranian officials would change into targets within the war, writing: “Today Iran will likely be hit very hard!” In his comments on his Truth Social website, Trump noted the apology by Pezeshkian.
“Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, due to Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of folks that weren’t considered for targeting up until this moment in time,” Trump wrote, without elaborating.
While the Iranian president attempted to assuage growing Gulf Arab anger over the attacks, just hours earlier a wave of missiles and drones had disrupted flights at Dubai International Airport, targeted a significant Saudi oil facility and sent people fleeing for canopy multiple times in Bahrain.
Pezeshkian also kept up his criticism of Trump’s call for Iran to unconditionally give up to America.
“That’s a dream that they need to take to their grave,” he said.
Pezeshkian’s statement Saturday said Iran’s three-man leadership council had been in contact with the armed forces over the attacks.
“I should apologize to the neighbouring countries that were attacked by Iran, by myself behalf,” the president said. “Any longer, they shouldn’t attack neighbouring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we’re attacked by those countries. I feel we should always solve this through diplomacy.”
Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran’s armed forces spokesman, then added more confusion by saying after Pezeshkian that Tehran has “not hit countries that didn’t provide space for America to invade our country.”
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The American strikes haven’t been coming from the Gulf Arab states now under attack.
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Likely in response to the continuing political confusion, on Saturday, a outstanding cleric in Iran, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, urged the country’s Assembly of Experts to act quickly to call a brand new supreme leader. Buildings related to the 88-cleric panel have been hit by airstrikes within the war, likely slowing any meeting of the group.
“The timely realization of this essential matter will result in national authority and one of the best possible organization of affairs,” Shirazi said in a press release.
The U.S. says more intense bombing lies ahead.
There was no foreseeable end to the fighting. Trump’s administration approved a brand new $151 million arms sale to Israel after Trump said he wouldn’t negotiate with Iran without its “unconditional give up” and U.S. officials warned of a forthcoming bombing campaign they said can be essentially the most intense yet within the weeklong conflict.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador said the country would “take all crucial measures” to defend itself.
Associated Press video showed explosions flashing and smoke rising over western Tehran as Israel said it had begun a broad wave of strikes.
The U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with strikes, targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. The stated goals and timelines for the war have repeatedly shifted because the U.S. has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran’s government or elevate latest leadership from inside.
The fighting has killed not less than 1,230 people in Iran, greater than 200 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, based on officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.
Also, early Saturday, incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters across Israel and loud booms sounded in Jerusalem. There have been no immediate reports of casualties by Israel’s emergency services.
Iran strikes Gulf States as fighting spreads
In an indication of the widening nature of the conflict, sirens sounded early Saturday in Bahrain as Iranian attacks targeted the island kingdom. And Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces.
In Dubai, several blasts were heard Saturday morning and the federal government said it had activated air defenses. Passengers waiting for flights at Dubai International Airport found themselves ushered down into train tunnels on the sprawling airfield after the alert sounded.
Later that morning, long-haul carrier Emirates said that “all flights to and from Dubai have been suspended until further notice.” Shortly after, the choice was reversed and Emirates said the airline would resume operations.
Iranian naval vessel docked in India
The Indian foreign minister said Saturday an Iranian naval vessel has docked in India.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the IRIS Lavan was moored within the southern city of Kochi after India granted permission when the vessel reported “having problems” on Sunday. News agency Press Trust of India, citing unnamed “government sources,” had earlier reported that the ship has been in Kochi since Wednesday.
“I feel it was the humane thing to do,” Jaishankar said.
A U.S. submarine sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday. One other Iranian vessel, the IRIS Bushehr, requested assistance from Sri Lanka, where greater than 200 sailors were being brought ashore.
The ships had previously taken part in naval exercises hosted by India, but Jaishankar said they got “caught on the improper side of events” once the war began.
Qatar warns that war can ‘bring down economies’
Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, warned in an interview with the Financial Times that the war could “bring down the economies of the world,” predicting a widespread shutdown of Gulf energy exports that might send oil to $150 a barrel.
The value for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose above $90 on Friday for the primary time in greater than two years.
Writing for the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera, a regional analyst warned Iran was making “a strategic miscalculation of historic proportions.”
Sultan al-Khulaifi, a senior researcher on the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, wrote: “By spreading the conflict to the Gulf, Tehran is doing precisely what Israel couldn’t do alone: steering the war away from the Israeli-Iranian axis and remodeling it right into a confrontation between Iran and its Arab neighbours.”
Al Jazeera, a Pan-Arab satellite news network owned and funded by Qatar’s government, has been used prior to now to signal Doha’s opinions on regional matters.
Fighting with Israeli troops reported in eastern Lebanon
The Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with an Israeli force that landed late Friday within the mountains of eastern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes on the eastern town of Nabi Chit and nearby areas left 41 people dead and 40 wounded. The Lebanese army said the dead included three of its troops. The world witnessed intense clashes and airstrikes overnight into Saturday after an Israeli force landed there and clashed with local gunmen.
Israel didn’t acknowledge the fighting, and its military didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
Israel has carried out waves of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a big presence but which can also be home to a whole bunch of 1000’s of civilians.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says over 200 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since Monday and over 800 wounded.
Hezbollah also issued a warning Saturday for the residents of the northern Israeli towns of Kiryat Shmona and Nahariya to evacuate immediately. Shortly afterward, alert sirens sounded near Nahariya, Kiryat Shmona and Tiberias.
Israel’s army said it should not evacuate Israelis, but as an alternative will defend them by putting soldiers between villages and Hezbollah, and it should construct up its presence inside southern Lebanon where its troops are operating.
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Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Magdy from Cairo, Egypt. Associated Press journalists Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida contributed reporting.