Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the country can wage an “intense war” for six months against the United States and Israel, as Israeli forces announced fresh strikes “across Tehran” and a precision hit on Quds Force commanders at a seaside hotel in central Beirut. The claims and counterstrikes rippled across the region Saturday, with Saudi Arabia intercepting a wave of drones and Kuwait reporting an attack on aviation fuel tanks at its international airport.
Kuwait’s national oil company said it would cut crude production, citing threats to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway where roughly a fifth of global oil and gas transits. Iran accused the United States and Israel of striking an oil depot in Tehran in what it described as the first attack on its energy infrastructure since the war erupted, as stock markets slid and crude prices rose.
- Advertisement -
Israel’s military said it carried out a precision strike on “key commanders” of the Quds Force — the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards — at a popular Beirut hotel, and launched a new wave of attacks inside Iran’s capital. Blasts were reported near Azadi Tower, close to Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to prosecute the war against Iran “with all our force,” following what officials have described as joint U.S.-Israeli raids last week that they say killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — an event that ignited the current regional conflict.
Revolutionary Guards spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini said Iran has so far used “first and second generation” missiles and promised deployment of “advanced and less used long-range missiles” in the coming days. He said Iran’s forces were prepared to sustain high-intensity combat at the present tempo for at least half a year.
The conflict has spread across borders. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted more than a dozen drones headed toward targets including the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh. Qatar said Iran fired two cruise missiles and 10 ballistic missiles at the country. The United Arab Emirates reported intercepting incoming missiles and drones; video shared online showed a projectile crashing at Dubai’s airport, while explosions were heard in Baghdad and Erbil.
Inside Iran, damage to infrastructure and homes is mounting amid a heavy security presence. “I don’t think anyone who hasn’t experienced war would understand it,” a 26-year-old teacher told AFP on condition of anonymity. Iran’s health ministry said at least 926 civilians have been killed and about 6,000 wounded since the fighting began, figures that could not be independently verified.
In the United States, President Donald Trump attended the return of six American service members killed in a drone strike on a U.S. base in Kuwait last Sunday. He repeated the claim that Iran was nearing a nuclear weapon and suggested U.S. troops may eventually be needed to secure Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles.
Trump also blamed Iran for what authorities in the country said was a deadly strike on an elementary school in Minab last week that killed at least 150 people. Iran has accused Washington of responsibility. Neither the United States nor Israel has claimed the attack, and the circumstances could not be independently confirmed.
Tehran has vowed to target U.S. assets in the region. Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, warned that neighbors “openly and covertly at the disposal of the enemy” would face continued heavy attacks. Ali Larijani, Iran’s security chief, accused the Trump administration of seeking a Venezuela-style ouster of Iran’s leadership, saying in a state TV interview that Washington is now “trapped.”
Analysts see no clear path to de-escalation, with U.S. and Israeli officials bracing for a conflict that could last a month or longer. Trump has floated rebuilding Iran’s economy if a leader “acceptable” to Washington replaces the late supreme leader, an idea Tehran has rejected. China and Russia have largely stayed on the sidelines. “This is a war that should never have happened,” China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said in Beijing, adding, “A strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle.”
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
