(AFP) – Drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday as Iran retaliated against industrial and diplomatic targets across the Middle East. Washington warned its citizens to evacuate the entire region. Four days after US and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and triggered a regional war, AFP reporters in the Saudi capital observed smoke damage on the walls and roof of the embassy. Saudi police were swarming over the diplomatic quarter, checking IDs of everyone who entered, while several roads were blocked, including approaches to the US embassy.
Powerful explosions also shook Tehran through the night, as fighter jets flew over the Iranian capital and US President Donald Trump threatened to escalate the conflict. On Monday, the US State Department urged “Americans to DEPART NOW” from all countries and territories in the Middle East “due to serious safety risks.” Meanwhile, Israel announced that it was seizing new forward positions inside southern Lebanon, reacting to Hezbollah’s missile strikes in support of Iran, which provoked a furious Israeli bombardment. Defence Minister Israel Katz stated that Israeli forces had been authorized “to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities.”
Following Israel’s “escalation,” a Lebanese military source reported that the Lebanese army redeployed troops in the south. Hezbollah claimed it executed strikes targeting three Israeli bases. In Gulf cities and the Omani port of Duqm, Iranian strikes continued to hit oil and gas infrastructure. As European markets opened, the benchmark Brent crude price experienced another surge. “We will burn any ship that tries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” declared Revolutionary Guards General Sardar Jabbari, highlighting the threat the war poses to the global economy.
In Washington, Trump warned that the strikes could continue for weeks or months. “From the beginning we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that,” Trump said at the White House. In an earlier interview with the New York Post, he, who campaigned on promises to end US involvement in wars, refused to rule out deploying US ground troops to Iran “if they were necessary.” Speaking to NewsNation, he warned that Iran would “find out soon” how he planned to retaliate for the Riyadh embassy attack.
The US President laid out the operation’s objectives for the first time — destroying Iran’s missiles, navy, and nuclear program, and stopping its support for armed groups across the region. Notably, Trump’s goals did not include toppling the Islamic republic, even as he and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the people of Iran to rise up.
Saudi Arabia, home to one of the region’s largest oil refineries, some of which have already been closed following attacks, said it intercepted eight more drones in two cities, including the capital, on Tuesday. However, two managed to evade air defenses and struck the US embassy, causing a fire. In Fujairah, one of the United Arab Emirates, debris from downed drones caused a fire at an oil facility, although the blaze was brought under control and operations resumed.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented a strikingly new narrative on how the conflict started. Washington’s top diplomat claimed the United States, which had built up its forces in the Gulf to levels not seen since the 2003 Iraq invasion, attacked only after learning that ally Israel was planning to strike Iran. Iran had been poised to strike US forces in the region in response to Israeli actions, leading Trump to decide on a “pre-emptive” intervention alongside Israel, Rubio explained. “The imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked — and we believed they would be attacked — they would immediately come after us,” Rubio told reporters before briefing lawmakers.
Rival Democrats expressed disbelief, with Senator Mark Warner stating that it was “uncharted territory” for the United States to act based on Israel’s perception of a threat. Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, retorted that “there was never any so-called Iranian ‘threat’.” He noted that “Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: the US has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel.”
Throughout the region, the death toll has steadily increased, with six US military personnel reported killed so far in the war, according to US Central Command. Iranian media have reported hundreds of Iranian casualties, including many at a girl’s school, although AFP reporters have yet to verify these tolls independently. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) stated there were 101 casualties inside Iran on the war’s third day, comprising “85 civilian deaths and 11 military personnel killed.” Many residents in Tehran found themselves torn between fear of bombings and the hope that the government’s days might be numbered.
AFP journalists observed some residents packing suitcases, preparing to leave. “Every time we hear the noises, we get scared for just a second,” a 45-year-old lawyer expressed in a voice message to Europe, “but we experience some joy and excitement every time we hear a hit.”
burs/dc/ser – Sofiane Alsaar and Rania Sanjar with AFP bureaus in Tehran, Beirut, and Jerusalem
© 2024 AFP
