Tehran (AFP) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the country’s forces could fight an intense war for six months against the United States and Israel, which claimed it struck Tehran’s commanders at a seaside hotel in the heart of Beirut. As the conflict spilled into its second week, the regional repercussions spiraled, with Saudi Arabia intercepting a wave of drones headed for targets including the diplomatic quarter in the capital Riyadh. Kuwait reported that an attack hit fuel tanks at its international airport.
The strike on Kuwait’s aviation fuel storage compounded fears over energy supplies, with the country’s national oil company also announcing a cut in crude production due to threats to the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transit. Tehran accused the US and Israel of striking an oil depot in the Iranian capital on Saturday, marking the first reported assault on the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure as stock markets have slumped and crude prices surged. The Israeli military stated it struck “a number of fuel storage facilities in Tehran” that were used “to operate military infrastructure.”
Israel’s military also launched a new wave of strikes “across Tehran” on Sunday, following a precision strike targeting “key commanders” in the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, at a hotel in a tourist area of central Beirut. Lebanon’s health ministry reported that the strike killed at least four people at the hotel, where an AFP photographer observed shattered windows and charred walls.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war against Iran “with all our force,” with a plan to eradicate the country’s leadership after joint US-Israeli raids resulted in the death of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week, sparking the regional conflict. Despite the threats, the Revolutionary Guards expressed confidence on Sunday that the Islamic Republic’s forces could wage an “intense war” for six months at the current speed of fighting. Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini indicated that Iran had so far utilized “first and second generation” missiles, but plans to employ “advanced and less-used long-range missiles” in the following days.
The widening reach of the war and Iran’s capacity to inflict damage were underscored by US President Donald Trump attending the return of six American service members killed in a drone strike on a US base in Kuwait last Sunday. Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani accused the Trump administration of pursuing a strategy akin to that in Venezuela, where it ousted leader Nicolas Maduro. “Their perception was that it would be like Venezuela — they would strike, take control and it would be over — but now they are trapped,” he stated in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on state TV on Saturday.
Iran’s hardline judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei warned neighboring countries that are “openly and covertly at the disposal of the enemy” that “the heavy attacks on these targets will continue.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian emphasized that Tehran “will be forced to respond” if a neighboring country is used as a launchpad for any attack or invasion attempt.
Tehran has vowed to target US assets within the region, and on Sunday, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait all reported new attacks. Saudi Arabia announced the interception of more than a dozen drones, while Qatar stated that Iran fired two cruise missiles and 10 ballistic missiles at the country on Saturday. The UAE defense ministry confirmed that forces were intercepting incoming missiles and drones from Iran. On Saturday, video footage captured one projectile crashing at Dubai airport, and AFP journalists reported hearing blasts in Iraq’s Baghdad and Erbil that evening.
Inside Iran, damage to infrastructure and residential areas is escalating as its citizens report growing anxiety and 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 reported on Friday that at least 926 civilians had been killed and around 6,000 wounded—figures that AFP could not independently verify.
Israel launched strikes on a Hezbollah bastion in the southern suburbs of Beirut after Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war this week when the militant group attacked Israel with rockets and drones in response to Khamenei’s death. Lebanon’s health ministry reported that at least 294 people have died in Israeli air strikes over the past week, prompting Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to warn of a looming “humanitarian disaster.”
The fresh Israeli strikes followed some of the largest assaults on Iran since the war began on Saturday, targeting a military academy, an underground command center, and missile storage sites. Netanyahu claimed that Israel had achieved nearly total control of the skies over the Iranian capital. Trump echoed this defiance, reiterating that Iran was close to developing a nuclear weapon and suggesting that US troops might eventually be required to secure Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles. Separately, he blamed Iran for what the country’s authorities reported as a deadly strike on an elementary school in Minab last Saturday, which killed at least 150 people. Iran has attributed blame to Washington for the incident. Neither the US nor Israel has claimed responsibility for the attack, and AFP could not independently confirm the circumstances.
Analysts caution that there remains no clear path to ending a conflict that US and Israeli officials predict could last a month or longer. Trump proposed that Iran’s economy could be rebuilt if a leadership deemed “acceptable” to Washington replaces the late supreme leader, a notion Tehran has rejected. Both China and Russia have largely remained on the sidelines, despite their close ties with Tehran. China’s top diplomat Wang Yi stated on Sunday that the war in the Middle East should “never have happened.” “This is a war that should never have happened,” he remarked during a press conference in Beijing, adding that “a strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle.”
© 2024 AFP
