Tehran (AFP) – Israel said Sunday it still has thousands of targets to strike inside Iran as the Islamic republic warned other countries against getting involved in the war, which has spread across the Middle East. Tehran’s warning came as Rome reported a base in Kuwait hosting US and Italian troops was hit by a drone attack, while Iran told its neighbours it had “ample evidence” that US bases on their territory were being used to launch attacks.
“We still have thousands of targets in Iran, and we are identifying new targets every day,” Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said, more than two weeks into the US-Israeli air campaign against Iran. Tehran has responded to the war by threatening shipping in the vital Strait of Hormuz — which usually sees passage of 20 percent of global oil and gas exports — an issue US President Donald Trump discussed with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday, the latter’s office said. Trump had called the previous day on other countries to work with Washington to secure the strait, the closure of which has thrown energy markets into turmoil since the conflict broke out.
But in a phone conversation with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot, Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi called on other countries to “refrain from any action that could lead to escalation and expansion of the conflict.” Arguing that the US security umbrella in the region was “inviting rather than deterring trouble,” Araghchi on X urged neighbouring countries “to expel foreign aggressors.” The drone attack at the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait destroyed an unmanned aircraft belonging to Italy, but caused no casualties, the Italian military said. Rome’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, sought to play down the attack — the second on an Italian base in the Middle East this week — insisting: “We are not at war with anyone.”
Iraqi authorities meanwhile said rockets wounded five people at Baghdad’s airport, which houses a US diplomatic facility, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said about 700 missiles and 3,600 drones had been fired at US and Israeli targets so far.
– Guarded responses –
Trump responded to Iran’s threats to shipping by calling on “China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others” to send ships to escort tankers, while the US military continues to pound drone, boat, and missile launch sites in Iran on the north shore. But the various countries he listed have given only guarded responses. The UK defence ministry was non-committal, saying “we are currently discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping.” South Korea said it was monitoring Trump’s remarks, while the policy chief of Japan’s ruling party, Takayuki Kobayashi, said the bar for sending Japanese navy ships to the region under existing laws was “extremely high.”
– Energy markets –
Global oil prices have surged by 40 percent as Iran has choked off the vital sea passage and attacked energy and shipping industry targets in its Gulf neighbours. The International Energy Agency, whose members recently decided to release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves, said Sunday that “stocks will be made available by IEA Member countries in Asia Oceania immediately.” The Americas and Europe would follow suit in the weeks to come.
As global markets reel, Trump has doubled down, telling NBC News in a weekend interview that he thought Tehran was keen to come to the table but that the US would keep fighting to force better terms. “Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” Trump told NBC News. But Araghchi, in an interview with the US network CBS’s “Face the Nation,” denied Tehran was asking for an agreement. “We are stable and strong enough,” Araghchi said. “We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us.”
– Cafes reopen –
Despite the sharp rhetoric, the atmosphere in Tehran was the most normal it has been since the start of the war on February 28. Traffic was busier than last week and some cafes and restaurants had reopened, as had more than a third of stalls in the Tajrish bazaar, a popular shopping hub, with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, just days away. Some shoppers queued at ATMs to withdraw cash. Online operations at Bank Melli, one of the country’s largest, had been paralysed in recent days. It was a similar story outside the capital. In an interview from Tonekabon, a city in Mazandaran province on the Caspian Sea, 49-year-old Ali told AFP that shops were open and crowded despite steep price rises. “Only the main square is closed every night, and government demonstrations take place,” he said, adding that only Iran’s domestic intranet was working, without outside connections.
More than 1,200 people have been killed by US and Israeli strikes, according to Iranian health ministry figures that could not be independently verified. The UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people have been displaced in Iran. The Pentagon says more than 15,000 targets in Iran have been hit by US and Israeli forces.
© 2024 AFP
