Iran's president defies US demands while apologising for strikes on neighbours
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Dubai (AP): Iran's president said on Saturday that a demand by the United States for an unconditional surrender is a “dream that they should take to their grave.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian made the statement in a prerecorded address aired by state television.
He also apologised for Iran's attacks on regional countries, insisting that Tehran would halt them and suggesting they were caused by miscommunication in the ranks.
The comments came as intense Iranian fire targeted the Gulf Arab states early Saturday as Israel and the United States kept up their airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic. There were repeated attacks Saturday morning on Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
There was no foreseeable end to the fighting. US President Donald Trump's administration approved a new USD 151 million arms sale to Israel after Trump said he would not negotiate with Iran without its “unconditional surrender”, and US officials warned of a forthcoming bombing campaign they said would be the most intense yet in the weeklong conflict.
Iran's UN ambassador said the country would “take all necessary 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. Also, early Saturday, loud booms sounded in Jerusalem, and incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters across Israel.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from Israel's emergency services.
The US and Israel have battered Iran with strikes, targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear programme. The stated goals and timelines for the war have repeatedly shifted, as the US has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran's government or elevate new leadership from within.
Iran strikes Gulf States as fighting spreads
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In a sign 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 US forces.
In Dubai, several blasts were heard Saturday morning, and the government said it had activated air defences. Passengers waiting for flights out at Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, found themselves ushered down into train tunnels at 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."
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 could send oil to USD 150 a barrel.
The price for a barrel of benchmark US crude rose above USD 90 on Friday for the first time in more 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.” Al Jazeera, a pan-Arab satellite news network owned and funded by Qatar's government, has been used in the past to signal Doha's opinions on regional matters.
Sultan al-Khulaifi, a senior researcher at the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, wrote: "By spreading the conflict to the Gulf, Tehran is doing precisely what Israel could not do alone: steering the war away from the Israeli-Iranian axis and transforming it into a confrontation between Iran and its Arab neighbours.”
On Saturday, the defence minister of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's army chief met to discuss ways to stop the attacks coming from Iran, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman, a son of King Salman, talked with Field Marshal Asim Munir in Riyadh about the Iranian attacks. Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a mutual defence pact that defines any attack on either nation as an attack on both.
Russia is providing information to Iran, officials say
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Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with US intelligence on the matter.
The people, who were not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that the US intelligence has not uncovered that Russia is directing Iran on what to do with the information.
Still, it's the first indication that Moscow has sought to get involved in the war.
Trump says the US will help rebuild Iran once it has ACCEPTABLE leaders
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In a social media post on Friday, Trump said: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" After a surrender, “and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s),” he wrote, the US and its allies will help rebuild Iran, making it “economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”
Those comments were likely to raise further questions about the endgame of the war. The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on social media that “some countries” had begun mediation efforts, without elaborating.
Iranian state television reported Friday that a leadership council had started discussing how to convene the country's Assembly of Experts, which will select the new supreme leader.
US official warns that the biggest bombing' is coming
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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a television interview on Friday that the “biggest bombing campaign” of the war was still to come.
Israel has said that over the past week, it has heavily bombed an extensive underground bunker that Iranian leaders had planned to use during the hostilities.
New information surfaced suggesting that a deadly Feb. 28 explosion at a school in the Iranian city of Minab, some 1,100 kilometres (680 miles) southeast of Tehran, was likely caused by US airstrikes. The information included satellite images, expert analysis, a US official and public information released by US and Israeli military forces.
Iranian state media has said more than 165 people were killed in the blast, most of them children.
Iran has blamed Israel and the US for the explosion. Neither country has accepted responsibility, though Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the US is investigating.
Fighting with Israeli troops is reported in eastern Lebanon
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The Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with an Israeli force that landed late Friday in the mountains of eastern Lebanon.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said Saturday that at least 16 people were killed in subsequent Israeli strikes and another 35 were wounded.
Israel did not acknowledge the fighting, and its military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel has carried out waves of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a large presence, but which is also home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Lebanon's Health Ministry says over 200 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since Monday and over 800 wounded.
Roads in the Lebanese capital were choked with evacuating traffic as smoke rose over the city's southern districts. Two hospitals evacuated patients and staff.
“What can we do? We prayed here under the tree. During the night, we slept in the car because there is no place to stay,” Jihan Shehadeh, one of the tens of thousands of displaced, said.
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Centre 'mortgaged' foreign policy to US, says Minister Priyank Kharge
Kalaburagi (Karnataka) (PTI): Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge on Saturday flayed the foreign policy of the union government, alleging that India’s global standing was being "compromised" and the Centre had "failed" to respond firmly to remarks by senior US officials on India’s economic and energy policies.
Addressing a press conference in Kalaburagi, Kharge also questioned the "silence" of BJP leaders over the issue and accused them of "focusing on attacking opposition leaders" rather than defending the country’s dignity.
“The Central Government should have at least a little shame. They have practically mortgaged our entire foreign policy to the United States. Today our dignity is being valued at almost nothing,” Kharge, who is son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, said.
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Referring to remarks reportedly made by US Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau in Delhi, the minister said the comments indicated how foreign governments were openly discussing India’s economic trajectory.
“Yesterday you might have seen — a US Deputy Secretary said in Delhi, not in America but in Delhi, that they (US) will not repeat in India the mistake they made with China, 'we will not allow India to grow',” he said.
Kharge cited comments by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent regarding crude oil imports from Russia amid the ongoing war.
“Yesterday, the US Secretary of the Treasury said because of the war they (US) have given India a 30-day permission to purchase crude oil from Russia.’ Permission!” he said, questioning why the Union government had not strongly responded to such statements.
The minister also questioned the Centre over energy policy and fuel supplies, saying there were conflicting claims on India’s oil reserves.
He also criticised the silence of Union ministers, including Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
“In Parliament they said we have reserves for 75 days. But oil companies say in press conferences that we have only 25 days. How is that?” he asked.
Targeting BJP leaders from Karnataka, including Union minister Pralhad Joshi, Kharge alleged they were quick to comment on the state government but avoided speaking on issues affecting national dignity.
He also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy approach, comparing it with earlier Congress governments.
Recalling an instance involving former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, he said, "She once said she was trying to determine whether India could buy oil from Iran. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh clearly told her: ‘That decision is within my jurisdiction, not yours. I will decide, not you."
He added that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had similarly asserted India’s independent foreign policy in her dealings with then US President Richard Nixon.
Kharge also accused the BJP and RSS of practising what he described as "selective nationalism", and issuing “patriotism certificates” to others while remaining silent on issues concerning India’s global standing.
He further said the public debate should focus on pressing economic and diplomatic issues rather than personal attacks on opposition leaders such as Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
