US and Israel launch an attack on Iran with tensions high over nuclear talks
Dubai (AP): The US and Israel launched an attack Saturday on Iran, with the first apparent strike happening near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian media reported strikes nationwide, and smoke could be seen rising from the capital.
President Donald Trump said in a video posted on social media that the U.S. had begun “major combat operations in Iran.”
It also wasn't immediately clear whether the 86-year-old Khamenei was in his offices at the time. He hasn't been seen publicly in days as tensions with the United States have grown. The attack comes as the United States has assembled a vast fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region to try to pressure Iran into a deal over its nuclear program.
Roads to Khamenei's compound in downtown Tehran had been shut down by authorities as other blasts rang out across the capital. Neighbouring Iraq closed its airspace, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Targets in the Israeli campaign included Iran's military, symbols of government and intelligence targets, according to an official briefed on the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic information on the attack.
Trump wanted a deal to constrain Iran's nuclear program, and he sees an opportunity while the country is struggling at home with growing dissent following nationwide protests. Iran had hoped to avert a war, but maintains it has the right to enrich uranium and does not want to discuss other issues, like its long-range missile program or support for armed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
It wasn't immediately clear if Iran would immediately strike back, but it had warned that American military personnel and bases spread across the region would be targets for any retaliation.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the attack as being done “to remove threats.” He did not immediately elaborate.
Several hospitals in Israel launched their emergency protocols, including moving patients and surgeries to underground facilities.
In Tehran, witnesses heard the first blast by Khamenei's office. Iranian state television later reported on the explosion, without offering a cause.
Sirens sounded across Israel at the same time as it closed its airspace. The Israeli military said that it had issued a “proactive alert to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward the state of Israel.”
More explosions struck Iran's capital after Israel said it was attacking the country. Authorities have offered no casualty information from the strikes.
Meanwhile, Iran shut down its airspace and mobile phone services were cut.
The warning to pilots came out as explosions rang out across Tehran, the Iranian capital.
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Trump, Iran's top diplomat say Strait of Hormuz is fully open
Dubai (PTI): US President Donald Trump and Iran's foreign minister said Friday that the Strait of Hormuz is fully open to commercial vessels. Iran's top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said the strategic waterway “is declared completely open,” in line with the new ceasefire in Lebanon, and Trump said the strait is “ready for full passage.”
However, Trump added that the US naval blockade on Iranian ships and ports “will remain in full force” until Iran reaches a deal with Washington to end the war.
Oil prices dropped 9 per cent, and Wall Street rallied to a record after Iran said the strait is open, allowing tankers to resume shipments from the Persian Gulf. Stocks are heading for a third straight weekly gain, on hopes the US and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy.
A 10-day ceasefire in Israel and Lebanon began at midnight and appears to be holding after more than a month of war between Israel and Hezbollah, although the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group is not a party to the deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is “not yet finished” with Hezbollah. The militant group said its response will depend on how events unfold.
The fragile calm has prompted thousands of displaced Lebanese families to head home, with vehicles piled high with mattresses and salvaged belongings backed up for kilometres on a route leading to southern Lebanon. The war displaced over a million people in the tiny country.
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, nearly 2,300 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.
US Central Command says that since the blockade began on Monday, 21 ships returned to Iran at the direction of US forces.
US President Donald Trump said earlier on Friday that the American blockade of Iranian ports would remain “in full force” until Iran reaches a deal with the US, including on its nuclear program.
“We hope that it certainly holds. This was positive news that we received last night,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.
“But we know that it's very fragile, and we don't assume the best. What we do is prepare as best we can for the uncertainty which is there,” Albanese added.
It's been more than 24 hours since air raid sirens went off in any part of Israel — and that last time, very early on Friday morning in a small community at the border with Lebanon, turned out to be a mistaken identification.
Since the Iran war started on Feb. 28, Iran, then Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants and eventually the Houthis in Yemen, sent barrages of missiles and rockets into Israel, sometimes more than a dozen times a day. Hezbollah kept up firing right until a ceasefire went into effect on Friday.
In Israel's major metropolitan areas of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, but also in villages in the country's desert south and hilly north, sirens and alerts sent residents to bomb shelters and safe rooms throughout the day and night.
The strikes have killed 23 people and wounded about 600 more, according to Israel's emergency services.
Iran's parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X early Saturday that if the US blockade continued, “the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open.”
On Friday, Iran had said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels, but US President Donald Trump said the American blockade on Iranian ships and ports would “remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the US
And a data firm, Kpler, said later Friday that movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran's approval.
“The USA will get all the nuclear dust,” Trump said in a speech in Arizona. “We're going to get it by going in with Iran with lots of excavators.”
Iran has yet to confirm that it has agreed to give up the 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by US military strikes last year.
Giving up the uranium and agreeing to US troops entering Iranian territory would be huge concessions by Iran.
Trump insisted that “no money will exchange hands in any way, shape or form” as part of a potential deal with Iran to end the war.
China is open to taking possession or downgrading some 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium that Trump says must be removed from Iran as part of a deal to end the war, according to a diplomat familiar with Beijing's thinking on the matter.
At the moment, it appears Trump wants the US to take custody of the material that is believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged in an American bombardment last June.
But China, which is Iran's biggest trading partner, is signalling it would be open if asked by Washington and Tehran to take the uranium or down-blend to levels that could be used for civilian applications, said the diplomat who was not authorised to comment publicly and requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
In 2015, under the Joint Comprehensive Plan for Action, Iran shipped approximately 25,000 pounds (11,000 kg) of low-enriched uranium to Russia to meet an essential requirement to fulfil that nuclear deal. — By Aamer Madhani
The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has again entered the waters of the Middle East, two defence officials told the Associated Press.
The Ford, which until recently was operating in the Eastern Mediterranean, transited the Suez Canal, along with a pair of destroyers, the USS Mahan and the USS Winston S. Churchill, and is now operating in the Red Sea, one official said.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
The Ford is returning to the Red Sea after more than a month in the Mediterranean following a major fire in a laundry space that forced the ship back to port for repairs. The carrier also broke the record for the longest aircraft carrier deployment since the Vietnam War this week.
The Ford's arrival makes it the second aircraft carrier in the region, in addition to the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. The USS George H. W. Bush is also heading toward H.W. Bush and is currently off the coast of South Africa, according to one defence official.
Vessel movement remains constrained in the Strait of Hormuz Data firm Kpler said ship movement through the Strait of Hormuz remained confined to corridors requiring approval on Friday evening, hours after the US and Iran announced full reopening of the strategic waterway.
Iran's state media reported the country's conditions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the beginning of the war, including that all commercial vessels transiting must go through a route designated by Iran and in coordination with the IRGC Navy.
Kpler said that “markets have responded with cautious optimism” to the reopening decision, but warned that underlying supply dynamics remain tight, and a “full normalisation in trade and confidence is likely to take months, not weeks.”
Oil prices dropped back to where they were in the early days of the Iran war, while US stocks raced to another record.
The S&P 500 leaped 1.2 per cent Friday after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is open again for commercial tankers carrying crude.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average leapt as many as 1,100 points before paring its gain and ended with a jump of about 870 points, or 1.8 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5 per cent.
A freer flow of oil could take pressure off prices not only for gasoline but also for groceries and all kinds of other products. Oil prices fell 9 per cent.
Iran's navy chief says Trump's naval blockade is piracy and maritime theft'
The commander of the Iranian navy, Shahram Irani, said Friday evening that Trump “has blockaded his friends” and not Iran, as the US said its blockade will remain in place after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz open to commercial traffic.
In a statement carried by Mizan, Iran's official judiciary news agency, the navy chief said Trump's blockade is just “empty words” and that no one is listening to him.
The US military says it has turned 19 ships back to Iran since imposing the blockade earlier this week.
President Joseph Aoun struck a defiant tone in his first address since a US-brokered ceasefire took hold, saying he wants Lebanon to chart its own course after weeks of war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The president said he wants to see Lebanon “flourishing, not committing suicide.” He condemned Hezbollah's rocket fire into northern Israel that triggered the latest round of fighting, and criticised Iran's role in arming and backing the group.
He framed both as violations of Lebanese sovereignty and again vowed to disarm non-state groups, including Hezbollah.
In a pointed response to Hezbollah's criticism of Lebanon's direct talks with Israel and claims that Beirut lacks leverage, Aoun said the country will make its own decisions and stand by demands shared across Lebanese society, not ones dictated by Iran or its allies.
“There will be no concessions to any principle, no infringement of the sovereignty of this country,” he said.
Aoun also reiterated calls for Israel to halt attacks, withdraw troops, release detainees and allow displaced people to return.
