DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahrain accused Iran of hanging a desalination plant on Sunday, elevating fears that civilian infrastructure might grow to be honest recreation within the battle, as Iran’s president vowed to increase the nation’s assaults on American targets throughout the area within the face of intense U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
A late-night Israeli strike on an oil facility engulfed elements of Iran’s capital, Tehran, in smoke on Sunday, whereas Israel renewed assaults in Lebanon. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press forward with the nine-day-old marketing campaign, which has rippled throughout the area and seems to haven’t any finish in sight.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian threatened Sunday to step up assaults on American targets throughout the Center East. He appeared to backtrack from conciliatory feedback towards his Gulf neighbors on Saturday. These feedback, wherein he apologized for assaults on their soil, had been shortly contradicted by Iranian hard-liners.
In Lebanon, intensifying Israeli strikes pushed the demise toll larger as a number of hundred thousand folks had been displaced and Israel focused the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. And in central Israel, three folks had been injured in a Sunday afternoon strike.
The battle, which Israel and the US launched with airstrikes on Feb. 28, has to this point killed a minimum of 1,230 folks in Iran, a minimum of 397 in Lebanon and a minimum of 11 in Israel, based on officers. Six U.S. troops have additionally been killed.
The battle has rattled international markets, disrupted air journey and left Iran’s management weakened by a number of thousand Israeli and American airstrikes.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, stated on Sunday that the battle’s impact on the oil business would proceed to spiral, warning it may quickly grow to be tougher to each produce and promote oil.
Some regional producers, together with in Iraq, have already curbed output amid risks within the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s president toughens tone
“Once we are attacked, we have now no alternative however to reply. The extra strain they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” Pezeshkian stated in video feedback Sunday. “Our Iran, our nation, won’t bow simply within the face of bullying, oppression or aggression — and it by no means has.”
The remarks got here a day after Pezeshkian stated Iran regretted regional issues brought on by Iranian strikes and urged neighboring states not to participate in U.S. and Israeli assaults in opposition to Iran.
Whereas a number of Gulf states reported intercepting extra incoming missiles and drones from Iran, Pezeshkian stated the nation wasn’t trying to battle them and accused the U.S. of making an attempt to pit international locations in opposition to each other.
Iranian hard-liners shortly contradicted these remarks. Judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on X: “The geography of some international locations within the area — each overtly and covertly — is within the fingers of the enemy, and people factors are used in opposition to our nation in acts of aggression. Intense assaults on these targets will proceed.”
Mohseni-Ejei and Pezeshkian are a part of a three-member management council that has overseen Iran since an earlier strike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Pezeshkian’s remarks Sunday strengthened pledges that Iran wouldn’t give up regardless of U.S. and Israeli threats, with Trump and Netanyahu saying their purpose stays the alternative of Iran’s leaders.
“We’re not trying to settle,” Trump informed reporters Saturday aboard Air Pressure One. “They’d wish to settle. We’re not trying to settle.”
Desalination and oil amenities attacked
The Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, reported further Iranian missiles launched towards them on Sunday, together with a number of that hit new classes of civilian infrastructure.
The United Arab Emirates stated that Iran launched greater than 100 missiles and drones in new barrages. Solely 4 drones fell at unnamed places, the nation’s protection ministry stated.
Bahrain accused Iran of indiscriminately attacking civilian targets and damaging one among its desalination vegetation, although its electrical energy and water authority stated provides remained on-line. The island nation, dwelling to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has been among the many international locations focused by Iranian drones and missiles. Assaults have hit inns, ports and residential towers and killed a minimum of one particular person.
The desalination plant strike got here after Iran stated a U.S. airstrike broken an Iranian desalination plant. Abbas Araghchi, the nation’s international minister, stated the strike on Qeshm Island within the Strait of Hormuz had reduce into the water provide for 30 villages. He warned that in doing so “the U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.”
Neither U.S. Central Command and Israel’s navy had rapid touch upon the plant.
Desalination plants supply water to thousands and thousands of residents within the area, elevating new fears of dangers in a number of parched desert nations.
Iran additionally stated on Sunday that in a single day strikes from Israel hit 4 oil storage tankers and a petroleum switch terminal, killing 4 folks. Witnesses in Tehran stated the smoke was so thick from a fireplace that engulfed the north Tehran oil depot that it felt as if the solar had not risen.
The Iranian Crimson Crescent Society stated on Sunday that about 10,000 civilian buildings throughout the nation had been broken, together with properties, faculties and medical amenities. It warned Tehran residents to take precautions in opposition to poisonous air air pollution and the danger of acid rain after Israeli strikes set fires at oil depots within the space.
Iran maintains enough gas, Veys Karami, Managing Director of the Nationwide Iranian Oil Merchandise Distribution Firm, informed Iran’s state-run information company. Israel’s navy stated on Saturday that the focused oil depots had been being utilized by Iran’s navy.
Extra strikes hit Lebanon
Israel renewed its assault early Sunday on elements of Lebanon, the place well being officers reported a minimum of 394 folks have been killed within the battle between Israel and Hezbollah.
Well being Minister Rakan Nassereddine stated on Sunday that 83 kids and 82 girls had been amongst these killed. The Israeli navy has ordered massive swaths of the nation to evacuate. Lebanese officers have reported greater than 400,000 displaced throughout an offensive that Israel’s navy has stated is aimed toward stamping out Iran-supported forces there.
In Beirut, sheltering households crammed into faculties, slept in automobiles or in open areas close to the Mediterranean Sea, the place some burned firewood to maintain heat whereas awaiting primary provides. The federal government says it’s quickly repurposing in a big sports activities stadium to shelter 1000’s extra.
Israel’s renewed offensive started final week after Hezbollah launched rockets towards northern Israel in the course of the opening days of the battle. The next strikes have been essentially the most intense since a November 2024 ceasefire.
Israel withdrew from most of southern Lebanon at the moment however continued near-daily strikes, primarily in southern Lebanon, saying that Hezbollah had been making an attempt to rebuild its positions there. Hezbollah stated final week that after greater than a yr of abiding by a ceasefire as Israel’s strikes continued on Lebanon, its endurance has ended, leaving it with no possibility however to battle.
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Metz reported from Ramallah, West Financial institution, and Chehayeb from Beirut. Related Press journalists Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, contributed reporting.
