Rescue workers search for bodies in the rubble of a residential building following a hit in an air strike in Tehran on Friday.Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
Israel threatened to “escalate and expand” its attacks on Iran on Friday, even as U.S. President Donald Trump claimed talks on ending the war were going well and gave Tehran more time to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, meanwhile, gave no signs of backing down.
With stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under growing pressure to end Iran’s chokehold on the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is usually shipped.
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The United States has offered Iran a 15-point proposal for a ceasefire that includes it relinquishing control of the strait, but at the same time has ordered thousands more troops to the region – possibly in preparation for a military attempt to wrest the waterway from Iran.
Trump has said if Iran doesn’t reopen the strait to all traffic by April 6, he will order the destruction of Iran’s energy plants. He said Thursday that talks on ending the conflict were going “very well.” Iran maintains it is not engaged in any negotiations.
A boy walks with a dog along the rubble of a building damaged in an Israeli strike in Tyre, Lebanon.Yara Nardi/Reuters
Israel targets Iran’s weapons production, Lebanese capital
Air raid sirens sounded in Israel and the military said it has been intercepting Iranian missiles on a daily basis. Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iran “will pay heavy, increasing prices for this war crime.”
“Despite the warnings, the firing continues,” Katz said. “And therefore attacks in Iran will escalate and expand to additional targets and areas that assist the regime in building and operating weapons against Israeli citizens.”
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Israel’s military said its attacks Friday targeted sites “in the heart of Tehran” where ballistic missiles and other weapons are produced. It said it also hit missile launchers and storage sites in Western Iran.
Smoke rose over Beirut after a pre-dawn strike, and Lebanon’s Health Ministry later reported two people were killed.
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Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said it shot down missiles and drones targeting the capital, Riyadh.
Kuwait said its Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City and the Mubarak Al Kabeer Port to the north, which is under construction as part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, sustained “material damage” in attacks. It appeared to be one of the first times a Chinese-affiliated project in the Gulf Arab states has come under assault in the war. China has continued to purchase Iranian crude.
After Wall Street’s worst day since the war began, Asian shares mostly fell Friday over growing doubts about the chances of de-escalation. Oil prices rose again, the Brent crude, the international standard, at US$107 a barrel in morning trading, up more than 45 per cent since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.
People gather as workers remove the wreckage of a car outside a residential building that was targeted in southern Tehran.-/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. pushes diplomatic solution while sending more troops
Iran’s stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has increased concerns of a global energy crisis, and appears part of a strategy to get the U.S. to back down by roiling the world economy. A Gulf Arab bloc said Thursday that Iran has been exacting tolls from ships to ensure safe passage.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington delivered a 15-point “action list” to Iran for a possible ceasefire, using Pakistan as an intermediary. It proposes restricting Iran’s nuclear program and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran rejected the U.S. offer and presented its own five-point proposal that included reparations and recognition of its sovereignty over the vital strait.
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Diplomats from several countries have tried to organize a direct meeting between U.S. and Iranian envoys, possibly in Pakistan.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that Foreign Minster Badr Abdelatty spoke with his Turkish and Pakistani counterparts by phone as part of “intensive efforts” to organize the talks.
Abdelatty said they hoped for “gradual de-escalation efforts that would ultimately lead to the end of the war.”
Meanwhile, U.S. ships drew closer to the region carrying some 2,500 Marines, and at least 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne – trained to land in hostile territory to secure key positions and airfields – have been ordered to the Middle East.
The U.N. Security Council will engage in a closed consultation on Iran on Friday, according to two UN diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is not public. They said Russia requested the meeting and that the U.S. – which holds the Security Council presidency – scheduled it.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said its teams in Iran have reported “countless homes, hospitals and schools have been damaged or destroyed,” and that nearly every neighbourhood in Tehran has sustained damage.
“Civilians are paying the highest price for this war – it must end” Egeland said in a statement.
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The UN’s International Organization for Migration said Friday that 82,000 civilian buildings in Iran, including hospitals and the homes of 180,000 people, are damaged.
“If this war continues, we risk a far wider humanitarian disaster,” Egeland said. “Millions could be forced to flee across borders, placing immense pressure on an already overstretched region.”
Israel deployed the 162nd Division into southern Lebanon to support efforts to protect its northern border towns from Hezbollah attacks and uproot the militant group, the military said.
Smoke rising from an Israeli air strike that hit Qlaileh village, is seen from Tyre city, south Lebanon.Hussein Malla/The Associated Press
Death toll climbs, primarily in Iran and Lebanon
Eighteen people have died in Israel, while four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon. Two Israeli soldiers were severely injured in Lebanon on Friday during an “operational accident,” the military said.
Authorities said more than 1,100 people have died in Lebanon and over 1,900 people have been killed in Iran.
At least 13 American troops have been killed and four people in the occupied West Bank and 20 in Gulf Arab states have also died.
In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have died.