Dubai: Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said attacks against Iran will “increase significantly” in the coming week. Katz spoke Saturday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he was considering “winding down” military operations in the Mideast even as the United States announced it was sending more warships and Marines to the region and Iran threatened to attack tourist sites worldwide.
The mixed messages came after another climb in oil prices plunged the US stock market, and was followed by a Trump administration announcement that it will lift sanctions on Iranian oil loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling soaring fuel prices.
The war, meanwhile, has shown no signs of abating.
Iran said its Natanz nuclear facility was hit in an airstrike Saturday but that there has been no radiation leakage. Israel said Iran continued to fire missiles at it early Saturday, while Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country’s eastern region, which is home to major oil installations. The defense ministry said there were no injuries or damage.
The death toll has risen to more than 1,300 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 US military members in the region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Republicans have backed the commander in chief, so far
The Republican president’s decision to launch the US-Israel-led war with Iran is testing the resolve of Congress, which is controlled by his party.
Under the War Powers Act, the president can conduct military operations for 60 days without approval from Congress. So far, Republicans have easily voted down several resolutions from Democrats designed to halt the military campaign.
But the administration will need to show a more comprehensive strategy ahead or risk blowback from Congress, lawmakers said, especially as they are simultaneously being asked to approve billions in new spending.
Israel says it’s not responsible for the Natanz nuclear site attack
The Israeli military denied that Israel was responsible for a strike that hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. An official Iranian news agency reported Saturday that the site was damaged in an airstrike, but there was no radiation leakage. The Israeli military said it wasn’t aware of Israeli strikes in that region.
The denial came as Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video statement that next week, “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly.”
Iranian hospital and tourist site damaged in strikes
A hospital and tourist site in southwestern Iran have been damaged by US or Israeli strikes, killing at least one child, according to Iranian news agencies.
Strikes killed a child at the Ritaj entertainment complex in Ahvaz, according to Iran’s state news agency, and damaged Andimeshk’s Imam Ali Hospital, according to the semi-official Mehr and Fars news agencies. Both are in the Khuzestan province on the border with Iraq. The hospital said the blast created significant damage and it is no longer accepting patients, but did not give any other information.
The death toll has risen to more than 1,300 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 US military members in the region as the war enters its fourth week.
Congress looks for Trump’s exit plan as the Iran war drags on
Trump took the United States to war without a vote of support from Congress, but lawmakers are increasingly questioning when, how and at what cost the war with Iran will come to an end.
Three weeks into the conflict, the toll is increasing: At least 13 US military personnel have died, and more than 230 wounded. A USD 200 billion Pentagon request for war funds is pending at the White House. Allies are under attack, oil prices are spiking and thousands of US troops are deploying to the Middle East with no endgame in sight.
“The real question is: What ultimately are we trying to accomplish?” Sen Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told The Associated Press. “I generally support anything that takes out the mullahs,” he said. “But at the end of the day, there has to be a kind of strategic articulation of the strategy, what our objectives are.”
Russia condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear facility
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called strikes on the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility “a brazen violation of international law.”
In a statement posted on the ministry’s website Saturday, Zakharova said such “irresponsible actions” posed a “real risk of catastrophic disaster throughout the Middle East” and were “clearly aimed at further undermining peace, stability, and security in the region.”
Sirens sound in Bahrain
Authorities in Bahrain say sirens have sounded Saturday, signalling a potential attack.
Iran’s ability to threaten navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is degraded, a US military leader says
The head of US Central Command says in his latest video update on the war that US forces “remain on plan to eliminate Iran’s ability to project meaningful power outside its borders.”
Adm. Brad Cooper also detailed steps taken to undermine Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway vital to international commerce such as oil shipments.
He says in a post on X that earlier in the week, multiple 5,000-pound bombs were dropped on an underground facility along Iran’s coastline that was used to store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers and other equipment “that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping.”
Cooper says intelligence support sites and missile radar relays used to monitor ship movements were destroyed.
“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” he says in the video.
Cooper also said that “we have built the most extensive air defence umbrella in the world over the Middle East right now.”
22 countries urge Iran to cease attacks, reopen the Strait of Hormuz
Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and Australia have also condemned Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels as well as oil and gas facilities in the region.
“The effects of Iran’s actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable,” they said in a joint statement Saturday.
Attack on Diego Garcia raises questions about the range of Iran’s missiles
Iran currently has a self-imposed limit on its ballistic missile programme, limiting their range to 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles).
That puts all of the Mideast and some of Eastern Europe in range, but Diego Garcia would be far beyond it.
However, US officials long have alleged Iran’s space program could allow it to build intercontinental ballistic missiles.
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