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The Iran war exploded further on Saturday night as flames rose above an oil storage facility in Tehran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “many surprises” for the next phase of the week-old conflict.
Iranian state media confirmed the strike as Associated Press video showed the horizon glowing against the night sky.
Israel’s military confirmed new strikes that shook neighbourhoods in Tehran’s east and south but did not immediately comment on targets.
It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.
State media blamed “an attack from the US and the Zionist regime” at the facility that supplies the capital and neighbouring provinces in the north.
Earlier in the day, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologised for attacks on “neighbouring countries”, even as its missiles and drones flew towards Gulf Arab states and hard-liners asserted that Tehran’s war strategy would not budge.
A rift between more pragmatic politicians looking to de-escalate the war and others committed to battling the United States and Israel could complicate any diplomatic efforts.
(PA Graphics/Press Association Images) Conflicting statements involved two of the three members of the leadership council overseeing Iran since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the war’s opening air strikes.
US President Donald Trump threatened that Iran would be “hit very hard” and more “areas and groups of people” would become targets, without elaborating.
Already, the conflict has rattled global markets and left Iran’s leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American air strikes.
Along with his apology, Mr Pezeshkian dismissed Mr Trump’s call for Tehran to surrender unconditionally, saying: “That’s a dream that they should take to their grave.”
US president Donald Trump has demanded Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) Mr Pezeshkian’s message, seemingly filmed in a hurry, underlined the limited powers exercised by the theocracy’s leaders over the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting Israel and other countries.
It answered only to Mr Khamenei and appears to be picking its own targets.
Mr Pezeshkian’s statement said Iran’s leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces over the attacks.
“From now on, they should not attack neighbouring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy,” he said.
The US strikes have not been coming from the Gulf Arab governments under attack, but from US bases and vessels in the region.
A symbolic funeral was held for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Baghdad, Iraq (Hadi Mizban/AP) (Hadi Mizban/AP) But hard-line judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, another member of the three-man leadership council, suggested that war strategy will not change.
“The geography of some countries in the region – both overtly and covertly – is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue,” he posted on X.
“As long as the presence of US bases in the region continue, the countries will not enjoy peace,” Iran’s parliament speaker and a former Revolutionary Guard general, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on X. He called defence policies in line with the late supreme leader’s guidance.
Iran’s UN mission later suggested, without offering evidence, that strikes on non-military sites “may have resulted from interception by US electronic defence systems”.
Earlier, AP video showed explosions over western Tehran as Israel said it struck a Tehran airport it said was used to transfer weapons and cash to militant groups.
The US and Israel have battered Iran, targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear programme. The war’s stated goals and timelines have repeatedly shifted as the US has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran’s government or elevate new leadership from within.
The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 290 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.
In Lebanon, Israel carried out a commando raid to search for clues about a navigator who went missing 40 years ago that left dozens of people dead and dozens more wounded on Saturday.
Incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters again across Israel. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Three Iraqi security officials said a missile landed on the helicopter landing pad in the US embassy complex in Baghdad. There were no reports of casualties.
A vigil was held in honour of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in New York (AP) (Yuki Iwamura/AP) It was the first reported strike to land in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone since the Iran war began. Iran and allied Iraqi militias have launched dozens of attacks on US military bases and other facilities in Iraq since then.
Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, called the embassy attack a “terrorist act” carried out by “rogue groups”.
US allies in the Gulf have said the Trump administration did not give them adequate time to prepare for the war.
On Saturday, hours after Mr Pezeshkian’s message, the United Arab Emirates said debris from an aerial interception fell onto a vehicle and killed a driver. Four people have now been killed in the UAE since the war began. Authorities have said all were foreign nationals.
Displaced people are fleeing Israeli air strikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut (AP) (Bilal Hussein/AP) Sirens sounded early on Saturday in Bahrain as Iran targeted the island kingdom. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed towards its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched towards Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts US forces.
In Dubai, several blasts were heard on Saturday morning and the government said it had activated air defences. Passengers waiting for flights at Dubai International Airport were ushered into train tunnels. Long-haul carrier Emirates briefly said all flights to and from Dubai were suspended.
