TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON: Iran threatened on Saturday to escalate the war raging in the Middle East by targeting any facility in the region with US ties, after Washington bombed its main energy hub and US President Donald Trump predicted “many countries” would send warships.
As the conflict entered its third week, Iran projected defiance after US forces hit military sites at Kharg Island, which handles 90 per cent of Iranian oil exports, warning that parts of the UAE were a legitimate target and urging civilians to evacuate.
The United Arab Emirates hit back at Iran over accusations that a US strike on Kharg Island originated from the Gulf state, saying Tehran’s policy was confused and lacked wisdom.
In a post on X, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said the country had the right to defend itself but “continues to prioritise reason and logic.”
A drone attack disrupted a United Arab Emirates energy hub. Some oil-loading operations were suspended in the UAE’s Fujairah emirate, a major bunkering hub and crude export terminal, industry and trade sources said on Saturday, with TV footage showing plumes of dark thick smoke rising into the air.
An Iranian military spokesperson called on people in the UAE to evacuate the ports, docks, and “American hideouts” saying US forces had targeted Iranian islands from those areas. Trump said many countries would send warships to allow shipping to pass freely through the Strait of Hormuz. He did not provide details on which countries would do so but in his Truth Social post he said he hoped that China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would send ships to the area.
Trump said Iran has been “totally defeated” in the US-Israeli military campaign against the country and wanted a deal he would not accept, despite Iranian officials pledging to continue the fight.
“The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal - But not a deal that I would accept!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating.
Whereas Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran will target the facilities of American companies in the region if its energy facilities are attacked in the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic, as he urged neighbouring countries to expel US forces from the Middle East.
The US security umbrella in the region “has proven to be full of holes and inviting rather than deterring trouble,” the top diplomat posted on X, adding that Iran called on its neighbours “to expel foreign aggressors”.
His statement came after US attacked military infrastructure on Iran’s crude oil export hub of Kharg Island. “If Iranian facilities are targeted, our forces will target American companies´ facilities in the region, or companies in which the US holds shares,” he warned, while vowing that Tehran would “act cautiously to ensure that densely populated areas are not targeted”.
Araghchi further said there was “no problem” with the Islamic republic’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei after US officials reported he was wounded.
On Friday, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he believed Khamenei, who took power after his father was killed in a strike at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, “is wounded and likely disfigured.” Foreign Minister Araghchi told MS NOW’s Ayman Mohyeldi “there is no problem with the new supreme leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties.” While an Iranian official said oil export operations from Iran’s Kharg island in the Gulf were proceeding as normal after US strikes on the crude export hub which caused no casualties,
Activities of oil companies “at this export terminal are continuing as normal”, said Ehsan Jahaniyan, deputy governor of Iran’s southern Bushehr province, quoted by the IRNA news agency.
The Fars news agency, citing sources on the island, earlier reported there had been no damage to oil facilities after President Trump said US strikes had destroyed only military targets.
Deputy governor Jahaniyan said that after the attacks “daily life and routine activities of the residents are also fully maintained.” The attack “did not cause any casualties among military personnel, company employees, or residents of Kharg island, he added.
According to Fars, the US operation “tried to damage the army’s defences, the Joshan naval base, the airport control tower and the helicopter hangar of the Iran Continental Shelf Oil Company.”
While a US-Israeli missile attack on an industrial area of Isfahan killed at least 15 people, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Saturday. “The attack targeted a factory that produces heating and cooling equipment” and was in operation at the time of the strike, Fars reported. Saturday is a working day in Iran. AFP was not able to verify the toll.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Kharg strikes showed the war was entering a “decisive phase”, though he cautioned it would “continue as long as necessary”. Yet, despite facing superior US and Israeli firepower, Iran appeared determined to fight on. Blasts were heard by AFP journalists over Jerusalem after the military detected missiles launched from Iran. Iran launched a new wave of missiles towards Israel late on Saturday, Iranian state TV reported. Israel informed the US this week that it is running critically low on ballistic missile interceptors as the conflict with Iran continues, Semafor reported on Saturday, citing US officials familiar with the matter. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
The US has been aware of Israel’s low capacity for months, the report said, adding that it is not running low on interceptors of its own.
Qatar evacuated downtown areas and intercepted two missiles, with blasts heard by AFP journalists.
Explosions rang out over Jerusalem on Saturday, AFP reporters heard, shortly after the Israeli military warned that it had detected incoming missiles from Iran. As the Middle East war triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Tehran entered its third week, the military said its “defence system is operating to intercept the threat”.
The Israeli army told people in an industrial zone in the west of Iran’s northern city of Tabriz to leave ahead of military operations on Saturday.
Iran’s envoy to Ukraine, Shahriar Amouzegar, dismissed the support Kyiv has offered to the United States and its Gulf allies, as Ukraine advertises its expertise in destroying Iranian-designed drones launched by Russia. Washington’s embassy in Iraq was hit by a drone, security sources told AFP, the second time it has been targeted in the war, and the Emirati consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan was also struck for the second time in a week. US citizens should leave Iraq immediately, the US embassy in Baghdad said in an updated security alert on Saturday, following an overnight missile attack on the embassy’s building. “U.S. citizens choosing to remain in Iraq are strongly encouraged to reconsider in light of the significant threat posed by Iran-aligned terrorist militia groups,” the embassy said.
The UAE slammed the targeting of its consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan for the second time in a week, the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement Saturday. “The United Arab Emirates expressed its strong condemnation and denunciation of the treacherous terrorist attack by a drone, which targeted the UAE Consulate General in Iraqi Kurdistan, for the second time in a week, and resulted in the injury of two security personnel and caused damage to the consulate building,” it said.
Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government later denounced the attack, labelling it “a terrorist act that threatens the sovereignty of Kurdish and Iraqi territory”.
Two drones targeted an airbase in Kuwait housing US military staff, injuring Kuwaiti personnel and causing damage, the defence ministry said on Saturday. Two more players of the Iranian women’s football team, which competed in the Asian Cup in Australia, and one member of the backroom staff have withdrawn their requests for asylum in the country, Iranian state media said on Saturday. Seven members of the visiting women’s football delegation—six players and one backroom staff member—had sought sanctuary in Australia after they were branded “traitors” at home for refusing to sing the national anthem during the ongoing war between Iran and the US and its ally Israel.
One of the players had withdrawn her request earlier in the week and linked up with the rest of the team who are returning to Iran via Malaysia, according to Iranian media and Australian authorities.
Turkiye’s top diplomat said on Saturday that Iran was denying responsibility for firing ballistic missiles towards Turkiye despite evidence from technical data.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said he had spoken with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi after NATO defence systems on Friday shot down another ballistic missile from Iran—the third in nine days.
“Once again, they are not taking responsibility for this incident. They claim they did not order any such attack, nor are they linked to it,” Fidan said.
The exiled son of Iran’s last shah who was ousted by the 1979 revolution said on Saturday he was ready to lead a transition “as soon as the Islamic Republic falls”.
An overnight blast against an exterior wall of a Jewish school in Amsterdam did not cause any injuries, Mayor Femke Halsema said Saturday, denouncing “a cowardly act of aggression”.
The man accused of ramming his pickup truck into a synagogue and setting it ablaze in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, died from a “self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” an FBI official told reporters Friday.
The suspect, identified as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, was originally born in Lebanon, and media reports indicate his relatives were killed in Israeli strikes there days ago.
Iran’s cultural heritage and tourism ministry said Saturday at least 56 museums and historic sites across the country have been damaged, as the Middle East war entered its 15th day.
Turkiye expressed deep concern Saturday over Israel’s ongoing strikes on Lebanon, voicing fears it could commit “a new genocide” under the guise of fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah. “We are frankly concerned (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is moving toward a new genocide under the pretext of fighting Hezbollah,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday on a visit to Beirut that diplomatic channels remained open to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Air India said following instructions from the UAE airport authorities Air India, and Air India Express were compelled to curtail ad hoc operations for March 15 2026. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said late on Saturday they had launched a missile salvo at US forces stationed at a major base in Saudi Arabia´s Al-Kharj. The Guards said the base was being used to equip “F-35 and F-16 fighter jets and is the storage place for fuel tankers”.
While there has been no immediate confirmation of the attack from Saudi Arabia, the kingdom´s defence ministry said earlier it intercepted six ballistic missiles headed towards Al-Kharj.
