TEHRAN/TEL AVIV/BEIRUT: Iran said it was ready to respond to any US ground attack, accusing Washington of preparing a land assault while seeking talks, as regional powers met in Pakistan on Sunday to try to bring the two sides together.
Iran’s effective blockade of oil and gas shipments through the strait since the US and Israel began attacking the country on February 28 is spreading economic pain around the world. Food and energy security and supply chains were among issues discussed in Pakistan, Egypt’s foreign ministry said.
As the conflict entered its second month, Israel’s military said it had launched over 140 air strikes on central and western Iran, including Tehran, over the 24 hours to Sunday evening, hitting ballistic missile launch sites and storage facilities, among other targets.
A chemical plant in southern Israel near the city of Beer Sheva was hit by a missile or missile debris as Israel fended off multiple salvos from Iran, prompting official warnings to the public to stay away due to “hazardous materials”.
Another missile hit open ground near homes in Beer Sheva, located near several military bases, injuring 11 people.
Iranian forces said they had fired a volley of missiles and drones at plants belonging to two of the world’s largest aluminium producers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, targeting what they described as industries linked to the US military.
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) said an Iranian attack wounded six and caused significant damage to its plant, while Bahraini state media said two Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA) employees were injured in a second attack.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf accused the US of sending messages about possible negotiations while at the same time planning to send in troops, adding that Tehran was ready to respond if US soldiers were deployed.
“As long as the Americans seek Iran’s surrender, our response is that we will never accept humiliation,” he said in a message to the nation.
Washington has dispatched thousands of Marines to the Middle East, with the first of two contingents arriving on Friday aboard an amphibious assault ship, the US military has said.
The Washington Post quoted US officials as saying the Pentagon was preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, adding that it was not yet clear if President Donald Trump would approve such plans.
Reuters has reported that the Pentagon has considered military options that could include ground forces.
Trump faces a stark choice between seeking a negotiated exit or escalating militarily that risks a protracted crisis, and would likely weigh further on his already low approval ratings.
“President Trump has poor options all around to end the war,” said Jonathan Panikoff, former U.S. deputy national intelligence officer for the Middle East.
“Part of the challenge is the lack of clarity related to what a satisfactory outcome would be,” Panikoff added.
Washington said last week it had offered a 15-point ceasefire plan, with a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restrict Iran’s nuclear programme, but Tehran has rejected the list and put forward proposals of its own.
An Israeli official said Israel would continue carrying out strikes against Iran on what were described as military targets, adding there was no intention to scale back the campaign ahead of any possible talks between Washington and Tehran.
A building housing Qatar’s Al-Araby TV in Tehran was hit on Sunday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, with video showing walls and windows blown out of the multi-storey block.
“The missile hit. The ceiling and everything fell on our heads. Unfortunately, we couldn’t continue to work. It was a real miracle we survived,” said Al Araby camera operator Mohammadreza Shademan. “There was no military target here.”
With US midterm elections due in November, the increasingly unpopular war has weighed on Trump’s Republican Party. Demonstrators took to city streets across the US on Saturday in protests against the conflict.
A European diplomat warned that any further military escalation could make it harder to bring the two sides together, potentially delaying the possibility by weeks, if not longer.
Kuwait’s defence ministry on Sunday said 10 service members were injured in an attack on a military camp, as Iran continues targeting positions in the region in response to US-Israeli strikes.
“Over the past 24 hours, the armed forces detected 14 ballistic missiles and 12 hostile drones in Kuwaiti airspace,” said defence ministry spokesman Colonel Saud Abdulaziz al-Atwan in a statement.
“This resulted in an attack on one of the armed forces’ camps, injuring 10 members of the armed forces, who are receiving the necessary medical treatment, in addition to material damage to the site,” the statement added.
France condemned on Sunday two attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Israeli targets, accusing them of escalating tension in the Middle East by entering the regional war.
A Houthi spokesman said on Saturday the Iranian-backed group had fired missiles and drones towards “several vital and military sites” in Israel, the same day that Israel said it had intensified attacks on Iran’s military industry.
“The Houthis should abstain from all attacks,” French foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said. He accused them of being “irresponsible”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday condemned Israel’s killing of three journalists in Lebanon the day before.
On his official Telegram channel, Araghchi said the killings amounted to “targeted assassination” and “flagrant violation of international law”.
Meanwhile, the American University of Beirut said on Sunday it would operate remotely over the next two days, following the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ threat to target US universities in the region.
“Like many of you, we learned early this morning of threats issued against American universities in the region,” AUB President Fadlo Khouri said in a statement.
“At this time, we have no evidence of direct threats against our university, its campuses or medical centers. At the same time, out of an abundance of caution, we will operate fully online on Monday and Tuesday, with the exception of essential personnel.”
Classes and exams will be carried out remotely, Khouri added.
Iran´s Revolutionary Guard on Sunday threatened to target US universities in the Middle East after saying US-Israeli strikes had destroyed two Iranian universities.
“If the US government wants its universities in the region to be free from retaliation... it must condemn the bombing of the universities in an official statement by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time,” said the statement published by Iranian media.
“We advise all employees, professors, and students of American universities in the region and residents of their surrounding areas” to stay a kilometre away from campuses, the statement added.
Several US universities have campuses scattered throughout the Middle East, such as Texas A&M University in Qatar and New York University in the United Arab Emirates.
Separately, an Iranian diplomatic source told AFP that Iran’s ambassador will not leave Lebanon despite being declared persona non grata and ordered to leave the country by Sunday. “The ambassador will not leave Lebanon, in accordance with the wishes of the speaker of parliament Nabih Berri and of Hezbollah,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hezbollah has denounced the decision while Berri´s Amal party joined Hezbollah ministers in boycotting a cabinet session this week in protest at the order to expel Mohammad Reza Sheibani.
The foreign ministry this week gave Tehran´s envoy until Sunday to leave in the latest unprecedented step by Lebanese authorities since a new war erupted on March 2 between Israel and Hezbollah.
The ministry accused him of making statements “interfering in Lebanon´s internal politics”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called the expulsion “a courageous decision”.
In another development, Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has in a written message thanked the people of Iraq for their support in the war against the United States and Israel, Iranian media said on Sunday.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei who was martyred in an airstrike at the start of the war on February 28, has still yet to appear in public after being named and has only issued a handful of written statements.
In the message, Khamenei “expressed his appreciation to the supreme religious authority (in Iraq) and the people of Iraq for their clear stance against aggression against Iran and their support for our country”, the ISNA news agency said, referring to the Iraq-based Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, one of the most revered figures in Shia Islam.
The message was delivered following a meeting between the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a Shia party, and the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, it said.
No further details were given on how the message was transmitted.
