Welcome to our live coverage of US politics and the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
US and Iran have ramped up drone and missile strikes, as Washington dramatically toppled a key tower and Tehran targeted American assets across the region, in a serious escalation of the war.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the US struck more Iranian targets including a tower used by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to track ships through the Strait of Hormuz and coordinate attacks.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump earlier threatened to destroy infrastructure to pressure the regime into easing its chokehold on the strategic waterway – which remains all but stalled.<\/p>\n
Iran, meanwhile, launched new missile attacks against US-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the war.<\/p>\n
Iran later warned \u201cAmericans are getting close to the zero hour\u201d for purported strikes on US warships in the region, around the Gulf of Oman.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe movements and equipment of the American terrorist army are under the supervision of the naval units of the Islamic Republic of Iran,\u201d the IRGC-N said in a statement released by Iranian media on Friday local time.<\/p>\n
Tehran is ready to resume \u201cfull-scale offensive operations\u201d if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days, a senior military advisor to Iran\u2019s supreme leader warned Friday. \u201cIran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses … and no political border will be safe,\u201d Major General Mohsen Rezaei said, according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.<\/p>\n
The commander of the Aerospace Force in Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards vowed Friday that Tehran would not halt its attacks in the region until the US stopped striking Iran\u2019s southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuz. In a social media post, Majid Mousavi said \u201cTehran and the south are one and indivisible as Iran\u201d, adding that \u201ceffective and targeted strikes from across Iran against the enemy will continue\u201d until attacks on \u201cthe southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuz\u201d cease.<\/p>\n
UN chief condemnation UN chief Antonio Guterres called attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and elsewhere in the region \u201cunacceptable\u201d. <\/p>\n
Read on for more updates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to our live coverage of US politics and the conflict in the Middle East. US and Iran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[61564,61570,61573,61597,61557,61579,61585,61588,61561,61233,61591,61584,1792,61560,3067,61590,20232,2656,22415,61595,61575,61587,5405,102,61592,694,34,342,1973,61559,424,46,61555,61556,61589,61552,61569,49433,61594,61574,61550,61582,61586,61178,864,61596,271,61551,4739,69,61583,61566,27301,61572,8413,61554,61576,11544,377,61553,61593,61580,61203,61568,61581,11170,61577,61563,21573,61220,61578,61562,61567,61565,193,5475,8398,4056,1503,10026,61571,1705,61558],"class_list":["post-211539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-s-revolutionary-guards","tag-s-southern-coastline","tag-s-supreme-leader","tag-full-scale-offensive-operations","tag-a-key-mediator","tag-a-key-tower","tag-a-senior-military-advisor","tag-a-serious-escalation","tag-a-social-media-post","tag-a-statement","tag-a-tower","tag-american-assets","tag-americans","tag-another-two-or-three-days","tag-attacks","tag-attacks-us","tag-bridges","tag-central-command","tag-civilian-infrastructure","tag-drone-and-missile-strikes","tag-effective-and-targeted-strikes","tag-fresh-strikes","tag-friday","tag-hormuz","tag-hormuz-cease-un-chief-condemnation-un-chief-antonio-guterres","tag-infrastructure","tag-iran","tag-iran-conflict","tag-iranian-media","tag-iranian-surveillance-towers","tag-irgc","tag-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps","tag-its-attacks","tag-its-chokehold","tag-key-iranian-port","tag-like-for-like-responses","tag-local-time-tehran","tag-majid-mousavi","tag-major-general-mohsen-rezaei","tag-more-iranian-targets","tag-new-missile-attacks","tag-no-political-border","tag-oman-new-video","tag-our-live-coverage","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-purported-strikes","tag-qatar","tag-retaliatory","tag-ships","tag-tehran","tag-the-aerospace-force","tag-the-american-terrorist-army","tag-the-conflict","tag-the-enemy","tag-the-gulf","tag-the-iranian-news-agency-irib-the-commander","tag-the-irgc-n","tag-the-islamic-republic","tag-the-middle-east","tag-the-movements-and-equipment","tag-the-naval-units","tag-the-regime","tag-the-region","tag-the-south","tag-the-southern-coastline","tag-the-strait","tag-the-strategic-waterway","tag-the-supervision","tag-the-us","tag-the-war","tag-the-war-iran","tag-the-war-on-friday","tag-the-zero-hour","tag-tower","tag-updates","tag-us-and-iran","tag-us-forces","tag-us-politics","tag-us-strikes","tag-us-warships","tag-us-allied-nations","tag-washington","tag-zero-hour"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}