TEHRAN \u2014 Israel\u2019s military said it launched a new wave of strikes on Iran on Friday after US President Donald Trump claimed talks on ending the war were going well and gave Tehran more time to open the Strait of Hormuz, though there have been no signs of Iran backing down.<\/p>\n
With stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under growing pressure to end Iran\u2019s chokehold on the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil is usually shipped.<\/p>\n
A brief military statement said Israeli forces \u201ccompleted a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran.\u201d<\/p>\n
The military said in a separate statement that it had also struck \u201cballistic missiles and aerial defense systems production sites across Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
It reported hitting missile launchers and storage sites in western Iran, as well as missile production sites in the capital.<\/p>\n
Israel said on Thursday that it had \u201cblown up and eliminated\u201d the Revolutionary Guards\u2019 naval commander, Alireza Tangsiri, and several senior officers.<\/p>\n
Smoke also rose over Beirut, although Israel did not immediately report hitting the Lebanese capital, while air raid sirens sounded in Israel as the military said it was working to intercept Iranian missiles. Iran kept firing missiles and drones at its Gulf Arab neighbors, with sirens warning of attacks in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia\u2019s Defense Ministry said it shot down both missiles and drones targeting the capital Riyadh.<\/p>\n
Kuwait said both its Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City and the Mubarak Al Kabeer Port to the north, which is under construction as part of China\u2019s \u201cBelt and Road\u201d initiative, had sustained \u201cmaterial damage\u201d in attacks.<\/p>\n
It appeared to be one of the first times a Chinese-affiliated project in the Gulf Arab states came under assault in the war.<\/p>\n
After Wall Street\u2019s worst day since the war began, Asian shares mostly fell Friday over growing doubts about the chances of de-escalation.<\/p>\n
Oil prices rose again, the Brent crude, the international standard, at $107 a barrel in morning trading, up more than 45% since Israel and the US attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, has caused growing concerns of a global energy crisis, and appears part of a strategy to get the US to back down by roiling the world economy.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington had delivered a 15-point \u201caction list\u201d to Iran for a possible ceasefire, using Pakistan as an intermediary. The list includes restrictions on Iran\u2019s nuclear program and re-opening the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Iran has rejected the US offer and put forth its own five-point proposal, which includes reparations and recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Diplomats from several countries have been trying to organize a direct meeting between envoys from the US and Iran, possibly in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Egypt\u2019s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that the country\u2019s foreign minster, Badr Abdelatty, held phone calls the day before with his Turkish and Pakistani counterparts as part of their \u201cintensive efforts\u201d to organize the talks.<\/p>\n
Abdelatty said he hoped the tri-country effort would result in \u201cgradual de-escalation efforts that would ultimately lead to the end of the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the diplomatic efforts went on, a group of US ships drew closer to the region with some 2,500 Marines. Also, at least 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne \u2014 trained to land in hostile territory to secure key territory and airfields \u2014 have been ordered to the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is to hold closed consultation on Iran on Friday, according to two UN diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is not public.<\/p>\n
They added that Russia had asked for the meeting on US-Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure in the country, and that the US, which holds the Security Council presidency, had scheduled it.<\/p>\n
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the humanitarian organization\u2019s teams in Iran have reported that \u201ccountless homes, hospitals and schools have been damaged or destroyed,\u201d and that nearly every neighborhood in Tehran has sustained damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cCivilians are paying the highest price for this war \u2014 it must end\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The International Organization for Migration said Friday that 82,000 civilian buildings, including hospitals and the homes of 180,000 people have been damaged in Iran so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this war continues, we risk a far wider humanitarian disaster,\u201d Egeland said. \u201cMillions could be forced to flee across borders, placing immense pressure on an already overstretched region.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli army said Thursday it had deployed the 162nd Division into southern Lebanon, joining thousands of troops that were moved there after the war erupted. Israel says the open-ended invasion is aimed at protecting its northern border towns from Hezbollah attacks and uprooting the militant group from the area.<\/p>\n
Eighteen people have died in Israel, while four Israeli soldiers have also been killed in Lebanon. Two Israeli soldiers were severely injured in Lebanon on Friday during an \u201coperational accident,\u201d the military said.<\/p>\n
Authorities said more than 1,100 people have died in Lebanon and more than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran.<\/p>\n
At least 13 American troops have been killed and four people in the occupied West Bank and 20 in Gulf Arab states have also died.<\/p>\n
In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have been killed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEHRAN \u2014 Israel\u2019s military said it launched a new wave of strikes on Iran on Friday after US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2221,34,37,4128,5840,591,3852,2081,69,16935],"class_list":{"0":"post-38887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-air","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-launches","12":"tag-new","13":"tag-of","14":"tag-on","15":"tag-strikes","16":"tag-tehran","17":"tag-wave"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116301842637192940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38887","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=38887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}