Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuissued a chilling warning, saying he had “many surprises” for the next phase of the conflict
Israel on Sunday struck southern Lebanon, Beirut and an oil storage facility in Tehran as the war in the Middle East keeps escalating.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a chilling warning, saying he had “many surprises” for the next phase of the conflict. Iran also hit a desalination plant in Bahrain.
Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that a US airstrike damaged an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, warning that in doing so “the US set this precedent, not Iran.” Such infrastructure is critical for drinking water supplies in the parched deserts of the Gulf.
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An Israeli attack on an oil storage facility in Tehran sent up pillars of fire, as a glow against the Saturday night sky. It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.
The war, which erupted on Feb. 28 after joint US-Israeli strikes hit Iran, has so far killed at least 1,230 people in the Islamic Republic, more than 300 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials.
Meanwhile, Iran’s president has threatened to step up attacks on American targets throughout the Middle East as the U.S. and Israel press ahead with their air campaign.
“When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in video comments Sunday. “Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression – and it never has.”
Pezeshkian appeared to be backtracking from conciliatory comments toward his Gulf neighbors on Saturday. Those comments, in which he appeared to apologize for attacks on their soil, were quickly contradicted by Iranian hard-liners.
Pezeshkian said Iran is not looking for a battle against neighboring Arab countries, many of which host American military bases. “They are our brothers,” he said, accusing the U.S. of trying to pit the region’s countries against one another. Many Iranian attacks have gone beyond U.S. bases in the region, striking energy facilities, hotels and cities.
The sky over Iran’s capital was blanketed with smoke Sunday morning, hours after Israeli strikes hit oil facilities in Tehran, Associated Press footage showed.
Fars news agency reported that Saturday’s strikes hit four oil storage facilities and an oil production transfer center in Tehran and Alborz. Four tanker drivers in the center were killed, it reported.
