US and Israel pounded Iran and Lebanon yesterday as President Donald Trump encouraged Kurdish opposition groups to go on the offensive against Tehran, potentially opening a dangerous new front in the widening war that may draw in more countries.
Trump, in a telephone interview with Reuters, also said he wants the United States to play a role in choosing Iran’s next leader, but opposed the candidacy of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, without elaborating.
His comments came as more tankers were attacked in Gulf waters yesterday amid the escalating war, snarling shipping and energy markets.
Meanwhile, Tehran said it again targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned the “separatist groups” against entering the conflict.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country was prepared for any potential ground invasion, saying such a move would spell “disaster” for the Islamic republic’s foes.
“We are waiting for them,” Araghchi told US broadcaster NBC News. “We are confident that we can confront them and that would be a big disaster for them.”
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan became the latest target in the spreading war as Tehran stepped up its attacks on Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain.
“I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” Trump said, referring to the floated Kurdish offensive.
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Trump declined to say if the United States would provide air cover to Kurdish forces.
Since the United States and Israel launched the war on Saturday, Iran has been striking Iranian Kurdish groups based in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan whom Tehran accuses of serving Western and Israeli interests.
According to reports, Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the US in recent days about whether, and how, to attack Iran’s security forces in the western part of the country.
The Iranian Kurdish coalition of groups based on the Iran-Iraq border in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has been training to mount such an attack in hopes of weakening the country’s military.
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The forces are in talks with the United States about CIA help to provide weapons, they added.
Tehran yesterday carried out a drone strike on the headquarters of Iraq-based Kurdish groups, killing one.
CNN was the first to report on the CIA’s involvement with the groups. Axios said this week that Trump held a telephone call with two of Iraqi Kurdistan’s top leaders.
Iran’s military yesterday also claimed an attack on a base hosting US troops in Erbil in northern Iraq using drones, causing “significant damage”.
Trump also signalled confidence that the major shipping route near Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, will remain open.
Closing the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes, has been one of Iran’s main objectives, and shipping through the crucial energy artery has ground to a near halt after Iranian hits on six vessels.
“They have no navy, you know, the navy is now at the bottom of the sea,” Trump said. “I’m watching Hormuz very closely.”
Araghchi yesterday said that the Islamic republic was neither asking for a ceasefire nor negotiations with the US, adding that Iran had no plans to close the Strait of Hormuz for now.
Meanwhile, the US Senate backed Trump’s military campaign against Iran. The US Senate voted 53 to 47 not to advance the bipartisan resolution aimed at stopping the war, largely along party lines.
The House was expected to vote on a similar Iran war powers resolution later yesterday. Even if a resolution were to pass both the Senate and House, it would not go into effect unless it could garner two-thirds majorities in both chambers to survive an expected Trump veto.
The war has touched as far afield as the Sri Lankan coast, where a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship, killing at least 87 sailors, and Azerbaijan, which threatened retaliation after a drone hit an airport.
Iran denied it launched the drone attack on Azerbaijan.
In Lebanon, AFPTV images showed buildings in rubble and plumes of black smoke over Beirut after Israeli strikes aimed at Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, Australia deployed two military aircraft in the Middle East, while Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he could not rule out his armed forces taking part in hostilities.
The United Kingdom said it will send helicopters with anti-drone capabilities to Cyprus. Britain is also deploying HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean, as well as four additional Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar.
Earlier, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament that Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands are sending naval assets to Cyprus to protect the island in the coming days.
The war has also dragged in Nato member Turkey after Nato air defences destroyed a missile launched from Iran heading towards Turkish airspace.
Meanwhile, the European Union and the Gulf nations yesterday issued a joint statement urging “dialogue and diplomacy” to resolve the ongoing war.
“The ministers reiterated their commitment to regional stability and called for protection of civilians and full respect of international law,” said the EU and GCC, following a videoconference of European and Gulf foreign ministers.
Following yesterday’s strikes on Tehran, AFPTV images showed blackened vehicles and mangled buildings, with smoke still rising from some.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency said 1,045 military personnel and civilians have been killed since the war began on Saturday, a toll AFP could not independently verify.
Iranian media yesterday reported that a sports complex, football stadium, municipality building, and shop fronts across Tehran were damaged in Israeli and US strikes on the city.
The country is effectively cut off from the rest of the world, with the internet operating at around one percent of capacity, according to the Netblocks monitor.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said his US counterpart Pete Hegseth had assured him of Washington’s firm backing for their joint military campaign against Iran and urged him to continue the operation “to the end”.
Israel’s military said its air force had hit and disabled more than 300 ballistic missile launchers in Iran since the war began.
Hamish Falconer, the UK’s minister for the Middle East, told parliament that it was possible the Iran crisis could continue for months.
Meanwhile, AFP reporters in Jerusalem heard explosions following warnings of incoming Iranian missile fire, but residents were quickly cleared to leave their shelters.
Across the border in Lebanon, Israel said its forces had hit “several command centres belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation” in south Beirut.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said a separate pre-dawn Israeli drone strike hit an apartment in Beddawi, a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, killing senior Hamas official Wassim Atallah al-Ali and his wife.
Lebanese authorities said at least 102 people had been killed, 437 wounded, and tens of thousands displaced from their homes since Monday.
The war could usher in a “prolonged period of flux” for the global economy, warned International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.
The conflict has not spared the rich Gulf monarchies, usually seen as a safe haven in a volatile region, as Iran has lashed out at cities and energy infrastructure.
Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began, including an 11-year-old girl in Kuwait.
Qatar yesterday said it intercepted 14 ballistic missiles and four drones as loud blasts reverberated across Doha. It had earlier evacuated residents living near the US embassy in Doha after thwarting attacks on Hamad International Airport.
Falling debris from an intercepted drone also injured six people in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, officials said.
Riyadh also said it intercepted Iranian missiles and drones yesterday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry yesterday accused the US and Israel of “trying to drag” Arab nations into war with their strikes on Iran. The ministry said the only path to stabilisation was to stop the attacks on Iran, but there were no signs for now of this happening.
