Iran fires missiles at Israel, Gulf neighbours
Iran responded to US President Donald Trump’s address to Americans on the war with new missile attacks targeting Israel and the Gulf Arab states on Thursday, underlining Tehran’s insistence that it rejected Washington’s outreach for a ceasefire while maintaining its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Britain planned to hold a call on Thursday with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the strait, through which 20 per cent of all oil and natural gas traded passes in peacetime.
The 35 countries, including all G7 industrialised democracies except the US, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed a declaration last month demanding Iran stop blocking the strait. The call will discuss “diplomatic and political measures” that could restore shipping once the fighting is over. Washington has insisted that Iran allow ships to freely transit the strait, but Trump this week has said it is not up to the US to force it, and in his address, encouraged countries that receive oil through Hormuz to “build some delayed courage” and go “take it.”
In his address, Trump said the US would hit Iran “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” while also insisting American “core strategic objectives are nearing completion.”
Just before Trump began his nearly 20-minute address on Wednesday, explosions were heard in Dubai as air defences worked to intercept an Iranian missile barrage. Less than a half an hour after the president was done, Israel said its military was working to intercept incoming missiles. Sirens sounded in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, immediately after the speech.
Death toll continues to rise: More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 US service members have been killed.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million displaced, according to authorities. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
