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Secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Friday the US expects its operation in Iran to conclude in “weeks, not months” after he met with G7 foreign ministers in France.
Rubio also said Iran may decide to set up a tolling system for the strait of Hormuz.
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Explosions were heard in the Syrian capital Damascus and nearby areas, the cause of which was unknown, state television reported early on Saturday.
Emergency responders said a man was killed in Israel on Friday after the Israeli military reported missiles fired from Iran. The Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said a man was killed in Tel Aviv after the latest attack, which triggered air raid sirens in Jerusalem. Two other men, aged 65 and 50, were wounded in Tel Aviv and taken to hospital, MDA said.
A 37-year-old and a 21-year-old were wounded by shrapnel in the southern Israeli town of Kuseife and taken to hospital, MDA added.
There was a heavy presence of emergency responders at the scene of a missile impact in Tel Aviv and a main road was partially cordoned off, images from Magen David Adom showed.
Home Front Command official Col. Miki David said a residential apartment was hit by a cluster munition. Cluster munitions explode mid-air and scatter bomblets across a wide area. Iran and Israel have previously accused each other of using cluster bombs.
Here are some of the latest images from the crisis in the Middle East.
Israel’s military says it has launched strikes on Iranian “regime targets” early Saturday, as an AFP journalist in the capital Tehran reported hearing about 10 intense blasts and seeing a plume of black smoke.
A brief military statement said Israeli forces were striking Iranian terror regime targets across Tehran, but did not elaborate on the attacks.
The follows strikes by Israel on Friday on Iran’s nuclear facilities hour after it threatened to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran.
Elon Musk joined a phone call between US President Donald Trump and India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday about the war in Iran, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing two US officials.
It was unclear why Musk was on the call or whether he spoke, the newspaper said.
“President Trump has a great relationship with Prime Minister Modi, and this was a productive conversation,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said when asked for comment on the report.
As Washington hints its operation against Iran could conclude in “weeks, not months”, even while Israel has threatened to “escalate and expand” its attacks against the Islamic republic, casualties continue to mount.
Nineteen people have died in Israel, and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon. Thirteen US military members have died, as well as civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region.
In Iran, more than 1,900 people had been killed and at least 20,000 injured, said Maria Martinez of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Others estimate lower numbers.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military operation in the south has displaced a fifth of Lebanon’s population, triggering a humanitarian crisis. Nearly 1,100 people in Lebanon have been killed in the Israeli offensive. It follows attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist militant movement.
Twelve US troops were wounded, two of them seriously, in an Iranian military strike on Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia, a US official has told Reuters.
The latest casualties add to the more than 300 US military service members who have been wounded since the war against Iran started on 28 February.
UAE’s defense ministry said it is now engaging with incoming missiles and drones from Iran, Reuters reports.
Donald Trump said the United States does not “have to be there for Nato”.
Speaking to an investment forum in Miami on Friday, the US president said he was upset that European Nato countries had declined to provide material support to the US as it nears the fourth week of its ongoing war on Iran.
European allies were not consulted by the US on its decision to attack Iran last month, and many leaders in the alliance opposed the action.
“We would have always been there for them, but now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, do we?” Trump told the audience.
“That sounds like a breaking story? Yes, sir. Is that breaking news? I think we just have breaking news, but that’s the fact.
“I’ve been saying that. Why would we be there for them if they’re not there for us? They weren’t there for us.”
Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of another strike in the vicinity of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the third such incident in 10 days, with no damage to the operating reactor and no release of radiation reported, the agency said.
The IAEA said Iran reported the plant’s condition remained normal following the incident.
The United States expects to end its operation in Iran in “weeks, not months”, secretary of state Marco Rubio said. Following a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in France, Rubio also said Iran may decide to set up a tolling system for ships crossing the strait of Hormuz - and that he had won support from his G7 colleagues to oppose any attempts to do so.
Donald Trump later claimed that Iran was “on the run” and “wants to make a deal”, adding that Tehran had sent the US 10 oil ships as part of negotiations to “make up for” their denial that any formal talks were taking place. A reminder that Tehran still maintains that there haven’t been any formal talks with Washington – only an exchange of messages through mediators such as Pakistan.
Several US service members were injured by an Iranian missile fired at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday, two US officials told NBC News. None of the injuries are considered life-threatening. At least one aircraft was also damaged in the attack. It brings the number of Americans injured in the war to at least 303.
Meanwhile, the Houthis in Yemen said their “finger is on the trigger” for military intervention if certain conditions are met. Spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Iran-aligned group would enter the conflict if new countries join the US and Israel in their war against Iran; the Red Sea is used to target Iran or any Muslim country; or the war continues to escalate against Iran and the countries of the “axis of resistance”.
The strait of Hormuz is “closed”, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said earlier, adding that they had turned back three ships trying to transit the strait. The route – critical for oil and gas shipping and for the global economy – is closed to vessels travelling to and from ports linked to its “enemies”, it said, warning of “harsh measures”.
Israel confirmed that it attacked Iran’s Arak heavy-water plant and a uranium processing plant in central Iran on Friday. Iran’s atomic energy organisation said the strike on the plant “did not result in the release of any radioactive material”. The heavy water plant in Arak was targeted by Israeli strikes during the 12-day war last June, during which the US also carried out bombings.
Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have displaced more than 370,000 children, according to Unicef, as well as leaving at least 121 dead and 399 injured. It comes after Israel announced plans to establish a so-called “security zone” up to the Litani River in southern Lebanon, prompting fears of a protracted occupation of the region. Indeed, defence minister Israel Katz said that hundreds of thousands of Shi’ites will not return south of the Litani until security is ensured for northern Israel. A UNHCR official estimated on Friday that about 150,000 people are isolated in Lebanon after Israel’s systematic destruction of bridges.
Several US service members were injured by an Iranian missile fired at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday, two US officials have told NBC News.
None of the injuries are considered life-threatening. At least one aircraft was also damaged in the attack.
At least 303 Americans have now been injured in the war.
Trump also claimed that Iran sent the US 10 oil ships to “make up for” denying that Washington and Tehran were in talks to end the war.
Referring to comments he’s made previously about US-Iranian talks supposedly taking place on Monday, which Tehran subsequently denied, Trump added:
It turned out I was right. They were negotiating, which they admitted two days later.
And in order to make up for their misstatement, they said ‘we’re going to send you eight ships of oil’.
They actually said ‘we’re going to add an extra two’, and they added an extra two, so we had 10 ships, and then people realised we were actually negotiating.
A reminder that Iran maintains that there haven’t been any formal talks with the United States – only an exchange of messages through mediators such as Pakistan.
Trump once again speculated about Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen or heard from in public since he was selected earlier this month. He was injured in the US-Israeli air strikes on Tehran that assassinated his father, the late ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on 28 February.
The US president told the crowd in Miami:
Their leaders are dead. Their supreme leader [Ali Khamenei] is no longer supreme. And the son [Mojtaba] is either dead or in very bad shape, because nobody’s seen or heard from him.
“This isthe only country where nobody wants to lead,” he added, asking for a show of hands for who in the audience would like to lead Iran.
Trump said the US and Iran are “negotiating now” and that it “would be great if we could do something”.
He then called on Iran “to open up the strait of Trump - I mean, Hormuz”.
The fake news will say ‘he accidentally said’ - no, there’s no accidents with me. Not too many.
He then goes on a tangent about the Gulf of Mexico.
