DUBAI / TEHRAN / WASHINGTON: Even as US and Israeli forces continued to pummel targets across Iran, Iran claimed “complete control” of the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
The Revolutionary Guards said Iranian forces had “complete control” of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for world oil and gas supplies, and any vessels seeking to pass risked damage from missiles or stray drones. A security official close to IRGC said its new head, Ahmad Vahidi, was present in every high-ranking meeting and that its overriding objective was always the survival of Iran’s Islamic revolutionary system and its goals.
Deputy defence minister and Guardsman Reza Talaeinik spelled out the elite force’s efforts to build resilience in a television interview, saying each figure in the command structure had named successors stretching three ranks down ready to replace them. Iran has no intention of negotiating with the US and can continue the war for “as long as we want”, Mohammad Mokhber, a senior aide to late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told state TV.
The Israeli military, which earlier said it was planning at least “one or two” more weeks of attacks on Iran, begun a fresh wave of strikes on Tehran, as an AFP journalist reported fresh explosions in the northeast of the Iranian capital. The IDF said it had struck “dozens” of targets, including security command centres in Tehran, and had shot down an Iranian fighter jet over the capital.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency said Wednesday US-Israeli strikes had killed 1,045 military personnel and civilians since the start of the war.“In Iran, an estimated 100,000 people left Tehran in the first two days following the attacks,” the UN refugee agency, said in a situation report.
Meanwhile, air raid sirens wailed in Jerusalem after the Israeli military said it had detected two incoming missile barrages from Iran. Damage to Israel’s economy from the air war with Iran could reach more than $2.93 billion a week, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. Iran also expanded its retaliatory missile and drone barrage across the Middle East on Tuesday, hitting another US consulate and base.
An Iranian drone attack struck near the US consulate in Dubai, and the US military base at Al-Udeid in Qatar. Saudi Arabia intercepted a drone attack targeting its massive Ras Tanura refinery, the defence ministry said, following an earlier hit on the complex this week. The attacks came a day after strikes on the US embassies in Riyadh and Kuwait City and on a US air base in Bahrain. However, Qatar’s PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has lambasted Iran’s foreign minister during a call, accusing Tehran of trying to drag their neighbours into war.
Turkey, meanwhile, summoned the Iranian ambassador after a missile — apparently targeting a Cyprus base — landed in Turkish territory. The UAE said it had shot down three missiles and 121 drones, while Qatar said it had intercepted 10 drones and two missiles.
US expands war
However, US General Dan Caine claimed that Iran is firing fewer missiles than it did at the start of the war, as he argued Iran’s military capabilities were greatly diminished as the US expands its strikes inside Iran.“We will now begin to expand inland striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory, and creating additional freedom of maneuver for US forces,” General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news briefing at the Pentagon.
The Pentagon also announced the killing of an Iranian official who headed a unit behind an alleged assassination plot against President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the White House said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is “actively considering” a US role in Iran after the American-Israeli operation against the country concludes.“I think it’s something the president is actively considering and discussing with his advisors and his national security team,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said of any post-war US role.
‘Against UN Charter’
An independent United Nations probe investigating rights violations in Iran condemned on Wednesday attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran as well as Tehran’s retaliatory strikes, saying they violated the UN Charter.“These attacks, which were followed by Iran’s retaliatory strikes across the region, run counter to the UN Charter,” the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said in a statement.
