Dubai, Mar 10: Iran launched fresh attacks targeting Gulf Arab countries on Tuesday, intensifying pressure across the region, while an airstrike in northern Iraq killed five pro-Iranian militants amid the widening conflict.
Missile sirens sounded early in the morning in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and in Bahrain. Saudi Arabia said its air defence systems destroyed two drones over its oil-rich eastern region, while Kuwait’s National Guard reported shooting down six drones.
Iran, besides launching missiles and drones at Israel and American bases in the region, has also targeted energy infrastructure. The escalating hostilities, along with Iran’s effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, have sent global oil prices sharply higher.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, spiked to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday before easing, but remained around $90 on Tuesday — nearly 24 per cent higher than when the conflict began on February 28.
US President Donald Trump sought to play down concerns that the war could expand into a prolonged regional conflict. Trump, who had earlier said the war could last for a month or longer, on Tuesday described it as “going to be a short-term excursion”.
The conflict has already disrupted major oil and gas supplies to global markets and pushed fuel prices higher in the United States. The fighting has also triggered an exodus of foreigners from key business hubs and forced millions of residents to seek shelter as bombs struck military bases, government buildings, oil and water facilities, hotels and at least one school.
Iran has effectively halted tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow shipping route between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman that serves as a gateway to the Indian Ocean and carries nearly 20 per cent of the world’s oil supplies. Attacks on merchant vessels near the strait have killed at least seven sailors, according to the International Maritime Organization.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump warned Iran against disrupting the flow of oil through the strait, saying that “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”
Responding to the remarks, Ali Mohammad Naini, spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said in comments carried by Iranian state media that “Iran will determine when the war ends.”
Kamal Kharazi, a foreign policy adviser to the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, said the country was prepared for a prolonged conflict. Speaking to CNN on Monday, he said there was no “room for diplomacy anymore” unless economic pressure forces other countries to intervene and halt what he described as “aggression of Americans and Israelis against Iran.”
As the conflict spreads across the region, Israel has launched multiple strikes against Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, while the Iranian-linked group has retaliated by firing missiles into Israel.
Pro-Iran militias in Iraq have also targeted US bases in the country since the conflict began. Early Tuesday, one such group — the 40th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Kirkuk — was hit by an airstrike that killed at least five militants and wounded four others, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief reporters. (Agencies)
