Israel launches new wave of attacks on Iran as crisis deepens – SABC News

Israel launched a fresh wave of attacks on Iran on Friday, a day after United States (US) President Donald Trump told it not to repeat its strikes on Iranian natural gas infrastructure, which sharply escalated the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The conflict has killed thousands of people, spread to neighbouring nations and hit the global economy since America and Israel launched strikes on February 28, after talks about Tehran’s nuclear program failed to yield a deal.
“The IDF has just begun a wave of strikes against the infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran,” a spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces said, without providing details.
Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said they were dealing with missile attacks in the early hours of Friday, following days of Iranian strikes on regional energy infrastructure that have roiled global markets.
Energy prices jumped on Thursday after Iran responded to an Israeli attack on a major gas field by hitting Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, which processes around a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, causing damage that will take years to repair.
Saudi Arabia’s main port on the Red Sea, where it has been able to divert some exports to avoid Iran’s closure of the Gulf’s exit point, the Strait of Hormuz, was also attacked on Thursday.
However, oil prices fell on Friday as leading European nations and Japan offered to help secure safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil supplies, and the US outlined moves to boost oil output.
The strikes on regional energy facilities underscored Iran’s continued ability to exact a heavy price for the US-Israeli campaign, and the limits of air defences in protecting the Gulf’s most valuable and strategic energy assets.
Trump, politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices among his core voters ahead of November’s midterm elections, has lashed out at allies who have responded cautiously to his demands that they help secure the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of the world’s oil.
He said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat the attack on energy infrastructure. “I told him, ‘Don’t do that’, and he won’t do that,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.
Netanyahu later said Israel had acted alone in the bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field and confirmed that Trump had asked Israel to hold off on such attacks.
Iran is being “decimated” and no longer had the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, but a revolution in the country would require a “ground component,” he said, without elaborating.
 
 

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