Dubai: A missile slammed into a street in central Tel Aviv as Iran kept up its barrages targeting Israel and Gulf Arab states Tuesday, even as President Donald Trump said the United States was in talks with the Islamic Republic to end the war.
Trump also delayed a deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz for shipping or see its power stations targeted by airstrikes, briefly driving down oil prices and boosting stocks.
The delay offered a reprieve after the US and Iran traded threats over the weekend of strikes that could have cut electricity to millions in Iran and around the Gulf and knocked out desalination plants that provide many desert nations with drinking water, while raising fears of possible catastrophe if nuclear plants were hit.
But any information on the talks described by Trump remains in dispute with Iran, which denied that any talks had been held.
“No negotiations have been held with the US,” Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf posted on X. “Fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will continue to strike Iran and Lebanon even as the US considers a ceasefire. “There’s more to come,” he said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been talking about the war this week to his counterparts in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and Turkmenistan, his office said.
Iran hits Israel and Gulf neighbours while Israel attacks Beirut
Iran fired multiple waves of missiles at Israel early Tuesday, with reports of an impact in the country’s north.
In Tel Aviv, a missile with a 100-kilogram warhead escaped Israeli defence to slam into a street in the centre of the city, blowing out windows of a neighbouring apartment building and sending smoke billowing.
“We saw destruction, smoke and chaos,” rescue service worker Yoel Moshe told reporters of his arrival at the scene minutes after the missile struck. Four people suffered minor wounds, he said.
Emerging from the shelter, Amir Hasid said he expected the scene to be far worse. “It feels like you’re a (sitting) duck, waiting for the missiles to hit you or someone next to you,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Israel pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying it was targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group.
A strike on a residential apartment southeast of the Lebanese capital killed at least two people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
In Kuwait, power lines were hit by air defence shrapnel, causing partial electricity outages for several hours. Missile alert sirens sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said it had destroyed 19 Iranian drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.
Oil prices briefly fell below USD 100 a barrel after Trump claimed his government was in talks to end the war. But that respite was short-lived, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, back to USD 104 a barrel in morning trading, up more than 40 per cent since Israel and the US started the war February 28.
Iran sceptical of Trump’s motives in deadline extension
Trump initially set a deadline of late Monday, Washington time, for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants, but Monday he gave Tehran five more days to comply.
Iran has allowed a small number of ships through the strait, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, but has said it will continue to target vessels linked to the US, Israel or its allies.
Its leaders are wary of Washington’s motives, in part because Tehran was in negotiations with the US before the surprise attack that started the war. Iran was also in talks last year when the US and Israel attacked its nuclear facilities, starting a 12-day war.
“Trump, Netanyahu and the like are inherently liars, and their nature is to create division,” Esmail Kowsari, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars news agency.
“We must think wisely. Their nature is to sow discord so that they can make people distrust officials and believe that such actions have taken place, whereas no such action has occurred,” Kowsari said.
Trump’s extension of the deadline came at a time when a contingent of thousands of Marines was on the way to the area, raising speculation that the US may try to seize Kharg Island, which is off Iran’s coast and vital to the country’s oil network.
The US bombed the island in the Persian Gulf more than a week ago, hitting its defence but saying it had left oil infrastructure intact.
Iran has threatened that if the US appears to be on the verge of landing troops, it could mine the Persian Gulf, which would complicate an amphibious assault and also imperil all shipping in the area.
The delay could be timed to coincide with the arrival of US Marines in the region, expected Friday, wrote the New York-based think tank The Soufan Centre in an analysis.
“As Trump has in the past, he could be moving military assets into place, in this case to prepare for an invasion and seizure of Kharg Island, while using negotiations as a cover until those assets are fully combat-ready.”
However, it also noted that “Trump could be actively seeking an offramp. Whether Iran reciprocates is yet to be seen.”
Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but has not ruled it out. Israel has suggested its ground forces could take part in the war.
Iran’s death toll has surpassed 1,500, its health ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 US military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians, in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
