Dubai: Iran’s new supreme leader released his first statement since succeeding his late father, saying Thursday that Iran would keep up its attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbours and use the effective closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the United States and Israel.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who Israel suspects was wounded in the opening salvo of the war, did not appear on camera, and his statement was read by a state TV news anchor.
The statement included a vow to avenge those killed in the war, including in a strike on a school that killed over 165 people.
The statement signalled a willingness to continue the war that has disrupted global energy supplies, international travel and the relative safety enjoyed by the Gulf Arab states, and which has also exacted a heavy toll on Iran’s leadership, military and ballistic missile programme.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since the start of the war.
Iran’s unrelenting attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf had earlier pushed oil back above USD 100 a barrel, as American and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic Republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight.
Iran is trying to inflict enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to halt their bombardment, which began February 28 and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s president said Thursday that its attacks would continue until Iran gets security guarantees against another assault, indicating that even a ceasefire or US declaration of victory might not halt the conflict.
US President Donald Trump has meanwhile promised to “finish the job,” even though he claimed Iran is “virtually destroyed.”
Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, meanwhile launched some 200 rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel while sirens rang out and loud booms from the interception of Iranian missiles could be heard in other areas. Israel launched another wave of attacks on Tehran and in Lebanon, where 11 people were killed.
The UN refugee agency said up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced by the ongoing war. It said most have fled from Tehran and other major cities toward the north of the country or rural areas. At least 759,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon, it said.
Israel’s military Thursday warned residents of an even larger area of southern Lebanon to leave their homes. It said they should move north of the Zahrani River, which at its midpoint is about 56 kilometres away from the border with Israel.
Iranian officials dismiss any notion of backing down
Before Khamenei’s statement, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a relatively moderate in Iran’s Shiite theocracy, suggested online that for the war to end, the world would need to recognise Iran’s “legitimate rights,” pay reparations and offer guarantees against future attacks.
In addition to attacking energy infrastructure around the region, Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Amid speculation that the US might target Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s main oil terminal, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf threatened in a social media post that any attempt to take Iranian islands would “make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders.”
With traffic in the strait effectively stopped, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose another 9 per cent to more than USD 100 a barrel, up some 38 per cent over what it cost when the war started. Prices have swung back and forth in recent days, at one point surging to around USD 120 a barrel.
Iran and Hezbollah launch multiple attacks on Israel
It was a sleepless night for many Israelis as Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets at the country’s north and deeper into Israel, according to the Israeli military.
“The noise was extraordinary, it was really scary,” said Naama Porat, a resident of the rural community of Klil, some 15 kilometres from the Lebanese border. As the sound of explosions and interceptions rang out, she dashed with her son to a shelter and spent the night there.
No serious injuries were reported, but the extent of the fire shook residents of the north, who have repeatedly been told by their leaders that Hezbollah was dealt a devastating blow in 2024 during its last war with Israel.
“They have stocks of weapons and it just doesn’t end. We don’t know how much and what to expect,” Porat said.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon that if its government does not prevent Hezbollah from attacking, Israel “will take the territory and do it ourselves.”
More than 20 killed in strikes on Lebanon and Iran
Israel, meanwhile, hit a car in a seaside area of Lebanon’s capital where dozens of displaced people have been sheltering, killing eight and wounding 31, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said it was “not aware” of a strike at that location.
The Israeli military said it struck a nuclear facility in Iran in recent days. Israel had destroyed the “Taleghan 2” site in an airstrike in October 2024. Earlier this year, satellite photos raised concerns that Iran was working to restore the facility.
The US and Israel say that destroying whatever remains of Iran’s nuclear programme is one of the central aims of the war. They have long suspected Iran seeks nuclear weapons, while the Islamic Republic says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
In Tehran, security force checkpoints came under attack for the first time Wednesday night, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. At least 10 people were killed in the suspected drone assaults.
Israel and the US military did not immediately respond to requests for comment over whether they were behind the attacks.
Iran fires at Gulf Arab countries and hits ship in the Persian Gulf
Iran’s latest attacks on its Gulf neighbours flouted a UN Security Council resolution approved Wednesday.
Early Thursday, a container ship was hit with a projectile off the coast of Dubai, sparking a small fire, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre. It said the crew were safe.
An Iranian attack sparked a major fire on Muharraq Island, home to Bahrain’s international airport. Kuwait authorities said an Iranian drone smashed into a residential building, wounding two people, and that a drone attack on Kuwait International Airport had caused damage but no casualties.
The UAE said it had activated air defences twice to protect the futuristic city of Dubai from attacks, and firefighters extinguished a blaze at a tower after a drone hit.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, said it shot down a drone targeting the diplomatic quarter in its capital, Riyadh, and other drones in the east, including at least one trying to target its Shaybah oil field.
Following an attack on Iraq’s Basra port Wednesday that killed at least one person, officials said Thursday that operations were halted at all the country’s oil terminals.
In the UAE, Citibank said it would close all but one of its branches due to an Iranian threat – not yet realised – to target financial institutions in the region.
