The day so far
If you are just logging on, here is a roundup of today’s news in the Middle East conflict. It has just gone 6pm in Tehran, and 4.30pm in Tel Aviv. It’s mid-morning in Washington DC, with the time having passed 10.30am.
Iran fired missiles at the US/UK Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean, the UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The MoD said the strikes were unsuccessful, and took place before the UK said the US could use its bases for “specific and limited defence operations”.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said strikes on Iran will “intensify” next week. In a statement Katz said there would be a “significant” rise in the attacks.
Israel and the US targeted an Iranian nuclear enrichment plant overnight. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has called for restraint. Iran said there had not been any radioactive leakage, and no residents were in danger.
The Israel Defence Force claimed it had “significantly degraded” ballistic missile production at a factory in Tehran with airstrikes. It said “dozens” of targets were attacked, including those used to produce critical parts for missiles.
Meanwhile the US military said Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the strait of Hormuz has been reduced after it attacked an underground facility that stored cruise missiles. The commander of the US central command said US forces had destroyed intelligence support sites and radar relays.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “winding down” military operations against Iran. “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives,” the US president posted on Friday on his Truth Social platform in the strongest indication yet that he may be prepared to soon end the hostilities that began three weeks ago.
More than twenty countries now say they are “ready to contribute” to the safe passage of ships going through the strait of Hormuz. It said they were ready to contribute “appropriate efforts” to ensure safe passage through the waterway, which is critical to global oil markets.
An officer was killed in a drone attack on Iraq’s intelligence headquarters in Baghdad. The intelligence service blamed “outlaw groups” and said a second officer was wounded. It took place at about 10am local time.
The Israel Defence Force killed four Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon overnight, the military has said. The IDF posted on Telegram that a combination of ground troops and the Israeli air force killed one – and tanks killed three more.
European diplomats have criticised increasing “settler terror” in the West Bank, with six Palestinians shot dead in settler attacks in the area this month. Representatives of 13 European countries including the UK and France issued a joint statement alongside Canada.
In the UK two people have been charged, one of them Iranian, after they allegedly tried to enter a naval base in Scotland which houses the UK’s nuclear Trident submarines. They were arrested on Thursday.
Key events
Britain will not be using its bases in Cyprus for any offensive action in the Iran crisis, a Cypriot government spokesperson said on Saturday, citing a phone call between British prime minister Keir Starmer and Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides, according to Reuters.
“The British Prime Minister reiterated … that the security of the Republic of Cyprus is fundamental to the United Kingdom and, to that end, a decision has been taken to enhance the means contributing to the preventive measures already in place,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Finally, the Prime Minister reiterated that the British Bases in Cyprus will not be used for any offensive military operations.”
An Iranian-type Shahed drone caused slight damage when it hit facilities at Britain’s Akrotiri airbase in southern Cyprus on March 2, with two others later intercepted. There have been no further known security incidents.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian expressed that an “immediate cessation of aggressions by the US and Israel, along with guarantees against their recurrence in the future,” is the only path to ending the current war and preventing a broader regional catastrophe.
In a telephone conversation with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, Pezeshkian said that any resolution must include firm guarantees to prevent future military strikes against Iran, according to a post from Iran’s embassy in India.
During the conversation, Pezeshkian also called on the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies to play an independent role in halting aggression against Iran. He also reiterated Iran’s stance that the US is responsible for the military strike on an Iranian elementary school that killed an estimated 168 schoolchildren.
Both Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman warned on Saturday that Iranian escalation against Gulf nations poses a grave threat to regional security and stability.
According to the state-run Saudi Press Agency, president el-Sissi formally rejected the ongoing Iranian strikes on Gulf states and reaffirmed Egypt’s unwavering solidarity with the Kingdom in the face of these threats.
Arab league chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit also praised the recent high-level visits by both el-Sissi and King Abdullah II of Jordan to several Gulf nations. Aboul Gheit said that these diplomatic missions “reflect full Arab solidarity” during the current crisis.
In an operational update video posted Saturday, the head of the US military’s Central Command, Adm Brad Cooper, said that in the US military has struck more than 8,000 military targets, including 130 Iranian vessels.
“Their Navy is not sailing. Their tactical fighters are not flying, and they’ve lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at the high rates seen at the beginning of the conflict,” he said in the video.
Intelligence agencies were monitoring Nowruz celebrations in Iran on Friday to see whether Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei would be seen for the first time since his father’s death, Axios reports.
His father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei previously gave a new year’s address, and it was thought Mojtaba could do the same. However he only issued a written statement.
It comes as it is three weeks without him being seen, since he became supreme leader.
“We have no evidence that he is really the one giving orders,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.
Hezbollah has said its fighters have clashed with Israeli forces in two borders towns on Saturday.
AFP reported a Hezbollah statement which said the group had engaged in a four-hour confrontation with Israeli forces in the town of Khiam.
The statement said here had been “direct clashes with forces from the Israeli enemy army in the town of Khiam with light and medium weapons” and rockets.
Israel has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon since Hezbollah launched strikes on 2 March in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The day so far
If you are just logging on, here is a roundup of today’s news in the Middle East conflict. It has just gone 6pm in Tehran, and 4.30pm in Tel Aviv. It’s mid-morning in Washington DC, with the time having passed 10.30am.
Iran fired missiles at the US/UK Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean, the UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The MoD said the strikes were unsuccessful, and took place before the UK said the US could use its bases for “specific and limited defence operations”.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said strikes on Iran will “intensify” next week. In a statement Katz said there would be a “significant” rise in the attacks.
Israel and the US targeted an Iranian nuclear enrichment plant overnight. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has called for restraint. Iran said there had not been any radioactive leakage, and no residents were in danger.
The Israel Defence Force claimed it had “significantly degraded” ballistic missile production at a factory in Tehran with airstrikes. It said “dozens” of targets were attacked, including those used to produce critical parts for missiles.
Meanwhile the US military said Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the strait of Hormuz has been reduced after it attacked an underground facility that stored cruise missiles. The commander of the US central command said US forces had destroyed intelligence support sites and radar relays.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “winding down” military operations against Iran. “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives,” the US president posted on Friday on his Truth Social platform in the strongest indication yet that he may be prepared to soon end the hostilities that began three weeks ago.
More than twenty countries now say they are “ready to contribute” to the safe passage of ships going through the strait of Hormuz. It said they were ready to contribute “appropriate efforts” to ensure safe passage through the waterway, which is critical to global oil markets.
An officer was killed in a drone attack on Iraq’s intelligence headquarters in Baghdad. The intelligence service blamed “outlaw groups” and said a second officer was wounded. It took place at about 10am local time.
The Israel Defence Force killed four Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon overnight, the military has said. The IDF posted on Telegram that a combination of ground troops and the Israeli air force killed one – and tanks killed three more.
European diplomats have criticised increasing “settler terror” in the West Bank, with six Palestinians shot dead in settler attacks in the area this month. Representatives of 13 European countries including the UK and France issued a joint statement alongside Canada.
In the UK two people have been charged, one of them Iranian, after they allegedly tried to enter a naval base in Scotland which houses the UK’s nuclear Trident submarines. They were arrested on Thursday.
European diplomats have criticised increasing “settler terror” in the West Bank, with six Palestinians shot dead in settler attacks in the area this month.
Representatives of 13 European countries including the UK and France issued a joint statement alongside Canada.
It called for Israeli authorities to prosecute those responsible.
It said: “We strongly condemn increasing settler terror and violence by the Israeli security forces inflicted upon Palestinian communities.
“We are especially appalled by the killings of Palestinians over these past weeks. This violence by settler militias, aimed at taking over land and creating a coercive environment, forcing Palestinians to leave their homes, must end.”
Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir on Wednesday criticised the increase in settler attacks in the West Bank, calling it “morally and ethically unacceptable”.
Israel has claimed it has “significantly degraded” ballistic missile production at a factory in Tehran after it carried out airstrikes overnight.
The Israel Defence Force said it carried out attacks in Tehran and hit “dozens” of targets. It said the facilities were used to produce critical parts for the development of missiles.
Among the facilities hit were a components storage facility, a missile fuel plant and a production site.
The post by the IDF on Telegram said: “The IDF will continue to expand its strikes against the regime’s weapons production facilities in order to degrade its capabilities to advance its ballistic missile program, which poses a direct threat to the State of Israel.”
Here are some of the latest images from photographers around the Middle East:
