Iran’s president defies US demands while apologising for strikes on neighbours

Iran’s president said Saturday that a demand by the United States for an unconditional surrender is a “dream that they should take to their grave.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian made the statement in a pre-recorded address aired by state television.

He also apologised for Iran’s attacks on regional countries, saying that Tehran would halt them and suggesting they were caused by miscommunication in the ranks. He blamed the killing of the country’s supreme leader and other top officials for what sounded like a loss of command and control in the armed forces in recent days.

The comments came as intense Iranian fire targeted the Gulf Arab states early Saturday as Israel and the United States kept up their airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic. There were repeated attacks Saturday morning on Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

There was no foreseeable end to the fighting. US President Donald Trump’s administration approved a new $US151 million arms sale to Israel after Trump said he would not negotiate with Iran without its “unconditional surrender” and US officials warned of a forthcoming bombing campaign they said would be the most intense yet in the weeklong conflict.

Gulf countries say they have intercepted more ballistic missiles and drones launched from Iran.

Saudi Arabia said it stopped four drones attacking the country’s massive Shaybah oil field, the second attack within hours. Flights in and out of Dubai International Airport were interrupted after passengers were ushered down into train tunnels as several blasts were heard and the alert sounded.

Dubai and its long-haul carrier Emirates said Saturday the airline would resume operations after temporarily halting them following an Iranian attack on the city-state.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a television interview on Friday, local time, that the “biggest bombing campaign” of the war was still to come.

Iran’s UN ambassador said the country would “take all necessary measures” to defend itself.

Associated Press video showed explosions flashing and smoke rising over western Tehran as Israel said it had begun a broad wave of strikes.

The US and Israel have battered Iran with strikes, targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. The stated goals and timelines for the war have repeatedly shifted, as the US has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran’s government or elevate new leadership from within.

The fighting has killed at least 1230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.

In a sign of the widening nature of the conflict, sirens sounded early Saturday in Bahrain as Iranian attacks targeted the island kingdom. And Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts US forces.

In Dubai, several blasts were heard Saturday morning and the government said it had activated air defences. Passengers waiting for flights out at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, found themselves ushered down into train tunnels at the sprawling airfield after the alert sounded.

Later that morning, long-haul carrier Emirates said that “all flights to and from Dubai have been suspended until further notice.”

Shortly after, the decision was reversed and the Emirates said the airline would resume operations. The news brought cheers in Dubai International Airport, where passengers had been sheltering after hearing a large boom overhead. Authorities have not explained if there was an interception or damage at the airport, which is the world’s busiest for international travel.

Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, warned in an interview with the Financial Times that the war could “bring down the economies of the world,” predicting a widespread shutdown of Gulf energy exports that could send oil to $150 a barrel.

The price for a barrel of benchmark US crude rose above $US90 on Saturday for the first time in more than two years.

Writing for the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera, a regional analyst warned Iran was making “a strategic miscalculation of historic proportions.” Al Jazeera, a pan-Arab satellite news network owned and funded by Qatar’s government, has been used in the past to signal Doha’s opinions on regional matters.

Sultan al-Khulaifi, a senior researcher at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, wrote: “By spreading the conflict to the Gulf, Tehran is doing precisely what Israel could not do alone: steering the war away from the Israeli-Iranian axis and transforming it into a confrontation between Iran and its Arab neighbors.”

On Saturday, the defence minister of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan’s army chief met to discuss ways to stop the attacks coming from Iran, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman, a son of King Salman, talked with Field Marshal Asim Munir in Riyadh about the Iranian attacks. Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a mutual defense pact that defines any attack on either nation as an attack on both.

Also early Saturday, incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters across Israel and loud booms sounded in Jerusalem. There were no immediate reports of casualties by Israel’s emergency services.

Mr Pezeshkian’s statement Saturday said the country’s three-man leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces over the attacks.

“I should apologise to the neighbouring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf,” the president said. “From now on they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked from those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.”

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has been at the forefront of the war, answers only to the country’s supreme leader. However, an Israeli airstrike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, at the start of the war Feb. 28.

Meanwhile, the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with an Israeli force that landed late Friday in the mountains of eastern Lebanon.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said Saturday that at least 16 people were killed in subsequent Israeli strikes and another 35 were wounded.

Israel did not acknowledge the fighting, and its military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Israel has carried out waves of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a large presence but which is also home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says over 200 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since Monday and over 800 wounded.