Iran’s secretive top leader vows to keep up attacks in his first statement since being appointed
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s secretive new supreme leader on Thursday vowed to keep up attacks on Gulf Arab countries and use the effective closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the United States and Israel. It was his first public statement since being chosen to succeed his father, who was killed in an Israeli strike.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who Israel suspects was wounded in the opening salvo of the war, has not appeared in public since then. In the statement read by a state TV news anchor, he vowed to avenge those killed in the war, including in a strike on a school that killed over 165 people.
The statement signaled a willingness to continue the war that has disrupted global energy supplies, international travel and the relative safety enjoyed by the Gulf Arab states. Iran’s unrelenting attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf had earlier pushed oil back above $100 a barrel.
Both sides dig in as fighting escalates
U.S. and Israeli strikes have exacted a heavy toll on Iran’s leadership, military and ballistic missile program but have failed to topple the government, which U.S. President Donald Trump has at times suggested is his goal.
Iran is trying to inflict enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to halt their bombardment, which began on Feb. 28. Those strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — Mojtaba’s father — and the younger Khamenei’s wife.
Trump has meanwhile promised to “finish the job,” even though he claimed Iran is “virtually destroyed.” He said in a social media post Thursday that ensuring Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon was a higher priority than soaring oil prices.
The U.S. military said Thursday that American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.
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 U.N. 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. Around 800,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon, prompting fears of a humanitarian crisis.
Khamenei warns of ‘opening other fronts’ if war continues
Khamenei’s first statement signaled a continuation of his late father’s strategy in confronting the United States and Israel. He called on Gulf Arabs to “shut down” U.S. bases in the region, saying protection promised by Washington was “nothing more than a lie.”
He also said Iran has studied “opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable” if the war continues. He did not elaborate, but Iran has been linked to previous attacks on U.S., Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.
Khamenei is close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and is widely seen as even less compromising than his father. His location is unknown, and he is likely a prime target for the U.S. and Israel.
In addition to attacking energy infrastructure across the region, Iran has also effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil flows.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose another 9% to more than $100 a barrel, up some 38% over what it cost when the war started. Prices have swung back and forth in recent days, at one point surging to around $120 a barrel.
Israel and Hezbollah trade heavy fire
It was a sleepless night for many in Israel and Lebanon as Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets into Israel, according to the Israeli military. Israeli warplanes carried out simultaneous airstrikes on areas in Beirut’s southern suburbs and struck a car near the capital.
“The noise was extraordinary, it was really scary,” said Naama Porat, a resident of the rural Israeli community of Klil, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) 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.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon that if its government does not prevent Hezbollah from attacking, Israel “will take the territory and do it ourselves.”
Lebanon’s government has ramped up calls for Hezbollah to disarm since the group’s last war with Israel was halted by a 2024 ceasefire, and earlier this month declared Hezbollah’s military activities illegal. But it has been reluctant to confront the militants directly.
Israel strikes building in central Beirut
Later Thursday, the Israeli military struck a building in a busy residential and commercial district in central Beirut after issuing a warning for residents to evacuate. The strike hit in a neighborhood that is close to Lebanon’s parliament, United Nations offices and international embassies.
The building in Beirut’s Bashoura district was struck twice. It is parallel to main streets and busy intersections in the Lebanese capital near newly opened restaurants and bars. It was the closest to hit downtown Beirut during the current conflict.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said they were targeting a “facility affiliated with Hezbollah.”
Israel’s military on 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 35 miles (56 kilometers) away from the border with Israel. The Israeli military said Thursday night it had begun another wave of strikes on Beirut targeting Hezbollah.
Separately, Israel said it struck a nuclear facility in Iran in recent days that it had destroyed with an airstrike in October 2024. Earlier this year, satellite photos raised concerns that Iran was working to restore the facility.
The U.S. and Israel say that destroying whatever remains of Iran’s nuclear program is one of the central aims of the war. They have long suspected Iran seeks nuclear weapons, while the Islamic Republic says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Iran fires at Gulf Arab countries and hits ship in Persian Gulf
British officials said several U.S. personnel were injured in drone strikes in northern Iraq on Wednesday night.
Brig. Guy Foden said a number of drones hit a base in Erbil that houses both British and American troops. Another officer, Lt. Gen. Nick Perry, said there were no British casualties, while the U.S. sustained some casualties but “nothing too serious.”
More drone strikes were also reported in Bahrain, Kuwait, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking in Turkey, called for de-escalation and dialogue to end the war, saying that “as always, the most vulnerable are being hurt first and worst.”
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Melzer reported from Mitzpe Hila, Israel, Rising from Bangkok and Corder from The Hague, Netherlands. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AlJoud and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, and Jill Lawless in London, contributed to this report.