By Parisa Hafezi and Maya Gebeily
DUBAI/BEIRUT, March 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump derided Iran’s leaders as “deranged scumbags” and said it was his great honor to kill them as the war in the Middle East approached the two-week mark on Friday with heavy exchanges of drone and missile strikes across the region.
The conflict, which began with joint Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran at the end of February, has killed more than 2,000 people, disrupted the lives of millions of others and shaken energy and financial markets across the globe.
In a post on social media late on Friday, Trump said the U.S. was “totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran”.
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time – Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” Trump said.
“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”
New Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first comments on Thursday, vowed to keep the key energy chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz shut and called on neighboring countries to close U.S. bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.
“I assure everyone that we will not neglect avenging the blood of your martyrs,” said the hardline cleric, who replaced his father after he was killed in Israel’s initial strikes. His comments were read out by a television presenter and it was not clear why he did not appear in person. Iranian officials have said he had been lightly wounded and Trump has said he thinks he is alive but “damaged”.
ISRAEL SAYS IT STRUCK 200 TARGETS IN IRAN IN PAST DAY
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also held his first news conference since the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran started on February 28, issuing a veiled threat to kill new Khamenei and defending the military assault.
“I will not detail the actions we are taking. We are creating the optimal conditions for toppling the regime but I won’t deny that I can’t tell you with all certainty that the people of Iran will topple the regime – a regime is toppled from the inside,” Netanyahu said on Thursday.
“But we can definitely help and we are helping.”
The Israel Defense Forces said on Friday its air force struck more than 200 targets in western and central Iran over the past day, including ballistic missile launchers, air defence systems and weapons production sites, as part of its operation dubbed Operation Roar of the Lion.
Multiple explosions and the sound of fighter jets were heard in Karaj, west of Tehran on Friday, said Iranian state media.
Israel said its military struck a bridge over the Litani River in Lebanon because it was a key crossing used by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. It appeared to be the first time in the current campaign against Hezbollah that the Israeli military acknowledged it had targeted civilian infrastructure.
Iran launched its own barrage of missiles and drones overnight, undermining earlier U.S. and Israeli claims to have knocked out much of Iran’s stock of long-range weapons.
An Iranian missile struck a Bedouin Arab town in northern Israel near Nazareth, according to the military, heavily damaging several homes. Israel’s ambulance service said 58 people were injured, including one person in moderate condition with shrapnel wounds. The rest sustained minor injuries.
In Iraq, U.S. Central Command said it was carrying out rescue efforts after one of its refueling aircraft went down in an incident that involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said one soldier had died and several were wounded during an attack in northern Iraq, hours after an Italian base was also targeted in the area.
In central Dubai, debris from a successful interception also caused minor damage to the façade of a building, the emirate’s media office said early on Friday, adding that no injuries were reported. The office did not specify the exact location of the incident. A witness said the damage occurred at a building close to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
Earlier this week, banks including Citigroup and Standard Chartered told staff to work from home and began evacuating some Dubai offices, including in the DIFC, after Iran threatened Gulf banking interests linked to the United States and Israel, according to sources and a memo seen by Reuters.
STOCKS DOWN, OIL PRICES UP
Two tankers were set ablaze in the Iraqi port of Basra earlier this week after being hit by suspected Iranian explosive-laden boats and other ships have been struck in the Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz. Drones and missiles have also regularly struck buildings and other infrastructure in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.
The prospect that one of the most severe disruptions ever to global energy supplies could endure sent oil prices up about 9% to $100 a barrel on Thursday, helping drive down U.S. stocks. Shares in Asia were under pressure again on Friday and oil prices remained well supported.
In an effort to stabilize global energy markets, the U.S. on Thursday issued a 30-day license for countries to buy Russian oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea.
“The temporary increase in oil prices is a short-term and temporary disruption that will result in a massive benefit to our nation and economy in the long-term,” Bessent said in the statement, echoing earlier comments from Trump.
U.S. POLITICAL FALLOUT
Trump, who has already declared that the U.S. and Israel won the war, said the United States stood to make significant money from oil prices driven higher because of supply issues tied to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil normally passes.
“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.” Stopping Iran from having nuclear weapons was far more important, he said on social media.
Trump’s comments angered opposition Democrats, who accused the Republican president of caring too little about the war’s impact on average Americans and demanded more information about civilian casualties, particularly a strike that killed dozens of children at an Iranian girls’ school.
Trump’s administration has not provided a public assessment of the expected cost or duration of the war, which is unpopular with the American public, or a strategy for Iran after the fighting stops. The president and top aides have also given conflicting reasons for starting the fight.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Patricia Zengerle and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Michael Perry)
Comments