ARAB NATIONS RESPOND TO IRANIAN REGIME WITH STRIKES
The UAE's Defence Ministry says it intercepted all 16 missiles, while a 17th fell into the sea. It says it intercepted most of the drones, but four fell in UAE territory. The ministry said it's ready to firmly confront the threats.
Iran's president earlier Sunday threatened to increase attacks on U.S. targets across the region in the face of ongoing Israeli and U.S. strikes.
The Emirati statement did not specify the locations of Sunday's attacks.
Also Sunday, Bahrain accused Iran of striking a desalination plant, raising fears that civilian infrastructure may become fair game in the war, as Iran's president vowed to expand the country's attacks on American targets across the region in the face of intense U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
A late-night Israeli strike on an oil facility engulfed parts of Iran's capital, Tehran, in smoke on Sunday, while Israel renewed attacks in Lebanon. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the nine-day-old campaign, which has rippled across the region and appears to have no end in sight.
This latest barrage from the barbaric Islamic regime in Iran only underscores the depths of their depravity, as they've long terrorised their own innocent civilians with brutal crackdowns, executions and suppression of basic freedoms, all while sowing chaos and bloodshed throughout the Middle East, Israel and the West through their relentless terrorism. For years, they've infiltrated universities, media outlets and political parties in the West via corrupt actors bankrolled by Qatar, spreading their poisonous ideology and undermining democracies from within. But now, even Qatar's taken fright, fearing they'll be next on the chopping block if the regime falls, so they've turned tail and started attacking Iran to signal to the USA and Israel that they're firmly on our side.
The Iranians have had their fun, propping up proxies like Hamas, which has now been utterly smashed, and Hezbollah, which is getting hammered daily, while the regime scrambles with yet another new Ayatollah and goodness knows how many replacement government ministers, as Israel cuts through their ranks like a hot knife through butter. It's our turn now to flex our muscles, and there'll be no more turns after this, because they'll be finished once and for all.
Highlighting the regime's utter hypocrisy, Muslim countries all around Iran are striking back hard now, after the regime apologised for earlier attacks on their soil, only to immediately resume bombing them without a shred of remorse.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian threatened on Sunday to step up attacks on American targets across the Middle East. He appeared to backtrack from conciliatory comments toward his Gulf neighbours on Saturday. Those comments, in which he apologised for attacks on their soil, were quickly contradicted by Iranian hard-liners.
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes pushed the death toll to above 300 after Israel ordered tens of thousands to evacuate ahead of an offensive aimed at stamping out the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The war, which Israel and the United States launched with airstrikes on Feb. 28, has so far killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 300 in Lebanon and about a dozen in Israel, according to officials. Six U.S. troops have also been killed.
The conflict has rattled global markets, disrupted air travel and left Iran's leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament, said on Sunday that the war's effect on the oil industry would continue to spiral, warning it could soon become harder to both produce and sell oil.
Some regional producers, including in Iraq, have already curbed output amid dangers in the Strait of Hormuz.
When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be, Pezeshkian said in video comments Sunday. Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression, and it never has.
The remarks, starkly different in tone, came a day after Pezeshkian said Iran regretted regional concerns caused by Iranian strikes and urged neighbouring states not to take part in U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran.
While multiple Gulf states reported intercepting more incoming missiles and drones from Iran, Pezeshkian said the country wasn't looking to battle them and accused the U.S. of trying to pit countries against one another.
Iranian hard-liners quickly contradicted those remarks. Judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on X, the geography of some countries in the region, both overtly and covertly, is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue.
Mohseni-Ejei and Pezeshkian are part of a three-member leadership council that has overseen Iran since an earlier strike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Pezeshkian's remarks Sunday reinforced pledges that Iran would not surrender despite U.S. and Israeli threats, with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying their aim remains the replacement of Iran's leaders.
We're not looking to settle, Trump told reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One. They'd like to settle. We're not looking to settle.
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