This article is from: srnnews.com
U.S. President Donald Trump warned in a Truth Social post that more Iranian officials will be targets, saying, “Today Iran will be hit very hard!,” while noting an apology by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier in the day to neighboring nations over Tehran’s attacks. Even with the apology, Gulf countries say they have intercepted more ballistic missiles and drones launched from Iran.
Here is the latest:
President Trump doesn’t want Kurdish fighters to enter Iran war
He told reporters aboard Air Force One that he’s ruled out having Kurds join Iran war.
Trump says Kurdish fighters in region are willing to assist in efforts to topple the Iranian government, but there involvement would make the conflict more complicated.
“The war is complicated enough without having– getting the Kurds involved,” Trump said.
Drone intercepted in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh city
A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said late Saturday that a drone was intercepted and destroyed east of Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh.
Iranian security official claims leadership has ‘no divisions’
Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani has spoken in an address carried by state media. He asserted that “our leaders are united on this issue and have no disagreements with one another. We have no divisions among ourselves in fighting Israel and the United States.”
He spoke after President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized for attacks on “neighboring countries” but other Iranian officials suggested that war strategy would not change.
Iran remains without a supreme leader.
Some movement on selection of a supreme leader
Larijani also said the three-member leadership council overseeing Iran has requested that “arrangements be made to convene the Assembly of Experts to choose the next supreme leader of the country.” He did not say when.
Iranians leave Lebanon over escalating conflict
The families of Iranian embassy staff left Saturday, along with teachers and students from an Iranian school and a number of other Iranians residing in Lebanon, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
It said the move was made “due to the current security situation in Lebanon as a result of the brutal attacks launched by the Zionist entity against the country, and out of concern for the safety and security of our citizens residing in Lebanon.”
It said that consular services will continue for Iranians remaining in Lebanon.
Days earlier, the Israeli military issued a warning to “representatives of the Iranian terrorist regime still in Lebanon to leave immediately before they are targeted.” On Friday, an Israeli strike landed near the Iranian embassy in Beirut.
Iraqi prime minister condemns targeting of US embassy
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called an attack launched on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Saturday a “terrorist act” carried out by “rogue groups” and said he had issued orders to military and security agencies to pursue those responsible.
Iraqi security earlier said that a missile had landed on the helicopter landing pad in the U.S. Embassy complex in Baghdad. There were no casualties reported. An embassy spokesperson declined to comment. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses government offices and diplomatic missions has been attacked in the past, but this was the first reported strike to land in the week since Israel and the U.S. began striking Tehran, triggering a war in the Middle East.
Iran and allied Iraqi militias have launched dozens of attacks on U.S. military bases and other facilities in Iraq since then. They have also struck bases of Iranian Kurdish dissident groups with operations in northern Iraq.
Turkish FM: Rubio denies plan for Kurdish incursion to Iran
Hakan Fidan said he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio who said a scheme for Iranian Kurdish forces based in northern Iraq to attack Iran was “not their intention.”
Speaking as a news conference in Istanbul, Fidan said Rubio’s comments came in a recent phone call. Instead the minister accused Israel of using Kurdish groups as “a proxy” in the region.
Strategies that “aim to create ethnic rivalry or an ethnic conflict in Iran would be something we oppose because it would be the most dangerous scenario,” Fidan said, adding that Turkey had been talking to Kurdish leaders to prevent such a “historic mistake.”
He refused to be drawn on efforts to mediate between Iran and the U.S. except to say Turkey had been involved in “intense diplomatic traffic” to produce a “formula to end this war.”
Oil refinery fire lights up night sky in Tehran
Massive plumes of flames lit up the sky in Tehran on Saturday night after the Iranian state news agency said that an oil storage facility was targeted in latest round of strikes. AP video showed the horizon glowing, then pillars of flame and billowing smoke.
It is among the first times a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war. Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the targets of the latest strike, but said Israel had recently launched another round of strikes in Tehran. Iran state media in response threatened to hit oil refineries in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
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