The Iran war exploded further on Saturday night as flames rose above an oil storage facility in Tehran and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised “many surprises” for the next phase of the week-old conflict.
Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump said he has ruled out having Kurds join the Iran war.
Trump said Kurdish fighters in the region are willing to assist in efforts to topple the Iranian government, but their involvement would make the conflict more complicated.
“The war is complicated enough without having – getting the Kurds involved,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One.
Iranian state media confirmed the oil facility strike.
Israel’s military confirmed new strikes that shook neighbourhoods in Tehran’s east and south but did not immediately comment on targets.
It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.
State media blamed “an attack from the US and the Zionist regime” at the facility that supplies the capital and neighbouring provinces in the north.
People in Tehran look on as smoke billows into the sky on Saturday night following a recent strike. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times 
Milad Tower, the tallest tower in Iran at 435m, is backlit following air strikes on Tehran on Saturday night. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian apologised for attacks on “neighbouring countries”, even as its missiles and drones flew towards Gulf Arab states and hardliners asserted that Tehran’s war strategy would not budge.
“I personally apologise to neighbouring countries that were affected by Iran’s actions,” Pezeshkian said, urging them not to join US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
He dismissed Trump’s demand for the Islamic Republic’s unconditional surrender as “a dream”.
Trump nonetheless cast Iran’s apology as a surrender, earlier saying the country would be “hit very hard” on Saturday and warned the US could widen its attacks.
Netanyahu meanwhile said in a televised address that Israel “still has many more targets” to strike in Iran “to destabilise the regime and allow for change,” appearing to suggest that there was no immediate end in sight to the war as it entered its second week.
“We are continuing at full power,” he told the Israeli public.
Netanyahu added that the decision to go to war with Iran was motivated, in part, by the Iranian government’s decision to move its nuclear and missile projects so far underground that they would be “immune to any assault”.
He repeated a slogan that has become a touchstone for him since the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attacks on southern Israel that incited the crisis of the past 2½ years: “We are changing the face of the Middle East.”
Rocket trails are seen in the sky above Netanya, Israel, on Saturday. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty
Israel also warned Lebanon of a “disastrous” fallout if it did not rein in Iran-backed Hizbullah on Saturday, as it pounded the group’s strongholds around the country with air strikes and mounted a deadly airborne raid in the east.
Pezeshkian’s earlier apology caused a political stir in Iran, prompting his office to reiterate Iran’s military would respond firmly to attacks from US bases in the region.
Hours later, the president repeated his statement on social media but left out the apology from his speech that had angered hardliners, including the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
The Revolutionary Guards said their drones struck a US air combat centre at Al Dhafra Air Base, near Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Reuters could not independently verify that report. Dubai authorities said a man was killed in the western Al Barsha area after debris from an aerial interception fell on to a vehicle.
Authorities confirm that debris resulting from a successful interception caused a minor incident on the façade of a tower in Dubai Marina. The situation has been contained. No injuries were reported.
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) March 7, 2026
Authorities confirm that debris from an aerial interception fell onto a vehicle in the Al Barsha area, resulting in the death of a Pakistani driver.
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) March 7, 2026
The Revolutionary Guards also targeted US forces at a base in Bahrain, Iranian state media reported. Blasts were heard in Doha, a Reuters witness said.
Earlier, the Emirates airline briefly suspended flights to and from Dubai, with the authorities citing a minor incident resulting from a fall of debris after an interception. Dubai authorities also said debris from a third interception caused an incident on the facade of a tower in the Dubai Marina and that no injuries were reported.
A Dublin-bound Emirates flight was delayed as result of the disruption at Dubai airport but was expected to land back in the capital around 1am on Sunday. A separate Government chartered flight bringing Irish citizens seeking to return home from Gulf region left Muscat in Oman on Saturday afternoon.
The US-Israeli war on Iran has already spilled beyond Iran’s borders, as Tehran has responded by hitting Israel and Gulf Arab states hosting US military installations and Israel has launched fresh attacks in Lebanon after the Iran-aligned militia Hizbullah fired across the border.
Fires burn at the site of air strikes at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on Saturday. Photograph: Sepehr-M/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty
Gulf states voiced outrage that their civilian infrastructure – hotels, ports and oil facilities – was struck despite their having had no part in the US-Israeli attacks.
The UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Iraq have all reported drone or missile attacks over the past week.
“The UAE has thick skin and bitter flesh – we are no easy prey,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE president, said on Friday when visiting those injured in strikes. The comments were aired on Abu Dhabi TV on Saturday and were his first public comments since the Iranian strikes against the Gulf.
With the conflict spreading, Israel warned Lebanon of a “very heavy price” if it did not rein in Hizbullah, as it pounded the group’s strongholds with air strikes and mounted a deadly airborne raid in the east.
On Saturday morning, more buildings in the Hizbullah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut had been reduced to mounds of smoking rubble, dust and tangled wires, Reuters video showed.
Heavy Israeli bombardment had followed an evacuation order for civilians. The total death toll from Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since Monday has risen to 294, the health ministry said.
The US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani. Iranian attacks have killed 10 people in Israel, and at least six US service members have been killed.
A destroyed Lebanese neighbourhood after overnight Israeli air and ground raids in the village of Nabi Chit on Saturday. Photograph: David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
Iran’s apparent strategy of maximum chaos has driven up the costs of the conflict by raising energy prices, hurting global business and logistics links and shaking trust in the stability of a critical region for the world’s economy. Kuwait’s national oil company began cutting output on Saturday, adding to earlier oil and gas cuts from Iraq and Qatar.
The war has roiled global markets and oil prices have hit multiyear highs with the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut. Trump has said the US navy could escort ships in the Gulf. But Iran’s Revolutionary Guards challenged him to do so, with spokesperson Alimohammad Naini saying Iran “welcomes” and is “awaiting” any US presence in the strait, state media said.
Trump reiterated his demand for a say in selecting Iran’s new supreme leader, a notion rejected by Iravani. Hardline clerics have called for the swift selection of a new supreme leader, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Ayatollah Hossein Mozafari, one of the 88-member assembly of experts, the clerical body charged with choosing the next leader, was quoted as saying the assembly could meet in the next 24 hours to decide.
“President Pezeshkian’s openness to de-escalation within our region – provided that our neighbours’ airspace, territory, and waters are not used to attack the Iranian People – was almost immediately killed by President Trump’s misinterpretation of our capabilities, determination and intent,” said Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi in a statement.
“If Mr Trump seeks escalation, it is precisely what our Powerful Armed Forces have long been prepared for, and what he will get.” – Agencies
– Agencies