Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said his country is prepared to continue attacks for as long as necessary and ruled out talks after US President Donald Trump said the war would be over “very soon”.
Mr Trump’s remarks came after the Iran war sent stock markets slumping and oil prices soaring as Tehran, under new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, fired a fresh barrage of missiles at its Gulf neighbours and indicated that the strategic Strait of Hormuz would likely remain closed.
But Wall Street climbed into positive territory on Mr Trump’s signals of a short war, with Tokyo and Seoul also opening strongly despite the president’s continued threats to expand the campaign if Iran did not fall in line.
Oil prices also reversed course, falling as much as 5% a day after benchmark crude rocketed past $100 a barrel – its highest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“It’s going to be ended soon and if it starts up again, they’ll be hit even harder,” Mr Trump told a news conference in Florida after telling politicians that the campaign would be a “short term excursion”.
However, Mr Araghchi told PBS News: “the firings continues, and we are prepared. We are well prepared to continue attacking them with our missiles as long as needed and as long as it takes.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also responded to Trump that they would “determine the end of the war”.
And Araghchi effectively ruled out talks with Washington, saying Tehran had “a very bitter experience of talking with Americans.”
Recalling previous US attacks during earlier negotiations, he said: “I don’t think talking with Americans anymore would be on our agenda.”
Smoke rises from Tehran’s petroleum storage facilities after it was attacked
Mr Trump’s remarks came on the first day in power for Mr Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of assassinated former leader Ali Khamenei, with Iranian forces launching a fresh wave of missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Israel.
Another missile was also fired at NATO member Turkey, the second such incident in five days.
The alliance’s air defences intercepted it before it could reach its target.
France proposes ‘defensive’ mission to reopen Strait of Hormuz
Diplomatic efforts yesterday focused on the highly strategic Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked to nearly all oil tankers – sending shockwaves across the global economy.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country and its allies were working on a “purely defensive” mission to reopen the strait, through which nearly 20% of the world’s crude oil usually transits.
The mission would aim to escort ships “after the end of the hottest phase of the conflict”, but experts say it would mean putting naval vessels at risk of fire from the nearby Iranian coast.
Kamal Kharazi, a foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN that Tehran was calculating that economic pressure would eventually prompt other countries to intervene and end the war.
Donald Trump told reporters he was ‘disappointed’ about Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment
Iran faced a fresh wave of US and Israeli strikes after its Assembly of Experts, the top clerical body, appointed its first new supreme leader in 37 years.
Iranian state media carried images of tens of thousands of people celebrating Mr Khamenei’s selection in central Tehran, many carrying his picture.
Iran’s rebel Houthi allies in Yemen and the Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon pledged allegiance, while Russian President Vladimir Putin promised “unwavering support”.
Mr Trump told reporters he was “disappointed” about Mr Khamenei’s appointment, but remained open to a replacement from inside the country, citing the recent transition of power in Venezuela as “a formula that has been very good so far”.
Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, told AFP the new supreme leader was a hardliner who had “been involved in all the most violent repressions that have taken place over the last 15-16 years”.
Oil traders, policymakers and central bankers are all watching the Middle East for news about Gulf energy infrastructure, which is crucial for the world economy.
About 10 vessels in or near the Strait of Hormuz have come under attack since Iran blocked the waterway in retaliation for the US-Israeli strikes, shipping experts say.
Global shipping giant MSC announced it was formally halting some export shipments from the Gulf region, meaning goods sitting on ships would be unloaded.
An incoming Iranian missile in the sky over Tel Aviv
Following strikes on Bahrain’s Al Ma’ameer oil facility that ignited a fire, the country’s state-owned energy company Bapco joined its counterparts in Qatar and Kuwait in declaring “force majeure” – a warning that events beyond its control may lead it to miss export targets.
The Saudi defence ministry said yesterday that it had thwarted a drone attack targeting an oil field in the east, near the Emirati border.
In Bahrain, the interior ministry said an Iranian attack on a residential area in the capital Manama killed one person and injured others.
In Israel, earlier, around 10 explosions were audible in Tel Aviv after the military announced it had detected missiles inbound from Iran.
At least one Israeli was killed when he was hit by shrapnel, emergency services said.
Israel said it had struck an Iranian missile launcher shortly after a barrage fired from the Iran triggered air raid warnings in several Israeli areas.
The multi-front war also intensified in Lebanon, where Israeli and Hezbollah exchanges of fire since 2 March have killed at least 486 people and wounded more than 1,300.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Hezbollah of working to “collapse” the state, while the head of the group’s parliamentary bloc said it had “no other option … than the option of resistance”.
Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance attended the dignified transfer ceremony for the seventh soldier killed in the Middle East war.
US Army Sergeant Benjamin Pennington, 26, died 8 March from injuries sustained in a 1 March strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Vance, who declined to answer questions from the press, was joined by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, at Dover Air Force Base in the eastern state of Delaware.
The bodies of six other US soldiers – five men and one woman – have been returned to American soil.