Analysis: how should we interpret Pezeshkian’s statement?
Patrick Wintour
The announcement by Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian that Iran will no longer attack Gulf and neighbouring states if they are not attacking Iran appears on the surface a significant change in tactics, reflecting the overpowering diplomatic pressure Iran was under to change course, or risk uniting the whole of the Arab world against Iran. It would be an admission that Iran’s current military strategy is heading for diplomatic disaster.
But the precise implications of his announcement remains open to interpretation. An Iranian armed forces spokesperson seemed to qualify its meaning heavily by saying:
double quotation markStrikes against the US and Israeli assets will continue. So far, we have targeted every base that was the origin of aggression against Iran and we remain committed to this matter. Countries that have not provided space and facilities to the United States and the Zionist regime have not been our target so far and will not be targeted in the future.
If the armed forces believe countries simply providing land, in terms of bases, remain legitimate targets, then effectively nothing has changed since there are US bases in almost every Gulf State. What Pezeshkian seemed to imply is that these countries will not be attacked if the US bases and airspace are not being used to attack Iran, an altogether different proposition.
Whether this reflects an internal disagreement, a reinterpretation of the decision taken by Pezeshkian and other members of Iran’s temporary executive council or simply a more hardline way of explaining the political leadership’s decision, time will tell. It is a test of where power lies in Iran in wartime.
But it was significant too that Pezeshkian chose to apologise and to argue Iran wanted to be on the right side of international law. Many lawyers claimed Iran’s attacks on US bases in the region could be justified as acts of self-defence, but the wider attacks on Gulf infrastructure and oil installations could not.
If Pezeshkian’s promise is translated into reality then Iran hopes the path to reunite the region and the focus can shift back to what it regards as the injustice of the US attacks in the midst of diplomacy.
The pressure to relent has been coming from all the Gulf states, but notably countries that have tried to be close to Iran, including Oman, Turkey and Qatar. Some of the phone conversations have been said to be seething.
Updated at 05.23 EST
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Donald Trump plans to attend the dignified transfer for the six US soldiers killed in the Middle East. On Saturday afternoon, Trump will join their mourning families at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base as the soldiers’ remains return to the US.
Trump said at an event in Miami before his trip to Delaware that the fallen service members were heroes “coming home in a different manner than they thought they’d be coming home,” according to Associated Press. He said it was “a very sad situation” and he pledged to keep American war deaths “to a minimum.”
Those killed in action were Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, California; Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who was posthumously promoted from specialist.
The six members of the Army Reserve, who were killed by a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait, were all from the 103rd Sustainment Command based in Des Moines, Iowa, which provides food, fuel, water and ammunition, transport equipment and supplies. They died just one day after the US and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran.
Iran’s parliament speaker said Saturday that the attack on a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm island was carried out with support from one of the airbases in a southern neighboring country.
He did not name the country. “The crime will receive a proportionate response,” he said.
Updated at 12.14 EST
In a brief statement published on social media, Qatar’s ministry of defense announced it had intercepted incoming missile fire. This statement follows a week of Iranian strikes targeting oil refineries and US military installations across several Gulf states, including Qatar.
Updated at 11.59 EST
Helena Smith
Over in Cyprus, hundreds have taken to the streets of Nicosia, the capital, to protest against the presence of British military bases on the Mediterranean island.
Chanting “Out with the bases of death!” and “Ay oh, British bases got to go!”, demonstrators marched to the presidential palace to protest against installations that were established as part of a negotiated independence deal for the former colony in 1960.
“They are a danger to our security and should never have been here in the first place,” said Mathaios Stavrinides, holding a giant banner proclaiming: “Cyprus is not your launchpad.”
“At the time [of their establishment] we had no negotiating power. The treaty was signed under duress. In return for independence we were forced to sign off around 3% of our land for the British to have their military bases. Since then, they have been used in countless bombing campaigns across the region and now because of our proximity when they’re targeted they immediately put the [Republic of Cyprus] in danger. We want them closed.”
Mathaios Stavrinides (left) holds anti-British base banner as protesters march through Nicosia. Photograph: Helena Smith/The GuardianShare
Updated at 11.44 EST
UAE is ‘no easy prey’, says president in first public comments since Iran strikes
Reuters news agency has reported remarks by the president of the UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, in his first public comments since Iran launched retaliatory strikes at the Gulf nation.
“The UAE has thick skin and bitter flesh – we are no easy prey,” he said.
“We will carry out our duty towards our country, our people, and our residents who are also part of our family.”
Trump said he intends to keep US deaths in the Iran war “to a minimum”, as he prepares to attend the “dignified transfer” of the six US troops killed during the conflict.
He will join grieving families at Dover air force base in Delaware later today for the dignified transfer, a ritual in honour of US troops killed during their military service.
The six American service members were killed in an unmanned aircraft system attack in the Shuaiba port in Kuwait on Sunday.
In a further update, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the US has begun to use British bases “for specific defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles into the region”, which it says is “putting British lives at risk”.
The MoD added that a Merlin helicopter is also on its way to the region, where it will be “providing additional airborne surveillance and further reinforcing our defensive capabilities”.
The UAE defence minstry reported new missile and drone attacks as Iran continued retaliatory attacks across the Gulf.
In a message on social media, the ministry said:
double quotation markThe UAE’s air defenses are currently dealing with missile and drone threats from Iran. The ministry of defence confirms that the sounds heard in various parts of the country are the result of air defence systems intercepting ballistic missiles and fighter jets intercepting drones and other aerial vehicles.
ShareIsrael strikes eastern Lebanon, killing dozens, after raid to recover IDF pilot’s remains fails
William Christou
An Israeli operation in eastern Lebanon to locate the remains of a famous IDF pilot ended in failure overnight, when the commandos were caught in a gunfight with Hezbollah and local residents, leading Israeli jets to pummel the area with airstrikes that killed dozens of people.
The fighting left three Lebanese soldiers and 41 residents of the Bekaa valley dead, according to the Lebanese army and ministry of health. No injuries were reported among the Israeli soldiers.
Two Israeli helicopters landed outside the towns of Nabi Chit and Khraibeh along the Syrian-Lebanese border in the eastern Bekaa valley at 10pm on Friday night, dropping off Israeli soldiers, according to the Lebanese army. The Israeli soldiers headed to a cemetery in Nabi Chit, and began to dig up a grave, where they suspected the remains of Ron Arad, an Israeli pilot who went missing in Lebanon in 1986, were held.
The Lebanese army detected the incursion and launched flares over the Israeli helicopters, a Lebanese army statement said, leading to a gun battle between Israeli forces, local residents and Hezbollah fighters.
Read the full report here:
In further remarks delivered at a summit of Latin American leaders in Miami, Trump said on a scale of one to 10, the progress of the US military campaign against Iran was a 15.
He said the US miliary action is “going to be something, a service that we’re really providing, not for the Middle East, but for the world”.
Of the Iranian regime, he said: “These were sick people, very sick people.”
Updated at 10.16 EST
The Israeli military said it targeted 16 Iranian aircraft at Tehran’s Mehrabad aiport, saying they belonged to the IRGC’s Quds Force responsible for overseas operations.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the airport was “a central hub for arming and funding the regime’s terrorist proxies in the Middle East”.
“The air force destroyed 16 aircraft of the Quds Force unit that transferred weaponry to the terrorist organisation Hezbollah,” the IDF said in a social media post.
“Also targeted were several Iranian fighter jets that posed a threat to Israeli air force aircraft operating in Iranian airspace.”
In an earlier statement, the Israeli military said more than 80 fighter jets struck “key Iranian regime military infrastructure” in Tehran and central Iran.
This screengrab obtained from a social media video shows a fire and heavy smoke in the direction of Mehrabad airport in Tehran. Photograph: Social Media/ReutersShareTrump: US strikes destroyed 42 Iranian navy ships
US President Donald Trump is now speaking in Florida to leaders of Latin American countries at his golf resort in Miami.
He said US strikes on Iran have significantly damaged the country’s military capabilities, claiming American forces have destroyed 42 Iranian navy ships in three days.
He presented the miliary campaign against Iran as a major success. Looking at his defence secretary Pete Hegseth, he said: “Pete, you are fantastic. You’re doing a great job. I’m proud of you.”