President Donald Trump said the US will consider striking areas and groups of people in Iran that were not previously considered targets, escalating a week-long war that\u2019s upended energy markets and reverberated worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cToday Iran will be hit very hard!\u201d Trump said in a social media post in the early hours of Saturday, as the US and Israel bombarded Tehran and other cities for an eighth day. The attacks will continue \u201cuntil they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse!\u201d<\/p>\n
The post came after Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed not to back down as Tehran maintained missile strikes on Israel and Gulf states hosting American military forces. \u201cThe idea that we would surrender unconditionally \u2014 they must take such a dream to the grave,\u201d he said in a speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pezeshkian \u2014 who sits on the three-man interim leadership council after US and Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28 \u2014 said he\u2019s told the military\u00a0not to attack<\/a>\u00a0any nation that isn\u2019t striking the Islamic Republic. He apologized to neighboring countries, without being specific, calling them \u201cour brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n The conciliatory language wasn\u2019t backed by action, as Iran launched drones and missiles at Qatar and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates said it continued to fend off projectiles. Kuwait, OPEC\u2019s fifth-biggest producer,\u00a0reduced<\/a>\u00a0oil and refinery production, citing the \u201congoing aggression by the Islamic Republic of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia\u00a0intercepted drones<\/a>\u00a0that were heading toward a major oil field, the latest energy asset to be targeted in a conflict that\u2019s triggered a surge in crude and gas prices. \u00a0<\/p>\n Trump said the US is giving \u201cserious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran\u2019s bad behavior\u201d to \u201careas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.\u201d He seized on Pezeshkian\u2019s apology, saying he was forced into it by \u201cthe relentless U.S. and Israeli attack.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pezeshkian may have been referring to Azerbaijan, after Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied responsibility for missiles fired at the country\u2019s northern neighbor earlier in the conflict. \u00a0<\/p>\n Iranian media, including the semi-official Jamaran news agency, were quick to interpret Trump\u2019s post as a threat to civilians. So far, US and Israeli attacks appear to have focused on military and government sites rather than a full-scale bombing of cities and infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n Iran has still reported at least 1,332 people killed in the war so far, alongside widespread destruction. Six US troops have died, all of them in the first two days of fighting.<\/p>\n The exchange came a week after the US and Israel began striking the Islamic Republic in a war that shows no sign of letting up. The conflict has disrupted global supply chains and stoked fears of a new inflation crisis, while more than a dozen countries have been sucked into the fray.<\/p>\n Read More:\u00a0Energy Price Shock From Iran War Exposes Europe\u2019s Weakness<\/a><\/p>\n German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned the US and Israel against waging an\u00a0\u201cendless war\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that could lead to the disintegration of Iran, a new migration crisis in Europe and lasting economic damage. Saudi Arabia\u00a0stepped up<\/a>\u00a0direct engagement with Tehran in a bid to de-escalate tensions, according to several European officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Assembly of Experts plans to hold a session to elect a new supreme leader within the next 24 hours, Iran\u2019s semi-official Fars reported. Mojtaba Khamenei, the slain leader\u2019s second-oldest son, is in the running.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Trump administration pushed back against worries around surging energy costs as a result of the war, with US gasoline prices rising to the highest since September 2024. US crude futures ended the week above $90 a barrel \u2014 more than $20 higher than last Friday \u2014 and notched the biggest weekly percentage gain on record in data going back to the 1980s.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prices for liquefied natural gas have also surged after Qatar, one of the world\u2019s biggest producers of the fuel, was forced to shut a major plant.<\/p>\n Shipping<\/a> through the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a critical chokepoint for global oil and gas flows \u2014 remains at a\u00a0near-total halt<\/a>\u00a0and energy exporters are scrambling\u00a0for routes<\/a>\u00a0out of the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOil prices would likely exceed $100 next week if no signs of solutions emerge by then,\u201d Goldman Sachs analysts including Daan Struyven wrote on Friday. There\u2019s a risk that 2008 and 2022 peaks could be exceeded, especially for refined products, if flows through the strait remain depressed through March, they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Iran on Friday warned that it would strike US- and Israel-linked ships in the strait. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia\u00a0is diverting<\/a>\u00a0millions of barrels of crude to a port on its Red Sea<\/a> coast, helping the world\u2019s top exporter maintain some supplies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read More:\u00a0Trump Faces Criticism From UAE Business Community Over Iran War<\/a><\/p>\n Gulf states \u201cdid not choose this war,\u201d Khalaf Al Habtoor, a Dubai billionaire and hotel tycoon, posted on X<\/a> on Saturday, reflecting a broad pushback against the conflict around the region. \u201cWe will not accept our homelands being turned into a battleground.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump hosted defense industry executives at the White House on Friday to underscore the need to step up the production of critical weapons systems. They agreed to\u00a0\u201cquadruple\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the output of the most expensive US hardware, Trump posted on social media after the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n With no clear timeline for the end of military operations, countries in Europe and Asia have been moving to bolster the region\u2019s defenses. NATO said it was boosting its missile\u00a0defense posture<\/a>following the downing on Wednesday of an Iranian missile heading toward\u00a0Turkish airspace<\/a>.<\/p>\n Israel unleashed a wave of airstrikes on Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs and expanded its ground presence inside Lebanon on Friday,\u00a0stepping up a parallel campaign<\/a>\u00a0against the Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah. Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said at least 120 people have been killed there. \u00a0<\/p>\n Airlines remain hamstrung by the conflict, with the\u00a0number of canceled flights<\/a>\u00a0to Middle East hubs surpassing 27,000 since fighting began. Thousands of passengers\u00a0remained stranded<\/a>\u00a0in the Gulf region, although on Friday Emirates said it\u2019s aiming for a return to full network operations in coming days.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump said the US will consider striking areas and groups of people in Iran that were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,87,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-327177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}