{"id":330037,"date":"2026-03-14T23:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T23:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/330037\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T23:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T23:58:12","slug":"iran-says-us-attacked-it-from-the-uae-as-war-enters-a-third-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/330037\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran says US attacked it from the UAE as war enters a third week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran issued an evacuation warning for three major ports in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, including the busiest in the Middle East, openly threatening a neighbouring country’s non-US assets for the first time as its war with the US and Israel<\/a> entered its third week.<\/p>\n

Iran said the US had used \u201cports, docks and hideouts\u201d in the UAE to launch strikes on Iran\u2019s Kharg Island<\/a>, without providing evidence. It urged people to evacuate areas where it said US forces were sheltering.<\/p>\n

Hours after the threat, there was no sign of an attack on Dubai\u2019s Jebel Ali port \u2014 the Mideast\u2019s busiest \u2014 or the Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi. But Associated Press images showed a fire at the third port, in Fujairah, caused by debris from an intercepted Iranian drone hitting an oil facility.<\/p>\n

Iran says the US attacked from close to Dubai<\/p>\n

\"Iran's<\/p>\n

Iran’s Kharg Island, located in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told MS NOW that the US attacked Kharg Island and Abu Musa Island with low-range artillery from two locations in the UAE, Ras Al-Khaimah and a place \u201cvery close to Dubai\u201d, calling that dangerous and saying Iran \u201cwill try to be careful not to attack any populated area\u201d there.<\/p>\n

Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Gulf neighbours during the war, but it said it was targeting US assets, even as hits or attempts were reported on civilian ones such as airports and oil fields.<\/p>\n

On Friday (local time), US President Donald Trump said the US \u201cobliterated\u201d military sites on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran’s oil exports. He said oil infrastructure could be next if Tehran continues to interfere with ships\u2019 passage through the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, where vessels are backed up, and one-fifth of global oil supplies usually transit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker has said strikes against the country\u2019s oil infrastructure would provoke a new level of retaliation.<\/p>\n

As global anxiety soars over oil prices and supplies, Trump said Saturday that he hopes China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz \u201copen and safe\u201d. Britain, in response, said it was discussing with allies a \u201crange of options\u201d to secure shipping.<\/p>\n

Iran repeats threat against US-linked oil assets<\/p>\n

\"Plumes<\/p>\n

Plumes of smoke rise after debris from an intercepted Iranian drone struck an oil facility, according to authorities, in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Iran\u2019s joint military command reiterated its threat to attack US-linked \u201coil, economic and energy infrastructures\u201d in the region if the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure is hit.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s semiofficial Fars news agency said the Kharg Island strikes caused no damage to oil infrastructure. It said they targeted an air defence facility, a naval base, the airport control tower and an offshore oil company\u2019s helicopter hangar.<\/p>\n

US Central Command said it destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and other military sites.<\/p>\n

Israel earlier announced another wave of strikes in Iran targeting infrastructure, and said its air force had hit more than 200 targets in the last 24 hours, including missile launchers, defence systems and weapons production sites.<\/p>\n

Marines and an assault ship will add to US forces<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli. (Source: US Navy)<\/p>\n

A US official said Friday that 2500 more Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli are being sent to the Middle East, adding to the military\u2019s largest buildup of warships and aircraft in the region in decades. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.<\/p>\n

Marine Expeditionary Units are able to conduct amphibious landings but also specialise in bolstering security at embassies, evacuating civilians and providing disaster relief. The deployment doesn’t necessarily indicate that a ground operation will take place. The Wall Street Journal first reported the Marine deployment.<\/p>\n

The Tripoli was spotted by commercial satellites sailing near Taiwan, putting it more than a week away from the waters off Iran.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, the Navy had 12 ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and eight destroyers, in the Arabian Sea. The total number of US service members on the ground in the Middle East isn’t clear.<\/p>\n

Another attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad<\/p>\n

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the strike on the embassy’s helipad. The embassy complex, one of the largest US diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones fired by Iran-aligned militias.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate comment from the embassy. On Friday, it renewed its Level 4 security alert for Iraq, warning that Iran and Iran-aligned militia groups have previously carried out attacks against US citizens, interests and infrastructure and \u201cmay continue to target them\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran issued an evacuation warning for three major ports in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, including the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,5107,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-330037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}