Iran’s President Massoud Pezeshkian on Saturday apologized to neighboring countries for launching attacks on their soil where U.S. military bases are located. A few hours later, the Iranian judiciary chief said strikes would continue in Gulf countries that are “at the disposal of the enemy.”
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait have all reported attacks.
In Iran, oil depots were hit by intense U.S.-Israeli aerial bombardment, the BBC reported. The IDF said it struck several fuel storage complexes in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Israel’s military also said it targeted commanders of Iran’s elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards with strikes in Lebanon, including on the capital Beirut. The IDF said 27 waves of strikes were carried out in Beirut.
“The commanders of the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps operated to advance terror attacks against the state of Israel and its civilians, while operating simultaneously for the IRGC in Iran,” the IDF said in a statement on X.
The IDF warned residents in southern Lebanon to evacuate northward, saying in a separate post on X that Israeli strikes were targeting the Hezbollah militant group in the area.
Trump took to Truth Social to claim credit for Pezeshkian’s apology, adding that “Iran will be hit very hard!” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi fired back later Saturday.
“If Mr. Trump seeks escalation, it is precisely what our powerful armed forces have long prepared for, and what he will get,” Araghchi said in a statement posted on X. “Responsibility for any intensification of Iran’s exercise of self-defense will lie squarely with the U.S. Administration,” he added.