US and Israeli warplanes launched new waves of strikes on targets throughout Iran on Monday, as giant crowds took to the streets in Tehran in a defiant present of help for Mojtaba Khamenei, the country’s newly appointed supreme leader.
The battle, now in its second week, continued to escalate, with recent Iranian missile and drone assaults focusing on Israel, US bases throughout the Middle East and vitality infrastructure within the Gulf.
In Lebanon, Israel pressed its offensive in opposition to Hezbollah with raids within the south and airstrikes in Beirut, whereas an Iranian missile was shot down over Turkey. As drone strikes had been reported in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, mentioned France and its allies had been getting ready a “defensive” mission to the Gulf shield oil provides.
In Tehran’s Enghelab Square on Monday, 1000’s gathered to supply allegiance to Iran’s new supreme chief, hours after the appointment was formally introduced.
Chanting “Death to America, Death to Israel,” and “God is Great,” some waved Iranian flags, others banners bearing the portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the brand new chief’s father, who was killed after 37 years in energy by an Israeli airstrike within the first moments of the struggle. Armoured autos lined close by roads and safety personnel had been stationed on the rooftops of surrounding buildings.
“The path of the martyred Imam Khamenei will carry on under the name of Khamenei,” mentioned Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of Iran’s meeting of consultants, the physique tasked with deciding on the supreme chief.
Another member, Mohsen Heydari, mentioned the late Ali Khamenei had really useful the choice of the candidate who’s “hated by the enemy”.
Israel has mentioned it’s going to goal Iran’s new supreme chief, whereas the US president, Donald Trump, who has dismissed the youthful Khamenei as a “lightweight”, criticised Mojtaba’s choice.
“I think they made a big mistake,” Trump advised NBC. “I don’t know if it’s going to last. I think they made a mistake.”
The defiant rhetoric in Tehran and the appointment of Khamenei, who’s seen by analysts as a hardliner with shut ties to the Revolutionary Guards, intensified fears that the battle might final for weeks and even months and depart deep instability in its wake. Stock markets across the world fell sharply on Monday after oil costs surged.
Iran’s assaults within the strait of Hormuz have all however stopped tankers from utilizing the important thing delivery lane via which a fifth of the world’s oil is carried.
Speaking throughout a go to to Cyprus to debate regional safety, Macron mentioned a brand new naval mission can be aimed toward escorting container ships and tankers with a view to step by step reopen the strait of Hormuz after the top of “the hottest phase of the conflict”.
France has already despatched a few dozen naval vessels, together with its plane service strike group, to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and doubtlessly the strait of Hormuz as a part of defensive help to allies threatened by the battle within the Middle East.
Iran’s safety chief, Ali Larijani, mentioned in a submit on X on Monday that protected passage via the strait of Hormuz wouldn’t be restored “amid the fires ignited by the United States and Israel in the region”.
Analysts have mentioned Iran is hoping that proscribing the movement of oil to international markets and attacking vitality infrastructure within the area will threaten adequate harm to the worldwide economic system to pressure Trump to finish the US offensive, and produce an finish to the struggle on Tehran’s phrases.
Neither the US, Israel nor the Gulf states which have born the brunt of the Iranian assaults at the moment seem prepared to think about concessions, nevertheless.
On Monday, Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, described Iran’s strikes on the dominion as “a brutal attack by a neighbouring Muslim country, which we consider a friend, even though we have not permitted the use of our land, airspace, or coasts for any military action against it.” Saudi Arabia mentioned Tehran can be the “biggest loser” if it continues to assault Arab states.
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities mentioned two folks had been wounded by shrapnel from the interception of Iranian missiles over the capital, Abu Dhabi. By mid-afternoon, the Emirati defence ministry mentioned 15 ballistic missiles and 18 drones had been fired on the nation on Monday.
A complete of 253 missiles and 1,440 drones have been launched on the UAE because the struggle started. Four international nationals have been killed within the UAE and 117 wounded, authorities mentioned.
Iran additionally attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, the place it hit a residential space, wounding 32 folks, together with a number of kids, in response to authorities. Another assault appeared to have began a fireplace at Bahrain’s solely oil refinery, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.
Bahrain has additionally accused Iran of damaging one in every of its desalination crops, although its electrical energy and water authority mentioned provides remained on-line. Desalination crops provide water to thousands and thousands of residents within the area, elevating new fears of catastrophic dangers in parched desert nations.
Iran continues to focus on Israel with drones and ballistic missiles. A person was killed in central Israel in a missile strike, the primary such loss of life in Israel in every week, through which a lady was additionally wounded.
The struggle has killed a minimum of 1,230 folks in Iran, a minimum of 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, in response to officers. Israel reported its first army deaths on Sunday, saying two fight engineers had been killed in southern Lebanon, the place it’s preventing Hezbollah.
An Israeli army spokesperson accused Iran of focusing on Israel’s cities with cluster bombs.
“We are seeing on a daily basis [that] Iran is deliberately targeting densely populated civilian areas,” the spokesperson mentioned.
The official mentioned that Israel was attacking “terrorist infrastructure” in Lebanon, which has been pulled deep into the struggle within the Middle East since Hezbollah opened hearth to avenge the killing of Khamenei, triggering an Israeli offensive, which has to this point killed greater than 400 folks there, in response to Lebanese authorities.
The Israeli army has ordered inhabitants to depart the southern suburbs of Beirut, a lot of south Lebanon and elements of the jap Bekaa valley area – all areas which have served as political and safety strongholds of Hezbollah.
“Mass displacement across Lebanon has forced nearly 700,000 people – including around 200,000 children – from their homes, adding to the tens of thousands already uprooted from previous escalations,” Edouard Beigbeder, Unicef regional director, mentioned.
“Children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate, families are fleeing their homes in fear, and thousands of children are now sleeping in cold and overcrowded shelters,” he mentioned.
In Turkey, Nato air defences intercepted a ballistic missile that entered the nation’s airspace – the second such assault because the struggle began. President Tayyip Erdoğan mentioned that Turkey’s primary purpose is to maintain the nation out of the “blaze” of the battle.
