AFP Asia Business

Hunkered down at his luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, US President Donald Trump kept an unusually low profile after announcing the start of huge military strikes on Iran.Trump eschewed the grand Oval Office addresses to the nation favored by his predecessors to announce foreign wars, and opted instead for an eight-minute video on his Truth Social network.Posted at 2:30 am on Saturday, the short statement in which Trump stood at a podium wearing a white baseball cap was the last the world would see of the US commander-in-chief until another video on Sunday afternoon.On his way back to Washington on Sunday, the normally talkative Trump then declined to take any questions from reporters traveling with him on Air Force One, including an AFP journalist. Nor did he hold a press conference to explain to Americans why he was going to war.His eagerly awaited first public comments to the media since the Iran attacks finally came when he arrived back at the White House — but they weren’t about the news of the day.”Unbelievable statues, come and look at them,” said the 79-year-old Republican as he admired two new figures adorning the Rose Garden.- Contradictory messages -Trump’s entire administration has remained equally silent since the launch of Operation “Epic Fury”, raising questions about the way it is making the case for the biggest US intervention in the Middle East for two decades.There was nothing from the heads of the Pentagon or the State Department, while no cabinet members took to the airwaves on US Sunday morning news shows to defend the offensive.What little was revealed came in a series of brief telephone interviews that Trump gave to a number of US media outlets on Saturday and Sunday — but it was often contradictory.Trump has given largely mixed messages about his end goals for the joint US-Israeli air campaign, including what kind of change of government he wants to see in Tehran.In one interview he said the war could last four weeks, in another he said five. He said he had three candidates to lead Iran after the death of Iran’s supreme leader, and then he said his best candidates had been killed.Most of the interviews lasted a few minutes or less. For a man who last week broke the record for the longest presidential address to Congress, it was a curiously subdued performance.- ‘Gotta go to work’ -The White House even at one point on Saturday denied a report that Trump would give a full live address, the sort of solemn national event that Barack Obama gave to announce the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011.The Democratic president at the time released a famous photo showing himself and top officials in the Situation Room, the ultra-secure space in the White House, watching the operation play out live.Trump however released photos taken at Mar-a-Lago in a makeshift situation room along with his top national security team, looking tired and wearing the same white baseball cap.The billionaire president for once didn’t play his beloved golf during his weekend in Florida, but he did take part in two Republican fundraising dinners at his club for wealthy donors.Confirming Trump would attend a dinner on Saturday hours after the start of the latest war in the Middle East, the White House Press Secretary said the event was “more important than ever.”Trump also popped into a fundraiser on Friday evening shortly before the strikes, but didn’t stay for long, according to a video posted on Instagram.”Have a good time everybody,” Trump told guests as he left. “I gotta go to work.”

The United States hit hundreds of targets across Iran, and Israel expanded its bombing to Lebanon on Monday as President Donald Trump vowed to avenge the first US deaths in the war he launched to topple Tehran’s ruling clerics.Iranian forces fired missiles and drones across the Middle East, killing people in Israel and the United Arab Emirates, in retaliation for the conflict that began Saturday with the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The US military expanded targets across Iran on Sunday and said it destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite unit tasked with preserving the theocracy in place since 1979.”The IRGC no longer has a headquarters,” US Central Command said in a statement.The Israeli military said it was carrying out “large-scale strikes” in the heart of Tehran on Monday and also bombing across Lebanon against Hezbollah, the armed Shiite Muslim movement closely tied to Iran’s Islamic republic.An AFP journalist heard explosions in Beirut. Hezbollah, which was weakened by an earlier Israeli offensive, said in a statement that it had fired rockets and drones at Israel “in retaliation for the pure blood” of Khamenei.Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have urged the overthrow of the government in Iran, the sworn foe of Israel and the United States since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.Trump, speaking to the New York Times, said the United States and Israel could keep up the level of attacks for four to five weeks.”It won’t be difficult. We have tremendous amounts of ammunition,” he said, adding he had a shortlist of three unnamed people he favored to lead Iran after the war.In a video address, Trump urged Iranian security forces “to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death.””It will be certain death,” he repeated. “It won’t be pretty.”The Pentagon said that three US service members were killed in the operation and five seriously wounded in the operation it has called “Epic Fury.””Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends,” Trump said.”But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilization.”Trump, who campaigned denouncing foreign interventions, has done little to explain the case for war to the US public.Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said the soldiers’ deaths were the result of a “reckless decision” and that there was no threat to “justify this type of preemptive military strikes.”- Attacks across Middle East -Iran’s surviving leaders have voiced defiance and said that counter-attacks were justified as self-defense.In Israel, an Iranian missile attack killed at least nine people and injured dozens more in the central city of Beit Shemesh, after a death the previous day near Tel Aviv.Three people were also injured on one of the main roads of Jerusalem.President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose elected role is subordinate to that of the supreme leader, called Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims.” “Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators,” Pezeshkian said.Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned: “Today we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before.”Israel and the United States attacked Iran weeks after authorities ruthlessly crushed mass protests, killing thousands.The demonstrations, initially sparked by economic anxiety but also including calls for greater social freedoms, were considered one of the most serious threats to the religious state.Trump called on Iranians to rise up and said, “America is with you.”Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, cautioned Iranians to stay vigilant in the face of air strikes and await the right moment to return to the streets.But he also urged “nightly chants” against the Islamic republic.Cheers were heard as some Iranians celebrated reports of the death of Khamenei, but after state media confirmed his killing, pro-government demonstrations also formed, chanting “Death to America!”Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to join Pezeshkian on an interim leadership council to lead the country while a permanent successor is found for the supreme leader.- Mixed support -While many in the Iranian diaspora cheered Khamenei’s death, anger was seen on the streets of Iran’s neighbor Pakistan where officials said 17 people were killed and protesters tried to storm the US consulate in Karachi.World leaders have given a mixed reaction to the attack, which came two days after Iran and the United States held talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday that he would let the United States use UK bases for “defensive” strikes but that his country — a steadfast partner in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — “will not join offensive action now.”Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Saturday hit all the Gulf states apart from mediator Oman. On Sunday, Oman’s commercial port of Duqm was hit by two drones, injuring a foreign worker, the Oman News Agency said.Three ships were also attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday after Iran had previously declared the strategic waterway was closed, sending global oil prices spiking.The Revolutionary Guards claimed to strike the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, but the Pentagon said the “missiles launched didn’t even come close.”Trump said that US military strikes had sunk nine Iranian naval vessels and partially destroyed its navy headquarters.Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Gulf have killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others.Inside Iran, the Red Crescent in its last toll issued on Saturday evening said that strikes had killed 201 people and injured hundreds more.Iran’s judiciary confirmed that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Khamenei, and General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Revolutionary Guards, were among those killed.burs-sct/bgs

Maersk, the major container shipping company, said Sunday it was halting passage through the Suez Canal and the narrow Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf, next to Iran, for “safety” reasons.The Danish group was the latest of several shipping groups to make similar announcements after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared the strait closed on Saturday.”We have decided… to pause future Trans-Suez sailings through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait for the time being,” Maersk said in an online advisory.”We are suspending all vessel crossings in the Strait of Hormuz until further notice,” it added.”The safety of our crews, vessels and customers’ cargo remains our key priority.”The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic waterway through which passes nearly a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil supplies, as well as a significant amount of cargo to and from Gulf ports.Egypt’s Suez Canal is the region’s other vital waterway, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, a long relied-on shortcut from Europe to Asia’s ports on the Indian Ocean.Maersk said it would be rerouting ships around the Cape of Good Hope — the southern tip of Africa — adding thousands of miles to the journey.It also said it would be closing its offices in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman.- ‘Maximum caution’ -MSC, another big shipping company, told its vessels in the Gulf “to proceed to designated safe shelter areas until further notice”.State media in Oman, which sits on the other side of the strait, said Sunday an oil tanker off its coast had been targeted and four of its crew hurt.And the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre said Sunday that another ship, this one off the UAE’s coast also near the Strait of Hormuz, reported being hit “by an unknown projectile causing a fire”.International Maritime Organization chief Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement Sunday: “I urge all shipping companies to exercise maximum caution.”Where possible, vessels should avoid transiting the affected region until conditions improve,” he added.Already on Saturday, two other major shipping firms had warned its vessels away from the area for security reasons.German shipowners Hapag-Lloyd, the fifth largest in the world, said it was suspending traffic by its vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.And France’s CMA CGM told its vessels in the Gulf to “take shelter” and also suspended passage through the Suez Canal.

France, Germany and the UK said Sunday they were ready to defend their interests and those of its allies in the Gulf if necessary by taking “defensive action” against Iran.The three countries’ leaders were “appalled by the indiscriminate and disproportionate missile attacks launched by Iran against countries in the region, including those who were not involved in initial US and Israeli military operations”, said the joint statement.”Iran’s reckless attacks have targeted our close allies and are threatening our service personnel and our civilians across the region,” the statement added.”We call on Iran to stop these reckless attacks immediately. “We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source,” said the statement.”We have agreed to work together with the US and allies in the region on this matter.”Iran has launched a series of missile and drone strikes on several Gulf countries, saying it is targeting US bases, after being hit by US-Israeli missile strikes from Saturday.Iran’s attacks have hit a multinational military base near Arbil in northern Iraq, and a German army camp in the east of Jordan, a German army spokesman told AFP, confirming media reports.There had been no casualties in the attacks, he added.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced a “large-scale” attack on Sunday, and blasts were heard in Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Manama, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with Israeli rescue services reporting at least nine people killed in the city of Beit Shemesh.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian declared Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims” and warned: “Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime.”Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told US channel ABC News on Sunday: “We are defending ourselves whatever it takes, and we see no limit for ourselves to defend our people, to protect our people.”