Loud blasts rocked Tehran on Tuesday even as Iran hit industrial and diplomatic targets across the Middle East and threatened to open “the gates of hell” on the United States and Israel.The conflict, which started on Saturday with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, showed no sign of abating in its fourth day.Here are the latest developments:- UK dispatches warship -Britain will send a warship and helicopters with anti-drone capabilities for “defensive operations” to Cyprus after a UK military base there was hit by a drone, Prime Minster Keir Starmer said.- Iran threatens economic centres -An Islamic Revolutionary Guard general warned that continued US-Israeli attacks would see Iran conduct reprisals against “all economic centres” in the Middle East.- Iran system resilient: shah’s widow -Farah Pahlavi, widow of Iran’s last shah, told AFP the death of supreme leader Ali Khamenei would not necessarily bring down the government.”The passing of a man — however central he may be to the architecture of power — does not automatically mean the end of a system,” said Pahlavi, who lives in exile in Paris.- Israel targets Iran missile production -Israel’s military said it struck Iranian industrial sites used to produce weapons, “particularly ballistic missiles”.- Tehran airport hit -Tehran’s Mehrabad airport — which mainly handles domestic flights — was targeted by strikes, according to the Mehr news agency.- Stocks slip, oil rises -US stocks tumbled while oil prices soared as the war disrupted supplies, with the crucial Strait of Hormuz effectively closed and energy infrastructure across the Middle East hit.The price of Brent crude was at $83.79 a barrel after earlier going above $85 a barrel.Gold and silver prices fell sharply as traders piled into bets on energy and the US dollar. – ‘Large scale’ blasts in Tehran -Loud explosions rocked Tehran, with Israel’s military later saying it had launched a new “large scale” wave of strikes on the capital “targeting the Iranian terror regime’s infrastructure in Tehran”.Iranian media said central Tehran was struck, as well as the religious city of Qom, where the building used by the official body that select Iran’s new supreme leader was hit.- ‘Too late’ for talks -US President Donald Trump said that it was “too late” for talks with Iran, writing on his Truth Social platform that Iran’s “air defense, Air Force, Navy, and Leadership is gone” “They want to talk.
I said ‘Too Late!'” Trump said — two days after saying he had agreed to talks.- Reported Israeli and Iranian tolls -Israeli authorities said at least 12 people were wounded in the latest Iranian missile salvo. Earlier, the Iranian Red Crescent said that more than 780 people have been killed nationwide in Iran since the conflict began.
AFP was not in a position to verify the figure.- Strikes on Beirut -Israeli air strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area where Hezbollah holds sway, with Lebanon’s state news agency reporting “extensive damage to buildings”.- Iran appeals to UN Security Council -Iran urged the United Nations Security Council to do its “duty” and take action to stop the war.- Iran threatens foes -Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned of more intense attacks on US forces and Israel, with a spokesman telling state TV: “The gates of hell will open more and more.”- Israel wants Lebanon ‘buffer’ – Israel ordered its forces to take control of more positions inside Lebanon to create a buffer zone. In response, the Lebanese army pulled back some of its forces after Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israeli bases.- Iran nuclear site damaged -The UN nuclear watchdog said the key Iranian nuclear site of Natanz suffered “recent damage”, a day after Tehran said the underground uranium enrichment plant was attacked.”No radiological consequence expected,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a post on X.burs-pdw/rmb