SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Thanks for reading our rolling coverage of the Middle East conflict. This blog has now concluded, but our live reporting continues in a new blog, which you can find here.
In the meantime, here were the big developments from today as the conflict continues to rapidly expand across the Middle East:
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Iran has launched more missiles at Israel and US bases. Israel announced multiple incoming attacks early Thursday and said it was intercepting the missiles.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the US Navy of committing an “an atrocity at sea” for sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, which killed at least 87 Iranian sailors. “Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set,” he said on social media. A second Iranian ship is now in the area, reports say.
- It has since been confirmed that two Australians were on board the nuclear-powered US submarine that was responsible for sinking.
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Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, in one of the few clerical statements so far from Iran, later called on state television for “the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood”.
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The Israeli military said it began new strikes against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. At least eight people were killed there late Wednesday into Thursday according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and the state news agency.
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Azerbaijan, directly north of Iran, accused it of carrying out a drone attack on its exclave of Nakhchivan. The foreign ministry said in a statement that one drone crashed near the airport in Nakhchivan, and another one near a school, and that two civilians were injured. Iran has not acknowledged targeting Azerbaijan.
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Qatar evacuated residents near the US embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution Thursday and later reported a missile attack on the city. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in its province bordering Jordan.
- A tanker apparently came under attack off the coast of Kuwait early Thursday, expanding the area where commercial shipping was in danger, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre run by the British military. It said there was an explosion but did not offer a cause. Iran in the past has attacked ships by attaching limpet mines to them.
- On the Australian front, the government has confirmed it has deployed two military aircraft to the Middle East to eventually help in evacuation efforts. Though they are still urging people to try and get flights out of the region as their first course of action. Repatriation flights are due to land in Sydney tonight and Melbourne early tomorrow morning.
Iran has not approached Moscow with a request for arms supplies, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Russia has condemned US-Israeli strikes and called for an immediate ceasefire against a country it has drawn closer to recently.
Iran last year sealed a 20-year strategic partnership agreement with Moscow, Russia is building two new nuclear units at Bushehr, the site of Iran’s only nuclear power plant, and Iran supplied Russia with shahed drones for use against Ukraine.
Asked by a reporter on Thursday whether Russia intends to provide material help to Iran, including arms deliveries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters:
“In this case, there were no requests from the Iranian side. Our consistent position is well known to everyone, and there have been no changes in this regard.”
In other news, Spain will send its Christopher Columbus frigate to Cyprus, joining France’s aircraft carrier and other Greek navy ships, the Defence ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The Spanish frigate, which will reach Crete around March 10, is used for air defence.
Reuters
Russia has accused the United States and Israel of trying to drag Arab countries into a wider Middle East conflict by provoking Iran into striking at targets across the region.
“They deliberately provoked Iran into retaliatory strikes against targets in some Arab countries, which led to human and material losses, which the Russian side deeply regrets,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“In doing so, they are trying to drag the Arabs into a war for someone else’s interests”.
The only way to prevent the Middle East from being further destabilised was to stop the “aggression” of the US and Israel, the ministry added, saying there were no signs for now that the two “aggressors” would halt their strikes.
Israel’s military said on Thursday morning that it had detected missile launches from Iran.
Alerts telling residents they’d soon be asked to enter bunkers sounded on phones in Jerusalem.
Israel’s rescue services said they did not have any immediate reports of casualties from the latest missile barrage fired by Iran.
The barrage also set off sirens in central Israel and parts of the north.
AP
Qatar’s ministry of defence has just confirmed it is under attack from missiles, which its air defence systems are intercepting.
“The ministry urges citizens, residents and visitors to remain calm, avoid rumours and rely solely on information released through official channels,” the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier today, Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as a precaution.
Qatar has not said where the missiles have come from.
In nearby Bahrain, the defence force said on Instagram this evening it has destroyed 75 missiles and 123 “march planes” since the current conflict began on Saturday.
With AP
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry has condemned what it says were drone attacks from Iran on Thursday.
“One drone struck the terminal building of the airport in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, while another drone fell near a school building in the village of Shakarabad,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We strongly condemn these drone attacks launched from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which resulted in damage to the airport building and injuries of two civilians.
“This attack against the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan constitutes a violation of the norms and principles of international law and serves to increase tensions in the region.
“We demand from the Islamic Republic of Iran to provide, within the shortest possible time frame, a clear explanation regarding the case, conduct an appropriate investigation, and take the necessary urgent measures to ensure that such attacks are not repeated in the future.
“The Azerbaijani side reserves the right to take appropriate response measures.”
There was no immediate comment from Iran. Azerbaijan said it had summoned Iran’s ambassador.
Italy is planning to send air defence aid to Gulf countries in response to Iranian air strikes, underscoring Rome’s concern for the safety of its citizens and troops in the region as well as for energy security.
“Like the United Kingdom, France and Germany, Italy intends to send assistance to Gulf countries, specifically in the field of defence and in particular air defence,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told radio station RTL 102.5 on Thursday.
She said the move was driven not only by diplomatic ties but by the presence of Italians on the ground. Tens of thousands of Italian nationals lived in the Gulf, while about 2000 Italian troops were deployed there, she said.
“These are people we want to, and must, protect,” Meloni said, noting that the Gulf region was also vital for Italy’s and Europe’s energy supplies.
Reuters
Iranian-Australian protesters have been gathered outside Gold Coast Stadium for the past hour, chanting “Thank you, Trump, thank you, Bibi” for the US-Israeli rocket attacks that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
The group held aloft the Lion and Sun Iranian flag – the imperial flag of Iran before the revolution, which is used by those who oppose the Iranian government – along with Australian and Israeli flags and numerous signs featuring exiled prince Reza Pahlavi.
The support for Pahlavi is in keeping with the Iranian university students who have launched a wave of new protests across Iran, calling for his return and for a mourning period for protesters who have been killed.
In front of the Gold Coast protesters lay photographs of 762 faces from among “tens of thousands murdered in two days” – “victims of Islamic regime terrorism”.
Earlier today, the ABC reported that Iranian-Australian demonstrators gathered in Melbourne, outside the US consulate, also to thank the US and Israel for their strikes.
Israel launched a large wave of strikes on Tehran on Thursday, targeting what it said was infrastructure belonging to the Iranian authorities, after Iranian missiles sent millions of Israelis rushing into bomb shelters.
As the Iran war entered its sixth day, the conflict widened beyond Gulf states and into Asia, convulsing global markets and prompting thousands of stranded tourists and residents to try to flee the Middle East.
Here’s a bit more of what we’ve covered today:
- Iran’s foreign minister called the sinking of an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka on Wednesday, which killed at least 80 people, an “atrocity at sea”. He said the Iranian frigate Dena, a guest of the Indian navy with nearly 130 sailors on board, had been struck without warning in international waters.
- Al Jazeera reports Sri Lankan minister Nalinda Jayatissa has confirmed a second Iranian warship is heading towards Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, in the same area where the first one was attacked.
- “We have decided to fight Americans wherever they are,” General Kioumars Heydari, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told state TV, adding Iran did not care how long the war lasted.
- Iran launched a new wave of attacks on Thursday morning at Israel and American bases and threatened that the United States would “bitterly regret” torpedoing the Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. A religious leader called for “Trump’s blood”.
- Later on Thursday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had hit a US tanker in the northern part of the Gulf and the vessel was on fire. It said that in time of war passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be under the control of the Islamic Republic.
- In Washington, Republican senators blocked a motion aimed at stopping the US air campaign against Iran and requiring that military action be authorised by Congress. That rejection leaves President Donald Trump’s power to direct the war largely unbound, as the conflict continues to widen across the Middle East and beyond.
- And repatriation flights are taking place, with one plane due to land in Sydney tonight and another due in Melbourne early on Friday morning. The Australian government has also confirmed it has deployed two military aircraft to the Middle East to help with evacuations, though it has yet to detail where and when.
