Paris Hafezi, Alexander Cornwell and Enas Alashray
Updated ,first published
Dubai/Tel Aviv: Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib has been killed by Israeli airstrikes, state television has confirmed.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the killing of Khatib and said that “a big surprise is expected on this day for all sides,” without elaborating.
Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have authorized the military to kill any other high-ranking Iranian official targeted without requiring additional authorization.
The Israeli military said Khatib was killed in a “targeted attack in Tehran”. Iran’s national television and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed the killing a few hours later.
Khatib’s killing follows the Israeli assassination of Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani and the head of the Basij militia, Gholam Reza Soleimani.
Meanwhile, facilities linked to the large Pars natural gas field in Southern Iran, which shares the Persian Gulf with Qatar, were attacked on Wednesday local time, state media reported.
Iran then issued a warning to evacuate oil facilities including Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex, United Arab Emirates’ Al Hosn Gas Field, and Qatar’s Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and Ras Laffan Refinery.
“These facilities have been direct and legitimate targets and will be targeted in the coming hours. Therefore, all citizens, residents, and workers are requested to immediately leave these areas and move to a safe distance without delay,” the warning said.
Earlier, Iran targeted Tel Aviv with missiles carrying large warheads, and Iranian state television claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Larijani.
An attack in densely populated Tel Aviv on Tuesday (Israel time) killed two people, bringing the death toll in Israel from the war to at least 14.
The Iranian government has confirmed Killing of Larijanithe most senior person targeted since the first day of the US-Israeli war, when an Israeli strike killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which Larijani heads as secretary, said Larijani’s son and his deputy, Alireza Bayat, were also killed in an Israeli strike on Monday night.
The targeted killings took place as the US-Israeli war against Iran shows no signs of abating. US President Donald Trump is still sane lukewarm response for his request for military assistance from allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Many of America’s allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have told the United States they do not want to be involved in the conflict, Trump said on Tuesday, describing their position as “a very stupid mistake”.
“Due to the fact that we have achieved Military Success, we do not ‘need,’ or desire, the help of NATO Countries – WE NEVER DID!” Trump wrote on social media, also singling out Japan, Australia and South Korea.
The head of foreign policy of the European Union Kaja Kallas said in an interview that no one is ready to risk the lives of his people in protecting the sea.
“We have to find diplomatic ways to make this clear so that we don’t have a food crisis, a fertilizer crisis, an energy crisis too,” Kallas said.
The US military has targeted Iran’s coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz because Iran’s anti-ship missiles pose a threat to international ships there.
On Wednesday morning (US time) the US Central Command said it had dropped several two-ton bombs – collectively known as “bunker bombs” – on Iranian missile sites near the strait, as it tried to reopen the vital waterway for international shipping.
“US forces have successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound (2,270-kilogram) ballistic missiles on Iranian missile sites along the Iranian coast near the Strait of Hormuz,” the agency said.
The United States has offered flexible reasons for joining Israel in attacking Iran and struggled to explain the legal basis for starting a new war, emphasized by Tuesday. resignation of the head of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Kent. Kent wrote in his resignation letter to Trump that Iran “poses no threat to our nation”.
Meanwhile, Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has rejected proposals submitted to Iran’s Foreign Ministry to “reduce tensions or stop fighting with the United States”, a senior Iranian official, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters.
Khamenei, attending his first foreign policy meeting since his appointment, said “it is not time for peace until the US and Israel fall to their knees, admit defeat, and pay reparations”, according to the official.
The official did not clarify whether the younger Khamenei, who has not been seen in pictures or on television since he was named last week to replace his slain father, had attended the meeting in person or remotely.
The US-based Iranian human rights group HRANA has said about 3,000 more people have been killed in Iran since the US-Israeli offensive began in late February.
Iran’s attacks have killed people in the countries of Israel, Iraq and the Arab Gulf states, which have faced more than 2000 missile and drone attacks against US diplomatic offices and military bases as well as oil infrastructure, ports, airports, ships and residential and commercial buildings.
Saudi Arabia hosted a consultative meeting of foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss ways to support regional security and stability, the Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry said.
Oil prices rose about 3 percent on Tuesday as Iran renewed its strike on gas stations in the United Arab Emirates, and have risen about 45 percent since the start of the war on February 28, raising concerns of renewed global inflation.
The World Food Program said tens of millions of people would face starvation if the war continued into June.
International airlines sounded the alarm this week over rising jet fuel prices, warning of hundreds of millions of dollars in extra costs, higher fares and cutbacks on some routes. Global air travel has been disrupted, with flights being cancelled, rescheduled or rerouted as many Middle Eastern airports remain closed due to fears of missile and drone attacks.
Reuters, AP
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