Iran launched fresh attacks on the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and intensified strikes on the US embassy in Baghdad, as the US-Israeli war entered its third week with at least 2,000 people dead, the Strait of Hormuz largely closed and no coalition yet assembled to reopen it.
UAE authorities said debris from an intercepted ballistic missile killed one Pakistani national in Abu Dhabi’s Bani Yas area, while a drone struck an oil facility in the port of Fujairah for a second consecutive day and a fire broke out at Abu Dhabi’s Shah gas field. UAE airspace was temporarily closed.
Rockets and at least five drones targeted the US embassy in Baghdad in what Iraqi security sources described as the most intense assault on the compound since the war began. Two US officials said no injuries had been reported.
Iran also continued overnight missile strikes on Israel, underscoring that Tehran retains the capacity for long-range attacks despite more than two weeks of sustained US and Israeli bombardment. The Israeli military said it was targeting “Iranian regime infrastructure” across Tehran and Hezbollah sites in Beirut, a day after announcing detailed plans for at least three more weeks of war.
‘Nobody expected that. We were shocked’
Trump said Iran’s strikes against Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait had caught him off guard. “They weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. Nobody expected that. We were shocked,” he said on Monday.
However, Trump had been warned before the war that striking Iran could trigger a broader regional conflict including Iranian attacks on Gulf capitals, particularly if Tehran perceived those countries as condoning or actively supporting the US bombardment, according to a US official and two sources familiar with US intelligence reports. He was also briefed that Iran would likely seek to close the Strait of Hormuz, two other sources said.
No coalition yet
Trump voiced frustration at a White House event on Monday after several allies rebuffed his call to send warships to escort oil tankers through the strait, through which 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows. “Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me,” he said.
Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Australia all said they had no immediate plans to dispatch ships. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin lacked the necessary mandate from the UN, the EU or NATO, and noted that Washington and Israel had not consulted Germany before launching the war.
The head of the International Maritime Organization warned that naval escorts would not fully guarantee the safety of ships attempting to transit the waterway, the Financial Times reported. Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf dismissed reports that Tehran was running low on missile launchers. “They say that our firepower has decreased, but our offensive power, experience, and accuracy have increased,” he said on state television.
Trump has suggested China, which relies on Iranian crude, should help reopen the strait, and indicated he may delay a planned trip to Beijing by “a month or so” if he does not receive support.
Oil and inflation fears
Oil prices rose more than 5% on Tuesday, reversing some of the previous session’s losses, as supply concerns deepened. The Reserve Bank of Australia raised its cash rate for a second consecutive month, citing the risk that geopolitical developments could worsen an already difficult inflationary environment. “The Board is clearly worried that recent geopolitical developments could take a bad situation and make it much worse,” said Abhijit Surya, senior economist at Capital Economics.
(Reuters)
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