The United States and Israel launched what the Pentagon described as the most intense day of strikes on Iran since the war began on Tuesday, even as global markets bet that President Donald Trump would move to end the conflict before it triggers a worldwide economic crisis.
“Today will be yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran: the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing.
Tehran residents described the previous night as the war’s most ferocious bombardment. “It was like hell. They were bombing everywhere, every part of Tehran,” one resident told Reuters by phone, speaking anonymously for security reasons. “My children are afraid to sleep now.”
In the city’s east, two five-storey residential buildings struck on Monday were left with their floors and walls blasted away. Workers were still recovering bodies at the site on Tuesday when a missile struck a nearby road intersection.
Raising the stakes for the global economy, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to block all oil shipments from the Gulf unless US and Israeli attacks cease. A spokesperson said Tehran would not allow “one litre” of Middle Eastern oil to reach the US or its allies while strikes continued. “We are the ones who will determine the end of the war,” the spokesperson said.
The threat came as the war has already effectively halted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes. Some of the world’s biggest producers have run out of storage and cut output. Oil prices briefly surged to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday before settling back below $90 by Tuesday afternoon.
Despite the escalation on the ground, markets appeared reassured by remarks Trump made at a Monday press conference, in which he said the US had already inflicted serious damage and predicted the conflict would end sooner than the four weeks he had initially indicated. An historic surge in crude oil prices on Monday was largely reversed within a day, and Wall Street bounced back to around its late-February levels.
A source familiar with Israel’s war plans told Reuters the Israeli military was seeking to inflict maximum damage before the window for further strikes closes, operating on the assumption that Trump could halt the war at any time. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar confirmed his country was consulting Washington on when to stop fighting.
Iran showed no sign of capitulating. Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran was “not seeking a ceasefire,” and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told PBS that Tehran was unlikely to resume negotiations with the US. Iran has refused Trump’s demand that it allow the US to choose its new leadership, naming hardliner Mojtaba Khamenei — son of the supreme leader killed on the war’s first day — as his successor.
At least 1,270 people have been killed in Iran since strikes began on 28 February, according to Iranian state media. Scores more have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon targeting Hezbollah, which has fired into Israel in solidarity with Iran. Iranian strikes on Israel have killed 12 people.
(Reuters)
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