Israel says it has killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib; South Pars gas field hit by strikes
Parisa Hafezi, Alexander Cornwell And Enas Alashray
Updated ,first published
Dubai/Tel Aviv: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that Iranian Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib was killed in Israeli attacks.
Katz announced Khatib’s death and said, without elaborating, that “significant surprises are expected on all fronts throughout this day.”
Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the military to kill any targeted senior Iranian official without requiring additional approval.
The Israeli military said Khatib was killed in a “targeted attack on Tehran.”
Khatib’s killing came after Israel killed senior Iranian security official Ali Larijani and Gholam Reza Soleimani, head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force.
Meanwhile, facilities related to the massive offshore South Pars natural gas field that Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf were attacked on Wednesday local time, state media reported.
Iran later issued an evacuation warning for oil facilities including Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex, the United Arab Emirates’ Al Hosn Gas Field and Qatar’s Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and Ras Laffan Refinery.
The warning said, “These centers have become direct and legitimate targets and will be targeted in the coming hours. Therefore, all our citizens, residents and employees are requested to leave these areas immediately and move to a safe distance without delay.”
Previously, Iran targeted Tel Aviv with missiles carrying cluster warheads, and Iranian state television claimed that the attacks were Israel’s retaliation for Larijani’s assassination.
Two people were killed in an attack on densely populated Tel Aviv on Tuesday (Israeli time), bringing the war death toll in Israel to at least 14.
The Iranian government confirmed that Larijani, the most senior figure targeted since the first day of the US-Israeli war, when Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in Israel’s attack, was killed.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which Larijani chairs as secretary, said Larijani’s son and deputy, Alireza Bayat, was also killed in an Israeli attack on Monday night.
The targeted killings come at a time when the US-Israeli war against Iran shows no signs of abating. US President Donald Trump is still amused by the lukewarm response he has received from his allies to his requests for military assistance to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said Tuesday that most American allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have told the United States they do not want to get involved in the conflict, calling their position “a very stupid mistake.”
“Having had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need’ or desire assistance from NATO Countries – WE NEVER HAVE!” Trump also wrote on social media, highlighting Japan, Australia and South Korea.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in an interview that no one was ready to risk the lives of their own people to protect the strait.
“We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, a fertilizer crisis, an energy crisis,” Kallas said.
The US military targeted areas of Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz because Iran’s anti-ship missiles pose a risk to international shipping there.
On Wednesday morning (US time), America’s Central Command said Iran had dropped several two-ton bombs, colloquially known as “bunker busters,” at missile sites near the strait as it sought to reopen the vital waterway to global shipping.
“US forces have successfully used multiple 5,000-pound weapons [2270-kilogram] The organization stated that deep-penetrating munitions were placed at hardened Iranian missile sites on Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States offered varying justifications for joining Israel in attacking Iran and struggled to explain the legal basis for starting a new war; The resignation of Joseph Kent, head of the US National Counterterrorism Center, on Tuesday also underlined this. In his resignation letter to Trump, Kent wrote that Iran “does not pose an imminent threat to our nation.”
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters that Iran’s new religious leader Mojtaba Khamenei rejected the proposals sent to the Iranian Foreign Ministry for “reducing tensions or a ceasefire with the United States”.
Attending his first foreign policy meeting since his appointment, Khamenei said “it is not the right time for peace until the United States and Israel bring them to their knees, admit defeat and pay compensation,” according to the official.
The official did not say whether the younger Khamenei, who has not yet been seen in photographs or on television since replacing his slain father last week, attended the meeting in person or remotely.
US-based Iranian human rights group HRANA said more than an estimated 3,000 people have been killed in Iran since US-Israeli attacks began in late February.
Iranian attacks have killed people in Israel, Iraq and Gulf Arab countries, which have faced more than 2,000 missile and drone attacks on US diplomatic missions and military bases, as well as oil infrastructure, ports, airports, ships and residential and commercial buildings.
Saudi Arabia will host a consultative meeting of foreign ministers of Arab and Islamic countries in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss ways to support regional security and stability, the kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Oil prices rose nearly 3 percent on Tuesday as Iran renewed attacks on oil facilities in the United Arab Emirates, rising nearly 45 percent since the war began on Feb. 28, raising concerns of a new rise in global inflation.
The World Food Program has said tens of millions of people will face acute hunger if the war continues until June.
Global airlines have been alarmed this week by rising jet fuel prices, hundreds of millions of dollars in extra costs, higher fares and warnings of cutbacks on some routes. Global aviation has been thrown into turmoil as flights have been cancelled, rescheduled or rerouted as much of Middle Eastern airspace remains closed due to fears of missile and drone attacks.
Reuters, AP
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