Escalation risks rise as US readies ground troops and Yemen’s Houthis strike Israel
Nayera Abdullah, Menna Alaaeldin, Sammy Magdy And Jon Gambrell
Updated ,first published
A senior Iranian official warned the United States against a ground invasion, saying American troops would be “set on fire” as regional diplomats gathered in Pakistan on Sunday to broker an end to the war.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf dismissed the weekend talks as a cover for the US sending additional troops to the Middle East. Iran has said it is ready to confront any American forces on its soil and will respond harshly to both US troops and Washington’s regional allies, according to Iranian state media.
The risk of an expansion of the Iran war has increased as additional US forces arrive in the Middle East and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launch their first attack on Israel since the beginning of the conflict.
The first of two marine units reached an amphibious assault ship, the United States said on Saturday. according to WashingtonPost, The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran that will likely include raids by Special Operations and conventional infantry forces, but it remains unclear whether President Donald Trump will approve the plans.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s launch of what Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen described as a “proliferation” of missiles at Israel has raised new concerns that global trade, already hit by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, will be further disrupted.
Israel, which regularly faced missile attacks from the militant group before the war, confirmed that two missiles were fired at it from Yemen. The Israeli military said both were stopped and no casualties or damage were reported.
But the Houthis have demonstrated the ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, as they did while supporting Hamas in the Gaza war. About 12 percent of global trade passes through the Red Sea, which is the southern entrance to the Suez Canal.
Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port, which the kingdom uses to bypass Hormuz for oil exports, is also within range of Houthi missiles.
In their statement, the Houthis said they “will continue their operations in the coming days until the attack and aggression of the criminal enemy ends.”
London Telegram A Houthi attack would likely lead to a US attack on Yemen to secure Red Sea shipping, fueling an expansion of the war, he said, citing a former Pentagon official.
The month-long conflict has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and hitting the global economy with the biggest ever disruption to energy supplies.
According to ship tracking data, two liquefied petroleum gas tankers and two bulk carriers set out from the Gulf on Saturday; This points to an approved route that indicates Tehran’s tightening control over maritime traffic. Iran’s parliament is reportedly working on a bill that would impose fees on ships seeking safe passage through the narrow waterway.
The war, which has become increasingly unpopular with the US midterm elections to be held in November, has put pressure on Trump’s Republican Party. While he seems eager to end this situation as soon as possible, he also threatens to escalate tensions.
Demonstrators took to city streets across the United States on Saturday in anti-Trump rallies described by organizers as a call to action against the war on Iran.
Ground forces offer options
As speculation grew about a possible ground operation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington could achieve its goals without ground troops but deployed some troops to give Trump “maximum” flexibility to adjust his strategy. Thousands of paratroopers from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division are expected to join their Marine counterparts in the region.
Tehran was hit with new waves of airstrikes over the weekend; these attacks damaged residential areas and civilian facilities, including a major university. New York Times reported.
Residents of the capital said that there were intense waves of attacks, especially from Friday night to Saturday, and loud explosions were heard all over the city. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 701 attacks were recorded across Iran on Saturday; this is among the highest figures seen in a single day since the war began.
The Israeli military said it had completed a “large-scale wave” of attacks targeting naval and military infrastructure in Tehran, part of a “wider phase aimed at deepening the damage to the core systems” of the Iranian government.
The Israel Defense Forces also confirmed the death of a soldier in southern Lebanon, bringing the total number of Israeli soldiers killed there since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited on March 2 to five.
Meanwhile, Israel announced that it activated its air defenses after detecting missiles fired from Iran on Sunday, while Iranian attacks were also reported in many regions in the Gulf, including Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The United Arab Emirates has seen its highest number of ballistic missile attacks in weeks, with a major aluminum factory in Abu Dhabi hit, causing significant damage and injuring several workers, according to the BBC.
According to the BBC, while Aluminum Bahrain, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, was also hit, the radar system at Kuwait international airport was also severely damaged.
The strikes follow Iran’s attack on a major US air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday (Saturday AEDT), which injured 12 US military personnel, two seriously, in one of the biggest breaches of American air defenses ever.
While Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who hosted talks with Turkish and Saudi foreign ministers on Sunday, diplomatic efforts to ease tensions continued in the background.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that Iran has agreed to allow an additional 20 Pakistani-flagged ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and two ships are allowed to pass every day. Separately, Thailand and Malaysia said they had received assurances that their ships would receive safe passage.
Trump has threatened to hit Iran’s power plants and other energy infrastructure if Iran does not fully open the Strait. However, he extended the deadline for this week and gave Iran 10 more days to respond.
