Iran apologises to Gulf but war rages on across region
As Israel and Iran trade attacks as the Middle East war enters a second week, Iran’s president issued an unusual apology to neighboring countries, apparently seeking to calm regional anger over Iranian attacks on civilian targets in the Gulf.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said, “I personally apologize to neighboring countries affected by Iran’s actions,” and urged them not to participate in US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Describing US President Donald Trump’s demand for the unconditional surrender of the Islamic Republic as “a dream”, Trump said that the interim leadership council agreed to suspend attacks on nearby states as long as attacks against Iran do not come from its own territory.
Trump nevertheless perceived Iran’s apology as a capitulation, saying on Saturday that the country would be “hit very hard” and warned that the United States could expand its attacks to areas and groups of people not previously identified as targets.
Pezeshkian’s comments sparked political turmoil in Iran, prompting his office to reiterate that the Iranian military would respond harshly to attacks from US bases in the region.
Hamid Rasai, a conservative cleric and MP, wrote to X: “Mr Pezeshkian, your attitude was unprofessional, weak and unacceptable”.
Hours after Pezeshkian’s statement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said its drones hit a US air combat center at Al Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Iranian state media reported that the Revolutionary Guard also targeted US forces at a base in Bahrain.
An eyewitness told Reuters that explosions were also heard in Doha.
Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, said that evidence obtained from the Iranian armed forces indicates that the territory of some regional countries was used to carry out attacks against Iran.
Mohseni-Ejei, a member of the interim leadership council established after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike on his compound at the beginning of the conflict, said heavy attacks against these targets would continue.
Large explosions were heard in various parts of the Iranian capital, state media reported.
The US-Israeli war on Iran has spread beyond Iran’s borders, with Iranian forces responding by striking Israel and Gulf Arab states that host US military installations, and Israel has launched new attacks on Lebanon after the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia crossed the border.
pic.twitter.com/rg44XE2OvS — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 7, 2026
Gulf countries expressed their anger at their civilian infrastructure (hotels, ports and oil facilities) being hit, even though they had no role in the US-Israeli attacks.
The UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Iraq have reported drone or missile attacks in the past week.
Iran has mended relations with its Gulf neighbors, including its regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia, in recent years.
The United Arab Emirates wants Iran’s aggression against Gulf countries to end immediately, an Emirati official said.
“We don’t want the war to spread. We want to start with the Iranians realizing that they are not helping themselves by attacking their entire neighborhood and stopping there and realizing that,” the official said. he said.
According to Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, the US-Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and injured thousands more.
Iranian attacks killed 10 people in Israel and at least six US soldiers were killed.
Israel launched a new wave of attacks on Tehran and Isfahan, in the words of its own army; The Israeli army announced that it carried out attacks in neighboring Lebanon throughout the night, saying they targeted Hezbollah’s military facilities.
The Israeli military said it detected missiles fired from Iran at Israel in eight separate incidents on Saturday, setting off air raid sirens in some parts of the country and enabling Israeli air defenses to respond to incoming fire.
