Attacks will accelerate, expand: Israel
DUBAI, Mar 27: Iran state media says its nuclear facilities were attacked Friday, just hours after Israel threatened to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran.
IRNA reports that a heavy-water plant and a yellowcake production plant were struck. Yellowcake is a concentrated form of uranium after impurities are removed from the raw ore. Heavy water is used as a moderator in nuclear reactors.
Word of the attacks came after US President Donald Trump claimed talks on ending the war were going well and gave Tehran more time to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has given no sign of backing down.
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With stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under growing pressure to end Iran’s chokehold on the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is usually shipped.
Iran has rejected a 15-point US proposal for a ceasefire that includes it relinquishing control of the strait, but at the same time has ordered thousands more troops to the region – possibly in preparation for a military attempt to wrest the waterway from Iran.
Trump has said if Iran doesn’t reopen the strait to all traffic by April 6, he will order the destruction of Iran’s energy plants. He said Thursday that talks on ending the conflict were going “very well.” Iran maintains it is not engaged in any negotiations.
Air raid sirens sounded in Israel and the military said it has been intercepting Iranian missiles on a daily basis. Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iran “will pay heavy, increasing prices for this war crime.”
“Despite the warnings, the firing continues,” Katz said. “And therefore attacks in Iran will escalate and expand to additional targets and areas that assist the regime in building and operating weapons against Israeli citizens.”
Israel’s military said its attacks Friday targeted sites “in the heart of Tehran” where ballistic missiles and other weapons are produced. It said it also hit missile launchers and storage sites in Western Iran.
Smoke rose over Beirut after a pre-dawn strike, and Lebanon’s Health Ministry later reported two people were killed.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down missiles and drones targeting the capital, Riyadh.
Kuwait said its Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City and the Mubarak Al Kabeer Port to the north, which is under construction as part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, sustained “material damage” in attacks. It appeared to be one of the first times a Chinese-affiliated project in the Gulf Arab states has come under assault in the war. China has continued to purchase Iranian crude.
US stocks fell on opening Friday, in a fifth straight losing week – Wall Street’s longest such streak in nearly four years. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4% in early trading Friday. The Dow lost 0.6%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.6%, breaking the week’s pattern of flip-flopping gains and losses as hopes for an end to the war vacillated.
Asian shares also fell Friday over growing doubts about the chances of de-escalation. Oil prices rose again, the Brent crude, the international standard, at $107 a barrel in morning trading, up more than 45% since Israel and the US attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war. (AP)
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