Iran war
Iran threatened to target recreational and tourist sites worldwide and insisted it was still building missiles.
Friday’s show of defiance came nearly three weeks into U.S.-Israeli strikes that have killed a slew of Tehran’s top leaders and hammered its weapons and energy industries.
Iran’s military warned Friday that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide would not be safe for enemies.
Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi made the threat as Iran continued to be hit by American and Israeli airstrikes.
It renews a concern held by analysts as the war goes on — that Iran could revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic in the war.
The threat came as Iran fired on Israel and energy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states Friday, insisting that it can still build missiles.
U.S. leaders said weeks of U.S. strikes have decimated Iran’s military.
Little information has come from Iran about damage to its weapons and energy facilities since the war began nearly three weeks ago.
Iranian-linked facilities in Dubai have been closed as the Iran war has seen the United Arab Emirates repeatedly targeted by Iranian fire.
The Iranian Hospital, opened in 1972 under the shah in Dubai, stood closed Friday. Its website was down and its phone number disconnected.
The hospital, while providing affordable medical care for decades, also had been linked to Iranian intelligence operations in the past, including an incident in which a Dubai police officer allegedly spied for cheaper health care for his daughter.
The Emirati government acknowledged the closures of some institutions in a statement.
“Certain institutions directly linked to the Iranian regime and (Revolutionary Guard) will be closed under targeted measures after being found to have been misused to advance agendas that do not serve the Iranian people, and in violation of UAE laws,” it said.
The Iranian Club in Bur Dubai earlier wrote on Instagram it would close “due to the current circumstances.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that Israel was “using the war with Iran as a pretext” to close the Al-Aqsa Mosque to worshippers, calling it part of the escalating regional tensions.
Speaking during the first day of Eid-al-Fitr in Rize province, Erdoğan said Israel’s moves have further deepened instability in the region.
A funeral was held in Tehran for Iran’s slain intelligence minister and his family on Friday.
The Israeli military killed Esmail Khatib on Wednesday, the latest in a series of high-profile deaths of Iranian leaders that have worked to destabilize the nation’s institutions and industry.
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei called Friday for the enemies of his nations to have their “security” taken away, his latest message to the public.
Khamenei made the remarks in a statement issued on his behalf to President Masoud Pezeshkian Khatib.
You may also like
Most read
