TEHRAN/
WASHINGTON:

Economy stable despite war jitters, IMF told

Iran signalled a defiant stance with a senior leader saying that he sees no room for diplomacy in the ongoing conflict triggered by joint United States and Israeli strikes, while President Donald Trump insisted that the war was pretty much over.

Iranian officials said that ceasefire mediation efforts were irrelevant as long as military confrontations persisted, while the leadership insisted that the country had no intention of harming ordinary Americans even as they warned Washington against targeting civilians.

Trump said in an interview with CBS that the US-Israeli war with Iran was “pretty much” over, without giving details. “I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force,” Trump told CBS News by phone.

Earlier, Kamal Kharazi, an adviser to the office of the supreme leader, said there was no immediate prospect for diplomacy. “I don’t see any room for diplomacy anymore,” Kharazi said in an interview with CNN in Tehran, adding that Iran could sustain the war for a long time.

Kharazi’s remarks came on the heels of the country moving to reinforce its political leadership following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the initial wave of US-Israeli strikes that began on February 28.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the assassinated leader, as the country’s new supreme leader, signalling continuity within Iran’s political and religious establishment despite the upheaval caused by the conflict.

Iranian officials said their armed forces were conducting “managed and phased offensive operations” across the region. In fresh strikes on energy installations in the Gulf, Bahrain’s sprawling Al Ma’ameer oil facility was hit, causing a fire and damage.

Bahrain later said that the blaze at the oil facility had been brought under control, but the country’s state-owned energy firm Bapco declared force majeure after the strike – the latest Gulf producer to activate the legal clause, following Qatar and Kuwait.

Bahrain said another Iranian drone attack on the island of Sitra injured 32 people overnight. All of the wounded were Bahraini citizens and there were four “serious cases”, including children, the health ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency.

Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said the kingdom took down and destroyed two waves of drones heading towards the Shaybah oil field in the southeast of the country. NATO said it had intercepted a second ballistic missile fired from Iran in Turkish airspace.

Explosions were also heard on Monday both overnight and later in the day in Doha, and emergency sirens sounded in Manama, AFP journalists said. Qatar said it intercepted 17 ballistic missiles and six drones launched from Iran, with no casualties reported.

Kuwaiti authorities announced a missile and drone attack and the defence ministry said its military was working to intercept the salvo. The UAE said its air defences detected 15 ballistic missiles, destroying 12 while three fell into the sea, and intercepted 17 of 18 drones.

Two Emirati servicemen were meanwhile killed after their helicopter crashed due to a “technical malfunction”, Abu Dhabi’s defence ministry said. The aircraft went down while the crew were performing national duty inside the country, it added.

The Emirati deaths bring to 23 the number of people killed in the Gulf since the war began, including 10 civilians. The latest strikes came after Washington ordered embassy staff to leave Saudi Arabia, following a rash of attacks targeting the kingdom.

A US soldier died after sustaining injuries during an attack last week in Saudi Arabia, the military said, bringing the number of American troops killed in the war to seven. Army Sgt Benjamin Pennington, 26, was injured at Prince Sultan Air Base.

Support for new leader

Meanwhile, thousands of supporters of Khamenei gathered in Tehran’s Enghelab Square to pledge allegiance to the new leader. The political establishment also rallied behind Mojtaba Khamenei, pledging support for his leadership during a time of national crisis.

Security chief Ali Larijani said the appointment of the new supreme leader had left the United States and Israel in “despair”. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also pledged their full obedience to the new leader, declaring that they were prepared to follow his commands.

The selection of Mojtaba Khamenei appeared to dampen hopes for an early diplomatic resolution, with Iranian officials and advisers indicating that the conflict could continue for an extended period.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Tehran did not wish to harm American civilians during the conflict with the United States and Israel, emphasising that the Iranian government distinguished between the US public and political leadership in Washington.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said that any discussion of ceasefire talks was irrelevant while military operations were ongoing. “At this particular point, speaking of any matter other than defending our homeland is irrelevant,” Baghaei said, adding that Iran had not started the conflict but was responding to an imposed war.

He also rejected accusations that Iran had launched attacks against neighbouring countries, including Turkey, Cyprus and Azerbaijan, insisting that no offensives had been initiated from Iranian territory towards those states.

Baghaei suggested that some incidents might have been staged in order to create divisions between Iran and neighbouring countries, warning that such actions could be attempts to undermine regional relations.