Iran's Khamenei says 'enemy defeated' in Persian New Year speech

The live blog has now ended and will be back tomorrow at 9am GMT. You can read more of The New Arab's coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran here.

Saudi Arabia's defence ministry has said that it has intercepted three more drones in the country's eastern province, according to Al Jazeera.

The United States is deploying additional Marines to the Middle East, US media reported on Friday, possibly signaling a coming ground operation three weeks into the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.

The reports came as Axios said President Donald Trump's administration is mulling seizing Iran's strategic Kharg Island to pressure the Islamic republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz -- a mission that could fall to US Marines.

The Wall Street Journal said Washington is deploying between 2,200 and 2,500 Marines from the California-based USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

CNN meanwhile said thousands of Marines and sailors were expected to deploy to the Middle East. Both publications cited anonymous US officials.

Asked about the reports, the Marine Corps said the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are "deployed at sea," while US 3rd Fleet said they are "conducting routine operations."

The head of the Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has praised Iran's "resistance front" allies for fighting alongside Iran against the US and Israel, in his first official remarks published by Iranian media since the outbreak of the war on 28 February.

Israel's foreign ministry on Friday accused Iran of an "attack on the holy sites" of Jerusalem after an impact near the walls of the Old City following a missile warning.

"The Iranian attack on the holy sites sacred to all three religions reveals the madness of the Iranian regime, which claims to be religious," Israel's foreign ministry wrote on X, calling it an "Iranian gift" for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.

It was unclear whether the impact was from a missile or was caused by an interception.

A fire at a Kuwait Petroleum Corporation refinery was brought under control after two drones targeted the facility on Friday, the Kuwaiti army said in a statement, adding that no injuries were reported.

Earlier on Friday, Kuwait's state oil firm KPC said its Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery was hit, causing a fire in some units, the state news agency KUNA reported. 

Israel said Friday it had "eliminated" the intelligence chief of Iran's Basij paramilitary force in a previous strike that also killed the force's top commander.

"Earlier this week, the air force, guided precisely by military intelligence, struck the senior leadership of the Basij unit in the heart of Tehran, in an attack that eliminated the unit's commander, Gholamreza Soleimani, along with several other senior commanders," the military said.

"The IDF now confirms that in this strike Ismaeil Ahmadi, who served as head of the intelligence directorate of the Basij unit, was also eliminated."

Israel said that Ahmadi had played a "key role" in the government's crackdown on mass protests in Iran earlier this year, which rights groups said left thousands dead.

Israel has been targeting the Basij force as part of efforts to try to undermine the authorities' grip on power.

Hezbollah on Friday denied that it has a presence inside the United Arab Emirates, after Emirati authorities announced they had arrested at least five members of a "terrorist network" linked to Hezbollah and its backer, Iran.

In a statement, the Lebanese militant group said it "denies the fabricated accusations made against it by the security authorities in the United Arab Emirates... Hezbollah has no presence inside the UAE or in any other country under any cover or commercial designation or otherwise".

Drone attacks hit Kuwait's Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery on Friday, causing several fires but no casualties, state media said, citing the national oil company.

"The Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery... was subjected early today to several hostile drone attacks, causing fires in some of its units," the official Kuwait News Agency said, adding that "several refinery units were shut down".

The Kuwaiti army later said that the fire was brought under control without any casualties.

"Two drones targeted one of the units in a refinery of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, resulting in a fire that was brought under control by the specialised teams, without any injuries," it said on X.

Hezbollah said Friday it has targeted Israeli soldiers in six south Lebanon villages, in a series of statements, as Israeli ground forces attempt to push into southern Lebanon.

The pro-Iran armed group said it targeted a "gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers" in each of the six border villages, and a Merkava tank, as its war with Israel neared the three-week mark, having started on 2 March when the group launched rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli attack on Iran that killed Iran's supreme leader.

AFP journalists reported hearing several blasts in Tehran on Friday, as the war with Israel and the United States continued.

The blasts, which came with Iranians celebrating Nowruz, the Persian new year, came from the eastern and northern parts of the capital, the journalists said.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei released a message on Friday marking the start of Persian New Year which he named the year of a "resistance economy under national unity and national security."

In the statement, released on his Telegram channel, Khamenei said that attacks against Turkey and Oman were not carried out by Iran or its allied forces.

Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei will issue a message within minutes marking the start of Persian New Year, state media reported on Friday.

Britain's Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper warned her Iranian counterpart in a phone call "against targeting UK bases, territory or interests directly", a foreign office statement said Friday.

The statement was response to one issued by Iran's foreign ministry in which it said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Cooper in the call on Thursday that any US use of British bases would be seen as "participation in aggression" against the Islamic republic.

Cooper told Araghchi "the defensive UK operations in the region were a response to the Iranian aggression against Gulf partners", the UK foreign office said, adding: "She made clear that the UK wants to see a swift resolution to this conflict."

The United States military is deploying thousands of additional Marines and Sailors to the Middle East, three US officials told Reuters on Friday.

The deployments of the USS Boxer, along with its Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and accompanying warship, comes as Reuters reported that President Donald Trump's administration was considering deploying thousands of US troops to reinforce its operation in the Middle East.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was not putting troops "anywhere," but that if was going to, he would not tell journalists.

The sources, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not say what the role of the additional troops would be.

But one of the officials said the troops were departing the West Coast of the United States about 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol warned in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday that it could take up to six months to restore oil and gas flows from the Gulf, saying the world is facing what could be the most severe energy crisis in history.

"It will be six months for some (sites) to be operational, others much longer," he told FT.

Birol said politicians and markets were underestimating the scale of the disruption, with around one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies effectively stranded in the region, the report added.

NATO has begun withdrawing personnel from Iraq due to regional tensions and conflict, a senior security source told Iraq's state news agency on Friday.

The source added that the NATO mission is non-combat and advisory, and will return once the war ends and security in Iraq stabilises.

Iran's military threatened on Friday to hunt down officials and army commanders from the United States and Israel, even while they were vacationing or visiting entertainment centres.

"We are watching your cowardly officials and commanders, pilots and wicked soldiers," armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi said, quoted by state TV.

"From now on, based on the information we have on you, the promenades, resorts and tourist and entertainment centres in the world will not be safe for you either."

Seafarers stuck in the Gulf say they are rationing food and water and anxiously hoping supplies will get through Iran's blockade in the war that has stranded them for three weeks.

"We don't have enough water on board right now. We got food a few days back," said one Indian seaman stuck in a small refuelling boat off Iraq, within sight of the Iranian shore.

"Till yesterday we had proper drinking water and fresh water for baths and stuff. But now since drinking water is over, we have contacted the owner for the drinking water and I hope they get it by today or tomorrow," he added.

"Till then, we are boiling the water for drinking," said the young sailor, who asked to be identified only by his last name, Pereira.

Police in the United Arab Emirates said Friday they had arrested over 100 people for filming and posting "misleading" information during the US-Israeli war on Iran, as Gulf countries crack down on footage and posts related to Iran's attacks.

"Abu Dhabi Police announced the arrest of 109 individuals of various nationalities who filmed sites and incidents and circulated incorrect information via social media platforms during current events," it said in a statement on X, adding that some of the people had shared "misleading information".

Two people were wounded in Rehovot, Israel, in an Iranian ballistic missile strike, according to the Times of Israel, which said that the strike saw the use of cluster munitions.

The Israeli army has issued a displacement order for all Lebanese civilians living south of the Zahrani river in southern Lebanon.

The United States and Israel struck 16 Iranian cargo vessels in port towns on the Gulf on Friday, local media reported, saying the ships were burnt.

"Following the American-Zionist air attack, at least 16 cargo vessels belonging to citizens of the towns of Bandar Lengeh and Bandar Kong were completely burnt in the fire," a local offical from the southern Hormozgan province said, quoted by the Tasnim news agency.

The Trump administration is considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran's Kharg Island to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Axios reported on Friday, citing four sources with knowledge of the issue.

One source said: "We need about a month to weaken the Iranians more with strikes, take the island and then get them by the balls and use it for negotiations."

It comes as three Marine units are heading towards the region, with the White House and Pentagon considering a further buildup, according to Axios.

Israel's military said Friday it was launching strikes in Iran's Noor region on the shores of the Caspian Sea, as it kept up its bombing campaign after almost three weeks of war.

"The [Israeli army] has begun striking targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime," the army said in a statement.

The fresh strikes come after Israel's military said Thursday its jets had hit several Iranian naval vessels in the Caspian Sea.

An Israeli warplane broke the sound barrier over Beirut on Friday morning, state media said, as AFP journalists heard loud booms reverberate across the city and in distant mountains.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said "a strong sonic boom, in two successive waves, shook the skies over Beirut and its suburbs" on the morning of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Ramadan fasting period.

The incident set social media abuzz.

"On a day without shelling - so far - the Israelis are greeting the people of Beirut and its suburbs with two sonic booms," one internet user, Salah Halawi, wrote on X.

Europe's STOXX 600 edged higher on Friday, but was set for a third consecutive weekly loss, as an expanding US-Israeli war on Iran and a surge in oil prices reinforced inflation fears and increased the odds of a rate hike from the European Central Bank.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.8 percent at 588.37 points by 0805 GMT, with the heavyweight financial sector providing the biggest boost, while energy sector declined 0.7 percent as crude prices pulled back.

The benchmark is down 1.1 percent so far this week. A three-week loss would be its longest such streak since April 2025. Israel launched fresh attacks on Iran a day after President Donald Trump told it not to repeat its strikes on Iranian natural gas infrastructure.

The European Central Bank kept the policy rate unchanged on Thursday, but policymakers expect to discuss hikes in the coming months as the Iran war pushes up inflation in the euro zone.

Among individual stocks, Unilever shares added 1.2 percent after the consumer goods group confirmed it was in talks with U.S.-based McCormick & Company about selling its foods business.

Oil officials in Saudi Arabia are projecting that oil prices could soar past $180 a barrel if disruptions due to the Iran war persist until late April, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Israel carried out strikes on towns in southern Lebanon, causing multiple injuries, state media reported on Friday.

"Israeli enemy fighter jets struck at dawn, targeting the towns of Bafliyeh and Hanine in the Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts," the official National News Agency (NNA) reported, adding that Israeli forces had hit five other towns in the south of the country.

The Israeli military struck infrastructure sites belonging to the Syrian government overnight in response to attacks against Druze civilians in Sweida, the Israeli military said on Friday.

The Israeli military said it targeted a command centre and weapons in military compounds in southern Syria and said it will not tolerate harm toward the Druze population, adding it will continue to operate to defend them and monitor developments in the region.

China’s foreign ministry urged all sides involved in the Gulf conflict on Friday to ensure a stable and unimpeded oil supply, in comments on the United States weighing the lifting of sanctions on some Iranian oil.

However, the ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, did not specify any countries.

His remarks came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday the United States might remove sanctions on Iranian oil stranded on tankers at sea in a bid to hold down oil prices.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Friday that US-Israeli strikes had killed their spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini.

Naini "was martyred in the criminal cowardly terrorist attack by the American-Zionist side at dawn", the Guards said in a statement on their Sepah News website.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his British counterpart Yvette Cooper in a phone call that any US use of British bases would be seen as "participation in aggression" against the Islamic republic.

It was not clear when the call with Cooper took place.

"These actions will certainly be regarded as participation in aggression and will be recorded in the history of relations between the two countries," said Araghchi, according to a statement released Friday by the foreign ministry.