President Donald Trump said the US will consider striking areas and groups of people in Iran that were not previously considered targets, escalating a week-long war that’s upended energy markets and reverberated worldwide.
“Today Iran will be hit very hard!” Trump said in a social media post in the early hours of Saturday, as the US and Israel bombarded Tehran and other cities for an eighth day. The attacks will continue “until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse!”
The post came after Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed not to back down as Tehran maintained missile strikes on Israel and Gulf states hosting American military forces. “The idea that we would surrender unconditionally — they must take such a dream to the grave,” he said in a speech.
Pezeshkian — who sits on the three-man interim leadership council after US and Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28 — said he’s told the military not to attack any nation that isn’t striking the Islamic Republic. He apologized to neighboring countries, without being specific, calling them “our brothers.”
The conciliatory language wasn’t backed by action, as Iran launched drones and missiles at Qatar and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates said it continued to fend off projectiles. Kuwait, OPEC’s fifth-biggest producer, reduced oil and refinery production, citing the “ongoing aggression by the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Saudi Arabia intercepted drones that were heading toward a major oil field, the latest energy asset to be targeted in a conflict that’s triggered a surge in crude and gas prices.
Trump said the US is giving “serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior” to “areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.” He seized on Pezeshkian’s apology, saying he was forced into it by “the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack.”
Pezeshkian may have been referring to Azerbaijan, after Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied responsibility for missiles fired at the country’s northern neighbor earlier in the conflict.
Iranian media, including the semi-official Jamaran news agency, were quick to interpret Trump’s post as a threat to civilians. So far, US and Israeli attacks appear to have focused on military and government sites rather than a full-scale bombing of cities and infrastructure.
Iran has still reported at least 1,332 people killed in the war so far, alongside widespread destruction. Six US troops have died, all of them in the first two days of fighting.
The exchange came a week after the US and Israel began striking the Islamic Republic in a war that shows no sign of letting up. The conflict has disrupted global supply chains and stoked fears of a new inflation crisis, while more than a dozen countries have been sucked into the fray.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned the US and Israel against waging an “endless war” that could lead to the disintegration of Iran, a new migration crisis in Europe and lasting economic damage. Saudi Arabia stepped up direct engagement with Tehran in a bid to de-escalate tensions, according to several European officials.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts plans to hold a session to elect a new supreme leader within the next 24 hours, Iran’s semi-official Fars reported. Mojtaba Khamenei, the slain leader’s second-oldest son, is in the running.
The Trump administration pushed back against worries around surging energy costs as a result of the war, with US gasoline prices rising to the highest since September 2024. US crude futures ended the week above $90 a barrel — more than $20 higher than last Friday — and notched the biggest weekly percentage gain on record in data going back to the 1980s.
Prices for liquefied natural gas have also surged after Qatar, one of the world’s biggest producers of the fuel, was forced to shut a major plant.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical chokepoint for global oil and gas flows — remains at a near-total halt and energy exporters are scrambling for routes out of the region.
“Oil prices would likely exceed $100 next week if no signs of solutions emerge by then,” Goldman Sachs analysts including Daan Struyven wrote on Friday. There’s a risk that 2008 and 2022 peaks could be exceeded, especially for refined products, if flows through the strait remain depressed through March, they said.
Iran on Friday warned that it would strike US- and Israel-linked ships in the strait. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is diverting millions of barrels of crude to a port on its Red Sea coast, helping the world’s top exporter maintain some supplies.
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Gulf states “did not choose this war,” Khalaf Al Habtoor, a Dubai billionaire and hotel tycoon, posted on X on Saturday, reflecting a broad pushback against the conflict around the region. “We will not accept our homelands being turned into a battleground.”
Trump hosted defense industry executives at the White House on Friday to underscore the need to step up the production of critical weapons systems. They agreed to “quadruple” the output of the most expensive US hardware, Trump posted on social media after the meeting.
With no clear timeline for the end of military operations, countries in Europe and Asia have been moving to bolster the region’s defenses. NATO said it was boosting its missile defense posturefollowing the downing on Wednesday of an Iranian missile heading toward Turkish airspace.
Israel unleashed a wave of airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and expanded its ground presence inside Lebanon on Friday, stepping up a parallel campaign against the Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 120 people have been killed there.
Airlines remain hamstrung by the conflict, with the number of canceled flights to Middle East hubs surpassing 27,000 since fighting began. Thousands of passengers remained stranded in the Gulf region, although on Friday Emirates said it’s aiming for a return to full network operations in coming days.
