Middle East crisis live: Hegseth says today will be the ‘most intense day of strikes’ in war against Iran | US-Israel war on Iran
Hegseth says today will be the ‘most intense day of strikes’ in war against Iran as US intensifies attacks
Hegseth adds that today will be “the most intense day of strikes”, while Iran has fired its lowest number of weapons in the past 24 hours.
General Dan Caine opens his remarks by paying tribute to the American servicemen who have died as a result of Trump’s war on Iran.
Updating on the progress in the conflict, he says the joint force remains focussed on its three main objectives – destroying missiles and drone capability before it can threaten American interests, strike and degrade the Iranian navy and prevent the regime from being able to attack the US and its partners “for years to come”.
Caine adds:
double quotation mark Ballistic missile attacks continue to trend downwards, down 90% from when we started.
He adds that the US is striking Iranian mine-laying missiles. The general says “this is gritty and tireless work” and expresses his pride in the performance of the joint force throughout the campaign.
Key events
The Iranian army said on Tuesday it had targeted a military and an intelligence site in Israel, as the warring sides pressed attacks for an 11th day.
“The army, using attack drones, struck a military centre in Haifa and the reception centre for spy satellites,” it said in a statement.
The military centre “plays a key role in arms production and is of major strategic importance for strengthening the enemy’s combat capabilities”, added the statement carried by Tasnim news agency.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff, a top adviser to president Donald Trump, said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday that he probably will travel to Israel next week to coordinate on Iran war plans.
UK’s HMS Dragon headed for eastern Mediterranean to bolster Cyprus defence
Britain’s HMS Dragon has left Portsmouth naval base headed for the eastern Mediterranean to protect Cyprus, PA reported.
The Type 45 destroyer is due is being sent to the eastern Mediterranean to help protect RAF bases on island, in a bid to prevent further drone or missile attacks by Iran and its proxies.
On Monday, the UK defence secretary John Healey told MPs the warship would sail from Portsmouth “in the next couple of days”.
It comes amid reports that landing ship RFA Lyme Bay is being prepared for a potential deployment to the region as well.
Ben Quinn
In Britain, Jeremy Corbyn’s new left-wing start-up party has called for the lifting of “punitive sanctions” that are hurting Iranians, in a move which it said went further than the position of its rivals, the Green party.
In a moment of agreement following months of bitter internal divisions, Your Party said on Tuesday that a statement on Iran had been unanimously agreed by its Central Executive Committee (CEC), which included both Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
The statement called on the government to halt the use of British military bases to attack Iran, adding that a claim that only defensive operations are being launched from UK bases had been “exposed as a sham” by a comment from the US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who said that British bases are being used for a “dramatic surge” in attacks.
“More than a thousand civilians are reported to have already been killed by US-Israeli bombing in Iran – including more than a hundred girls who were killed when their primary school in the Iranian town of Minab was obliterated,” it added.
“Ordinary Iranians now being bombed are already suffering from economic sanctions, which should be lifted to provide relief.”
After he won a comprehensive victory to become the de facto leader of the leftwing startup party, last month, party sources said Corbyn will seek to rebuild bridges with pro-Gaza communities “alienated” by Labour, and also work with the Greens.
Ukrainian military experts are due this week in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalists on Tuesday, where they will share expertise on downing Iranian drones.
“The first three countries to which we sent them, according to our agreements, are Qatar, the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia,” Zelenskyy said in an audio message sent to reporters, including AFP.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Tuesday that any attack on the Islamic republic’s infrastructure would result in a tit-for-tat response.
“The enemy should know that whatever they do, undoubtedly it will have a proportionate and immediate response,” Ghalibaf wrote on X, more than a week into the Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
“We today go with the rule of ’an eye for an eye’, without compromise, without exception,” he said. “If they start a war on infrastructure, we will undoubtedly target infrastructure.”
Denmark and the Netherlands announced Tuesday that they are relocating their respective embassy staff in Tehran to Azerbaijan.
The move follows Spain, Austria and Italy, which are among the countries to have temporarily closed and relocate their embassies to Baku in recent days as the US-Israel war on Iran continues.
“Due to the growing security risks for our employees, it has been decided to temporarily transfer the activities of the Dutch embassy in Iran to Baku, Azerbaijan,” Dutch foreign minister Tom Berendsen said on X.
“If the security situation allows, we will decide when and in what form our embassy in Iran can resume its activities in Tehran,” he added.
Iran’s intelligence ministry announced on Tuesday the arrests of 30 people accused of spying, including one foreigner, on the 11th day of the Middle East war.
The foreigner, whose nationality was not revealed, “was spying on behalf of two Persian Gulf countries in the name of the American-Zionist enemy” and was arrested in northeastern Iran, the ministry said in a statement published by the judiciary’s Mizan Online news portal.
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates reported intercepting another eight missiles and 26 drones over their territory as Iran continued its barrage of the Gulf state. But as the war dragged into its eleventh day, life in the UAE’s biggest and flashiest city of Dubai had mostly returned to normal.
Though emptied of thousands of tourists who initially fled in fear, people still flocked to the beaches, malls and rooftop bars in their droves. Commercial flights also restarted as the country’s airspace tentatively reopened, even as UAE’s leaders condemned the ongoing “blatant Iranian aggression”.
Many of the 4 million residents of the desert metropolis appeared quite unfazed by the ongoing conflict, deeming it low risk to their lives. So far, six people across the UAE have died from falling missile debris, but the country’s defence systems have mostly proved effective and there’s been no substantial damage to Dubai’s lofty skyline.
“They say it’s a war but it’s caused no problem for us, we don’t really see it at all,” said Nader Farid, 30, who moved from Egypt to Dubai five months ago to work in real estate, as he sat on the beach.
“The first day was scary when they warned about incoming missiles. But now it’s been more than a week and life here just goes on, only business is a bit slower. I’m from Egypt, I know that nowhere is safe from war. But this one does not feel bad. We are very protected here.”
Stranded holidaymakers such as Trish Patton, 62, from Glasgow, said she and her partner had been stuck in Dubai for nine days waiting for a flight home. They had been due to fly back the day the war broke out.
“It’s been very surreal and very scary at times,” she said. “Especially when we got the alerts on our phones, saying there may be missiles in your area, it’s pretty terrifying. On the first day it started, there were three drones right above us and we heard the explosions of them being shot down.”
After a week of trying, the couple finally had a flight back to Glasgow on Wednesday. “I’m happy to have survived and I’ll be even happier to be home,” said Patton. “I hope for everyone’s sake this war is over soon.”
Here are some images coming out of Lebanon today:
