The president of Iran has rejected Donald Trump’s call for the country’s unconditional surrender as a “dream”, while issuing a rare apology for Iranian strikes that had targeted sites in neighbouring Gulf states.
In a prerecorded address broadcast on state television on Saturday, Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the country would never capitulate, responding to remarks by the US president, who said on Friday that only Iran’s total submission could bring the war to an end.
Iran’s enemies, Pezeshkian said, “must take their dream of the Iranian people’s unconditional surrender to their graves”, in remarks that further escalate the eighth day of conflict, which has choked global oil supplies and cut world air travel.
At the same time, Pezeshkian issued an apology to neighbouring states for Iran’s recent “actions”, in an apparent attempt to ease regional anger after Iranian strikes hit civilian targets in Gulf Arab countries.
Tehran has responded to attacks on its territory by targeting Israel, but also Gulf Arab states that host US military installations, while Israel has also launched intense strikes on Lebanon, where the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah is based.
Over the past week, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have all reported drone and missile attacks.
Pezeshkian said Iran’s temporary leadership council had approved suspending attacks on nearby countries unless an assault on Iran originated from those states.
“I personally apologise to neighbouring countries that were affected by Iran’s actions,” he said.
It remains unclear whether Pezeshkian’s remarks signal a broader decision by Tehran to scale back its campaign, or what prompted the apparent shift, with reports suggesting some strikes were still being directed at Gulf states on Saturday morning.
Iranian president’s speech comes as Israel said it had launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran, sending 80 fighter jets in a pre-dawn blitz that set one of Tehran’s main airports on fire.
Israeli officials said the targets included a military academy, an underground command centre and a missile storage facility.
Photos showed flames and thick plumes of smoke rising from Mehrabad International airport, one of the two airports serving the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Iran also retaliated on Saturday. Air raid sirens sounded and explosions were reported above Jerusalem as well as in Gulf cities including Dubai and Manama, and near Riyadh, where Saudi Arabia said it intercepted a ballistic missile aimed at an airbase hosting US military personnel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps also said it had targeted the oil tanker Prima in the Gulf as it attempted to pass through the strait of Hormuz, a narrow maritime choke-point for global shipping that Iran has in effect closed.
Now entering its second week, the war was triggered by joint airstrikes by Israel and the US that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Since then the conflict has rapidly widened, spilling into Lebanon and reaching as far as the eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
Iran’s health ministry said at least 926 civilians had been killed and about 6,000 injured. Israel has also intensified airstrikes in Lebanon, repeatedly targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 217 people had been killed, while the prime minister, Nawaf Salam, warned that a humanitarian disaster was looming. The Norwegian Refugee Council said about 300,000 people had fled their homes.
