Iran rejects de-escalation offers; Israel says it kills Iranian security chief

Israel claimed on Tuesday, March 17, to have killed Iran’s security chief, while a senior Iranian official said the new supreme leader had rejected de-escalation offers conveyed by intermediaries, demanding Israel and the US first be “brought to their knees.”

The senior official, who asked not to be identified, said two intermediary countries had conveyed proposals to Iran’s Foreign Ministry for “reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States.” The official did not give further details of the proposals or the intermediaries.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who had held his first foreign policy session since being named supreme leader, had responded that it was not “the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation,” the official said.

He did not clarify whether Khamenei, who has not yet been pictured since being named last week to replace his slain father, had attended the meeting in person or remotely.

The US-Israeli war on Iran is now in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed and no end in sight.

The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off, and US allies have rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s calls for them to help to reopen the vital waterway, through which about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.

Israel targets Iran’s security officials

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday Israeli forces had killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, widely seen as one of the most powerful figures in the country, as well as Gholamreza Soleimani, who led the volunteer Basij militia, which plays a major role in domestic security.

A statement from the prime minister’s office said Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered “the elimination of senior officials of the Iranian regime.”

There was no immediate response from Tehran to Katz’s remarks. Iranian state media published a handwritten note by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a US attack whose funeral was expected on Tuesday.

Larijani would be the most senior figure assassinated since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli-US airstrikes on February 28.

There was no let-up in attacks by both sides early on Tuesday, with Iran launching missiles on Israel overnight, underscoring that Tehran retains the capacity to carry out long-range strikes despite more than two weeks of pounding by US and Israeli weapons.

Iran’s army released a statement saying it had targeted with drones cybertechnology centers in Israel as well as weapons manufacturing centers of the Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael.

Rafael did not immediately return a request for comment.

The Israeli military said it was targeting “Iranian regime infrastructure” with a new wave of strikes across Tehran, as well as Hezbollah sites in Beirut, a day after saying it had drawn up detailed plans for at least three more weeks of war with Iran.

Trump says attacks on Gulf countries a surprise

Iran has responded by attacking its Gulf neighbors, which Trump has said was unexpected. Six foreign diplomats in the Middle East have told Reuters it was widely anticipated that Tehran would target Gulf Arab states if the US or Israel attacked Iran, an assessment they said was shared by regional and Western governments.

Gulf Arab states, including the UAE, have faced more than 2,000 missile and drone attacks since the start of war on Iran on February 28, striking US diplomatic missions and military bases as well as oil infrastructure, ports, airports, ships, and residential and commercial buildings.

Oil loading at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah was at least partly halted on Tuesday after a third attack in four days caused a fire at the export terminal. Fujairah is important as it lies on the far side of the Strait of Hormuz from the Gulf, making it one of the few ports from which the region’s oil can be shipped without passing through the blockaded waterway.

The cascading disruptions threaten to completely sever the OPEC producer’s remaining crude export outlet from global markets, potentially deepening a crisis that has sent energy prices surging.

UAE authorities said debris from an intercepted ballistic missile also fell in Abu Dhabi’s Bani Yas area, killing one Pakistani national, while a fire caused by a drone attack was being fought at Abu Dhabi’s Shah gas field.

Oil prices jumped about 4% on Tuesday, and stock futures slipped as investors fretted about a renewed spike in inflation as the conflict drags on.

Nobody ready to put their ‘people in harm’s way’

Trump has called on allies to provide military assistance to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ease the global economic impact, but so far his demands have been rebuffed.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said diplomatic ways have to be found in order to keep the strait open.

“Nobody is ready to put their people in harm’s way in the Strait of Hormuz. We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertilizers crisis, energy crisis as well,” Kallas said. – Rappler.com