By Jaidaa Taha, Maya Gebeily, Alexander Cornwell and Emily Rose
DUBAI/JERUSALEM, March 14 (Reuters) – Iran threatened on Saturday to escalate the war raging in the Middle East by targeting any facility in the region with U.S. ties, after Washington bombed its main energy hub and U.S. President Donald Trump predicted “many countries” would send warships.
As the conflict entered its third week, Iran projected defiance after U.S. forces hit military sites at Kharg Island, which handles 90% of Iranian oil exports. A drone attack had already disrupted a United Arab Emirates energy hub and the U.S. embassy in Baghdad warned U.S. citizens to leave Iraq.
Since Israel and the United States began attacking Iran on February 28, the war has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran, and created the biggest-ever oil supply disruption, pushing up global prices.
At least 15 people were killed when an airstrike hit a refrigerator and heater factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Saturday.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Some oil-loading operations have been suspended in the UAE’s Fujairah emirate, a global ship-refueling hub, industry and trade sources said on Saturday, with TV footage showing plumes of dark smoke rising into the air.
An Iranian military spokesperson called on people in the UAE to evacuate ports, docks, and “American hideouts,” saying U.S. forces had targeted Iranian islands from those areas.
‘BOMBING THE HELL OUT OF THE SHORELINE’
Trump said many countries would send warships to allow shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20% of the world’s oil. He did not provide details on which would do so, but in his Truth Social post, he said he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would send vessels.
“Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Trump wrote.
“In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water,” he wrote.
Asked for comment on Trump’s post, a British Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “As we’ve said previously, we are currently discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region.”
Trump has threatened to strike the oil infrastructure of Kharg Island unless Tehran stops attacking vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. He said on Friday the U.S. had “totally obliterated” military targets there.
U.S. Central Command later said it hit more than 90 sites on Kharg, including naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and other military targets.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, has said the Strait of Hormuz should remain closed.
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed speculation from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Khamenei was wounded and likely disfigured. “There is no problem with the new supreme leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties,” Araqchi told MS Now.
Khamenei has not appeared in public, instead issuing a statement on Thursday read by a television presenter.
IRAN CLAIMS KHARG ISLAND STRIKES CAME VIA UAE
Iran played down the extent of the damage on Kharg Island while threatening to step up its use of more powerful weapons and warning that parts of the UAE were legitimate targets.
“We declare to the leaders of the UAE that Iran considers it a legitimate right to defend its national sovereignty and territory by targeting the origin of American enemy missile launches in the shipping ports, docks, and military shelters of the U.S. hidden in some cities of the UAE,” a spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said.
Araqchi said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities and warned it would target U.S. companies in the region or companies in which the U.S. had shares.
The UAE’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to the Iranian accusation that the attack on Kharg Island came through the UAE.
Nine ballistic missiles and 33 drones were launched from Iran towards the UAE on Saturday, the Ministry of Defence said.
Iran warned residents to leave areas near Jebel Ali port in Dubai, Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s Fujairah port and said it was targeting branches of U.S. banks in the Gulf.
Fujairah, outside the Strait of Hormuz, is the outlet for about 1 million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude oil — a volume equal to about 1% of world demand.
“The IRGC is sending a message that there is no safe harbor in this rapidly expanding conflict,” said Helima Croft, analyst at RBC Capital. “The fact this comes hours after the U.S. strike on Kharg Island also signals that Tehran will not let Washington control the terms of escalation and impose dominance.”
Resentment had already been mounting in Gulf Arab capitals at being drawn into a war they neither initiated nor endorsed, but are now paying for economically and militarily, regional sources have told Reuters.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said in an X post on Saturday: “The Iranian strategy, which reflects its inability to confront U.S. and Israeli strikes by targeting Arab Gulf states, reveals a military impotence, a moral bankruptcy, and a political isolation.”
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Steve Gorman, Simon Lewis, Stephen Coates, Matthias Williams and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by William Mallard, Jon Boyle, Rod Nickel)
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