Iran Launches Ballistic Missiles in Qatar Amid Rising Tensions in the Middle East

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has confirmed that it carried out a coordinated attack on Israel with Hezbollah.

Earlier, a senior Israeli defence official said Iran and Hezbollah had carried out a joint missile strike on northern Israel.

It marks the first time Iran and Hezbollah, which operates out of Lebanon, have conducted a joint operation against Israel since the conflict began 12 days ago.

Here’s a brief recap of the last few hours.

• Donald Trump said the US is “not finished yet” when asked about the war in Iran. He boasted that the US has hit Iran “harder than virtually any country in history has been hit”, before adding: “We’re not finished yet.” Speaking at another engagement, Trump said the US had “won” but “we got to finish the job”. Earlier, he had told Axios that the war would end “soon” since the there is “practically nothing left to target” in Iran.

• The Israeli military launched a “large-scale wave of strikes” on Beirut’s densely populated suburbs after Hezbollah launched what the IDF said were “dozens” of rockets. The IDF claimed the strikes targeted what it described as “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the Dahieh suburb of southern Beirut. Israel’s renewed bombing campaign across Lebanon and its invasion of border areas with ground troops have killed more than 570 people, according to Lebanese authorities. This includes at least 83 children, according to Unicef. About 750,000 people have been displaced after being forced to flee the violence, sparking a growing humanitarian disaster.

• The Israeli military said is prepared to continue its war with Iran for “as long as necessary”. “We as an army are prepared to continue the campaign as long as necessary,” a spokesperson said, as quoted by Reuters. Earlier, the Isreali defence minister, Israel Katz, conveyed similar sentiments, saying that the war “will continue without any time limit”.

• Iran’s UN ambassador said a UN security council resolution demanding that Tehran stop its “egregious” attacks on Gulf nations is an “injustice against my country” – adding that Iran is the “main victim of a clear act of aggression”. “The decision distorts the facts on the ground and ignores the root causes of the current crisis,” Amir Saeid Iravani said. “The attack on us began with the assassination of the supreme leader and officials, which led to the deaths of thousands of victims.”

• Condemning “heinous crimes and lethal aggression” from the US and Israel, Iravani said more than 1,348 civilians have been killed and more than 17,000 injured since Washington and Tel Aviv launched their joint attack on 28 February. More than 19,000 civilian sites – including 16,191 residential homes, 77 medical facilities and 65 schools – have been damaged, he said.

• Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, demanded that reparations and security guarantees be included in any agreement to end the war started by the United States and Israel. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has said that Donald Trump will decide when to end the war on Iran, and the US president has demanded Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” before that happens.

• Donald Trump evaded a question about the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 175 people, most of them children. A preliminary investigation found that the US is to blame for the strike, according to a report from the New York Times. When asked whether he takes responsibility for the attack, the US president simply replied: “I don’t know about it.” More on that here.

• Oman’s civil defence is working on containing a fire in fuel tanks at the port in Salalah, Oman’s state news agency reported, after drones struck oil storage facilities there.

• Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE all said they had successfully intercepted Iranian drones and missiles against their territories.

US intelligence reporting sees direct attacks by Iran as the greatest threat to oil tankers going through the strait of Hormuz, the key transit passage for the global oil trade that has been effectively shut down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

The Trump administration, spooked by possible preparations by Iran to mine the strait, carried out strikes against 16 mine-laying vessels near the strait on Tuesday. US Central Command posted a video showing munitions hitting nine vessels, most of which were moored as they were struck.

But the more potent threat remains the risk of a direct attack by Iran at scale – for instance, a swarm of one-way attack drones or a series of shore-to-ship ballistic missiles, according to two people familiar with the intelligence who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.

The problem comes because just one missile or drone slipping through defenses could decimate or sink a tanker, giving Iran leverage even as the US launched what a senior administration official described as its largest attack against Iran in the conflict to date.

As a result, even if US navy destroyers escorted the tankers, they might not be able to intercept every incoming missile, and even in the event the Trump administration provides risk insurance directly to operators, ships’ crews would still need to be convinced to pilot the vessels through the strait.

Here’s the full report:

UAE air defence systems have successfully intercepted 6 ballistic missiles, 7 cruise missiles, and 39 drones launched from Iran on Wednesday, the country’s defence ministry said in a statement.

Since the start of the “brazen Iranian aggression”, UAE air defences have neutralised a total of 268 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,514 drones, it added.

The ministry said these repeated attacks have resulted in six deaths and wounded 131.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations earlier addressed the UN security council after it voted in favour of a draft resolution demanding that Tehran stop its “egregious” attacks on Gulf nations.

“The decision is a clear injustice against my country, which is the main victim of a clear and unambiguous act of aggression,” Amir Saeid Iravani said.

The decision distorts the facts on the ground and ignores the root causes of the current crisis.

The attack on us began with the assassination of the supreme leader and officials, which led to the deaths of thousands of victims.

Condemning “heinous crimes and lethal aggression” from the US and Israel, Iravani said more than 1,348 civilians have been killed and more than 17,000 injured since Washington and Tel Aviv launched their joint attack on 28 February.

More than 19,000 civilian sites – including 16,191 residential homes, 77 medical facilities and 65 schools – have been damaged, he said.

The Kuwaiti army said a short while ago that national air defence systems were responding to hostile missile and drone attacks.

Donald Trump said that Iran didn’t know “what the hell hit them” when the US and Israel launched war on Tehran 12 days ago, and repeated his baseless claims that Iran was planning “to try to take over the Middle East” and “knock out Israel”.

He went on to say that “we won”, but the United States will stay in the fight to finish the job against Iran.

“You never like to say too early you won. We won,” Trump said. “In the first hour it was over.”

He added, “We got to finish the job.”

After [Operation] Midnight Hammer, we figured that’ll be the end of them for a while. But they started again.

That’s why we got to finish it, right? We don’t want to go back every two years.

Qatar’s defence ministry said that Iran launched nine ballistic missiles and a number of drones at its territory.

In a post on X, it said that the armed forces “successfully intercepted all drones” and eight missiles, while the remaining one fell into an uninhabited area.

Oman’s civil defence is working on containing a fire in fuel tanks at the port in Salalah, Oman’s state news agency reported on Wednesday, after drones struck oil storage facilities there.

The state news agency, citing Oman’s civil defence, said that containing the fire “might take time”, without providing further details.

Earlier on Wednesday, Oman’s state TV said that drones struck fuel tanks in the port. Citing an energy ministry official, it reported that there has been no disruption to the continuity of oil supplies or petroleum derivatives in the country.

British maritime security firm Ambrey told Reuters that no damage to merchant vessels was reported. Meanwhile, Maersk told Reuters that all operations at the port had been paused until further notice.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told Oman’s sultan in a phone call that the incident will be investigated, Iranian media reported.

The Israeli military is prepared to continue its war with Iran for “as long as necessary”, a spokesperson told reporters late on Wednesday.

“We as an army are prepared to continue the campaign as long as necessary,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.

Earlier, the Isreali defence minister, Israel Katz, conveyed similar sentiments, saying that the war “will continue without any time limit”.

The operation will continue without any time limit, as long as required, until we accomplish all objectives and achieve victory in the campaign.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday night that it had begun a “large-scale wave of strikes” on Beirut’s suburbs after Hezbollah launched what the IDF said were “dozens” of rockets.

The IDF claimed the strikes targeted what it described as “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the densely populated Dahieh suburb of southern Beirut.

In the 12 days since the US and Israel launched war on Iran, Israel’s renewed bombing campaign across Lebanon and its invasion of border areas with ground troops have killed more than 570 people, according to Lebanese authorities. This includes at least 83 children, according to Unicef.

Some 750,000 have been displaced after being forced to flee the violence, sparking a growing humanitarian disaster.

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, has demanded that reparations and security guarantees be included in any agreement to end the war started by the United States and Israel.

He wrote on X:

Talking to leaders of Russia and Pakistan, I reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to peace in the region.

The only way to end this war – ignited by the Zionist regime and US – is recognising Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm international guarantees against future aggression.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has said that Donald Trump will decide when to end the war on Iran, and the US president has demanded Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” before that happens.

Shrai Popat

Donald Trump went on to say that the US has hit “28 mine ships as of this moment”. This is up from the 16 that US Central Command said it “eliminated” near the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

The US president also tried to assuage concerns about the whipsawing price of oil. “I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought. It’s going to come down more than anybody understands,” he told reporters in Ohio.

On Iran’s new leadership, Donald Trump added:

We knocked out twice their leadership, and now they have a new group coming up. Let’s see what happens to them.

A reminder that Trump has consistently expressed strong disapproval of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In recent days, Trump has said his appointment was a “big mistake” and suggested he wouldn’t “last long” without US approval. He has told reporters that he’s “disappointed” and “not happy” with the selection, having previously called Khamenei a “lightweight” and an “unacceptable choice” to succeed his father.

The US president has also declined to rule out the younger Khamenei as a military target (Israel, meanwhile, has vowed to target the new supreme leader).

More from Donald Trump, who has in the last few moments been speaking on a visit to a life science and clinical research company in Ohio.

He repeated comments he’s made this week that US military operations in Iran are “a couple of weeks … few weeks of excursion”.

Asked by a reporter whether the US-Israeli conflict with Iran is a “little excursion” or a “war”, Trump said:

It’s both.

It’s an excursion that will keep us out of a war; for them it’s a war, for us it turned out to be easier than we thought.

The Iran-US-Israeli war has plunged the Middle East into chaos, but defining the system of alliances in this war is a complex question.

The Guardian’s Beirut-based reporter, Will Christou, explains who is supporting Iran, who is supporting the US and Israel, and what their support actually equates to.