Live updates on crises in West Asia: Iran continued its attacks across the Persian Gulf on Sunday, hitting key infrastructure by hitting fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport and damaging a water desalination plant in Bahrain as part of its ongoing missile and drone campaign against neighboring countries, AFP reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his country is not targeting other nations in the region, but is directing its attacks at U.S. military bases, facilities and equipment that happen to be “unfortunately located on the soil of our neighbors.”
Araghchi said his country was seeking a permanent end to the war rather than just a temporary truce, as reported by the AP.
But he added that before Tehran could consider any pause in the fighting, it “must explain why it started this aggression.” He did not specify who exactly he is referring to in this comment.
Araghchi also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “the war should be permanently ended, and if we don’t get there, I think we have to keep fighting for the sake of our people and our security.”
He says the war was “forced upon us” by the United States and Israel and that “what we are doing are legal acts of self-defense and we have every right to do so.”
Bahrain on Sunday accused Iran of attacking a desalination plant, raising fears that civilian infrastructure could be targeted in the ongoing conflict. At the same time, Iran’s president warned that the country may expand attacks on US targets in the region as US and Israeli airstrikes intensify.
Late on Sunday, an Israeli strike on an oil facility sent thick smoke billowing over parts of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Israel also renewed strikes in Lebanon.
The war, which broke out on February 28 after joint US-Israeli strikes hit Iran, has so far left at least 1,230 dead in the Islamic Republic, more than 300 in Lebanon and about a dozen in Israel, the AP said, citing officials.
Get all the live updates on the West Asian crisis here on Mint.
