Air strikes continue as Netanyahu says Iran war goals achieved 'beyond halfway point'

DUBAI — Iran launched missiles across the Middle East early on Tuesday in response to fresh Israeli strikes on its capital Tehran, hours after Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said more than half of his military aims had been achieved. “It’s definitely beyond the halfway point. But I don’t want to put a schedule on it,” Netanyahu told US broadcaster Newsmax. The month-long conflict has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands, disrupting energy supplies and threatening to send the global economy into a tailspin. Sirens rang out in Jerusalem as Israel’s military said it had responded to fresh Iranian missiles, while local Iranian media reported new explosions in Tehran that caused “power outages in parts” of the capital. Sounds of explosions were heard in parts of eastern and western Tehran minutes after Israel issued a warning of imminent strikes in the city, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday. Residents in the eastern Pirouzi district reported power outages after the blasts, while officials from Iran’s Energy Ministry began efforts to restore power, Tasnim added. Israel carried out missile strikes on what it called military infrastructure in Tehran and infrastructure used by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut, leaving black smoke hanging over the Lebanese capital. The Israeli military said early on Tuesday that four soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, the same area as three United Nations peacekeepers from Indonesia were killed in two separate incidents in recent days. Iran’s military spokesman said on state television that targets in the latest wave of Tehran’s missile and drone attacks included “hideouts” of US military personnel in five bases in the region and in ‌Israel. Iran fired more missiles at Gulf nations, as falling debris from intercepted projectiles wounded four people in Dubai, while a Kuwaiti oil tanker in the city’s port caught fire. In Saudi Arabia, authorities said they intercepted eight ballistic missiles, hours after Iran’s top diplomat called on Riyadh to “eject US forces”. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that Tehran’s attacks on the Gulf Arab states only target US forces, even after assaults have hit civilian targets throughout the region. Araghchi’s comments, addressed to Saudi Arabia, come as growing Gulf Arab anger has those states encouraging America to continue to prosecute the war. “Iran respects the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and considers it a brotherly nation,” he wrote on X, sharing a photo purportedly showing damage to an American aircraft at Prince Sultan Air Base in the Kingdom. “Our operations are aimed at enemy aggressors who have no respect for Arabs or Iranians, nor can provide any security. … High time to eject US forces.” US President Donald Trump has claimed to be in direct contact with senior Iranian figures. On Monday, he said the US is negotiating with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. The former Revolutionary Guard commander was previously floated as Washington’s negotiating partner, but has denied Iran is talking to the US and said Pakistan-facilitated discussions were merely a cover for American troop deployments. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei again denied any negotiations, saying it had received US peace proposals via intermediaries, following weekend talks between the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. According to Baghaei, Tehran had received a 15-point proposal from the Trump administration containing “excessive, unrealistic and irrational” demands but there haven’t been any direct talks. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump wanted to reach a deal with Iranian leaders before a second deadline, now April 6, for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. Leavitt said talks with Iran were progressing, adding that what Tehran says publicly differs from what it tells US officials in private. Soon after Baghaei’s remarks, Trump said the US was in talks with a “more reasonable regime” to end the war in Iran, but also issued a new warning over the Strait of Hormuz. “Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude ⁠our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island,” Trump wrote in a social media post, also threatening to attack Iranian desalination plants. However, the Wall Street Journal reported Trump had told aides he is willing to end the military campaign even if the strait remains largely closed and leave a complex operation to reopen it for a later date. That helped oil prices retreat and lifted stock markets off their lows as investors hoped for some ⁠way for hostilities to end swiftly. Thousands of soldiers ⁠from the US Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East, two US officials told Reuters on Monday, part of reinforcements that would expand Trump’s options to include a ground assault in Iran, even as he pursues talks with Tehran. Qalibaf, the parliament speaker Trump says he is negotiating with, said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to state media. The White House said Trump was considering asking Arab nations to pay for the cost of the war. “It’s an idea that I know that he has and something that I think you’ll hear more from him on,” Leavitt said in response to a reporter’s question about the idea. His administration requested an additional $200 billion in funding for the war. The request faces stiff opposition in the US Congress which must approve new spending. — Agencies