By Maya Gebeily, Humeyra Pamuk and Pesha Magid
BEIRUT/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM, March 7 (Reuters) – The war in Iran entered its second week on Saturday with uncertainty growing about when hostilities will end, as U.S. President Donald Trump demanded Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” and Israel traded attacks with Iran and Lebanon.
Trump’s comments came hours after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on social media that unnamed countries had begun mediation efforts, briefly raising hopes of a resolution a week after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
“After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,” he added.
WAR SPREADING IN GULF, LEBANON
Trump has offered shifting explanations of his war aims, raising the possibility of an extended conflict that has already spilled well beyond Iran’s borders, shaken global financial markets and sent oil prices soaring.
Iran has responded by hitting Israel and multiple Gulf states that host U.S. military installations.
The U.S.-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani. Iranian attacks have killed 11 people in Israel, and at least six U.S. service members have been killed.
Early on Saturday missiles were seen flying towards Israel as the Israeli military said it had identified missiles launched from Iran towards Israel. Explosions could be heard as Israeli defences activated to shoot down incoming Iranian fire.
Shortly after the barrage, the Israeli army said it had begun a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure in the capital Tehran. Israel also attacked neighbouring Lebanon, where it said it was hitting Iranian and Hezbollah targets.
Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport was struck, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. There was no immediate comment from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Landings resumed at Dubai International Airport, according to aviation-tracking website Flightradar24.
On Friday, Israel said 50 of its warplanes had hit a bunker in Iran still being used by its leadership beneath slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s destroyed Tehran compound.
Israel has expanded the war in Lebanon, pounding Beirut on Friday after ordering an unprecedented evacuation of the capital’s entire southern suburbs. Israel says its bombing in Lebanon aims to root out Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia that has been a dominant faction in Lebanese politics since the 1980s.
Hezbollah fired on Israel this week to avenge the killing of Khamenei on the war’s first day.
“We’re sleeping here in the streets – some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach,” said Jamal Seifeddin, 43, who fled Beirut’s southern suburbs and spent the night on the streets in the downtown district.
About 300,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon in the past four days, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. The Lebanese health ministry has reported 123 people killed and 683 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks.
European and U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday, while oil prices hit multi-year highs, with the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut. About one-fifth of global oil moves daily through the strait.
IRAN REJECTS TRUMP CALL FOR A SAY IN CHOOSING NEW LEADER
Washington will provide reinsurance for losses up to $20 billion in the Gulf region to bolster confidence for oil and gas shippers, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp has said.
Trump has said the U.S. Navy could escort ships in the Gulf. But Iran’s Revolutionary Guards challenged him to do so, with spokesperson Alimohammad Naini saying Iran “welcomes” and is “awaiting” any U.S. presence in the strait, state media said.
Russia is providing Iran with locations of U.S. warships and aircraft in the Middle East after Iran’s ability to locate U.S. forces was degraded, the Washington Post reported, citing three officials familiar with the intelligence.
Russian missions in the U.S. did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
Trump also reiterated his demand to have a say in selecting Iran’s new supreme leader, a notion rejected by Iravani.
The ambassador said new leadership would be selected “in accordance with our constitutional procedures and solely by the will of the Iranian people – without any foreign interference.”
Iran has described the conflict as an unprovoked attack and the killing of Khamenei as an assassination.
The Trump administration is pushing to shore up weapons stocks as the Iran operation draws down supplies. The president met with executives from seven defence contractors on Friday, who he said had agreed to accelerate weapons production.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. had enough weapons for the Iran campaign, which she said would take about four to six weeks to complete.
The State Department on Friday approved $151.8 million in sales to Israel of munitions and support, skipping the usual congressional review. Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that an emergency existed that required the immediate sale.
U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on the first day of the war, two U.S. officials told Reuters. The investigators have not yet reached a final conclusion.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily in Beirut, Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Pesha Magid in Jerusalem and Reuters bureaux; Writing by Joseph Ax and Himani Sarkar; Editing by William Mallard)
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