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Middle East crisis live: Israel pounds Tehran as Iranian president says unconditional surrender a ‘dream’

Iran’s president has said a demand by the US for an unconditional surrender is a “dream that they should to take to their grave”. Masoud Pezeshkian made the statement in a prerecorded address aired by state television on Saturday. He also apologised for Iran’s attacks on regional countries – as just reported – insisting that Tehran would halt them and suggesting they were caused by miscommunication in the ranks. The comments, cited by the Associated Press, came as intense Iranian fire targeted the Gulf Arab states early on Saturday while Israel and the US kept up their airstrikes targeting Iran. There were repeated attacks on Saturday morning on Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Donald Trump earlier said that only Iran’s “unconditional surrender” would bring an end to the offensive launched a week ago.

Seven days on, seven questions about the US-Israeli war on Iran

The US-Israeli war on Iran, now into its seventh day, has set the Middle East alight, threatening millions of people’s lives and livelihoods as the violence spreads in widening arc stretching from central Asia to the edge of Europe. The joint operation, named “Epic Fury” by the US and “Roaring Lion” by Israel, has been sold as a high-impact show of intimidating power, but its impact so far beyond the chaos and bloodshed is unclear. What is certain is that predictions that this type of war would destabilise the region have indeed rapidly materialised. 1. What is the background to this war? For decades, the regional powerhouse Iran, which views Israel and the US as its arch-enemies, has sought to spread its influence across the Middle East by backing militant groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. It has developed a nuclear programme that it claims is for civil purposes. Washington disputes this and was in negotiations to limit Tehran’s nuclear ambitions up until last Saturday, when it abandoned them and started bombing. Israel’s longstanding regional policy – particularly towards Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza, Yemen and Syria – has been to keep enemy forces “weak” through the regular use of overwhelming and destructive military power, including assassinations. The result has been the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, an abandonment of diplomacy and the hardening of global hatred against Israel. Senior figures in armed factions that Israel has killed are usually quickly replaced by deputies, while militant groups Israel has targeted have either rebuilt or been replaced by others. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been urging the US to seriously consider an attack on Iran for years and dismissed international agreements to put limits on Tehran’s nuclear programme. Successive administrations in Washington have held back from this belligerent stance, with diplomats and Middle Eastern governments warning that – as well as being a blunt and ineffective tool to destroy a nuclear programme – a bombing campaign on Iran would engulf the region. This is exactly what is playing out now. As Donald Trump has said, no other US president “was willing to do what I was willing to do”. 2. What are the objectives of Israel and the US in this war? Various explanations have been given, including: combating generalised threats from Iran and its proxies; destroying Tehran’s nuclear programme (despite Trump claiming he had already “obliterated” it with strikes last summer); and an attempt at regime change by bombing it from the air. On Friday, Trump said he wanted an “unconditional surrender”. Some in US Christian evangelical circles see the bombing as part of a holy war that will lead to Armageddon – something they crave as they believe it will precipitate the return of Jesus Christ. Hours after the first strikes, Trump said the “objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”. Netanyahu has said that removing Iran’s missile and nuclear threat was his objective, but that he also welcomed the “overthrow of the regime” if that is an outcome. One striking goal that is starting to emerge is that the US and Israel have encouraged anti-government groups inside and outside Iran, including Kurdish militants, to rise up and fight. If successful, that strategy could lead to an unpredictable civil war. 3. What do we know about civilian casualties so far? US and Israeli attacks have killed 1,230 people in Iran since the bombing began a week ago, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. One of the most shocking of the US and Israeli strikes was on a girls’ primary school in Minab, in southern Iran, which killed dozens of children. A separate US submarine torpedo attack on an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka killed at least 87 sailors, although Sri Lankan authorities were able to save some from drowning. Israel’s strikes on Lebanon – a country it has repeatedly bombed and invaded over decades – have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The Lebanese health ministry has reported Israeli strikes killing 217 people and wounding 798, and the government there has warned of a humanitarian disaster with huge numbers of peopled displaced. Twelve Israelis have been killed by Iranian attacks, and six US personnel have been killed. There have also been casualties in the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait from Iranian drones and missiles. Other Iranian attacks have hit countries outside the region, including Azerbaijan and Cyprus. 4. Who is leading Iran now and what might come next? On the first day of the war, the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei was killed. The regime immediately began working on a possible successor, with the dead ayatollah’s son Mojtaba, seen as a possible heir to the title. No new leader has been announced, although an interim body is running affairs. So far, the government remains in control of the country’s armed forces and police. The big danger is a total state collapse, with regional powers fearing the big country could be fragmented. Recent history shows US military operations that were initially celebrated as successes were later seen as failures, including the 2001 Afghanistan war and the 2003 Iraq war, which toppled the Taliban and President Saddam Hussein respectively, only to lead to years of war and power vacuums. 5. How long can Iran afford to fight back for? Iran’s conventional military is not comparable to that of the US and Israel, and it has a limited supply of missiles and drones. But the state has a long history of using asymmetric warfare, in which outmatched forces can conduct painful attacks against big military powers through paramilitary groups. In launching attacks into multiple neighbouring countries, Tehran’s retaliation has already created geopolitical and economic chaos. It has effectively closed the strait of Hormuz, which has choked global oil supplies, and its missiles and drones have cut world air travel. 6. Will the Gulf states remain neutral? It is hard to tell. Tehran has repeatedly said that US military bases, of which there are many, and US “interests” in the region, are the targets of its attacks. Still, patience is running thin in the Gulf after hotels, high-rise apartment blocks, oil installations and airports were hit. Several Gulf monarchies, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, view the Iranian regime as an adversary, but there is also concern that they could get dragged into a destructive war in which every side will suffer. 7. Is this war legal? There is no shortage of voices saying this war is not legal – under international as well as US law – not least among legal scholars, but also US politicians and some of Washington’s allies abroad. The US and Israel claim their strikes are an act of pre-emptive self-defence. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, refused to join the offensive, stating he would not commit UK forces to “unlawful action” and warning that “this government does not believe in regime change from the skies”. One of the most vociferous critics of the war, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has described the growing conflict in the Middle East as playing “Russian roulette with the destiny of millions”. On Friday, Sánchez again criticised the US-Israeli strikes, saying they were an “extraordinary mistake” and “not in accordance with international law”.

Tehran warns Europe to stay out of conflict or face ‘retaliation’ – as it happened

We’re closing this blog now but you can continue to follow our live coverage of the Middle East crisis on a new live blog here, including a fresh rundown on the latest key events. Thanks for following along.

Ukraine war briefing: nationwide air alert issued after at least six killed in strikes on Kharkiv and Dnipro

Russian strikes killed at least six people across Ukraine early on Saturday, authorities saidtriggering a nationwide air alert. The bodies of five people were found in the rubble of an attack on an apartment block in the Kharkiv region, while one person was killed in the Dnipro region. Ten people were wounded in the attack, including two boys aged six and 11, and a 17-year-old girl, regional military chief Oleg Synegubov posted on Telegram. It was not immediately clear whether the six dead were among those wounded. Synegubov said rescuers were searching for up to 10 other people, including a child, who were feared trapped under the rubble of the five-story building, which was “practically destroyed” in the strikes. Ukraine’s neighbour and Nato member Poland said it was scrambling military planes in response to the attack. “Due to missile attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, military aviation has begun operating in our airspace,” the Operational Command of the Armed Forces posted on X. The Trump administration is considering lifting sanctions on more Russian oil, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has said. On Thursday Washington temporarily eased sanctions to allow India to buy from Moscow amid a surge in global oil prices as the US-Israel war on Iran all but halted shipping activity in the strait of Hormuz. Bessent insisted the new measures were not aimed at easing sanctions imposed on Russia over its conduct in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, but instead only affect supplies already in transit. An anti-drone system developed by an American company and proven to work in Ukraine soon will head to the Middle East to help defend against Iranian drones, two US officials told the Associated Press. The system, known as Merops, fires drones against drones and has shown success in fighting those used by Russia in its war against Ukraine. The system was deployed to Romania and Poland last year. It comes amid reports Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, two officials familiar with US intelligence on the matter have told the Associated Press. It’s the first indication that Moscow has sought to get involved in the war. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones. Tehran has been supplying Russia with Shaheds for its war on Ukraine and are now utilising them in retaliatory attacks throughout the Gulf. Zelenskyy says that he’s spoken to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation. “Ukraine knows how to defend against Shahed drone attacks because our cities have faced them almost every night,” said Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna. “When our partners are in need, we are always ready to help.” The European Commission has joined far-right leaders across Europe in criticising Volodymyr Zelenskyy over what sounded like a physical threat to the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, over his veto of a €90bn loan to Ukraine amid an ongoing dispute over gas supplies. “We hope that one person in the European Union will not block the 90bn. Otherwise we will give this person’s address to our armed forces, to our guys. Let them call him and talk to him in their own language,” he said, in comments that caused shock in Budapest. Meanwhile, Hungary’s pro-Russian foreign minister accused Ukraine of seeking to interfere in upcoming Hungarian elections in which Orbán faces an unprecedented challenge. Péter Szijjártó spoke to several hundred pro-government protesters outside Ukraine’s embassy in Budapest, claiming Ukraine wanted a more Kyiv-friendly government after April elections, and alleging without evidence that Ukraine was working with the EU and Orbán’s opposition to block oil deliveries. The Russian flag was flown at the Winter Paralympic Games opening ceremony in Verona on Friday night, the first time it has appeared at an international sporting event since the invasion of Ukraine. It was a more subdued athletes’ procession than in Paralympics past, with nearly half of the 56 competing countries choosing not to send athletes to the ceremony and all flags carried by local volunteers.

Canadian PM Mark Carney says former prince Andrew should be removed from royal line of succession

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has said Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should be removed from the royal line of succession for alleged actions he described as “deplorable”. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Carney said the actions that have caused the former prince to be stripped of his royal titles “necessitate” his removal from the line of succession. Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on 19 February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. It is thought to be the first time in modern history that a member of the royal family has been held by police. The former prince is eighth in line to the throne after Princes William and Harry and their children, despite him having relinquished his royal titles in October after new information came to light about his links to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and child sex offender. This means Mountbatten-Windsor is still a counsellor of state, the group of adult royals who could be named to fill in for King Charles III if he was ill or abroad, even if in practice this would never happen for him, as only working royals are used. King Charles is the head of state in Canada, which is a member of the commonwealth of former colonies. Removing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession would require an act of the UK parliament and the support of the 14 commonwealth countries where Charles is head of state, which also includes Australia and New Zealand. Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, said that even though Mountbatten-Windsor is “well down” the line of succession, the “point of principle stands”. Carney said there was a process to remove someone from the line of succession, which he says should be followed. In February, the Australian and New Zealand governments also confirmed they would support any proposal to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession after the former prince was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. At the time Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, wrote to his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, to offer the country’s backing. “In light of recent events concerning Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, I am writing to confirm that my government would agree to any proposal to remove him from the line of royal succession,” an extract of Albanese’s letter to Starmer, supplied to Guardian Australia, read. “I agree with His Majesty that the law must now take its full course and there must be a full, fair and proper investigation. “These are grave allegations and Australians take them seriously.” The allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor stem from documents released by the US justice department relating to Epstein and his links to the rich and powerful. Emails released appeared to show Mountbatten-Windsor sharing reports of official visits to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore. Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing or accusations against him and has not so far been charged with any criminal offence. The Guardian has reported that Buckingham Palace would not stand in the way of plans to remove Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession. In a statement after the arrest of his brother, King Charles said the “the law must take its course”. With Associated Press

Iran war briefing: US lets India buy Russian oil after energy prices jump

Iran’s deputy foreign minister warned European nations that they will become legitimate targets if they become involved in the US and Israel’s war on Tehran. If any country “joins America and Israel in the aggression against Iran, they will be also legitimate targets for Iran’s retaliation,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi told France 24. He said Iranian officials had been “negotiating in good faith” with the US before Washington decided to attack with Israel on Saturday. “We do not trust the Americans. Not only did they betray us, but they betrayed diplomacy.” Iran’s UN ambassador said that at least 1,332 Iranian civilians have been killed so far in the US-Israeli war on Tehran, with thousands more injured, and accused the US and Israel of war crimes. Amir Saeid Iravani told reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York that the US and Israel “have demonstrated that they recognise no red line in committing their crimes”. He accused the two countries of “indiscriminate” attacks that were “deliberately” targeting “densely populated” civilian areas and infrastructure, including schools, medical, recreational and sports facilities. “These acts constitute clear war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he said. Meanwhile, the US military campaign against Iran may take as long as four to six weeks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that the US is “well on its way” toward controlling Iranian airspace. It comes as Trump met with leading US weapons manufacturers at the White House and said they had agreed to “quadruple Production of ‘Exquisite Class’ Weaponry”. Leavitt added that the US would consider Iran in a state of “unconditional surrender” once Donald Trump determines the country no longer “poses a threat” to the United States. Trump said on Friday that only Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” will bring an end to the joint US-Israeli offensive launched seven days ago. The Russian and Iranian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian, held a phone call today in which they agreed to continue contacts, the Kremlin said. It comes amid reports that Moscow has been providing Tehran with the locations of US military assets, including warships and aircraft, in the region. The White House earlier declined to confirm those reports. The UN secretary-general called on nations to “stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations”, warning that the situation “could spiral beyond anyone’s control”. “The stakes could not be higher,” António Guterres wrote in a post on X. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Iranian military told Iranian state TV that Tehran does not plan to close the strait of Hormuz, but will target any ship belonging to Israel or the United States. It comes as the US-Israeli war on Iran has driven the oil price past $90 a barrel to its highest weekly gains since the Covid-19 pandemic six years ago, threatening a fresh rise in global inflation. French president Macron condemned an Israeli strike that directly hit a United Nations site in Lebanon earlier today, critically injuring two Ghanaian soldiers serving with the UN’s peacekeeping mission there. Qatar’s defence ministry said that the country’s air defence systems were “subjected to waves of attacks” from Iranian drones on Friday, starting at dawn and continuing until evening. It said that of the 10 drones that were launched towards Qatar, nine were intercepted while the tenth hit an uninhabited area, causing no injuries. Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said his country was drawn into a war “it did not seek or choose”. In a speech during a meeting with Arab and foreign ambassadors, he warned that “a humanitarian disaster is looming”. US investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion, according to a Reuters report citing two unnamed US officials. Iranian forces fired seven attack drones at residential neighbourhoods in Bahrain overnight, said US Central Command (Centcom), which accused the Iranian government of attacking 12 different countries and “deliberately” targeting civilians.

Revealed: the Ukrainian facility where UK engineers help fix vital weapons

In an unmarked and undisclosed location in western Ukraine, British and Ukrainian engineers work side by side to fix damaged military hardware, crawling under the chassis of artillery systems and pulling apart the insides of British-donated howitzers. Until now, the existence of this facility, along with three other similar sites inside Ukraine, has been kept quiet, buried in neutral language to avoid drawing too much attention to the sites, given the sensitivities of all military-linked work inside Ukraine. However, the Guardian was invited to view the location earlier this week – the first time media have been granted access – during a visit to Ukraine by the UK defence minister Luke Pollard. The facility was an example of Britain doing things that “no other nation has been willing or able to do”, said Pollard. While there are no British military personnel on site, there are British engineers, contracted by the Ministry of Defence, working in-country. For safety reasons, other countries have often preferred to repair kit outside Ukraine, leading to longer journeys and delays with getting it back to the front. The facility visited by the Guardian has repair bays for up to 30 vehicles, and is able to fix a number of weapons systems, including British-made AS-90 self-propelled howitzers. The AS-90 was initially planned to be withdrawn from service in the British army in the 2030s, but the decision was made to donate the entire stock of the system to Ukraine over the past few years. “There are some things that in military times we don’t talk about, but when it comes to industrial partnerships, and the legitimate question of ‘You’ve donated all those AS-90s, what’s happened to them?’… we want to start telling the story,” said Pollard. He acknowledged that there was risk involved in having the facility inside Ukraine, but said it was a “risk worth taking and managing” in the interest of support for Kyiv. “Any operation or support provided inside Ukraine is clearly going to have a greater risk than if its provided in Poland or anywhere within the Nato article 5 protected area, but it’s precisely this type of support that Ukraine needs to stay in the fight,” he said. Engineers and technicians from two British companies, BAE Systems and AMS, work alongside Ukrainian colleagues to repair the kit. Many of the Ukrainians hired by the companies were employed previously by Ukrainian military enterprises that have since been damaged or destroyed, and they are now being trained to work with British and other foreign-donated equipment. Much of the equipment the Ukrainian armed forces are using is now obsolete, meaning a new supply chain for spare parts had to be set up. BAE was involved in the original manufacture of the AS-90 and had access to the technical drawings, but for other systems more creative approaches were required. For the Tunguska, a Soviet-era anti-aircraft platform that is also fixed at the facility, and for Soviet T-72 tanks used by Ukraine, engineers visited the Bovington tank museum in Dorset to look over versions of the vehicles on display there and work out how they could manufacture spare parts in the UK. Swedish Archer artillery systems are also fixed at the facility, under a cooperation agreement in which the Swedish government pays but the British and Ukrainian engineers do the work. In future, the hope is that the project can expand, to more sites and with more countries involved. “We want one structured, organised approach, where any nation giving equipment has a structure they can plug into,” said Pollard. Facilities such as this give some insight into how western support to Ukraine might look after a potential peace deal. A so-called “coalition of the willing” has come together, of nations prepared to offer Ukraine support to prevent Russia from attacking again, in the event that Donald Trump’s efforts to bring about a deal between Moscow and Kyiv prove successful. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed a desire for any postwar settlement to include a provision that western troops be stationed in Ukraine, and last September the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, told the Guardian that a coalition of the willing would involve “real security guarantees” that would compel western nations to fight Russia if Moscow violated the ceasefire. However, the past few years have shown that no western country is ready to go to war in Ukraine, and that calculus is unlikely to change. “We know that our only real security guarantee is going to be a strong Ukrainian army,” said one Ukrainian security source. Last month, the UK defence secretary, John Healey, said he hoped to deploy British troops to Ukraine in the aftermath of a peace deal, but it is not expected that these troops would engage with Russian forces. “UK forces are not the deterrent, a stronger Ukraine is the deterrent,” said Pollard, hence the focus on the regeneration of Ukrainian hardware as well as on training for Ukrainian troops. Currently, Ukrainian units used their hardware “to the point of destruction”, he said, and the task after a ceasefire would be to speedily restore all the equipment at the front, something that is not possible when they are in use during daily operations. “For the UK, one of the key roles in the coalition of the willing is to regenerate Ukrainian armed forces, and to do that we need to have the infrastructure ready to go on day one of the peace,” he said.