West Asia Crisis Live Updates: Iran continued its attacks across the Persian Gulf on Sunday, striking key infrastructure by hitting fuel storage tanks at Kuwait’s international airport and damaging a water desalination plant in Bahrain as part of its ongoing missile and drone campaign against neighboring countries, AFP reported.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his country isn’t targeting other nations in the region, but is directing its attacks at American military bases, installations and assets that happen to be “unfortunately located on the soil of our neighbors.”
Araghchi said his country is aiming for a lasting end to the war rather than just a temporary ceasefire, as reported by AP.
However, he added that before Tehran would consider any pause in fighting, “they have to explain why they started this aggression.” He did not specify exactly who he was referring to in that comment.
Araghchi also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “there should be a permanent end of the war and unless we get to that, I think we need to continue fighting for the sake of our people and our security.”
He says the war “was imposed on us” by the United States and Israel, and that “what we are doing is legal acts of self-defense and we have every right to do that.”
Bahrain on Sunday accused Iran of attacking a desalination plant, increasing concerns that civilian infrastructure could become a target in the ongoing conflict. At the same time, Iran’s president warned that the country may expand attacks on American targets in the region as US and Israeli airstrikes intensify.
Late Sunday night, an Israeli strike on an oil facility sent thick smoke over parts of Iran’s capital, Tehran. Israel also resumed strikes in Lebanon.
The war, which erupted on Feb. 28 after joint US-Israeli strikes hit Iran, has so far killed at least 1,230 people in the Islamic Republic, more than 300 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, AP reported, citing officials.
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