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Iran's president defies U.S. demands while apologizing for strikes on neighbors
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By
The Associated Press
Iranians attend Friday prayers in the courtyard of the Imam Khomeini Grand mosque in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 6, 2026.
Iran's U.N. ambassador said the country would "take all necessary measures" to defend itself.
The U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with strikes, targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran's government or elevate new leadership from within.
Six U.S. troops have been killed.
In a sign of the widening nature of the conflict, sirens sounded early Saturday in Bahrain as Iranian attacks targeted the island kingdom. And Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces.
In Dubai, several blasts were heard Saturday morning and the government said it had activated air defenses.
The Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with an Israeli force that landed late Friday in the mountains of eastern Lebanon.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said Saturday that at least 16 people were killed in subsequent Israeli strikes and another 35 were wounded.
Israel did not acknowledge the fighting, and its military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel has carried out waves of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a large presence but which is also home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Lebanon's Health Ministry says over 200 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since Monday and over 800 wounded.
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− Vahid Salemi/AP hide caption
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran's president said Saturday that a demand by the United States for an unconditional surrender is a "dream that they should take to their grave."
Middle East conflict What the Trump administration says about why it went to war with Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian made the statement in a prerecorded address aired by state television.
+ Vahid Salemi/AP hide caption
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran's president apologized Saturday for attacks on regional countries even as its missiles and drones flew toward Gulf Arab states, indicating that Tehran's political leadership could not exercise full command over Iran's armed forces. He also rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated demands for surrender.
− He also apologized for Iran's attacks on regional countries, saying that Tehran would halt them and suggesting they were caused by miscommunication in the ranks.
+ Middle East conflict What the Trump administration says about why it went to war with Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, one member of a tripartite leadership council overseeing Iran since a Feb.
− He blamed the killing of the country's supreme leader and other top officials for what sounded like a loss of command and control in the armed forces in recent days.
+ 28 airstrike started the war and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered the defiant message exactly one week into a conflict that has spread across the region, rattled global markets and air travel and left Iran's own leadership greatly weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes.
− The comments came as intense Iranian fire targeted the Gulf Arab states early Saturday as Israel and the United States kept up their airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic.
+ The message, seemingly filmed in a hurry without professional broadcast equipment, again underlined the limited powers being exercised by the theocracy's leaders over its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the ballistic missiles targeting Israel and others.
− There were repeated attacks Saturday morning on Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
+ It answered only to Khamenei and now appears to be picking its own targets as the conflict widens.
− There was no foreseeable end to the fighting.
+ While the Iranian president attempted to assuage growing Gulf Arab anger over the attacks, just hours earlier a wave of missiles and drones had disrupted flights at Dubai International Airport, targeted a major Saudi oil facility and sent people fleeing for cover multiple times in Bahrain.
Pezeshkian also kept up his criticism of Trump's call for Iran to unconditionally surrender to America.
"That's a dream that they should take to their grave," he said.
Pezeshkian's statement Saturday said the country's three-man leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces over the attacks.
Middle East conflict Middle East conflicts largely avoided energy facilities in the past.
− U.S.
+ Not in this war "I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf," the president said.
− President Donald Trump's administration approved a new $151 million arms sale to Israel after Trump said he would not negotiate with Iran without its "unconditional surrender" and U.S.
+ "From now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries.
− officials warned of a forthcoming bombing campaign they said would be the most intense yet in the weeklong conflict.
+ I think we should solve this through diplomacy."
Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran's armed forces spokesman, then added more confusion by saying after Pezeshkian that Tehran has "not hit countries that did not provide space for America to invade our country."
The American strikes haven't been coming from the Gulf Arab states now under attack.
− U.S.
+ Likely in response to the ongoing political confusion, on Saturday, a prominent cleric in Iran, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, urged the country's Assembly of Experts to act quickly to name a new supreme leader.
− Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a television interview on Friday that the "biggest bombing campaign" of the war was still to come.
+ Buildings associated with the 88-cleric panel have been hit by airstrikes in the war, likely slowing any meeting of the group.
+ "The timely realization of this important matter will lead to national authority and the best possible organization of affairs," Shirazi said in a statement.
There was no foreseeable end to the fighting. Trump's administration approved a new $151 million arms sale to Israel after Trump said he would not negotiate with Iran without its "unconditional surrender" and U.S. officials warned of a forthcoming bombing campaign they said would be the most intense yet in the weeklong conflict.
− Middle East conflict Middle East conflicts largely avoided energy facilities in the past. Not in this war Associated Press video showed explosions flashing and smoke rising over western Tehran as Israel said it had begun a broad wave of strikes.
+ Associated Press video showed explosions flashing and smoke rising over western Tehran as Israel said it had begun a broad wave of strikes.
− The stated goals and timelines for the war have repeatedly shifted, as the U.S.
+ The stated goals and timelines for the war have repeatedly shifted as the U.S.
− The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries.
+ Middle East conflict One week into the Iran war, the fallout is global The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials in those countries.
+ Also, early Saturday, incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters across Israel and loud booms sounded in Jerusalem. There were no immediate reports of casualties by Israel's emergency services.
− Passengers waiting for flights out at Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, found themselves ushered down into train tunnels at the sprawling airfield after the alert sounded.
+ Passengers waiting for flights at Dubai International Airport found themselves ushered down into train tunnels at the sprawling airfield after the alert sounded.
− Later that morning, long-haul carrier Emirates said that "all flights to and from Dubai have been suspended until further notice."
Shortly after, the decision was reversed and the Emirates said the airline would resume operations. The news brought cheers in Dubai International Airport, where passengers had been sheltering after hearing a large boom overhead. Authorities have not explained if there was an interception or damage at the airport, which is the world's busiest for international travel.
+ Later that morning, long-haul carrier Emirates said that "all flights to and from Dubai have been suspended until further notice." Shortly after, the decision was reversed and Emirates said the airline would resume operations.
− Middle East conflict Poll: A majority of Americans opposes U.S. military action in Iran Qatar's energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, warned in an interview with the Financial Times that the war could "bring down the economies of the world," predicting a widespread shutdown of Gulf energy exports that could send oil to $150 a barrel.
+ The Indian foreign minister said Saturday an Iranian naval vessel has docked in India.
− The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S.
+ Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the IRIS Lavan was moored in the southern city of Kochi after India granted permission when the vessel reported "having problems" on Sunday.
− crude rose above $90 on Friday for the first time in more than two years.
+ News agency Press Trust of India, citing unnamed "government sources," had earlier reported that the ship has been in Kochi since Wednesday.
− Writing for the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera, a regional analyst warned Iran was making "a strategic miscalculation of historic proportions." Al Jazeera, a pan-Arab satellite news network owned and funded by Qatar's government, has been used in the past to signal Doha's opinions on regional matters.
+ "I think it was the humane thing to do," Jaishankar said.
− Sultan al-Khulaifi, a senior researcher at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, wrote: "By spreading the conflict to the Gulf, Tehran is doing precisely what Israel could not do alone: steering the war away from the Israeli-Iranian axis and transforming it into a confrontation between Iran and its Arab neighbors."
On Saturday, the defense minister of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's army chief met to discuss ways to stop the attacks coming from Iran, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
+ A U.S.
− Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman, a son of King Salman, talked with Field Marshal Asim Munir in Riyadh about the Iranian attacks.
+ submarine sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
− Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a mutual defense pact that defines any attack on either nation as an attack on both.
+ Another Iranian vessel, the IRIS Bushehr, requested assistance from Sri Lanka, where more than 200 sailors were being brought ashore.
− Also early Saturday, incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters across Israel and loud booms sounded in Jerusalem. There were no immediate reports of casualties by Israel's emergency services.
+ Middle East conflict Satellite images show Iran school strike hit more buildings than earlier reported The ships had previously taken part in naval exercises hosted by India, but Jaishankar said they got "caught on the wrong side of events" once the war began.
− Pezeshkian's statement Saturday said the country's three-man leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces over the attacks.
+ Qatar's energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, warned in an interview with the Financial Times that the war could "bring down the economies of the world," predicting a widespread shutdown of Gulf energy exports that could send oil to $150 a barrel.
− "I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf," the president said.
+ The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S.
− "From now on they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked from those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy."
Middle East conflict Satellite images show Iran school strike hit more buildings than earlier reported Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has been at the forefront of the war, answers only to the country's supreme leader. However, an Israeli airstrike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, at the start of the war Feb. 28.
+ crude rose above $90 on Friday for the first time in more than two years.
+ Writing for the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera, a regional analyst warned Iran was making "a strategic miscalculation of historic proportions."
Sultan al-Khulaifi, a senior researcher at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, wrote: "By spreading the conflict to the Gulf, Tehran is doing precisely what Israel could not do alone: steering the war away from the Israeli-Iranian axis and transforming it into a confrontation between Iran and its Arab neighbors."
Al Jazeera, a Pan-Arab satellite news network owned and funded by Qatar's government, has been used in the past to signal Doha's opinions on regional matters.