The Albany Gazette - Strikes shake Tehran as Trump presses allies to help in Mideast war

Oil prices rose more than five percent Tuesday after several countries pushed back on Trump's demand they help protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that is key to the transit of crude and liquefied natural gas.

The war, now in its third week, has killed hundreds and seen Iran launch retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf nations, as well as a front opening in Lebanon with Israel battling Hezbollah.

Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, has also been drawn in, with a drone and rocket attack targeting the US embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Blasts were heard in Iran's capital Tehran, an AFP journalist said, after a night of heavy bombardment mixed with thunder and rain.

It was not immediate clear what the targets were, but Israel's army said earlier it had launched a wave of strikes "against Iranian terror regime infrastructure across Tehran", as well as strikes in Lebanon.

Lebanese state media reported Tuesday that Israeli strikes at dawn hit a residential building in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

An AFP photographer saw firefighters tackling a blaze at the site of a strike, while rubble and debris were strewn across the road.

Millions of people have been displaced because of the war, notably in Lebanon and Iran, but the war also has also hit the world economy as oil prices surge.

Iran has targeted the energy facilities of its crude-producing neighbours, while its threats against tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz all but closing the vital waterway.

A fifth of global crude oil passes through the Strait and Trump has called on world powers, including US allies, to send warships to escort tankers -- so far in vain.

- Armada to Hormuz -

On Monday, Trump demanded US allies join quickly and with "great enthusiasm" an armada to escort tankers through the strait.

He has warned that it would be "very bad" for the future of the NATO military alliance if the allies refused to help.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was working with allies to craft a "viable" plan to reopen the strait, but ruled out a NATO mission.

Berlin also said it "has been clear at all times that this war is not a matter for NATO".

Japan, Australia, Poland, Spain, Greece and Sweden also distanced themselves from any military involvement in the Strait of Hormuz.

EU foreign ministers discussed the war in Brussels on Monday but showed "no appetite" for extending their Red Sea naval mission to help reopen Hormuz, the bloc's top diplomat said.

Analysts said it was not surprising that America's partners were unenthusiastic about joining a war they were not consulted on, after a year of tensions with Washington on everything from tariffs to Greenland.

The United States had "launched a war without consulting allies, expecting them to mop up the mess, and that's not going fly", said Erwan Lagadec of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

- Defiant tone -

Trump on Monday admitted he was "shocked" at Iran's response to the US-Israel attacks.

"They weren't supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. Those missiles were set to go after them," he said.

"So, they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked."

The oil-rich Gulf has borne the brunt of Iran's attacks in response to US-Israeli strikes, with Tehran targeting US assets but also civilian infrastructure.

Falling debris from a missile intercept killed one person on Tuesday in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi.

More than 1,200 Iranians have been killed by US and Israeli strikes, according to the last toll from Iran's health ministry on March 8, which could not be independently verified.

But Iran's foreign minister struck a defiant tone on Monday.

"By now they have... understood what kind of nation they are dealing with," Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Tehran.

Iran, he said, "does not hesitate to defend itself and is ready to continue the war wherever it may lead, and take it as far as necessary".

- Iraq drawn in -

Western allies Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom also urged Israel to show restraint in Lebanon, where it has announced "limited" ground operations against Hezbollah.

But Israel's President Isaac Herzog told AFP that Europe should support "any effort to eradicate Hezbollah now".

Authorities in Lebanon have said more than one million people have registered as displaced since March 2, with more than 130,000 people staying in upwards of 600 collective shelters.

Lebanon was drawn into the war when Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants struck Israel over the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the conflict.

Iraq is also increasingly being pulled in.

A drone and rocket attack targeted the US embassy in Baghdad early Tuesday, while a strike killed four people at a house reportedly hosting Iranian advisors, security officials said.

An AFP journalist reported seeing black smoke rising after an explosion in the embassy complex, as well as air defences intercepting another drone.

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(A.Johnson--TAG)