‘Tourist destinations’ not safe Iran warns as Trump says he’s considering ‘winding down’ military operation

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Three weeks into an escalating war in the Middle East, Iran threatened to expand its retaliatory attacks to include recreational and tourist sites worldwide, as the U.S. announced it was sending more warships and Marines to the region.

Following news of the deployments, U.S. President Donald Trump said later Friday on social media that his administration in fact was considering “winding down” military operations in the region. The mixed messages came after another climb in oil prices plunged the U.S. stock market, and was followed by a Trump administration announcement that it will lift sanctions on Iranian oil loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling soaring fuel prices.

The war, meanwhile, has shown no signs of abating.

Israel said Iran continued to fire missiles at it early Saturday, while Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country’s eastern region, which is home to major oil installations. The defense ministry said there were no injuries or damage.

The attacks came a day after Israeli airstrikes hit in Tehran as Iranians celebrated the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normally festive holiday.

Iran has escalated attacks on its Gulf neighbors since Israel bombed its massive South Pars offshore natural gas field, while keeping a stranglehold on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and other critical goods are transported.

With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear or energy facilities have sustained in the punishing U.S. and Israeli strikes, which began Feb. 28 -- or even who was truly in charge of the country. But Iran’s attacks are still choking off oil supplies and raising food and fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.

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Trump says U.S. near completion of its goals

The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising and no end to the war in sight.

In his social media post, the president said, “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.”

That seemed at odds with his administration’s move to bolster its firepower in the region and request another US$200 billion from Congress to fund the war.

The U.S. is deploying three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, an official told The Associated Press. Two other U.S. officials confirmed that ships were deploying, without saying where they were headed. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

Days earlier the U.S. redirected another group of amphibious assault ships carrying another 2,500 Marines from the Pacific to the Middle East. The Marines will join more than 50,000 U.S. troops already in the region.

Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but also has asserted that he retains all options.

Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, was quoted by a state-run newspaper Friday as saying Iran continues to manufacture missiles despite Israel’s claim that it destroyed Iran’s production capabilities. Iranian state television later said Naeini was killed in an airstrike.

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Iran threatens attacks beyond the Middle East

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised Iranians’ steadfastness in the face of war in a written statement read on Iranian television to mark Nowruz. He said the U.S. and Israeli attacks were based on an illusion that killing Iran’s top leaders could cause the overthrow of the government.

Khamenei has not been seen in public since he became supreme leader following Israeli strikes that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and reportedly wounded him. Airstrikes have also killed the head of its Supreme National Security Council and a raft of other top-ranking officials.

Iran’s top military spokesperson, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide will not be safe for the country’s enemies. The threat renewed concerns that Tehran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.

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It remains to be seen if lifting sanctions on Iranian oil will drop prices

Brent crude oil, the international standard, has soared during the fighting and was around US$108 per barrel, up from roughly $70 before the war.

The newly announced U.S. pause in sanctions applies to Iranian oil loaded on ships as of Friday and is set to end April 19. The license has limits including a restriction on sales involving anyone in North Korea or Cuba.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously suggested it as a way to prevent China from being the sole beneficiary of Iranian oil.

The new move does not increase the flow of production, a central factor in the surging prices. Iran has managed to evade U.S. sanctions for years, suggesting that much of what it exports already reaches buyers.

Looking for ways to boost global oil supplies during the Iran war, the Trump administration has previously paused sanctions on certain Russian oil shipments for 30 days, which critics said rewarded Moscow while having only a modest effect on markets.

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Israel continues wave of strikes against Hezbollah militants

The Israeli military said early Saturday that it began a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah militants in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Smoke was seen rising, fires broke out and loud explosions were heard across parts of central Beirut. Hours earlier the army renewed evacuation warnings for seven neighbourhoods, prompting some residents to fire gunshots to alert families to flee. No injuries were reported.

Israeli strikes targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have displaced more than one million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people have been killed.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran during the war. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missiles and four others have died in the occupied West Bank. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.

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By Jon Gambrell, Michelle L. Price And Julie Watson

Price reported from Washington, and Watson from San Diego. AP journalists Sam Mednick in Jerusalem; Collin Binkley in West Palm Beach, Florida; David Rising in Bangkok; Panagiotis Pylas in London; Konstantin Toropin in Washington; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; Lorne Cook in Brussels and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.