The war in Iran and the Middle East entered its eighth day on Saturday. Bombings and explosions have multiplied in several countries.
Eighth day of war in the Middle East. The Gulf countries were shaken on Saturday, March 7, by new missile and drone attacks, killing an Asian migrant in the Emirati city of Dubai, while Iran said it continues its strikes on its neighbors. Israeli raids on Iran have also been among the most significant since the beginning of the conflict. Franceinfo summarizes what you need to know from Saturday, March 7.
Countries in the Gulf targeted by new drones and missiles Several Gulf countries were targeted on Saturday by missiles and drones, despite the Iranian president’s apologies to his neighbors for the strikes that targeted them. In the United Arab Emirates, targeted by 16 ballistic missiles and 121 drones, activity at Dubai airport was briefly interrupted. In the afternoon, authorities reported a new salvo “coming from Iran,” and then a loud explosion was heard. A driver was killed by falling debris from an intercepted projectile, the Gulf emirate’s authorities announced. “Debris from an aerial interception fell on a vehicle in the Al-Barsha region, causing the death of an Asian driver,” the country’s authorities said.
In Bahrain, Iran said it struck an American base in response to an attack on a desalination plant. Bahraini authorities reported a fire and material damage in the capital Manama. Attacks also took place in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia (a missile aimed at an air base fell “in an uninhabited area”), and Qatar said it intercepted a missile.
Iran’s head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, stated that Iran would continue its attacks on sites in neighboring countries used in “aggression” against him, citing “evidence” that some countries in the region had “placed themselves at the enemy’s disposal.”
Powerful explosions heard in Tehran after Trump’s threats A series of powerful explosions shook the Iranian capital, Tehran, late in the evening. Iranian media reported the explosions, while the defense was engaged above the capital. “Today, Iran will be hit very hard!” had warned earlier Donald Trump on his Truth Social network. He had threatened to extend the strikes to “areas and groups of people who had never been considered targets before.”
Israel claimed to have carried out 3,400 strikes in Iran since the beginning of the war “and disabled over 150 Iranian defense systems. So far, the Air Force has dropped about 7,500 munitions on targets across the country,” said the Israeli army spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin. The army also announced in the evening that it had launched a new “broad wave of strikes against the infrastructure of the Iranian terrorist regime in Tehran.” The raids notably targeted a military academy, an underground command center, and a missile storage site. Photos show fiery flames and smoke rising from Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport, one of the two serving the capital, where the Israeli army claimed to have struck 16 aircraft from the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards. Isfahan (center) was also targeted, according to Israel. “We will continue with all our strength,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Thanks to our daring pilots and American pilots, we have gained almost total control of the airspace above Tehran,” he also claimed.
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian stated that Iran would not surrender in a speech broadcast on state television on Saturday, in response to Donald Trump’s demand for an “unconditional surrender.” “The enemies can take to their graves their wish to see the Iranian people surrender,” he said.
More than 4,000 nationals returned to France A total of 4,300 French citizens who were in the Middle East when the war broke out were able to return to France, including 800 on flights chartered by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, on Saturday. Six flights have been chartered since the beginning of the war on February 28, and five more flights will be scheduled by Tuesday, the minister detailed on France 5.
The other 3,500 French nationals returned on commercial flights, he added. “Tomorrow, we will have six flights departing from the Emirates and also on Monday,” he said. Nationals also want to return from Lebanon, where the Israeli army has carried out numerous strikes against the pro-Iranian Hezbollah. “Tomorrow, we will have a second flight departing from Beirut that will be operated by the Lebanese airline and will allow notably the most vulnerable French citizens to leave,” he detailed. The minister had indicated on Thursday that 5,000 nationals had expressed the wish to leave the region, “80% of them in the United Arab Emirates.”
British military bases used by the United States The US military has started using British bases to carry out “specific defensive operations” in the Middle East conflict, the British Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday. “The United States has started using British bases for specific defensive operations to prevent Iran from firing missiles in the region, putting British lives at risk,” the ministry stated.
B-1 bombers from the US Air Force have notably landed at the RAF base in Fairford, in southwest England. London had given its approval on Sunday for the United States to use some of its military bases, including Fairford and Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean), to strike Iranian missile sites.
Israel threatens Lebanon with “more severe measures,” nearly 300 dead Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz demanded that Lebanon “disarm” Hezbollah or face “more severe measures.” The Israeli army bombarded the outskirts of the ancient city of Tyre in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to a Lebanese state media and an AFP photographer, after warning that it would “soon strike” military infrastructure of the Islamist Hezbollah movement. Israeli strikes have resulted in a total of 294 deaths, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Over 450,000 displaced persons are recorded in the country, according to the authorities. The Israeli army also called on the last residents remaining in the southern suburbs of Beirut to “immediately” evacuate the area, in anticipation of new strikes against Hezbollah.
In the country, an operation by Israeli special forces to unsuccessfully try to retrieve the remains of an Israeli pilot captured in Lebanon in 1986 also resulted in 41 deaths in a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in the east of the country, according to Lebanese authorities.
In Iran, a meeting to appoint a new Supreme Leader within 24 hours The Assembly of Experts, an Iranian body responsible for electing the next Supreme Leader to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met on the first day of Israeli-American strikes, is set to convene “within the next 24 hours,” said Hossein Mozafari, a member of this assembly, cited on Saturday by the Fars news agency. He urged the population to “refrain from any speculation and spreading rumors on this subject.”
