Iran to halt strikes on neighbours unless attacks from there: Pezeshkian

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has said neighbouring countries will no longer be targeted, unless an attack originates from there, as the war launched by the United States and Israel, which triggered sustained retaliation from Tehran across the Gulf and beyond, enters its second week.

The Iranian interim leadership council approved the motion on Friday, Pezeshkian said on Saturday.

In remarks carried by Iranian media, the president also apologised to neighbouring countries for the strikes that took place in recent days.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, have been targeted due to the presence of US assets within and around their borders. Iraq, Jordan, Azerbaijan and Turkiye have also been caught in the crosshairs.

In the Gulf, there have been deaths, damage and major disruption to flights, the closure of airspace, and a heavy knock-on impact on oil and gas production reverberating across the world.

Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said exports from the Gulf region could come to a halt “within weeks” if the war on Iran continues to escalate, throwing global energy markets into turmoil.

Al-Kaabi told The Financial Times (FT) newspaper in an interview published on Friday that if the war continues for weeks, “GDP growth around the world will be impacted”.

“Everybody’s energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply,” al-Kaabi was quoted as saying.

The only US fatalities in the war so far came when Iran attacked a US command centre in Kuwait, killing six.

More than 1,200 Iranians have been killed in US-Israeli strikes in the first week of the war.