Iran renews attacks on US Gulf allies, surprising Trump

Iran launched fresh attacks on the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, the kind of strikes on US Gulf allies that President Donald Trump said had not been expected, but which sources said he had been warned about before the conflict.

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Six foreign diplomats in the Gulf and the wider Middle East have told Reuters it was widely anticipated that Tehran would target Gulf Arab states if the US or Israel attacked Iran, an assessment they said was shared by regional and Western governments.

The US-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week, with at least 2,000 people dead and no end in sight. The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off, with US allies rebuffing Trump's request for help to reopen the critical waterway, raising energy prices and fears of inflation.

There was no letup in attacks by both sides early on Tuesday, with Iran launching missiles on Israel overnight, underscoring that Tehran still retains the capacity to carry out long-range strikes despite more than two weeks of pounding by US and Israeli weapons.

The Israeli military said it was targeting “Iranian regime infrastructure” with a new wave of strikes across Tehran, as well as Hezbollah sites in Beirut, a day after saying it had drawn up detailed plans for at least three more weeks of war with Iran.

According to Israeli media reports on Tuesday, Israel’s military targeted Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, but it was not clear if he was killed or wounded.