<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel pounded Tehran with airstrikes on Friday as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year, in the midst of a war that has sent shock waves through the global economy and risked drawing Iran's Arab neighbours directly into the conflict.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Activists reported hearing strikes around Iran's capital. The attacks came a day after Israel pledged to refrain from more strikes on a key Iranian gas field and Iran intensified attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Heavy explosions shook Dubai early on Friday as air defences intercepted incoming fire over the city, where people were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and mosques made the day's first call to prayers.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/clayton-stabbing-footage-shows-chilling-moment-woman-was-randomly-stabbed-on-shopping-centre-escalator/5ce58550-54f0-4924-9f01-1ae09f6ceca4"><strong><span>Chilling moment woman randomly stabbed on shopping centre escalator</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran kept up its wave of attacks launched at Israel that have sent millions of people to shelters, with sirens sounding across a wide swath of the north, from Haifa to the Galilee to the border with Lebanon. It came after an intense day that saw more than a dozen missile launches on Thursday alone, according to Israel's military.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Global fuel supplies have been under intense pressure because of Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late on Thursday that, at the request of US President Donald Trump, Israel will hold off any further attacks on Iran's offshore South Pars gas field. Iranian strikes in retaliation have led to already elevated global energy prices further surging and spurred Gulf allies to call for Trump to rein in Netanyahu.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/us-israel-iran-war-israel-hits-tehran-with-airstrikes-on-persian-new-year-as-war-jolts-energy-markets/039a694d-c088-4820-8422-3b860b725352" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/tropical-cyclone-narelle-cape-york-peninsula-cops-heavy-rain-flooding-power-outages-northern-territory-on-alert-queensland-weather/45502514-e6ca-4110-8d4d-665a73b7995d"><strong><span>NT braces for Cyclone Narelle as Far North Queensland starts recovery amid flooding</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, Iran's top leaders have been killed and the country's military capabilities have been severely degraded. Netanyahu said in a televised address that Iran no longer has the ability to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, although he did not provide evidence.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Still, Iran — now led by the son of the supreme leader killed in the war's opening salvo — remains capable of missile and drone attacks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Brent crude oil, the international standard, briefly surged above $US119 a barrel, up more than 60 per cent since the war started. The European benchmark for natural gas prices also rose sharply and has roughly doubled in the past month.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>UN Security Council meets over Iran's attacks on Gulf states</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The United Nations Security Council held an urgent closed meeting on Thursday during which Gulf countries stressed the need for Iran to halt attacks on them, said Bahrain's UN Ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei, the Arab representative on the UN's most powerful body.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But Iran has shown no signs of backing down. Saudi Arabia said its SAMREF refinery in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu was hit. Saudi Arabia had begun pumping large volumes of oil west toward the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/virgin-increases-domestic-airfares-by-five-per-cent-due-to-rising-oil-prices/8f5040b8-8669-457f-ba83-b736beaa9bb0"><strong><span>Virgin hikes domestic airfares by five per cent due to rising oil prices</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Qatar, a key source of natural gas for world markets, said Iranian missiles that caused extensive damage to the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility, reduced its exports by about 17 per cent and will cost about $US20 billion in lost revenue a year. The damage will take up to five years to repair, even though production at the facility had already been halted after earlier attacks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Two oil refineries in Kuwait and gas operations in Abu Dhabi also were targeted by Iran, authorities said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Underscoring the danger to ships in the region, a vessel was set ablaze on Thursday off the United Arab Emirates' coast and another was damaged off Qatar. Efforts to bypass the strait were also under pressure: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea, which the country had hoped to use as an alternative route.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/prime-minister-anthony-albanese-heckled-lakemba-mosque/8492774d-2843-46c2-be1e-71fa75fbfa72"><strong><span>Albanese heckled, protester thrown out after commotion at Lakemba Mosque</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Meanwhile, the UAE said on Friday it disrupted what it called "a terrorist network funded and operated by Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran", arresting its operatives. It accused the men of laundering money while "operating within the country under a fictitious commercial cover" that sought to carry out schemes that would threaten the country's financial stability.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It published images of five prisoners on its state-run WAM news agency, without identifying the men.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-pearl-harbor-japanese-prime-minister-sane-takaichi-usa-politics-news/3503f82c-91b9-466e-b287-0d8f09c74842"><strong><span>Trump compares Iran attack to Pearl Harbor in front of Japan's PM</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Netanyahu says Iran's military has been severely hit</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At Thursday's news conference, Netanyahu said: "Iran's air defences have been rendered useless, their navy is lying at the bottom of the sea. ... Their air force is nearly destroyed."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said he hopes the Iranian people will rise up against the Islamic Republic that has ruled for nearly a half-century. There's been no sign of any organised opposition since the war began, after Iranian authorities crushed mass protests in January.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The prime minister's comments to foreign journalists came amid difficult days for Trump and Netanyahu, with a top US intelligence official resigning and claiming Israel pushed Trump into the war, and Israel's attacks on South Pars, which led to Iran's retaliatory strikes on the region's oil and gas fields.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I misled no one," Netanyahu said. "And I didn't have to convince President Trump about the need to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran long has insisted its program was peaceful, although it was enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels. That stockpile of highly enriched uranium still remains in Iran.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that US forces were attacking deeper into Iranian territory, with warplanes hunting Iranian boats in the strait and dropping 5000-pound bombs on underground weapons-storage facilities.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Trump says he is not deploying troops to Iran</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran condemned Israel's attack on South Pars, the Iranian part of the world's largest gas field, located offshore in the Persian Gulf and owned jointly with Qatar.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>With some 80 per cent of power generated in Iran coming from natural gas, according to the International Energy Agency, the attack threatens the country's electricity supplies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After Trump requested Israel not attack South Pars, he also warned on social media that if Iran continued striking Qatar, the US would "massively blow up the entirety" of the field.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Asked later about the possibility of US ground troops being deployed to Iran, Trump responded: "No. I'm not putting troops anywhere."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Death toll climbs in third week of war</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than 1300 people in Iran have been killed during the war. Israeli strikes against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon have displaced more than 1 million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1000 people have been killed. Israel says it has killed more than 500 Hezbollah militants.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. Four people were also killed in the occupied West Bank by an Iranian missile strike.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At least 13 US military members have been killed.</span></div></div>