Iran war updates: Netanyahu threatens more attacks after strike on Arad

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Here are some of today’s top events:

• The UK said Iran launched ballistic missiles at the joint US-UK Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, but that the attack was unsuccessful. A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that Iran was not responsible for the attack.
• Several Iranian missile attacks broke through Israeli defences in the south of the country, making direct impacts in the cities of Dimona and Arad, wounding some 100 people.
• US and Israeli attacks continued across Iran, including in Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Natanz and the northern city of Ramsar, according to Iranian media reports and our correspondents on the ground.
• Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said Israel and the US targeted the country’s Natanz nuclear site on Saturday in “criminal attacks”.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world body is prepared to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has said it would keep closed to “enemy ships”.
• A group of European and Gulf nations, including the UAE, Bahrain, the UK, France and Germany, issued a statement condemning Iran’s attacks on vessels and infrastructure in the Gulf.
• Saudi Arabia declared several Iranian embassy staff, including its military attache, as persona non grata, ordering them to leave the country within 24 hours.

Joe Kent says he resigned as director of the US National Counterterrorism Center over opposition to the war in Iran, telling an audience at a Washington prayer event that he could not “send young men and women off to die on foreign battlefields” in “good conscience”.

You can watch the video below:

The US president has again taken to his social media platform to repeat his claim that the US is “weeks ahead of schedule” in its war on Iran.

He also reiterated that he is not looking to make a deal with Iran.

“Their leadership is gone, their navy and air force are dead, they have absolutely no defense, and they want to make a deal. I don’t!” he wrote on Truth Social, reiterating an assertion he has also made in the past, without providing any details.

Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected holding talks with the US following the US-Israeli attacks on February 28, despite engaging in negotiations.

Israel’s Education Ministry has cancelled all in-person classes across the country for Sunday and Monday.

This comes after two missile attacks – on Arad and Dimona in southern Israel – injured almost 100 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says he is “strengthening the emergency and rescue forces currently operating in the field” following an attack on the southern Israeli city of Arad, which injured more than 50 people.

“This is a very difficult evening in the battle for our future,” he said.

“We are determined to continue striking our enemies on all fronts”.

A senior Iranian official has told Al Jazeera that Iran is not responsible for the missile attacks on Diego Garcia.

Diego Garcia, which is about 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Iranian territory, is one of two bases the UK has allowed the US to use for “defensive operations” in the war against Iran.

As we’ve reported in the last hour, Saudi Arabia has declared several Iranian Embassy staff, including the military attache, as persona non grata and ordered them to leave the country within 24 hours.

This comes after Qatar on Wednesday had also declared the Iranian Embassy’s military and security attaches in Doha as persona non grata, along with their staff.

That decision came after Tehran struck the Gulf country’s main gas facility following an Israeli attack on the South Pars gasfield in Iran.