War in the Middle East: latest developments

PARIS: Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Iran executions -

Iran executed three people convicted of killing police officers and carrying out operations in favour of the United States and Israel during unrest earlier this year, the judiciary said.

- Qatar contains gas hub fires -

Qatari civil defence teams have contained fires that erupted at a major gas facility following an Iranian attack, the Interior Ministry said.

"Civil Defence has fully brought all fires under control in the Ras Laffan Industrial Area without any reported injuries. Cooling and site‑securing operations are still ongoing," it said.

Earlier on Thursday, Iranian state television said that a missile had struck the gas plant, hours after it had been hit in a destructive strike.

Qatar’s state‑run energy firm said the strikes hit several of its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities and caused "extensive" damage.

- Saudi Arabia not ruling out military action -

Saudi Arabia has not ruled out military action in response to repeated missile and drone attacks from Iran, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said.

"The kingdom is not going to succumb to pressure, and on the contrary, this pressure will backfire... and certainly, as we have stated quite clearly, we have reserved the right to take military actions if deemed necessary," he said.

- Cathay suspends Dubai, Riyadh flights -

Hong Kong aviation giant Cathay Pacific has suspended flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh until the end of April over the Middle East war.

- Trump threatens Iran gas field -

US president Donald Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s key South Pars gas field if there were further attacks against Qatar’s main gas plant.

Trump confirmed on his Truth Social platform that Israel had struck the South Pars field but said the US "knew nothing" of the attack, which spurred Iran to launch an attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility.

- UAE closes gas facility -

Abu Dhabi has shut down operations at a gas facility due to falling debris from missile interceptions, the Emirati capital’s media office said.

- Projectile hits vessel near Hormuz Strait -

A projectile has hit a vessel off the coast of the United Arab Emirates near the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire, a British maritime security agency said.

- Macron urges moratorium on targeting civilian infrastructure -

French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that he had spoken with US President Donald Trump and the Qatari emir about attacks that hit energy sites in Iran and Qatar.

"It is in the common interest to implement without delay a moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure, particularly energy and water infrastructure," Macron said.

- Iraqi group conditionally halts US embassy attacks -

Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah, an influential pro‑Iran armed group, said it was halting attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad for five days, pending certain conditions.

The group notably demanded that Israel stop bombing Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and that US‑Israeli operations not target residential areas in Iraq.

- One killed in strike near Tel Aviv -

An overnight round of Iranian missile fire killed a man identified as a foreign worker about 20 kilometres northeast of Tel Aviv, medics said on Thursday, bringing the death toll in Israel from the ongoing war to 15.

- Three killed in West Bank by missile debris -

Three Palestinian women were killed in the occupied West Bank by falling shrapnel, emergency responders said, shortly after Israel’s military reported another Iranian missile barrage.

Several others were injured in the attack near Hebron, including a woman who was in critical condition after initially being reported as dead, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

It marks the first reported Palestinian deaths of the ongoing Middle East war.

- Kuwait arrests alleged Hezbollah members -

Kuwait arrested 10 militants affiliated with the Iran‑backed Lebanese Hezbollah group on Wednesday, who were accused of plotting 'terrorist' actions against vital infrastructure, the Interior Ministry said.

- Iran threatens massive Gulf energy retaliation -

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned neighbouring Gulf nations that their oil and gas industries would be "completely destroyed" if Israel or the United States conducted any further attacks against Iranian energy infrastructure.

"Our response will be much more severe than tonight’s attacks," the Guards said in a statement, after striking the world’s largest gas hub, Ras Laffan in Qatar.

Earlier, Iran blamed Israel and the United States for strikes on its giant South Pars gas facility, with President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of "uncontrollable consequences" of energy infrastructure attacks.

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar had separately condemned the strikes on Iran’s gas plant.

- Qatar expels some Iranian diplomats -

Qatar’s foreign ministry ordered Iran’s military and security attachés, along with their staff, to leave the country within 24 hours, following the attack on the Ras Laffan facility.

- US central bank raises inflation outlook -

The US Federal Reserve raised its outlook for inflation as it held interest rates steady, citing an "uncertain" economic outlook due to the war.

- Israel vows to keep up strikes -

The Israeli military vowed to continue targeting senior Iranian officials after announcing it had killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib.

"We will continue to hunt down all of the regime’s senior officials. The series of eliminations will not stop," a military spokesman said in a televised briefing.

- Saudi capital hit again -

More loud explosions rang out over Riyadh late on Wednesday, AFP journalists reported, after authorities previously said they intercepted four ballistic missiles headed for the Saudi capital.

The defence ministry also said it destroyed a drone headed towards a gas plant.

- Khamenei vows revenge -

Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a written message that the killers of security chief Ali Larijani, who died in an Israeli strike, "will have to pay for it".

"Every drop of spilt blood comes at a price, and the criminal murderers of these martyrs will soon have to pay it," added Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since taking office.

By RSS/AFP