Iranians attend Friday prayers in the courtyard of the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 6, 2026.
Wahid Salemi/AP
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Wahid Salemi/AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iran’s president said on Saturday that the United States’ demand for unconditional surrender was “a dream that they should take to their grave”.
President Masoud Pezheshkian made the statement in a pre-recorded speech broadcast on state television.
He apologized for Iran’s attacks on regional nations, saying Tehran would stop them and suggesting they were caused by miscommunication in the ranks. He alleged that the killing of the country’s Supreme Leader and other top officials in recent days seems to have led to a loss of command and control in the armed forces.
Heavy Iranian fire targeted Gulf Arab states early Saturday morning as Israel and the United States continued their airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were hit by repeated attacks on Saturday morning.
The US has said that more intense bombing will follow
There is no foreseeable end to the struggle. US President Donald Trump’s administration approved a new $151 million arms sale to Israel after Trump said he would not negotiate with Iran without “unconditional surrender” and US officials warned of an upcoming bombing campaign.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said in a television interview on Friday that the “biggest bombing” of the war was yet to come.
Iran’s UN ambassador said the country would “take all necessary measures” to defend itself.
Associated Press video showed explosions flashing and smoke rising in western Tehran, as Israel said it launched a wide range of strikes.
The US and Israel have been battered by attacks targeting Iran’s military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. The stated goals and timelines of the war have changed repeatedly, as the US has sometimes suggested it is trying to topple Iran’s government or install a new leadership from within.
The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon and about a dozen in Israel, officials in those countries said. Six US soldiers were killed.
As the fighting spreads, Iran has hit out at Gulf nations
In a sign of the broader nature of the conflict, sirens blared early Saturday in Bahrain as Iranian strikes targeted the island kingdom. And Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed drones aimed at its vast Shaiba oil field and shot down a ballistic missile fired at Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts US troops.
In Dubai, several explosions were heard on Saturday morning and the government said it had activated air defenses. Passengers waiting for flights at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, found themselves descending into train tunnels at the sprawling airfield after an alarm sounded.
That morning, long-haul carrier Emirates said “all flights to and from Dubai have been suspended until further notice”.
Shortly after, Emirates said the decision was withdrawn and the airline would resume operations. The news brought cheers at Dubai International Airport, where passengers had taken shelter after hearing a loud boom overhead. Officials have not clarified whether there was disruption or damage at the world’s busiest airport for international travel.
Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi warned in an interview with the Financial Times that the war could “bring down the world economy”, predicting a widespread shutdown that would send Gulf energy exports to $150 a barrel.
Benchmark US crude rose above $90 a barrel on Friday for the first time in two years.
Writing for the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera, one regional analyst warned that Iran was making a “strategic miscalculation of historic proportions”. Al Jazeera, a pan-Arab satellite news network owned and funded by the Qatari government, has previously been used to indicate Doha’s views on regional issues.
Sultan al-Khulaifi, a senior researcher at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, wrote: “By spreading the conflict to the Gulf, Tehran is doing exactly what Israel cannot do alone: ​​diverting the war from the Israeli-Iranian axis and turning it into a confrontation between Iran and its Arab counterparts.”
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s defense minister and Pakistan’s army chief met to discuss ways to deter an incoming attack from Iran, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman, son of King Salman, spoke to Field Marshal Asim Munir about the Iranian attack in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a mutual defense pact that defines any attack on either nation as an attack on both.
Early Saturday morning, incoming missiles from Iran had people rushing to bomb shelters across Israel and loud booms sounded in Jerusalem. There were no immediate reports of casualties from Israel’s emergency services.
Miscommunication among Iran’s ranks
Pezheshkian’s statement on Saturday said the country’s three-member leadership council was in contact with the armed forces about the attack.
“I must apologize to the neighboring countries that Iran attacked on my behalf,” the president said. “No longer should they attack neighboring countries or launch missiles unless those countries attack us. I think we have to resolve this through diplomacy.”
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the front line of the war, answers only to the country’s supreme leader. However, an Israeli airstrike at the start of the war on February 28 killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86.
Fighting with Israeli forces reported in East Lebanon
The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah clashed with Israeli forces after its fighters landed in the mountains of eastern Lebanon late on Friday.
At least 16 people were killed and 35 wounded in subsequent Israeli attacks, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Saturday.
Israel did not acknowledge the fighting and its military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel has carried out waves of airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a large presence but is home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 200 people had been killed and more than 800 wounded by Israeli strikes since Monday.
