President Donald Trump said early Saturday that the United States would expand its targets in the war in Iran, after its president apologized to neighboring countries caught up in the spiraling Middle East conflict - but rejected the notion of surrender.
President Trump says the US is doing "very well" in Iran. "It's been amazing," he says, adding that the US has knocked out "42 navy ships" in three days, as well as the Iranian air force and telecommunications.
Trump says he'll be heading straight from this speech to greet the families of the US service personnel that have already died in the conflict.
He says they are all "great heroes in our country", who are "coming home from Iran in a different manner than they thought they'd be coming home".
He adds that the US will be keeping the deaths of US soldiers "to a minimum".
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy has launched a drone strike on the al-Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates, Tasnim News Agency reports The semiofficial news agency said a US satellite communication centre along with early warning and fire control radars were hit.
The claim could not be independently verified and the UAE has not yet commented on the reported attack.
Meanwhile, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Saturday that his country would never surrender, as Israel announced a fresh blitz led by 80 fighter jets which set one of Tehran's main airports on fire.
The wave of pre-dawn Israeli raids was one of the biggest since the bombing campaign began last Saturday, with a military academy, an underground command centre and a missile storage facility named as targets.
AFP photos showed fire and smoke billowing from Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport, one of two that serve the capital.
But President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a defiant tone in a speech broadcast on state TV in which he appeared to address US President Donald Trump, who said Friday that only Iran's "unconditional surrender" could end the war.
Iran's enemies "must take their wish for the unconditional surrender of the Iranian people to their graves," Pezeshkian said, in a speech broadcast on state TV.
Iran also hit back on Saturday, with air raid alerts and explosions heard above Jerusalem as well as Gulf cities Dubai, Manama and near Riyadh -- where Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile fired at an air base housing US military personnel.
The UAE reports at least 16 ballistic missiles and 121 drones were launched at the country on Saturday, with nearly all intercepted.
One missile fell into the sea and two drones crashed within UAE territory.
Since the start of the conflict, authorities say that 221 ballistic missiles detected; 205 destroyed, 14 fell into the sea, 2 landed in the UAE, 1,305 Iranian drones detected; 1,229 intercepted, 76 landed in UAE territory, 8 cruise missiles detected and destroyed.
The attacks have killed three foreign nationals - Pakistani, Nepalese, and Bangladeshi -- and injured 112 people, including Emirati, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Filipino, Pakistani, Iranian, Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Azerbaijani, Yemeni, Ugandan, Eritrean, Lebanese, Afghan, Bahraini, Comorian, and Turkish citizens.
At least 5,000 protesters marched through central London, calling for an end to US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
On Saturday, the demonstration began at Millbank and moved toward the US Embassy in Vauxhall, with participants shouting slogans such as "Stop the bombing now".
Earlier, tents set up by charities and activist groups were seen at Victoria Tower Gardens near Westminster.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that more should be done to create conditions for dialogue on Iran, the Turkish presidency has said.
In a phone conversation on Saturday, Erdogan highlighted Turkey's ongoing diplomatic efforts and stressed that Ankara is closely monitoring developments following the attacks on Iran.
He also cautioned that prolonged interventions could seriously undermine regional and global stability.
