Iran has warned that it could target economic and financial centres linked to the US and Israel across the Middle East, marking a potential escalation in the ongoing conflict in the region. The warning comes amid intensifying hostilities following recent attacks on Iranian infrastructure and military targets.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said Tehran now has “free rein” to strike economic assets associated with the US and Israel. The statement was issued after an overnight attack on an administrative building linked to Bank Sepah, one of Iran’s major state-owned banks with historic ties to the country’s military. Iranian officials blamed the US and Israel for the strike and described it as an illegitimate attack on civilian economic infrastructure, Reuters reported.
‘Don’t wander within 1 km of banks’
Iranian military also urged people across the region to refrain from going within one kilometre of banks. Iranian media said US and Israeli strikes hit a bank in Tehran overnight, killing an unspecified number of employee, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
The threat came as the conflict between Iran and the US-Israel alliance continued to intensify. The war began after coordinated air and missile strikes on Iranian territory in late February, targeting military and strategic infrastructure. The attacks triggered retaliatory strikes by Iran against US military bases, Israeli territory and other locations across the Gulf region.
The escalating conflict has already disrupted regional stability and global markets. Tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for global energy shipments, have intensified, with shipping traffic severely affected and oil prices rising sharply amid fears of wider economic fallout.
What’s the latest in the US-Iran-Israel war?
As the Iran–Israel conflict entered Day 12, fighting intensified with fresh missile strikes and widening regional fallout. Three people have been killed in a US-Israeli attack in Iran’s northwestern city of Tabriz, Tasnim reported. Four people were also injured in the attack which took place in the city’s Saffronieh residential area, according to the director general of crisis management in East Azerbaijan province. At sea, tensions escalated in the Strait of Hormuz, where the US destroyed several Iranian mine-laying boats and multiple commercial vessels were hit by projectiles, highlighting the growing risk to global shipping routes, according to the Guardian.