March 2, 2026
“Trump's wishful thinking has dragged the whole region into an unnecessary war and now he is rightly worried about more American casualties. It is indeed very sad that he is sacrificing American treasure and blood to advance Netanyahu's illegitimate expansionist ambitions,” Larijani said in a social media post.
The declaration came as a refutation to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report claiming that, hours after US-Israeli strikes halted negotiations, Larijani had pushed to resume nuclear talks with Washington through Omani mediators.
In a separate post, Larijani said Iran is prepared for a prolonged war, unlike the US.
Following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, Larijani emerged as a central figure in Iran's security and military leadership.
While Larijani has been managing Iran's retaliation to the attack, he is not part of the three-person interim council established to lead the country until a successor is elected.
The council met for the first time on 1 March, shortly after the killing of Khamenei, to ensure government continuity as the country declared a 40-day mourning period.
The supreme leader was killed alongside a number of Iran's top military and security leaders, including IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, as well as several of Khamenei's family members - his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and grandchild.
The unprovoked US-Israeli attacks that began on 28 February have so far resulted in the killing of at least 555 people across Iran.
That number includes at least 180 killed in a single Israeli strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, with the vast majority being students aged 7-12.
UNESCO condemned the massacre as a grave violation of international humanitarian law, stressing the protections granted to civilians, especially children.
The joint US-Israeli aggression – dubbed ‘Operation Epic Fury’ by the US, and ‘Operation Roaring Lion’ by Israel – has carried out roughly 2,000 strikes across 131 locations in Iran, targeting key political, military, economic, and civilian infrastructure.
Following Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announcement of Operation True Promise 4 – targeting US bases in the Persian Gulf region – Gulf states condemned Iran's retaliatory missile strikes on US bases within their territory, calling them violations of sovereignty, with all Gulf states reporting the interception of Iranian missiles.
Oman warned the US-Israeli assault had undermined diplomacy just as a nuclear deal was “within our reach,” urging Washington not to escalate further, as Russia denounced the US-Israeli attack as “unprovoked.”
QatarEnergy announced on Monday the suspension of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production after its operational facilities in Ras Laffan were hit by an Iranian missile strike.
“Due to military attacks on QatarEnergy’s operating facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial City in the State of Qatar, QatarEnergy has ceased production of LNG and associated products,” the state oil company said in a statement.
It added that it “will continue to communicate the latest available information.” Qatar is among the world's largest LNG exporters
A drone strike also targeted Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery, one of the largest in the country. Saudi energy firm Aramco suspended operations at the 550,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, several media reports said.
Video footage on social media showed massive clouds of smoke over the site.
Saudi state media reported a “limited” fire caused by debris from the interception of two drones targeting the site, adding that the blaze was brought under control. Aramco, which has not yet officially commented, also plays a major role in the global energy supply.
As a result of the latest strikes, international benchmark Brent crude futures jumped 13 percent, to over $82 per barrel. This follows recent Iranian attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s energy crosses on a daily basis.
Natural gas prices have surged by 25 percent.
Energy facilities in the Iraqi Kurdistan region have also come under attack over the past 24 hours. Additionally, Israel has shuttered the major Leviathan and Karish gas fields.
Oil facilities [belonging] to regional countries were not and are not among the targets of Iran's attacks. However, all American and Israeli interests in any part of the region are among Iran's legitimate targets and will all be under attack,” an informed Iranian military source told Tasnim News Agency.
Since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran and the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Israeli targets and US bases and assets across the region have been under unprecedented strikes.
During closed-door briefings with congressional staff on Sunday, Pentagon officials acknowledged that no such intelligence existed, undermining the president's case for war, two people familiar with the matter told the news agency.
On Saturday, the US and Israel launched a major bombing campaign on Iran after amassing a huge naval and air force in the region and threatening Tehran with regime change.
The campaign included dropping 30 bombs on a compound in the Iranian capital, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian political and military leaders.
In the initial assault, an Israeli strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, southern Iran, killed at least 175 Iranian children.
After initiating the unprovoked attack, White House officials claimed that Iran was “perhaps preemptively” planning to launch its own attack on US forces in the region, and that the US campaign began in response.
In Sunday's briefings, Pentagon officials claimed that Iran's ballistic missiles and allied resistance movements in the region posed an imminent threat to US interests. However, “there was no intelligence about Tehran attacking U.S. forces first,” Reuters wrote, citing the two sources.
Democrats have accused Trump of waging a “war of choice” and abandoning peace talks that appeared promising.
Trump further justified initiating a war with Iran by claiming, without evidence, that Iran would soon be able to strike the US with a ballistic missile.
“His missile claim was not backed by US intelligence reports, and appeared to be exaggerated,” sources familiar with the reports told Reuters.
Additionally, the US-Israeli war against Iran had “been planned for months, and the launch date decided weeks ago,” even as the US and Iran carried out indirect nuclear negotiations, an Israeli defense official told the British newspaper on Saturday.
Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones targeting US military bases across the region and at targets in Israel.
Videos circulating on social media showed scores of Iranian missiles traveling through Israeli airspace and striking targets in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.
As of Monday, four US troops have been killed and five more “seriously wounded,” according to US Central Command (CENTCOM), marking the first US casualties in the conflict.
Trump, who ran for president on a platform of ending US wars, seemed unconcerned, telling NBC News in an interview that “we expect casualties with something like this.”
Regarding the expected length of the war, Trump told the New York Times (NYT), “We intended four to five weeks.”
So far, the US public has not expressed support for Trump's decision to go to war, with just 25 percent approving, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The Iranian missile caused widespread damage. At least three buildings were badly damaged or destroyed, including part of a bomb shelter.
Tel Aviv said it would investigate the air defenses’ failure to intercept the missile.
The Iranian strike comes hours after Tehran confirmed the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and coincides with a major escalation by Tehran including against US bases and assets in the Gulf.
The Strait of Hormuz – through which 20 percent of the world’s energy passes on a daily basis – has been closed by Iranian forces.
At least two oil tankers, which reportedly failed to heed Iranian warnings, have been targeted. Casualties have been reported.
Meanwhile, US and Israeli airstrikes continue to heavily bombard densely populated residential areas across Tehran and the rest of the country. Over 148 people were killed at a girls’ school in Minab. Over 200 Iranians have been killed since the start of the aggression.
"The enemies are delusional if they think they are capable of defeating Iran by assassinating the Leader of the Revolution and the Islamic Republic … Know with certainty that Iran may be wounded, but it does not and will not kneel,” said the spokesman for the Khatem al-Anbiya Headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces.
Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday: “To the countries of the region: We are not intending to attack you. But when the bases located in your country are used against us, and when the US carries out operations in the region relying on its forces there, we will target those bases. These bases are not part of the land of those countries; they are US territory.”
Arafi will join President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme Court Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei to form a Temporary Leadership Council so that the country's governance can continue uninterrupted until a new Supreme Leader is elected, Tasnim added.
"According to Article 111 of the Constitution, until a new leader is determined, a temporary leadership council consisting of the president, the head of the judiciary, and one of the jurists of the Guardian Council will be formed," wrote Mohsen Dehnavi, spokesman for the Expediency Discernment Council, on X.
The 67-year-old Arafi is from Maybod, Iran. Since 2019, he has served as a member of Iran's 12-member Guardian Council, which acts as an upper legislative house.
Its members include specialists in Islamic canon law appointed and civil jurists. The council reviews all legislation passed by the Parliament to determine its constitutionality.
Arafi has also served as head of Iran's seminaries since 2016, and as the Friday Prayer Imam of Qom, an important Iranian religious center, since 2015.
Supreme Leader Khamenei was assassinated on Saturday when Israeli warplanes dropped 30 bombs on his compound in Tehran, where he had gathered with other top leaders for a security meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The strike also killed Ali Shamkhani, a top security adviser to Khamenei, Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh.
In the wake of the killings, Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, is playing a prominent role in leading Iran's response to the joint US-Israeli attack.
"Yesterday, Iranian missiles were fired at the United States and Israel, and it was painful. Today, they will be fired even more painfully," Larijani wrote on X on Sunday.
On Saturday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched Operation True Promise 4, hitting targets in Israel and US bases in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Iran also continued its strikes on Sunday, targeting Duqm Port in Oman.
The IRGC issued a statement saying it had struck 27 locations linked to US bases, in addition to the Israeli military's general headquarters at HaKirya, the Tel Nof Airbase, and a major defense industrial complex in Tel Aviv.
Iran's armed forces "will not allow the sound of sirens to cease in the occupied territories and at US bases," the IRGC warned.
"The Iranian aggression against the Gulf states was a miscalculation, and it isolated Iran at a critical juncture. Your war is not with your neighbors," Gargash claimed.
"Return to reason, to your surroundings, and deal with your neighbors rationally and responsibly before the circle of isolation and escalation widens."
Gargash made the comments on 1 March to The National, the UAE-owned newspaper, after Iran defended itself from a surprise US-Israeli attack.
Iranian missiles and drones targeted US bases in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan on Saturday.
"Iranian decision makers increased Iran's isolation in its response to the Israeli and American strikes by targeting the Gulf," Gargash said. "Iran needs Gulf states to stop this war from dragging on and expanding."
According to the UAE state news agency Wam, Iran launched three waves of missile attacks on UAE territory.
"It will lead to damage that extends beyond the war in our relationship with Iran," he said. "The UAE will not sit cross-armed in the face of Iran's attacks and will review its options," he claimed.
In a phone call with his Gulf counterparts, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi clarified that Iran was "exercising its right to self-defense," saying that it was "regrettable" that US bases used to attack Iran are located in "friendly states."
During an interview with NBC News, Araghchi was asked why Iran was attacking US forces in the region. He responded by saying that it was because the US had attacked Iran. "We are attacking American military reinforcements, not Americans in their own country."
An Israeli strike in the initial assault killed over 100 Iranian children in Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, southern Iran. Dozens more are unaccounted for.
The Iranian strikes shattered the calm of the UAE, which has thrived as an international business hub while developing close financial and political relations with Israel in recent years, Middle East Eye (MEE) noted.
"Perhaps the most symbolic image out of Dubai on Saturday was a fire engulfing the grounds of the five-star Fairmont Hotel," MEE wrote.
"The calculation that built modern Dubai is being repriced in real time by people watching their skyline burn through their bedroom windows," one commentator wrote on X.
It is unclear if the Fairmont Hotel was hit by an Iranian drone or by debris from an intercepted missile.
"This is Dubai's ultimate nightmare as its very essence depended on being a safe oasis in a troubled region," Cinzia Bianco, an expert on the Gulf at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on X. "There might be a way to be resilient, but there is no going back."
Emirati officials were forced to evacuate Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, and suspend flights indefinitely at Al Maktoum International Airport, one of the world's busiest.
The UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020 by signing the Abraham Accords, alongside Morocco, Sudan, and Bahrain.
A leaked document obtained by the EmirateLeaks outlet revealed an Emirati government proposal to use UAE bases in the Red Sea to provide direct military, intelligence, and logistical support to Israel throughout its genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza.
The document, dated October 2023 and addressed to the Joint Operations Command of the UAE Armed Forces, explicitly calls for the UAE to "strengthen Israel in its war on the terrorists in Palestine," and for that support to continue "until the terrorists are defeated."
Larijani highlighted that the US
lacks the readiness for an extended conflict
The Secretary of Iran's Supreme
National Security Council, Ali Larijani, declared on 2 March that the Islamic
Republic “will not negotiate with the United States” as the regional war rages
on for a third straight day.
“Trump's wishful thinking has dragged the whole region into an unnecessary war and now he is rightly worried about more American casualties. It is indeed very sad that he is sacrificing American treasure and blood to advance Netanyahu's illegitimate expansionist ambitions,” Larijani said in a social media post.
The declaration came as a refutation to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report claiming that, hours after US-Israeli strikes halted negotiations, Larijani had pushed to resume nuclear talks with Washington through Omani mediators.
In a separate post, Larijani said Iran is prepared for a prolonged war, unlike the US.
Following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, Larijani emerged as a central figure in Iran's security and military leadership.
While Larijani has been managing Iran's retaliation to the attack, he is not part of the three-person interim council established to lead the country until a successor is elected.
The council met for the first time on 1 March, shortly after the killing of Khamenei, to ensure government continuity as the country declared a 40-day mourning period.
The supreme leader was killed alongside a number of Iran's top military and security leaders, including IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, as well as several of Khamenei's family members - his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and grandchild.
The unprovoked US-Israeli attacks that began on 28 February have so far resulted in the killing of at least 555 people across Iran.
That number includes at least 180 killed in a single Israeli strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, with the vast majority being students aged 7-12.
UNESCO condemned the massacre as a grave violation of international humanitarian law, stressing the protections granted to civilians, especially children.
The joint US-Israeli aggression – dubbed ‘Operation Epic Fury’ by the US, and ‘Operation Roaring Lion’ by Israel – has carried out roughly 2,000 strikes across 131 locations in Iran, targeting key political, military, economic, and civilian infrastructure.
Following Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announcement of Operation True Promise 4 – targeting US bases in the Persian Gulf region – Gulf states condemned Iran's retaliatory missile strikes on US bases within their territory, calling them violations of sovereignty, with all Gulf states reporting the interception of Iranian missiles.
Oman warned the US-Israeli assault had undermined diplomacy just as a nuclear deal was “within our reach,” urging Washington not to escalate further, as Russia denounced the US-Israeli attack as “unprovoked.”
One of
Saudi Arabia’s largest refineries is among the many targets struck by Iranian
forces across the region
Iranian drone strikes targeted
major energy assets in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on 2 March, triggering a surge in
oil prices as Tehran continued to escalate its operations – following the start
of the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic and the assassination of its
supreme leader.QatarEnergy announced on Monday the suspension of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production after its operational facilities in Ras Laffan were hit by an Iranian missile strike.
“Due to military attacks on QatarEnergy’s operating facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial City in the State of Qatar, QatarEnergy has ceased production of LNG and associated products,” the state oil company said in a statement.
It added that it “will continue to communicate the latest available information.” Qatar is among the world's largest LNG exporters
A drone strike also targeted Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery, one of the largest in the country. Saudi energy firm Aramco suspended operations at the 550,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, several media reports said.
Video footage on social media showed massive clouds of smoke over the site.
Saudi state media reported a “limited” fire caused by debris from the interception of two drones targeting the site, adding that the blaze was brought under control. Aramco, which has not yet officially commented, also plays a major role in the global energy supply.
As a result of the latest strikes, international benchmark Brent crude futures jumped 13 percent, to over $82 per barrel. This follows recent Iranian attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s energy crosses on a daily basis.
Natural gas prices have surged by 25 percent.
Energy facilities in the Iraqi Kurdistan region have also come under attack over the past 24 hours. Additionally, Israel has shuttered the major Leviathan and Karish gas fields.
Oil facilities [belonging] to regional countries were not and are not among the targets of Iran's attacks. However, all American and Israeli interests in any part of the region are among Iran's legitimate targets and will all be under attack,” an informed Iranian military source told Tasnim News Agency.
Since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran and the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Israeli targets and US bases and assets across the region have been under unprecedented strikes.
Only
one in four US citizens approves of Trump's unprovoked war on Iran
The Pentagon acknowledged there
was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to preemptively attack US forces
before President Donald Trump initiated a major bombing campaign against the
Islamic Republic, Reuters reported on 2 February.During closed-door briefings with congressional staff on Sunday, Pentagon officials acknowledged that no such intelligence existed, undermining the president's case for war, two people familiar with the matter told the news agency.
On Saturday, the US and Israel launched a major bombing campaign on Iran after amassing a huge naval and air force in the region and threatening Tehran with regime change.
The campaign included dropping 30 bombs on a compound in the Iranian capital, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian political and military leaders.
In the initial assault, an Israeli strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, southern Iran, killed at least 175 Iranian children.
After initiating the unprovoked attack, White House officials claimed that Iran was “perhaps preemptively” planning to launch its own attack on US forces in the region, and that the US campaign began in response.
In Sunday's briefings, Pentagon officials claimed that Iran's ballistic missiles and allied resistance movements in the region posed an imminent threat to US interests. However, “there was no intelligence about Tehran attacking U.S. forces first,” Reuters wrote, citing the two sources.
Democrats have accused Trump of waging a “war of choice” and abandoning peace talks that appeared promising.
Trump further justified initiating a war with Iran by claiming, without evidence, that Iran would soon be able to strike the US with a ballistic missile.
“His missile claim was not backed by US intelligence reports, and appeared to be exaggerated,” sources familiar with the reports told Reuters.
Additionally, the US-Israeli war against Iran had “been planned for months, and the launch date decided weeks ago,” even as the US and Iran carried out indirect nuclear negotiations, an Israeli defense official told the British newspaper on Saturday.
Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones targeting US military bases across the region and at targets in Israel.
Videos circulating on social media showed scores of Iranian missiles traveling through Israeli airspace and striking targets in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.
As of Monday, four US troops have been killed and five more “seriously wounded,” according to US Central Command (CENTCOM), marking the first US casualties in the conflict.
Trump, who ran for president on a platform of ending US wars, seemed unconcerned, telling NBC News in an interview that “we expect casualties with something like this.”
Regarding the expected length of the war, Trump told the New York Times (NYT), “We intended four to five weeks.”
So far, the US public has not expressed support for Trump's decision to go to war, with just 25 percent approving, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Iran
has escalated its attacks across Israel and US bases in the Gulf in the hours
following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Nine Israelis were killed and
nearly 30 others injured on 1 March in an Iranian ballistic missile strike on
the Beit Shemesh settlement, west of the occupied city of Jerusalem – coming as
part of a major escalation of Tehran’s attacks on Israel and US assets in the
Gulf.The Iranian missile caused widespread damage. At least three buildings were badly damaged or destroyed, including part of a bomb shelter.
Tel Aviv said it would investigate the air defenses’ failure to intercept the missile.
The Iranian strike comes hours after Tehran confirmed the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and coincides with a major escalation by Tehran including against US bases and assets in the Gulf.
The Strait of Hormuz – through which 20 percent of the world’s energy passes on a daily basis – has been closed by Iranian forces.
At least two oil tankers, which reportedly failed to heed Iranian warnings, have been targeted. Casualties have been reported.
Meanwhile, US and Israeli airstrikes continue to heavily bombard densely populated residential areas across Tehran and the rest of the country. Over 148 people were killed at a girls’ school in Minab. Over 200 Iranians have been killed since the start of the aggression.
"The enemies are delusional if they think they are capable of defeating Iran by assassinating the Leader of the Revolution and the Islamic Republic … Know with certainty that Iran may be wounded, but it does not and will not kneel,” said the spokesman for the Khatem al-Anbiya Headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces.
Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday: “To the countries of the region: We are not intending to attack you. But when the bases located in your country are used against us, and when the US carries out operations in the region relying on its forces there, we will target those bases. These bases are not part of the land of those countries; they are US territory.”
The
Iranian president, the head of the judiciary, and a cleric of the Guardian
Council will govern Iran until a new Supreme Leader is chosen
Alireza Arafi has been appointed
as the third member of a body tasked with temporarily governing the Islamic
Republic in the wake of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's assassination, Tasnim
News Agency reported on 1 March.Arafi will join President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme Court Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei to form a Temporary Leadership Council so that the country's governance can continue uninterrupted until a new Supreme Leader is elected, Tasnim added.
"According to Article 111 of the Constitution, until a new leader is determined, a temporary leadership council consisting of the president, the head of the judiciary, and one of the jurists of the Guardian Council will be formed," wrote Mohsen Dehnavi, spokesman for the Expediency Discernment Council, on X.
The 67-year-old Arafi is from Maybod, Iran. Since 2019, he has served as a member of Iran's 12-member Guardian Council, which acts as an upper legislative house.
Its members include specialists in Islamic canon law appointed and civil jurists. The council reviews all legislation passed by the Parliament to determine its constitutionality.
Arafi has also served as head of Iran's seminaries since 2016, and as the Friday Prayer Imam of Qom, an important Iranian religious center, since 2015.
Supreme Leader Khamenei was assassinated on Saturday when Israeli warplanes dropped 30 bombs on his compound in Tehran, where he had gathered with other top leaders for a security meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The strike also killed Ali Shamkhani, a top security adviser to Khamenei, Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh.
In the wake of the killings, Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, is playing a prominent role in leading Iran's response to the joint US-Israeli attack.
"Yesterday, Iranian missiles were fired at the United States and Israel, and it was painful. Today, they will be fired even more painfully," Larijani wrote on X on Sunday.
On Saturday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched Operation True Promise 4, hitting targets in Israel and US bases in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Iran also continued its strikes on Sunday, targeting Duqm Port in Oman.
The IRGC issued a statement saying it had struck 27 locations linked to US bases, in addition to the Israeli military's general headquarters at HaKirya, the Tel Nof Airbase, and a major defense industrial complex in Tel Aviv.
Iran's armed forces "will not allow the sound of sirens to cease in the occupied territories and at US bases," the IRGC warned.
Iran is
exercising its right to self defense by targeting US bases in allegedly
friendly countries, Foreign Minister Araghchi clarified
Iran has "isolated
itself" by attacking US bases in the Gulf States and created hostilities
with its neighbors that will last beyond the war, stated Dr. Anwar Gargash,
diplomatic adviser to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan."The Iranian aggression against the Gulf states was a miscalculation, and it isolated Iran at a critical juncture. Your war is not with your neighbors," Gargash claimed.
"Return to reason, to your surroundings, and deal with your neighbors rationally and responsibly before the circle of isolation and escalation widens."
Gargash made the comments on 1 March to The National, the UAE-owned newspaper, after Iran defended itself from a surprise US-Israeli attack.
Iranian missiles and drones targeted US bases in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan on Saturday.
"Iranian decision makers increased Iran's isolation in its response to the Israeli and American strikes by targeting the Gulf," Gargash said. "Iran needs Gulf states to stop this war from dragging on and expanding."
According to the UAE state news agency Wam, Iran launched three waves of missile attacks on UAE territory.
"It will lead to damage that extends beyond the war in our relationship with Iran," he said. "The UAE will not sit cross-armed in the face of Iran's attacks and will review its options," he claimed.
In a phone call with his Gulf counterparts, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi clarified that Iran was "exercising its right to self-defense," saying that it was "regrettable" that US bases used to attack Iran are located in "friendly states."
During an interview with NBC News, Araghchi was asked why Iran was attacking US forces in the region. He responded by saying that it was because the US had attacked Iran. "We are attacking American military reinforcements, not Americans in their own country."
An Israeli strike in the initial assault killed over 100 Iranian children in Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, southern Iran. Dozens more are unaccounted for.
The Iranian strikes shattered the calm of the UAE, which has thrived as an international business hub while developing close financial and political relations with Israel in recent years, Middle East Eye (MEE) noted.
"Perhaps the most symbolic image out of Dubai on Saturday was a fire engulfing the grounds of the five-star Fairmont Hotel," MEE wrote.
"The calculation that built modern Dubai is being repriced in real time by people watching their skyline burn through their bedroom windows," one commentator wrote on X.
It is unclear if the Fairmont Hotel was hit by an Iranian drone or by debris from an intercepted missile.
"This is Dubai's ultimate nightmare as its very essence depended on being a safe oasis in a troubled region," Cinzia Bianco, an expert on the Gulf at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on X. "There might be a way to be resilient, but there is no going back."
Emirati officials were forced to evacuate Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, and suspend flights indefinitely at Al Maktoum International Airport, one of the world's busiest.
The UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020 by signing the Abraham Accords, alongside Morocco, Sudan, and Bahrain.
A leaked document obtained by the EmirateLeaks outlet revealed an Emirati government proposal to use UAE bases in the Red Sea to provide direct military, intelligence, and logistical support to Israel throughout its genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza.
The document, dated October 2023 and addressed to the Joint Operations Command of the UAE Armed Forces, explicitly calls for the UAE to "strengthen Israel in its war on the terrorists in Palestine," and for that support to continue "until the terrorists are defeated."
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