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Iran claimed Sunday it carried out attacks on two major aluminum plants in the Gulf, further raising the economic stakes of the Middle East war after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis joined the conflict.
The war, which began on Feb. 28 with U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, has spread across the region, sending global energy markets into turmoil and threatening broader economic disruption.
With the official status of talks between Washington and Tehran uncertain and ahead of a meeting in Pakistan on Monday involving key regional players, daily exchanges of strikes across the region have continued.
In Tehran, two blasts shook the city early Sunday, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist, although it was not immediately clear what had been targeted.
The Qatari news channel Al Araby said an Israeli missile hit the building housing its office in Tehran. Footage from inside the office showed broken windows and shattered glass, while images outside showed debris covering the streets and damage to nearby buildings.
“I miss a peaceful night's sleep,” an artist in Tehran told AFP, saying strikes the previous night were “so intense it felt like all of Tehran was shaking."
Iranian state media also reported that U.S.-Israeli strikes hit a quay in the port city of Bandar Khamir, near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says it has closed to shipping from hostile powers.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that Iran fired missiles and drones at plants belonging to two of the world’s largest aluminum producers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, targeting what they described as industries linked to the U.S. military.
Emirates Global Aluminium said an Iranian attack wounded six people and caused significant damage to its plant, while Bahraini state media said two Aluminium Bahrain employees were injured in a separate attack.
As concerns grew over a widening conflict, Yemen’s Houthis on Saturday claimed their first attack since the start of the war, saying they fired “a barrage of cruise missiles and drones” at strategic sites in Israel.
The attacks raised concerns about the conflict spreading to the Red Sea, with Saudi Arabia rerouting much of its oil exports there to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.
During Israel’s recent war in Gaza, the Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, forcing companies to take longer and more costly shipping routes.
Iran’s neighbor, Iraq, has also increasingly been drawn into the conflict.
In Syria, authorities said Sunday they had repelled a drone attack from Iraq targeting a U.S. military base, following a series of strikes claimed by pro-Tehran Iraqi groups.
Pakistan, acting as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran, will host foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt in Islamabad on Monday for talks on the crisis.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said “dialogue and diplomacy remain the only viable path for lasting peace” during a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Friday he expected a direct U.S.-Iran meeting in Pakistan “very soon."
U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff also said such a meeting could take place soon and promoted a 15-point plan that Washington says “could solve it all."
Meanwhile, the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship carrying around 3,500 Marines and sailors, arrived in the Middle East on Friday.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said in an interview published Saturday that the United States has “accomplished all its military objectives” in Iran, but the war must continue “a little while longer."
His comments came as The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon was preparing plans for weeks of ground operations, potentially including raids on Kharg Island and sites near the Strait of Hormuz, although Trump has not yet approved any deployment.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also threatened Sunday to strike U.S. university campuses in the Middle East unless Washington officially condemned U.S.-Israeli attacks on two Iranian universities.
On another front, Israeli attacks have continued in Lebanon, which was drawn into the conflict when Tehran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli territory on March 2.
On Saturday, the Israeli military killed three journalists in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese authorities, including President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, condemned the killings as war crimes.
Israel also carried out raids in southern Lebanon that killed nine paramedics, according to the health ministry.
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced the death in combat of one of its soldiers in southern Lebanon.
At a vocational institute north of Beirut, displaced mother Nasima Ismail registered her children for services despite a lack of resources as the war disrupted education for hundreds of thousands of students.
“I want them to complete their education, even if we are left with nothing,” she said.
“I wish them days better than ours.”
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