The China Mail - Netanyahu vows Israel will 'crush Iran's terror regime'

The comments came shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said, in a phone call with the president of the European Council, that Tehran had the "necessary will" to end the war provided its enemies guaranteed it didn't flare up again.

Netanyahu, however, insisted the campaign would go on.

"We will continue to crush the terror regime," he said, adding that Israel had "changed the face of the Middle East".

The comment by Pezeshkian -- which boosted markets in the United States -- echoed Tehran's counterproposal to a 15-point US plan last week to end the war, in which Iran demanded a mechanism guaranteeing that Israel and the US would not return to war.

It followed a threat by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to retaliate against leading US tech firms such as Google, Meta and Apple from Wednesday if more Iranian leaders were killed in "targeted assassinations".

The Guards charged that 18 companies, also including Intel, Tesla and Palantir, were complicit in previous killings and warned they "should expect the destruction of their relevant units in exchange for every assassination in Iran".

US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu launched the war on February 28, killing Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and setting off a wave of retaliatory attacks across the region.

Trump has since zigzagged on whether Washington plans to further escalate the war that has roiled the world economy -- possibly by deploying American ground forces -- or try to end it through negotiations with Tehran.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, speaking earlier after he visited US troops in the Middle East, vowed that "the upcoming days will be decisive. Iran knows that, and there's almost nothing they can militarily do about it."

Asked about next steps, Hegseth said that "you can't fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do, or what you are not willing to do, to include boots on the ground".

Trump had threatened Monday that if Iran didn't agree to a deal, US forces would "obliterate" all of its oil wells, its main Kharg Island export terminal, and possibly its water desalination plants.

On Tuesday, heavy strikes hit Iran, including the central city of Isfahan and Tehran, where AFP journalists heard blasts, with air defences activated.

Iranian state media also reported damage to a Shia religious centre in Zanjan, while the government said airstrikes had hit a plant making cancer drugs and anaesthetics, claims AFP could not independently verify.

- 'Go get your own oil!' -

Tehran residents spoke of life in a city during wartime still clinging to some routine, despite reported explosions that on Tuesday sparked power outages in parts of the capital.

"When I make it to a cafe table, even for a few minutes, I can almost believe the world hasn't ended," dental assistant Fatemeh, 27, told AFP journalists in Paris via a messaging app.

"And then I go back home, back to the reality of living through war, with all its darkness and weight."

Iran has kept firing at Israel and US allies in the Gulf, joined in the regional war by its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Kuwait's state oil company said one of its oil tankers was temporarily on fire off Dubai after a "direct and malicious Iranian attack".

Iran has also maintained its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global oil normally passes.

The average gasoline price at US pumps soared past $4 a gallon, the highest in nearly four years, while the EU urged member states to try to push down domestic demand for fuel.

"It is clear that the more you can do to save oil, especially diesel, especially jet fuel, the better we are off," EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said.

Trump in a Truth Social post lashed out at NATO allies and other countries that have refused to help the United States secure the crucial waterway.

"The U.S.A. won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us," he wrote. "Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!"

- Israel vows to stay in Lebanon -

Israel, meanwhile, kept pounding Lebanon in its war on Hezbollah as it mourned four Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the end of the war, and that "all the houses in the villages adjacent to the border in Lebanon will be demolished".

Lebanon's Defence Minister Major General Michel Menassa said the remarks were "no longer mere threats" but reflected "a clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory".

Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, and over a million have been displaced, Lebanese authorities say.

"If there's a strike, the people around me could run away and leave me behind," said 62-year-old Fatima Nazli, who uses a wheelchair. "I can't get up and move if no one helps me."

burs-fz/smw

A.Kwok--ThChM