- As Iran boasts of readiness to confront US ground troops
Iranian missiles sparked a wave of explosions across Tel Aviv on Friday, with Israel’s emergency services saying they had visited several damaged sites but there had been no injuries.
Firefighters worked round the clock to contain a blaze at a residential building near the commercial hub, while residents at a building on the outskirts of Tel Aviv were evacuated after a projectile hit the building, AFP reported.
The blasts came after Israel launched massive strikes against the southern suburbs of Beirut, vowing retribution against Hezbollah which joined the conflict on Monday.
Iran’s state broadcaster said Tehran had fired missiles “against targets in the heart of Tel Aviv,” after Israel’s military said it was working to intercept incoming Iranian fire late Thursday.
Iran ‘Ready For Ground invasion’ By US – Foreign Minister
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday bragged that Iran is ready to face American troops, if there is any attempt at ground invasion of their country
Araghchi told NBC, “We are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them”, adding that there would be “no winner in this war” and Iran is not asking for a ceasefire.
“The fact is that we don’t have any positive experience of negotiating with the United States. You know, especially with this administration. We negotiated twice last year and this year, and then in the middle of negotiations, they attacked us.”
Araghchi comments come on the heels of Trump’s mixed signals about whether he is willing to deploy US forces in a “boots on the ground” capacity.
On the issue of who will be chosen as a successor to the former Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Araghchi said that would be up to the Assembly of Experts – an 88-seat Iranian governmental body – to decide, and not Trump, who has said he must “be involved”.
“That is absolutely the business of Iranian people, and nobody can interfere”, the Foreign Minister maintained
