Iran's secretive top leader vows to keep up attacks in his first statement since being appointed

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran's secretive new leader issued his first public statements Thursday, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open "other fronts" in a war that already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is close to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and is widely seen as even less compromising than his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His location is unknown, and he is likely a prime target for the U.S. and Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Khamenei as a "puppet of the Revolutionary Guards."

"It is in your hands," Netanyahu said at a news conference, addressing the Iranian people. "We are creating the optimal conditions for the fall of the regime."

And in western Iraq, rescue efforts were underway after an American military refueling plane went down. U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said the mishap involved two aircraft, including one that landed safely, and the cause was not caused by hostile or friendly fire. 

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the KC-135 aircraft that crashed had at least five crew members aboard. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

Since the start of the war, U.S. and Israeli strikes targeted security checkpoints in Iran to undermine the government's ability to suppress dissent, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, the U.S-based independent monitoring group known as ACLED.

Khamenei said in a statement read by a state TV news anchor that he keeps a "file of revenge." He did not appear on camera and has not been seen since his father and wife were killed Feb. 28 in the war's opening salvo, which also wounded him, according to an Iranian ambassador.

The war continued to escalate on its 13th day as oil prices spiraled up again to $100 per barrel, and stocks sank worldwide over fears that the conflict could drag on longer than hoped.

To relieve the surge in prices, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would further ease sanctions on Russian oil by granting a license that authorizes the delivery and sale of some Russian crude oil and petroleum products for the next month. The move follows the Trump administration’s decision to grant temporary permission for India to buy Russian oil.

The new exemption applies only to Russian oil already at sea. Last week, analysts estimated there were about 125 million barrels loaded on tankers.

Iran made it clear that it plans to keep up attacks on energy infrastructure across the region and use the effective closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the United States and Israel.

At a news conference Thursday, Iran's ambassador to Tunisia, Mir Masoud Hosseinian, said Iranian naval forces "established full control" over the strait and "carried out precise strikes in response to attacks on our oil infrastructure." A fifth of the world's traded oil flows through the waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean.

"Global energy security is contingent on respect for Iran's sovereignty," he said.

He told the Associated Press the new supreme leader was wounded in the attack on his family's home, but "it is not serious."

Hosseinian added that Iran's strikes on Gulf nations were strategic. "Even when we targeted hotels, we had precise information that they were hosting American and Israeli soldiers," he said.

Khamenei called on Gulf Arabs to "shut down" U.S. bases in the region, saying protection promised by Washington was "nothing more than a lie."

He also said Iran studied "opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable" if the war continues. He did not elaborate, but Iran was linked to previous attacks on U.S., Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post Thursday that ensuring Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon was a higher priority than soaring oil prices.

Hours later, Netanyahu announced Israeli attacks killed a top Iranian nuclear scientist and hit others but gave few details.

Israel said earlier it struck a nuclear facility in Iran in recent days that it destroyed in an October 2024 airstrike. This year, satellite photos raised concerns that Iran worked to restore the facility.

As Netanyahu spoke, the Israeli military said it detected a new barrage of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel.

The U.S. military said American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.

British officials said several U.S. personnel suffered minor injuries Wednesday night when drone strikes in northern Iraq hit a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops.

Israeli warplanes pummeled Lebanon, targeting even the busy heart of Beirut, in response to missiles from Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters launched into Israel. One strike hit in a neighborhood that is close to Lebanon's parliament, United Nations offices and international embassies.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said forces were targeting a "facility affiliated with Hezbollah."

An Israeli strike also hit in the vicinity of Lebanon's only public university, killing a professor and the director of the science faculty at the campus in Hadath, on the outskirts of Beirut's southern suburbs. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

An Israeli strike on a village in southern Lebanon killed nine people, including five children, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, adding that seven others were wounded. An AP photographer who visited the scene found several buildings flattened and widespread destruction, while rescue workers searched through the rubble.

Two other Israeli strikes on separate towns in southern Lebanon killed six more people, the health ministry said.

The U.N. refugee agency said up to 3.2 million people in Iran were displaced by the ongoing war. It said most fled from Tehran and other major cities toward the north of the country or rural areas. Around 800,000 people were internally displaced in Lebanon, prompting fears of a humanitarian crisis.