Israel eyes Iran oil targets, as Lebanon faces fresh crisis
Source: X
The prospect of higher fuel prices has emerged after US President Joe Biden revealed Israel might target Iran’s oil facilities in revenge for missiles that were unleashed earlier this week.
Biden told reporters on Friday (AEST) that the US was in discussions with Israel which is plotting its retaliatory move against Iran.
A journalist asked Biden if he would support Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities and the president replied: “We’re discussing that.”
Biden’s comment sent the price of oil up by 5 per cent.
Meanwhile Iran’s mission to the UN has warned that any country helping Israel would become a “legitimate target”.
“Should any country render assistance to the aggressor, it shall likewise be deemed an accomplice and a legitimate target,” said Iran’s statement.
“We advise countries to refrain from entangling themselves in the conflict between the Israeli regime and Iran and to distance themselves from the fray.”
The Islamic Republic launched its largest-ever assault on Israel on Wednesday (AEST) in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and its operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Fresh crisis as more bombs fall
On Friday morning (AEST), Israel’s military urged more evacuations in southern Lebanon as it pressed on with an incursion.
Residents of more than 20 Lebanese towns were warned to leave their homes immediately, forcing more civilians onto the streets.
Lebanon is facing a humanitarian crisis, with than 1 million people uprooted from their homes, and Lebanese authorities say 2000 people have been killed.
The latest evacuation warnings came after Israel bombed central Beirut in an attack the Lebanese health ministry said killed nine people.
“Another sleepless night in Beirut. Counting the blasts shaking the city. No warning sirens. Not knowing what’s next. Only that uncertainty lies ahead. Anxiety and fear are omnipresent,” said UN special coordinator in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, in a post on X.
Heartbreak for Australians
Lebanese Australians are watching on in horror as Israel bombs southern parts of Lebanon and the capital, Beirut, levelling buildings and killing hundreds.
Australians are being urged to leave Lebanon and take up offers of more than 500 extra commercial airline seats, but for some families, it’s not that simple.
One Lebanese Australian, who wished to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, described the heartbreak and emotional toll of worrying about her relatives.
Both sides of her family are from Lebanon, with three generations living across Beirut and the nation’s north.
Thankfully, those in the mountainous north are safe, she says, but a full-scale invasion could change this.
“Those in Beirut are going hour by hour, day by day,” she told AAP through tears, saying the air strikes were not in their areas, but they could hear the constant explosions.
“Some of our relatives are elderly and frail and won’t be able to leave.
“No one in my family would travel out here and leave their mothers, their fathers, their cousins, their aunts, the elderly.”
Her family would “move heaven and earth” to evacuate the elderly to the northern village they’re from, but this may not be feasible even in the worst-case scenario due to the 24-hour care requirement they’re receiving in Beirut.
It was always the innocents who suffered, she said as she called for a focus on the human toll, saying the Lebanese people deserved better than constant conflict.
“They call Beirut the phoenix city and they’ve proven that more times than you can count, building back from the ashes,” she said.
“The resolve of the Lebanese people is phenomenal but at the same time, it’s terrible they have to keep doing this.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong is urging people to leave Lebanon by any means after the federal government secured 500 tickets for two flights on Saturday.
That’s on top of 80 seats for Australians and their families on a flight leaving Lebanon on Thursday – but only 35 have been filled.
“Now is not the time for you to wait and see. Now is the time to leave,” Senator Wong said on Thursday.
Any evacuation effort will not be able to accommodate the estimated 15,000 Australians in Lebanon, although exact numbers are unknown.
About 1700 Australians and their immediate family in Lebanon are registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs.
An Australian Defence Force aircraft is in Cyprus to aid with contingency arrangements, with some commercial airlines stopping flights from Beirut.
-with AAP