Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Tuesday threatened to attack American companies in the Gulf region, setting a deadline for staff of such firms to vacate, even as Donald Trump said other countries should show some courage to "take" the Strait of Hormuz and the price of gasoline rose to a high of $4 per gallon in the US.
The Revolutionary Guards said they will target the companies as of April 1 in retaliation for attacks on Iran, state media reported.
The 18 companies listed in the IRGC's threat included Microsoft, Google, Apple, Intel, IBM, Tesla and Boeing.
"These companies should expect the destruction of their respective units in exchange for each terror act in Iran, starting from 8 PM Tehran time on Wednesday, April 1st," the IRGC statement said.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said he has been receiving direct messages from US special envoy Steve Witkoff but they do not constitute "negotiations", Qatar's Al Jazeera TV cited him as saying on Tuesday.
The messages include threats or exchanged views delivered through "friends", he added.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the next few days in the war against Iran would be decisive and warned Tehran that the conflict would intensify if it did not make a deal.
President Donald Trump expressed frustration Tuesday with allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the US war effort, telling them to "go get your own oil" as the conflict with Iran and its closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent average US gas prices past USD 4 a gallon.
The social media post came after US strikes hit the central city of Isfahan, sending a massive fireball into the sky, and Tehran attacked a fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.
The attacks showed the intensity of the war more than a month after the US and Israel launched it. The conflict has left more than 3,000 dead and caused major disruptions to the world's supply of oil and natural gas, roiling global markets.
Trump, who has vacillated between insisting there is progress in diplomatic talks with Iran and threatening to widen the war, had earlier shared footage of the attack on Isfahan. The city is home to one of three nuclear enrichment sites attacked by the US during a previous war last June, and analysts believe much of Iran's highly enriched uranium is likely stored there.
In a separate development, supporters of Iran's imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi said she may have suffered a heart attack.
The campaign for her release, citing fellow inmates, said she was found unconscious with her eyes rolled back last week. Mohammadi has a heart condition and suffered multiple heart attacks while imprisoned before undergoing emergency surgery in 2022, her supporters say. The campaign said she was in evident ill health during a visit by lawyers and a family member on Sunday.
The war is rattling markets
Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading out of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported during peacetime, has driven up global oil prices, as have Tehran's attacks on regional energy infrastructure. That has shaken stock markets around the world and pushed up the cost of many basic goods.
Spot prices of Brent crude, the international standard, hovered around USD 107 a barrel Tuesday, up more than 45 per cent since the war started Feb. 28.
Trump directed blame at US allies like the United Kingdom and France, which have refused to enter a war with no clear endgame that they were not consulted on.
"You'll have to start learning how to fight for yourself. The USA. won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!" Trump wrote.
He singled out France for not letting planes fly over French territory while taking military supplies to Israel, saying Paris has been "VERY UNHELPFUL," and that "The USA. will REMEMBER!!!"
Allies have refused to get involved
France has allowed the US Air Force to use the Istres base in southern France because it had guarantees that planes landing there would not be involved in carrying out strikes.
Spain, which has emerged as Europe's loudest critic of the war, said Monday that it had closed its airspace for US planes involved in the conflict.
Italy recently refused to allow US military assets to use the Sigonella air base in Sicily for an operation linked to the offensive, an official with knowledge of the matter said, confirming a local press report.
The denial was issued a few days ago and concerned American aircraft, including bombers, which were supposed to land at the base before continuing toward the Middle East, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Italy's Defence Minister Guido Crosetto wrote on X that Italy is still allowing the US to use its bases, adding that there has been no cooling of relations between the two countries.
Waves of strikes on Iran and Lebanon
Israel and the US launched a wave of strikes on Iran, hitting Tehran in the early morning.
The Israeli military said it had launched strikes targeting what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel plans to control the area south of the Litani River -some 20 miles (about 30 kilometres) north of the border.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon after Hezbollah began launching missiles into northern Israel days after the outbreak of the wider war. Many Lebanese fear another prolonged military occupation.
The video shared by Trump appeared to show a massive attack on Iran's Isfahan, and NASA fire-tracking satellites suggest explosions happened in a mountainous region on the city's southern edge. Iran has not confirmed the attack.
The US has not ruled out ground forces
Trump warned this week that if a ceasefire is not reached "shortly," and if the strait is not reopened, the US would broaden its offensive, including by attacking the Kharg Island oil export hub and possibly desalination plants.
Speaking at the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth would not say if US ground forces would enter the war.
"We don't want to have to do more militarily than we have to," he said. "But I didn't mean it flippantly when I said, in the meantime, we'll negotiate with bombs."
A ground invasion could alienate Iranians who despise the ruling theocracy and who rose up in mass protests that were crushed earlier this year. Some could see it as an attack on Iran itself and rally around the flag.
A young anti-government activist in Iran said he plans to volunteer with the army if Trump follows through on such threats.
"If the idea of occupying islands or part of my country's territory is implemented, I will definitely be available as a soldier to defend the Iranian nation," said the 25-year-old resident of the northern town of Babol, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for retribution.
Iran hits oil tanker in waters off Dubai
An Iranian drone hit a Kuwaiti oil tanker off the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, sparking a blaze that was later put out, the Dubai Media Office said. Authorities said no oil spill resulted.
Four people were wounded by debris from an intercepted drone in Dubai, air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain, while Saudi Arabia said it intercepted three ballistic missiles launched toward its capital. Loud explosions were also heard in Israel not long after the military warned of an incoming missile barrage from Iran.
In Iran, authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.
Two dozen people have died in the Gulf states and the occupied West Bank. In Lebanon, officials said more than 1,200 people have been killed, and more than 1 million displaced.
Ten Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, including the four announced Tuesday, while 13 US service members have been killed.