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Alsharq Tribune- World News
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the country's forces could fight an intense war for six months against the United States and Israel, which said it struck Tehran's commanders at a seaside hotel in the heart of Beirut.
Tehran accused the US and Israel of striking an oil depot in the Iranian capital on Saturday, the first reported assault on the country's oil infrastructure as stock markets have slumped and crude prices surged.
The Israeli military said it struck "a number of fuel storage facilities in Tehran" that were used "to operate military infrastructure".
Israel's military also launched a new wave of strikes "across Tehran" on Sunday, after carrying out a precision strike targeting "key commanders" in the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, at a hotel in an area of central Beirut popular with tourists.
Lebanon's health ministry said the strike killed at least four people at the hotel, where an AFP photographer saw shattered windows and charred walls.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on with the war against Iran "with all our force", with a plan to eradicate the country's leadership after joint US-Israeli raids killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei last week, sparking the regional conflict.
Despite the threat, the Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that Iranian forces could wage an "intense war" for six months at the current speed of fighting.
Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said Iran had so far used "first and second generation" missiles, but will use "advanced and less-used long-range missiles" in the coming days.
Iran's security chief Ali Larijani accused the Trump administration of seeking to replicate a scenario similar to Venezuela where it ousted leader Nicolas Maduro. "Their perception was that it would be like Venezuela -- they would strike, take control and it would be over -- but now they are trapped," he said in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on state TV on Saturday.
Netanyahu said Israel had achieved almost total control of the skies over the Iranian capital. US President Donald Trump Trump struck a similarly defiant tone, repeating the claim that Iran had been close to developing a nuclear weapon.
He also suggested US troops could eventually be needed to secure Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles. Separately, he blamed Iran for what the country's authorities said was a deadly strike on an elementary school in Minab last Saturday that killed at least 150 people. Iran has blamed Washington for the strike.
