Iran denies attacking base in Saudi Arabia, announces targeting facilities in Haifa
Iran denied carrying out any attack on Saudi territory, stressing that the news about targeting a base in the city of Al-Kharj is "not true", while the Revolutionary Guards announced that they responded to Israeli attacks inside Iran by targeting Israeli industrial facilities in the city of Haifa in the north of occupied Palestine.
An unnamed Iranian military source told Iranian state television on Monday that Tehran had not fired any missiles and had not carried out any attack on the base in al-Kharj, southeast of the capital Riyadh.
The Saudi Civil Defense announced at dawn on Monday the launch of an early warning in Al-Kharj province to warn of a danger, before announcing in a later post that the danger had disappeared.
The Revolutionary Guards Target Israeli Facilities North of Haifa
On the other hand, the Revolutionary Guards confirmed in a statement that Israeli attacks on petrochemical facilities in Iran were met with a similar response targeting industrial facilities in Haifa, warning that the targeting of civilian structures and the energy sector "pushes the region towards a dangerous equation" and blaming the United States for any potential economic repercussions.
The escalation came after the Karun petrochemical complex in Khuzestan suffered damage as a result of Israeli shelling, according to Iran's Mehr News Agency, in addition to Iran firing several rocket barrages towards northern Israel in response to a raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
This was accompanied by a more hawkish Iranian tone, with parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf saying that "US and Israeli assets in the region are legitimate targets", while sources linked to the Revolutionary Guards stressed that the Israeli strike "will not go unanswered".
UN warns of regional energy war disrupting supply chains
The reciprocal strikes on Iran's Mahshahr petrochemical facilities and the Haifa refineries in Israel have raised widespread concerns, prompting the US administration to act quickly, as US President Donald Trump made an urgent call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for a freeze on any further responses, at a time when Washington confirmed that the two sides were discussing understandings for a ceasefire before the escalation threatened to blow it up completely.
The United Nations and several international powers have warned that the move of strikes on oil, gas and petrochemical facilities could ignite a regional "energy war" that would raise oil prices globally and disrupt supply chains, and European and Asian countries, including China and Canada, have called for an immediate de-escalation before it spirals out of control.
Regionally, the Iranian Foreign Ministry revealed the exchange of diplomatic messages with the United States through intermediaries such as Pakistan and Oman, stressing that the priority is to end the war without compromising Iranian sovereignty, and Tehran's swift denial of targeting the Al-Kharj base in Saudi Arabia came as a signal to reassure the Gulf states that they are not seeking to expand the conflict outside the framework of direct confrontation with Israel.