Israel, Iran Trade Strikes, Tensions Up06/08 06:08

   Israel and Iran traded fire early Monday in their first attacks since the 
U.S. struck a ceasefire two months ago, threatening to drag the Middle East 
back into a full-scale war.

   DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Israel and Iran traded fire early Monday 
in their first attacks since the U.S. struck a ceasefire two months ago, 
threatening to drag the Middle East back into a full-scale war.

   The war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28 with strikes on Iran, 
has shaken the global economy, driven energy prices up around the world and 
made many basics, including food, more expensive. Officials have been unable to 
turn the ceasefire, agreed April 8, into a deal to permanently end the conflict.

   During the truce, Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of 
Hormuz -- a crucial passage for the world's oil and natural gas and the primary 
reason global fuel prices skyrocketed. Israel has continued to strike 
Hezbollah, Iran's ally in Lebanon, and pushed deeper into that country. And on 
Monday, Yemen's Houthi rebels, another Iranian ally, fired at Israel and warned 
they would target Israel-affiliated ships in the Red Sea.

   With little apparent progress in the peace talks, Israel and Iran firing at 
each other again, and the Houthis joining the fight, the risk of the war fully 
erupting again appeared higher than at any point since the ceasefire.

   In his first comments since the exchange of fire, U.S. President Donald 
Trump wrote online: "Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting.'"

   Diplomats are racing to save the ceasefire

   Two regional officials said concerted diplomatic efforts were underway 
Monday to salvage the ceasefire between Iran and the United States.

   Officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Qatar have urged 
the Trump administration to pressure Israel to rein in its strikes on Iran and 
Beirut. They have also urged Iranian officials to stop attacks on Israel, they 
said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not 
authorized to speak to reporters.

   One of the officials, who is involved in mediation efforts between Iran and 
the U.S., said the Pakistan-led mediators were furious about the Israeli strike 
Sunday on Beirut's southern suburbs, which came while Pakistan's interior 
minister was in Tehran in a fresh bid to push U.S.-Iranian negotiations forward.

   Israel and Iran traded strikes

   Iran launched waves of attacks on Israel on Monday, and Israel launched 
strikes on central and western Iran. It was their first exchange of fire since 
the ceasefire.

   Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions being heard in 
Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran, without immediately elaborating. Iran closed 
the airspace around Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport after the 
Israeli attack.

   The semiofficial Fars and Mehr news agencies said Israeli strikes hit a 
petrochemical factory in the city of Mahshahr in Khuzestan province. They did 
not elaborate on any damage. The Israeli military later confirmed the strike on 
the petrochemical plant and also said it targeted truck-based missile launchers.

   Israel said its strikes were in response to an Iranian missile attack. 
Tehran had warned on Sunday it would retaliate after Israel struck Beirut's 
southern suburbs without warning. When Israel struck back, Iran fired again.

   Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted two military 
bases in Israel, describing the attacks as being part of Operation Nasr, or 
"Victory." The Guard said it launched the missiles after Israel targeted radar 
sites in three areas of Iran.

   Explosions could be heard in central Israel as air defenses sought to 
intercept incoming Iranian fire. Sirens also sounded across neighboring Jordan.

   Iran blamed the United States for the escalation.

   "No one believes that the Israeli regime would take any action without 
coordination with the United States," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail 
Baghaei said during a briefing with journalists in Tehran. "The United States 
bears responsibility for the Israeli regime's aggression."

   Tensions appear to be growing between Trump and Netanyahu

   Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war in a 
closely coordinated attack, with Israeli officials proudly boasting of 
unprecedented "shoulder to shoulder" cooperation throughout the conflict, which 
reached 100 days on Monday.

   But since the first strikes, the two men have moved in opposite directions, 
with tensions sometimes spilling out into the open. Netanyahu appears to have 
openly defied Trump with his strike Sunday in Beirut and subsequent attacks in 
Iran, while Trump has voiced his displeasure with Israel, occasionally cursing 
or belittling Netanyahu by declaring to the Financial Times that "I call all 
the shots."

   The White House did not respond to messages about Monday's Israeli strikes 
and whether they were done in coordination with the U.S.

   The differences between the leaders appear to be rooted in the domestic 
considerations of each. Netanyahu faces elections this fall and is under heavy 
public pressure to strike back against ongoing Hezbollah attacks on northern 
Israel. He also is wary of appearing too subservient to Trump.

   The U.S. president, meanwhile, also faces elections -- for Congress in 
November -- and is eager to wrap up a war that has jolted the global economy 
and raised prices for consumers.

   The Houthis claimed an attack on Israel

   Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed an attack on Israel on Monday and 
said Israel-affiliated vessels would again be a target in the Red Sea, putting 
the waterway, as well as the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait 
connecting them, in danger. The statement from Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree was 
broadcast on the Houthis' al-Masirah satellite news channel.

   The threat might serve to further drive up oil prices since Saudi Arabia is 
using its East-West Pipeline to export oil through the Red Sea as an 
alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

   The Houthis made a similar threat during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza 
Strip and killed at least nine mariners and sank four ships in over 100 
attacks, often targeting vessels with tangential or no ties to Israel.

   The assaults upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 
trillion of goods passed each year before the war.