​Trump says ‘Iran will be hit very hard’ TODAY as world braces for the ‘big one’ – after Tehran strikes Dubai airport with suicide drone then apologises for attacks: Live updates

US President Donald Trump has said that Iran will be ‘hit very hard’ by US-Israeli attacks today as he claimed the country is being ‘beat to hell’.

Hitting out at comments by the Iranian President, who claimed that attacks on Gulf neighbours would stop (only for the IRGC to contradict him hours later) Trump said the statement was only made due to ‘relentless’ attacks.

In a post on Truth Social he said: ‘Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore.

‘This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack. They were looking to take over and rule the Middle East. It is the first time that Iran has ever lost, in thousands of years, to surrounding Middle Eastern Countries.’

He added:

Today Iran will be hit very hard!

Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.

Video footage has captured the moment that Iran hit Dubai Airport in a suicide drone attack.

The drone can be seen travelling through clear skies before disappearing from view.

A huge cloud of smoke can then be seen erupting as the drone makes impact.

The attack caused the entire airport to be evacuated and all operations to be suspended. A fire was reported at Terminal 3.

The head of Britain’s armed forces has rejected criticism that the military was ill prepared for conflict in Iran and said we are in “probably the most dangerous period” in decades.

The Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, said: ‘What the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary have made clear, and what is very clear to me, is that this is probably the most dangerous period in the last 30-odd years that I’ve been in uniform.

‘The demands on defence are rising.’

He said HMS Dragon, the warship being readied to depart for the region after a drone hit a UK base on Cyprus, was in maintenance until this week.

He also dismissed that cuts to the military over the years have slowed down the UK’s response and signalled that the UK could join more proactive strikes in future after Sir Keir Starmer granted permission for ‘defensive’ US action against Iranian missile sites from UK bases.

Sir Richard said ‘I completely reject that criticism’ when asked about commentary that the UK military had been ill prepared when Israel and the US launched strikes a week ago.

‘When the war started on Saturday, it became clear over the next 48 hours that Iran’s response was going to be far broader and more reckless compared to what we saw in the 12-day war last summer’,’ Sir Richard said.

‘We also assessed that a drone had been launched from Lebanon by an Iranian-aligned group targeting Cyprus.

‘So, on Sunday and Monday, we assessed our options and looked at what the risks were in response to that much broader and reckless action by Iran.’

Asked if that was a bit late, he said: ‘I completely disagree”, adding that “our posture had been built up over several weeks’.

Pictured: Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton

By Nick Craven

As Dubai airport reopened partially following an Iranian drone strike today, British tourist Mike Linn from Edinburgh said he came to the airport determined to leave, despite the drone strike.

‘We saw some stuff online about it while we were back in the hotel and decided to come to the airport anyway’, said Mike, 51.

Travelling with his wife Lisa, 49, a clinical researcher, along with two other couples, he added: ‘We’re desperate to get home. We’d been due to return on Tuesday, but various various cancellations, meant we were booked on various flights which we don’t think would go.

‘We’ve got a 15-year-old and a 21-year-old back home. The 15-year-old’s staying with friends until we can get back.

‘We were meant to be flying back to Edinburgh, but then yesterday we managed to book on a flight to Heathrow.

‘And arriving at the airport, I just got a post on Twitter from Emirates saying that flights are cancelled again.’

Jordan accused Iran on Saturday of directly targeting sites in the kingdom, firing 119 missiles and drones in the week since US-Israeli strikes triggered a regional war.

Jordanian military spokesman Brigadier General Mustafa Hayari told a news conference that 108 of the projectiles had been intercepted.

‘These missiles and drones were targeting vital installations inside Jordan and were not passing through our territories,’ he said.

A third UK Government flight will be leaving Muscat, Oman, tomorrow, it is understood.

The Foreign Office is also exploring options to charter a flight from Dubai to bring people back from the Middle East as the conflict continues.

More than 9,000 Brits have returned from the United Arab Emirates since widespread conflict began in the region seven days ago.

Authorities in the UAE have said the country’s air defence systems have intercepted 15 ballistic missiles and 119 drones so far today, as attacks on Gulf nations continue in spite of Iran’s President’s declaration they would end.

One further ballistic missile fell into the sea, the country’s Ministry of Defence said.

Two drones slipped through the UAE’s defences and fell within its territory.

Three people have been killed in the UAE since last Saturday and 112 injured.

In direct contradiction to the Iranian’s President’s pledge to stop attacking its Gulf neighbours, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has reiterated that all US and Israeli assets in the Middle East will be ‘primary targets’ unless strikes stop.

In a statement broadcast by Iranian state media, a spokesperson said:

Following the statements of the president, the armed forces once again declare that they respect the interests and national sovereignty of neighbouring countries and, up to this point, have committed no aggression against them

However, should the previous hostile actions continue, all military bases and interests of criminal America and the fake Zionist regime on land, at sea, and in the air across the region will be considered primary targets and will come under the powerful and crushing strikes of the mighty armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon on Saturday urged Lebanon and Israel to enter talks to negotiate an end hostilities after the outbreak of a renewed Israel-Hezbollah war.

‘As bad as things are today, they are set to get even worse,’ Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said.

‘Talks between Lebanon and Israel can be the game changer needed to save future generations from going, time and again, through the same nightmare’.

Lebanon was engulfed by the expanding Middle East war on Monday, after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel to avenge the death of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

At least 217 people have been killed and 300,000 displaced in Lebanon since last Saturday.

Air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem on Saturday as strikes by Iran continued.

Explosions were heard in the skies shortly after the military said its air defence was working to intercept projectiles from Iran.

The Israeli authorities gave the all clear shortly afterwards and the country’s first responders agency Magen David Adom said no injuries were reported in the immediate aftermath.

The Israeli military said it detected 11 launches from Iran towards Israel in the past 24 hours.

Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Friday that there had been a ‘real decrease’ in the number of launches from Iran after almost a week of barrages.

Iran’s army said Saturday its navy had launched a wave of drone attacks targeting Israel as well as US bases in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

‘The Iranian Navy targeted American bases and occupied territories with a massive wave of drone attacks,’ the army said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

It said the targets included the UAE’s Al-Minhad base and another in Kuwait, as well as a ‘strategic facility’ in Israel.

Later, the Revolutionary Guards said their forces also targeted Al-Dhafra air base in the UAE.

‘In this attack, the American terrorists’ air warfare centre, satellite communication centre, early warning radars, and fire control radars were hit,’ the Guards said in a statement, according to Iranian news agency Tasnim.

It comes after Iranian President earlier said attacks on regional neighbours would end unless they themselves attacked Iran.

(Pictured: A map showing some of the US assets in the Middle East which have been targeted over the past week).