Iran targeted Tel Aviv with missiles carrying cluster warheads in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday.

Israel has said that Iran has repeatedly used cluster warheads, which disperse into ​multiple smaller explosives mid-air and spread over a wide area, making them difficult to intercept. The attack on densely populated Tel Aviv overnight on Tuesday killed two people, bringing the death toll in ‌Israel from the war to at least 14, Reuters reported.

In Iran, a projectile hit an area near the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening, however it caused no damage or injuries, Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call for maximum restraint during the conflict to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident.

Israel and the U.S. have said preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons programme was one of the goals of the attacks they launched more than two weeks ago, which killed the country’s supreme leader and ​many other top officials.

The Iranian government on Tuesday confirmed the killing of Larijani, the most senior figure targeted since the U.S.-Israeli war’s first day, when an Israeli strike killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s ​Supreme National Security Council, which Larijani led as secretary, said Larijani’s son and his deputy, Alireza Bayat, were also killed in an Israeli attack on Monday night.

The targeted killings ⁠took place as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran shows no signs of de-escalation.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has rejected proposals conveyed to Iran’s Foreign Ministry for “reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States,” according to a senior Iranian official ​who asked not to be identified.

Khamenei, attending his first foreign-policy meeting since his appointment, said it was not “the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation,” according to ​the official.

The official did not clarify whether the younger Khamenei, who has not yet appeared in photos or on TV since being named last week to replace his slain father, had attended the meeting in person or remotely.

TRUMP SAYS HELP FROM ALLIES TO SECURE STRAIT NOT NEEDED

U.S.-based Iran human rights group HRANA said on Monday that an estimated 3,000-plus people have been killed in Iran since the U.S.-Israeli attacks began at the end of February. Iranian attacks have killed people in Iraq and across the Gulf states, as well as ​Israel. More than 900 people have died since Israel began attacks on Lebanon on March 2, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for a fifth of the global oil trade, remains largely ​closed as Iran threatens to attack tankers linked to the U.S. and Israel. Oil prices have soared.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated allied countries in recent days for their cool response to his requests for military help to restore the passage of ‌oil tankers ⁠through the strait.

Most U.S. allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have told Trump they don’t want to get involved in the conflict, he said on Tuesday, describing their position as “a very foolish mistake.”

“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!” Trump wrote on social media, also singling out Japan, Australia and South Korea.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in an interview that nobody was ready to risk the lives of their people in protecting the strait.

“We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertilizers crisis, energy crisis as well,” Kallas said.

The U.S. has given ​shifting rationales for joining Israel to attack Iran and ​struggled to explain the legal basis for starting a ⁠new war, underscored by the Tuesday resignation of the head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Kent. Kent wrote in his resignation letter to Trump that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation.”

US TARGETS IRAN COASTLINE

Iran has responded to the Israeli-U.S. attacks with wide-ranging strikes on its Gulf neighbours, some of which host U.S. bases.

Gulf Arab states have faced more ​than 2,000 missile and drone attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions and military bases as well as oil infrastructure, ports, airports, ships and residential and commercial buildings, and most ​of them aimed at the ⁠United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia will host a consultative meeting of foreign ministers from a number of Arab and Islamic countries in Riyadh on Wednesday evening to discuss ways to support regional security and stability, the kingdom’s foreign ministry said.

The United States military said on Tuesday it had targeted sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz because Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a risk to international shipping there.

Oil prices rose about 3% on Tuesday as Iran renewed its strikes on oil facilities in the United ⁠Arab Emirates, and ​are up around 45% since the start of the war on February 28, raising concerns of a renewed spike in global inflation. The World ​Food Programme said tens of millions of people will face acute hunger if the war continues through June.

Global airlines sounded the alarm on Tuesday over soaring jet fuel prices, warning of hundreds of millions of extra costs, higher fares and cuts to some routes. Global aviation has been ​thrown into turmoil, with flights cancelled, rescheduled or rerouted as most Middle East airspace remains closed amid fears of missile and drone attacks.

Defence Minister Israel Katz ‌said on Tuesday the Israeli military had killed Iran’s security chief and the head of its Basij militia in airstrikes overnight, and Tehran kept up attacks against Gulf neighbours that have pushed up energy prices.

Katz ​said in a statement he had been informed by the military that Iran’s security ​chief Ali Larijani had been killed, Reuters reported.

Iranian state media published a handwritten note ⁠by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a U.S. attack whose funeral was expected on ​Tuesday but there was no immediate comment by Tehran on Katz’s remarks.

Larijani would be the most senior ​figure assassinated since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli-U.S. airstrikes on February 28.

Katz said Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Basij forces, had also been killed.

The Basij militia is ​a part-time paramilitary force under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that is ​often used to quell protests inside Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the ‌Israeli ⁠leader had ordered “the elimination of senior officials of the Iranian regime”.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed and no end in sight. The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off and U.S. allies have rebuffed U.S. President Donald Trump’s ​calls for them to ​help to reopen the ⁠vital waterway, through which about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.

There was no let-up in attacks by both sides early ​on Tuesday, with Iran launching missiles on Israel overnight, underscoring that ​Tehran retains ⁠the capacity to carry out long-range strikes despite more than two weeks of pounding by U.S. and Israeli weapons.

The Israeli military said it was targeting “Iranian regime infrastructure” with a new wave of strikes ⁠across ​Tehran, as well as Hezbollah sites in Beirut, a day ​after saying it had drawn up detailed plans for at least three more weeks of war with Iran.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday his administration is talking to seven countries about helping to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, calling on them to help protect ships in the vital waterway that Tehran has mostly blocked to oil tanker traffic, Reuters reported.

With the conflict creating turmoil across the Middle East and shaking up global energy markets in its third week, Trump insisted that nations relying heavily on oil from the Gulf have a responsibility to protect the strait.

“I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because it is their territory,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way from Florida to Washington. “It’s the place from which they get their energy.”

Though he declined to identify the seven governments that his administration has contacted, Trump said this weekend that he expected many countries would send warships to allow shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20% of the world’s oil.

He said in a social media post he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would participate.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump ratcheted up pressure on European allies to help protect the strait, warning that NATO faces a “very bad” future if its members fail to come to Washington’s aid.

Trump also said ⁠Washington is in contact with Iran but expressed doubt that Tehran is prepared for serious negotiations to end the conflict.

U.S. officials responding to economic uncertainty over high oil prices predicted on Sunday that the war on Iran would end within weeks and that a drop in energy costs would follow, despite Iran’s assertion that it remains “stable and strong” and ready to defend itself, read the report.

Trump had threatened more strikes on Iran’s main oil export hub Kharg Island over the weekend and said he was not ready to reach a deal to end the war which has shut off the vital Strait of Hormuz.

The Trump administration plans to announce as early as this week that multiple countries have agreed to form a coalition to escort ships through the narrow waterway but they are still discussing whether those operations would begin before or after hostilities end, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

Trump offered few specifics about the kind of assistance he wanted from other countries to open up the strait, except to say some have minesweepers and “a certain type of boat that could help us.”

Asian markets were in a wary mood on Monday as the Gulf hostilities kept oil prices elevated. Brent rose 0.1% to $103.27 a barrel, while U.S. crude fell 0.7% to $97.99.

Trump, who on Friday said the U.S. Navy would “soon” start escorting oil tankers, has said previously that Iran wants to negotiate, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi earlier on Sunday disputed that claim.

“We have never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiations,” Araqchi told CBS’ “Face the ⁠Nation” program. “We are ready to defend ourselves for as long as it takes.”

With crude oil prices hovering around $100 a barrel, Trump administration officials insisted that all signs point to a relatively quick end to the conflict.

“This conflict will certainly come to the end in the next few weeks — could be sooner than that,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told ABC’s “This Week” program.

Trump on Sunday did not put a timeframe on concluding the war but said oil prices “are going to come tumbling down as soon as it’s over, and it’s going to be over pretty quick.”

But the U.S. president said he saw no reason to declare victory yet.

“I think I just say they’re decimated.” Trump told reporters. “If we left right now, it would take them 10 years or more to rebuild, but I’m still not declaring it over.”

Meanwhile, Araqchi sought to project an image of strength ⁠and resilience despite waves of U.S. and Israeli air strikes that have killed a number of Iranian leaders, sunk much of the Islamic Republic’s navy and devastated its missile arsenal, Reuters reported.

“It’s not a war of survival. We are stable and strong enough,” Araqchi told CBS. “We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us, and that was for the second time.”

Trump said on Saturday that U.S. strikes had “totally demolished” much of Kharg Island and warned of more, telling NBC News on Saturday, “We may hit ⁠it a few more times just for fun.”

The comments marked a sharp escalation from Trump, who had previously said the U.S. was targeting only military sites on Kharg, and dealt a blow to diplomatic efforts to end a war that has spread across the Middle East and killed more than 2,000 people, most in Iran and Lebanon.

With global air transport heavily disrupted and no clear end in sight, Iran’s ability to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied ⁠natural gas, has emerged as a decisive threat to the global economy.

Although some Iranian vessels have continued to pass and a few ships from other countries have successfully made the crossing, the passage has been effectively closed for most of the world’s tanker traffic since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 at the start of an intensive bombing campaign that has hit thousands of targets across the country.