Israel returns fire after Iran missile attack...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Israel launched airstrikes early Monday targeting central and western Iran in response to missile fire from Tehran, attacks that threatened to drag the wider Middle East back into a regional war. Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions being heard in Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran, without immediately elaborating. A witness in Tehran described hearing at least one large blast somewhere to the west of the country's capital city. Iran closed the airspace around Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country's main airfield, after the Israeli attack. Iranian officials offered no details on what had been struck, nor any damage information. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attack Monday morning, without elaborating. At dawn in Iran, the Israeli military issued a short statement as the strikes started: "A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran." It did not elaborate. The White House did not respond to messages about the strikes and whether they were done in coordination with the U.S. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia sounded missile alert sirens Monday morning in an area home to an air base that hosts U.S. forces. Saudi state media reported the alert around its Al Kharj governorate, home to Prince Sultan Air Base. The alert came after Israel's strikes on Iran. Saudi Arabia shortly after said the missile danger in the area had passed, without elaborating. For days, negotiations between Iran and the United States over the fragile ceasefire in the war had been stalled by the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. Israel now occupies southern Lebanon and had moved into areas of the country it hadn't held in a quarter-century -- leading to fears about them further widening their campaign. On Sunday, Israel launched airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs. Iran retaliated with its own strike on Israel, which led to Monday morning's attack by Israel on Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump earlier told a Fox News Channel reporter that he wanted the Iranians to stop firing missiles and return to the negotiating table. He also said that Israel's strikes in Lebanon earlier Sunday were not coordinated with the U.S. and "I'm not happy about it." A senior U.S. official said Trump had called Netanyahu to urge him not to retaliate immediately for the Iranian missile attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private phone call, said that Trump believed he had convinced Netanyahu to wait. Trump "got Bibi to hold off for the time being," the official said. The official would not offer any other details of the call, and there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office. Iran had warned that an attack on Beirut would renew full-scale war across the Mideast, even as Pakistan and other mediators try to restart talks between Tehran and Washington. "U.S. forces across the Middle East remain vigilant and ready," the U.S. Central Command posted on X shortly before the missile launches. The U.S. Embassy in Israel later directed employees and family members to shelter in place. Israel's attack on Beirut came a few days after the Lebanese and Israeli governments agreed to a ceasefire in U.S.-hosted talks, though Hezbollah rejected the deal. The strike on a residential building killed two people and wounded 20, Lebanon's health ministry said. "The army will continue to act in all of Lebanon," the Israel military spokesperson said. Israel's strikes and ground invasion in Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah, and the militant group's resistance to disarming, have complicated an overall deal to end the war in the Middle East. Iran says any deal must include an end to fighting in Lebanon. Israel last week had announced it would strike the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital, but urgent talks via Washington halted that on the condition that Hezbollah stop targeting Israeli border towns. Hezbollah, which claimed responsibility for firing at Israel earlier Sunday, wants the direct talks between Lebanon and Israel to end. Instead, it supports Iran's stance that an overall ceasefire deal between Tehran and Washington include the situation in Lebanon. Netanyahu, who seeks reelection later this year, is under heavy domestic pressure to respond to both Iran and the Hezbollah threat, which has paralyzed life for thousands of residents along Israel's northern border. But Trump has made clear he does not want to see the war resume. Trump said earlier Sunday in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that he would like to see a "more surgical attack on Hezbollah." He also said he was "not demanding" that Lebanon be part of an overall ceasefire deal in the Iran war. Iran continues to assert its grip on the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. continues its blockade of Iranian ports, with shipments of oil, natural gas and fertilizer affected and the global economy in pain. Since the ceasefire took effect, Iran has launched missiles and drones at Gulf nations and said it was targeting the U.S. military presence. After its launches against Israel, Iraq's Civil Aviation Authority announced that the country's airspace would close for 72 hours and Syria's aviation authority announced a 12-hour airspace closure. All flights from Tehran's main international airport were suspended, the civil aviation authority said, according to the official Mizan news agency. Pakistan's interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, was in Tehran on Sunday delivering a message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei from Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. There were no details on the message's contents. Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named the Islamic Republic's ruler after his father was killed on Feb. 28 as Israeli and U.S. strikes sparked the war. Information for this article was contributed by Hassan Ammar, Munir Ahmed, Matthew Lee, Abby Sewell, Michelle L. Price and Jon Gambrell of The Associated Press.