WATCH Eid Celebrations Continue Across Iran Despite Conflict and Uncertainty Iran War News N18G

Celebration amid wartime. Iranians are marking the Persian New Year today, a 3,000-year-old festival that heralds the start of spring. And in the Muslim world, it is the start of Eid al-Fitr, a holiday that's three days marking the end of Ramadan. This is a live picture right now from Mecca. You can look at all of the people there gathering at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia to perform the Eid prayer. Scenes from Northern Iraq show residents buying nuts and dried fruits and shopping for clothes. But the holy day is marred by war across the region, with reports of new drone strikes from around the Gulf. Israeli sources confirm an Iranian ballistic missile struck an oil refinery in the Israeli port city of Haifa. So far, no injuries reported. Emergency teams are assessing the damage. President Trump is denying a Reuters report that he is considering plans to deploy thousands of U.S. troops to the Middle East. He also says a Pentagon request for $200 billion in additional funding for the war is a, quote, small price to pay. President Trump had this to say about the economic impact of the war, as oil prices surged to nearly $120 a barrel before falling back a bit. I saw what was happening in Iran, and I said, I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it. And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did. And I said, you know, if we do that, oil prices will go up. The economy will go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse, much worse, actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad. And it's going to be over with pretty soon. Israel's prime minister says he will hold off on attacks on Iran's gas fields after requests from President Trump. Benjamin Netanyahu insists Israel acted alone in striking the South Paris facility on Wednesday. South Paris facility, I should say, despite reports from U.S. and Israeli sources that Israel coordinated the attack with the U.S. The prime minister also says he is not sure who is running Iran after a number of its top leaders have been killed. CNN's Jeremy Dimon asked about the situation during a news conference Thursday. The Iranian regime is not showing any signs of collapse as of now. So I wonder what do you say to those who say that killing those individuals is in fact empowering the hardliners in Iran? And are you confident that your strategy will still lead to regime change? What we see is that there is a lot of tensions inside the the people who are edging for the top. And I think it's important that they know that if they think they're going to target the world, target the president of the United States and so on, they themselves are being targeted. That creates a lot of uncertainty. I think the authority and the hold that Khomeini has had is not going to be translated to anyone. Not to Mujtaba, if he's there, and not to anyone else. We go live now to Abu Dhabi, where Mina al-Arabi, editor in chief of The National, joins us now. Welcome to The Story Is for the first time. Thank you for having me. So we just saw those dramatic live pictures from Saudi Arabia. What is the significance of this holiday happening while there's war in the Middle East? Unfortunately, Eid al-Fitr has passed in the wider region with war in different years, particularly in Palestine and Lebanon in previous years. But this year, of course, is the first time that the Gulf is celebrating Eid, going through this war. Of course, there are those in Iran, in Iraq, in Lebanon, also in incredibly uncertain and volatile times in Eid. Eid is a time for people to come together, communities to come together, but also to count their blessings. And here in the Gulf, there is really a sense of, of course, sadness at the fact that this war has been imposed on the Gulf, with Iran attacking the Gulf, despite the Gulf countries doing every diplomatic effort to avoid this war. But there's also a sense of coming together in resilience. Eid prayers have been happening. People have gone to the mosques to conduct their prayers. The message from UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed was one of hope, saying that we will overcome these times. And so it is, there is definitely a long shadow of war that's been cast here. There's also a sense of resilience and also people coming together. Eid al-Fitr, of course, marks the end of Ramadan, 30 days of fasting, where many a time people were breaking their fast as the alerts of sirens that come through the phone telling people to shelter away from missiles. It's been an exceptional year. Yeah. And maybe we can take this picture full. This is a live picture from Beirut that we are looking at right now as well. So there are celebrations going on throughout the Middle East, as we just looked at those live pictures from Saudi Arabia as well.