Iran’s war with Israel has spread across the Gulf and hit key energy sites, raising fresh fears about global oil supplies. On Friday, Kuwait said Iranian drones struck the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery in two waves and sparked a fire. Dubai reported heavy explosions as air defenses intercept incoming fire. Bahrain says shrapnel from an intercepted projectile set a warehouse ablaze. Saudi Arabia reported shooting down drones. Israel says it started new strikes on Iran, and people in Israel heard sirens. Residents of Tehran reported explosions during Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Oil prices surged, and Iran tightened pressure on shipping through Hormuz.
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The spokesman for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted Friday that Tehran was still building missiles. Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini also said the war would go on. A short time later, Naeini was killed in an airstrike. Israel hit the Iranian capital Tehran with airstrikes Friday. The attack comes as as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year. The war persists in drawing Iran’s Arab neighbors directly into the conflict. Heavy explosions shook Dubai while residents observe Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Bahrain reported a fire erupted Friday after shrapnel fell on a warehouse in the island kingdom, while Kuwait said it worked to intercept incoming Iranian fire.
With U.S.-brokered Ukraine peace talks on hold due to the war in the Middle East, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to try to expand his military gains via new offensives against his southern neighbor that will put even more pressure on Kyiv. Windfall revenues from surging global oil prices are filling Moscow’s war coffers and U.S. air defense assets are being drained quickly by Iranian attacks across the Gulf, leaving little available for Ukraine in the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Ukraine’s European allies have promised to maintain their steadfast support, but bickering over a major 90 billion euro ($106 billion) EU loan to cover Kyiv’s military and economic needs for two years has reflected the mounting challenges.
AP Wire
Israel has pounded Tehran with airstrikes as Iranians mark Nowruz, or the Persian New Year. The attacks Friday came a day after Israel pledged to refrain from more strikes on a key Iranian gas field after Iran intensified its attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that, at the request of President Donald Trump, Israel will hold off on any further attacks on Iran’s South Pars gas field. In retaliation, Tehran has targeted energy production, further stressing global supplies already under pressure because of Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. That’s a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Iran intensified its attacks on Gulf oil and gas infrastructure Thursday in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, dramatically raising the stakes in a war that's sending shock waves through the global economy. Fuel prices soared around the world. U.S. President Donald Trump warned that if Iran continues striking its neighbors’ energy infrastructure, the U.S. would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of its gas field. A senior administration official told the Associated Press that the Pentagon asked the White House for another $200 billion as the war shows no signs of ending soon.
President Donald Trump faces the most daunting question of the Iran war: Will he put U.S. troops on the ground to secure the enriched uranium Tehran could use for nuclear weapons? Trump has offered shifting justifications for launching the war but has been consistent in articulating a primary objective in joining Israel in it is ensuring Iran will “never have a nuclear weapon.” However, the Republican president has been more circumspect about whether he's willing to send troops into Iran to seize or dilute its enriched uranium. Iran's foreign minister told CBS that Iran offered to dilute the enriched uranium stockpile during talks with Trump’s negotiators before the war began.
Lebanon's health ministry says over 1,000 people have been killed in war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Pentagon seeks $200 billion in additional funds for the Iran war, AP source says.
U.S. President Donald Trump pledged Israel would make no more attacks on Iran’s major South Pars gas field, but if Iran attacked Qatar again the U.S. would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field. An AP source says the U.S. was informed of Israel’s strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field but did not take part. U.S. and Israeli strikes are taking place across Iran on Wednesday while Israeli forces are attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon, displacing over a million people. Iran has targeted Gulf energy facilities and made the Strait of Hormuz nearly impassable. Oil jumped more than 5% to above $108 a barrel.
AP Wire
Iran has broadened its strikes on major energy facilities in the Middle East, eliciting strong warnings from Gulf Arab states that called it a dangerous escalation that threatened to draw them into direct combat with Tehran. The strikes come after Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister and reportedly attacked the world’s largest natural gas field in Iran. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all denounced the Iranian attacks targeting their natural gas fields. Global prices surged after the attacks.