US President Donald Trump has threatened to order strikes on Iran’s main oil export hub on Kharg Island unless Tehran halts attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, raising fears of a deeper shock to global energy supplies. His warning came as markets closely monitored whether recent US strikes had damaged the island’s critical infrastructure, which handles most of Iran’s crude exports.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it has “executed a large-scale precision strike” on the island, targeting military facilities “while preserving the oil infrastructure.”
Iran has insisted the installations on the island had not sustained heavy damage, while the country’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it maintains “full and precise control” over the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC also threatened retaliation against American “hideouts” in the Gulf states.
The escalation follows new reports by Iranian media claiming that a US oil tanker was attacked and set on fire near Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
Here are the latest developments as RT continues to bring you up to date:
- Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it has carried out additional strikes on Israel in coordination with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, according to Iranian media. A number of countries across the Gulf reported intercepting aerial strikes from Iran overnight, including Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Israel also reported coming under fire and intercepting rockets and missiles.
- Iraqi officials said a missile hit a helipad at the US Embassy in Baghdad, while pro-Iranian sources claimed a kamikaze drone attack damaged an air-defense radar system.
- The Israeli military said its air force struck more than 200 targets across western and central Iran over the past 24 hours, including missile launchers, air‑defense systems and weapons production sites.
- The US has deployed about 10,000 AI‑enabled Merops interceptor drones to the Middle East to help counter Iranian aerial attacks, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Bloomberg. The systems were developed under a Pentagon program and were previously tested in Ukraine.
- The US military confirmed that all six crew members aboard a refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq were killed.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that five US Air Force tanker aircraft at a base in Saudi Arabia were damaged in an Iranian missile strike and were undergoing repairs.
- European powers led by France have been reportedly consulting partners in the Middle East and Asia about a possible naval mission to escort commercial tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump also said on Friday that the US Navy would “soon” begin escorting commercial vessels through the waterway to help ensure safe passage, without giving details on timing or conditions.
Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.
14 March 2026
The US-Israeli attack on the industrial city of Isfahan in central Iran has left 15 people dead and several others injured, according to local media.
Further details about the target and casualties were not immediately available.
Countries around the world are preparing contingency economic plans as oil prices surge amid US-Israeli strikes affecting energy supply routes, Yaroslav Lissovolik, the founder of BRICS-plus Analytics and Russian International Affairs Council member has told RT. The disruption has raised fears of inflation, slower economic growth, and possible recession in several regions.
Europe and parts of Asia are also facing rising energy costs, which could threaten economic recovery after recent downturns.
Crude briefly topped $110 a barrel this month, the highest level since the pandemic.
”It shows that conflicts like this undermine the status quo, also regarding [the] dollar[…]. This is something that could lead to yet another impulse to the process of lower use of the dollar and greater use of national currencies amongst the developing economies,” Lissovolik added.
Israel's military has warned that it could attack civilian trucks on Lebanon’s coast.
The coastal highway serves as Lebanon’s primary transport artery, which raises concerns that these warnings could impede movement and potentially discourage civilians from traveling or evacuating areas impacted by Israeli bombardment.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee claimed Hezbollah is disguising missile launches and transporting weapons using civilian trucks moving through towns along Lebanon’s coast.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has visited Lebanon, meeting people displaced amid the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as inspecting hospitals. Guterres said the situation in the country left him “deeply saddened.”
“The south [of Lebanon] risks becoming a wasteland. Southern Beirut, which is under sweeping evacuation orders by Israel, risks being bombed to oblivion,” Guterres told a news conference in Beirut.
The country’s people “were dragged” into the war rather than choosing it, he added, urging the warring sides to stop the fighting and opt for diplomacy instead. “Civilians must be respected and protected at all times. Lebanon’s sovereignty and territory must be respected,” he stressed.
More than 820 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since March 2, according to the country’s health authorities.
US President Donald Trump has urged other nations to deploy warships to the Strait of Hormuz to protect the shipping from Iranian strikes. Previously, the US leadership had signaled intent to “escort” merchant vessels through the waterway, yet the scheme never materialized. Washington has also encouraged them to brave the waters despite the risk of attack.
“We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated,” he added.
The US-Israeli attack on Iran is bound to have grave environmental consequences for decades to come, Bloomberg has reported, citing multiple experts. Damage to oil infrastructure and assorted contaminants released by munitions used by all the sides of the conflict have already caused heavy toxic pollution that will plague the region for years and spread beyond it, creating health hazards for millions of people, the experts warned.
Some drew parallels between the ongoing hostilities and the Gulf War, when hundreds of oil wells were set ablaze in Kuwait by the Iraqi and US forces. The massive release of soot, hydrocarbons, and sulfur dioxide polluted everything in its path, causing long-term impact on the environment – for instance, some researchers linked the oil well fires to the acceleration of the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, the experts pointed out.
US President Donald Trump has denied media reports of damage sustained by five US Air Force tanker aircraft at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The alleged incident was first reported by the Wall Street Journal citing two unnamed US officials, who claimed the planes were “damaged but not fully destroyed.”
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to launch a rant at “fake news media” while implicitly acknowledging the attack had actually taken place.
“The planes were not ‘struck’ or ‘destroyed.’ Four of the five had virtually no damage, and are already back in service. One had slightly more damage, but will be in the air shortly. None were destroyed, or close to that, as the Fake News said in headlines,” the US president wrote.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claims to have destroyed Iran’s “primary space research center” in overnight strikes on the country. The Israeli military said it has also attacked several anti-aircraft defense systems production sites, including a “ key factory” manufacturing such weaponry.
The Palestinian group Hamas has urged its “brothers in Iran” to end attacks on Gulf states while affirming Tehran’s right to defend itself against Israel and the US in the war they launched.
Hamas controls Gaza, and following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the IDF targeted the enclave in an attempt to eliminate the militant group, resulting in over 72,000 deaths and the reduction of most of it to rubble. The Gulf nations, particularly Qatar, later stepped in to provide mediation, diplomacy and aid.
Since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran on February 28, several Gulf states in the region have reported Iranian missile and drone attacks. Among them is Qatar, where Hamas' political leadership resides.
According to media reports, Doha is one of the key Hamas sponsors: Qatar has pumped an estimated $1.8 billion into Gaza since Hamas’ takeover of the strip in 2007. Qatar also pledged $360 million of annual support to Gaza in January 2021, in part to subsidize government salaries.
“While affirming the right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respond to this aggression by all available means in accordance with international norms and laws, the movement calls on the brothers in Iran to avoid targeting neighboring countries,” Hamas said in a statement.
The US Central Command has released aerial footage of the strikes on Iranian military installations on the Kharg Island. CENTCOM said the attacks destroyed “naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites.” Iran has disputed the claims, insisting the installations had not been critically damaged.
Iran has targeted the UAE Consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan for the second time in a week, Abu Dhabi has claimed. The Emirates “strongly condemned the treacherous drone attack,” adding that two security personnel were injured and that the consulate building was damaged.
In a statement, the UAE Foreign Ministry said the attack represents “a dangerous escalation and a threat to regional security and stability.”
This is how many people have been killed since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28:
Iran: 1,444 killed
Lebanon: 773 killed
Israel: 14 killed
US forces: 11 killed
United Arab Emirates: Six killed
Bahrain: Two killed
Saudi Arabia: Two killed
Kuwait: Six killed
Oman: Three killed
Iraq: 26 killed
At least one person was killed and four others wounded in an Israeli air strike east of Beirut, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said. The overall death toll from Israeli strikes in Lebanon has risen to over 700, including over 100 children, according to the Lebanese authorities.
At least six civilians, including a six-month-old baby, were killed in a drone strike on a residential building in the western Iranian province of Ilam early on Saturday, Iranian provincial officials said.
The attack in the town of Ivan left at least 31 people wounded and caused extensive damage to nearby homes following a “massive explosion,” Tajuddin Salehiyan, a provincial security official, said.
More than 16,000 people have been injured and over 1,400 civilians killed in Iran since US-Israeli strikes began on February 28, according to Iranian health authorities and officials.
Ukraine’s drone support for Israel will mean Kiev has effectively become involved in the conflict, the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission head, Ebrahim Azizi, has said on X, warning that its entire territory could be viewed by Tehran as a legitimate target under the UN Charter.
US forces carried out a large-scale precision strike on Iran’s Kharg Island overnight, destroying naval mine storage facilities, missile bunkers, and other military sites, US Central Command said in an X post on Saturday. The command said more than 90 Iranian military targets were successfully hit during the operation. CENTCOM added that the strikes deliberately avoided oil infrastructure on the island, which handles the bulk of Iran’s crude exports.
Trump had earlier said US forces had “totally obliterated every military target” on the island while leaving oil facilities intact, warning that he could reconsider that decision if Iran or others interfere with the “free and safe passage” of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian officials earlier said that despite the attack, operations by oil companies at the key export terminal were proceeding normally.
Iranian naval forces have launched “several consecutive waves” of attacks against US forces at three military bases in the region, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, said in a post on X. He named the targets as al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Isa Base in Bahrain.
Tangsiri said Patriot radar systems, control towers, aircraft hangars, central ramps and aircraft fuel storage tanks were among the targets allegedly hit and set ablaze, he said, describing the strikes as a decisive response by Iranian forces.
Opponents of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran took to the streets of New York on Friday to mark Al-Quds Day, an annual show of solidarity with Palestinians observed across the Muslim world.
Demonstrators condemned the wars against Gaza and Iran and warned against further escalation, while a smaller group of pro-Israel counter-protesters gathered nearby, as RT’s Caleb Maupin reports.
Former Pentagon analyst Michael Maloof has blasted Washington for launching a “preemptive strike” without showing any evidence that Tehran was preparing to attack. Iran’s leadership was “not hiding,” Maloof told RT, praising the Iranian public for showing “defiance” and “determination” despite the bombardment.
Maloof also warned that the reported deployment of an expeditionary unit of 5,000 Marines and sailors to the Middle East could point to possible land operations, saying the move “adds more fuel to the fire of concern” at a time when the White House has offered “no explanation to the American people whatsoever.”
He further suggested that Washington had underestimated both Iran’s readiness and its capacity to escalate, claiming the country had been preparing for such a confrontation “since 2008” and still possesses resources “buried very, very deep” beyond the reach of US munitions.
“Everything must be done to prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement posted on X on Saturday, urging Hezbollah to “immediately stop its reckless escalation” and calling on Israel to abandon a “large-scale offensive” and halt “massive strikes.”
He added that Lebanon’s leadership had expressed readiness for “direct discussions with Israel,” and that France was prepared to facilitate talks in Paris. Macron stressed that Israel should “seize this opportunity” to launch negotiations and a ceasefire aimed at securing a lasting solution and supporting Lebanese sovereignty.
A cultural and educational center, which also housed a kindergarten, was hit in what Iranian media described as Israeli-American strikes in the Shahr-e-Rey area south of Tehran on Saturday.
Footage by Iran’s state television showed damage at the site following the attack.
Iran considers it has a right to target the origins of US missile launches located in several cities in the United Arab Emirates, Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari has said.
He said the US military, after suffering losses and the destruction of its regional bases, had begun launching missiles from ports, docks and hideouts within Emirati cities against Iran’s Abu Musa Island and parts of Kharg Island. He warned the UAE leadership that Tehran would view strikes on such sites as acts of self-defense to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He also urged residents of the UAE to evacuate areas near ports, docks, and what he described as American hideouts in order to avoid harm during potential Iranian retaliatory strikes.
The situation appears calm at the US Embassy in Baghdad after what Iraqi officials said was a missile attack that struck a helipad on the compound.
Israeli police have prevented filming at the scene of an Iranian missile strike, footage circulated by an IRGC-affiliated Telegram channel appeared to show.
Donald Trump has shared a meme on Truth Social contrasting his Iran policy with that of Barack Obama.
A warehouse in the western Iranian city of Hamedan storing medicine for special-needs patients and infant formula was destroyed following missile strikes by the US and Israel, Fars news agency reported. Footage shared by the outlet purportedly showed the facility burned and reduced to rubble.
Humanity is “under attack” along with Iran’s cultural legacy, Hassan Fartousi, secretary general of Iran’s National Commission for UNESCO, has told RT, warning that several cultural heritage sites, including UNESCO-listed locations, have been hit during the US-Israeli bombing campaign.
Some sites have suffered damage of up to 40%, he said citing reports, and singling out the Golestan Palace in Tehran, as well as locations in Isfahan, Sanandaj, Khorramabad and Kermanshah. “It’s not about the buildings or architectures. It’s about the humanity,” Fartousi said, “humanity and the civilization is under attack.”
Former Japan international player Keisuke Honda said a US company withdrew from an advertising deal after he voiced support for Iran’s participation in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, criticizing the decision as politically motivated.
US President Donald Trump earlier sent mixed signals about Iran’s presence at the tournament, first saying the team was welcome, then warning it might be “not appropriate” for them to attend for their own safety amid the conflict.
Iranian officials have meanwhile indicated that the country could refuse to take part altogether. Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali said participation was impossible under current conditions following US-Israeli attacks, while FIFA has yet to confirm any final decision.
Iran expects the war to end only after receiving reparations from the United States and after American forces withdraw from the Persian Gulf countries, Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a former IRGC commander, said in remarks aired by Iranian SNNTV on Saturday, adding that Tehran sees both steps as necessary to secure “100% guarantees” for future regional security.
Recent cuts to the Pentagon’s harm mitigation units could weaken safeguards designed to prevent civilian casualties and undermine the credibility of military investigations, attorney and adjunct law professor Mariam Atash has warned.
Speaking to RT, she questioned whether efforts to streamline legal oversight were truly about efficiency or about removing constraints on the use of force, cautioning that eliminating such checks could set a “dangerous precedent.” She added that reducing accountability mechanisms risks harming US alliances and operational effectiveness, asking whether reforms would make strikes more efficient “for dropping more bombs” and creating more enemies in the future.
Her remarks come as scrutiny continues over last month’s missile strike on a girls’ elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab that left around 170 children and staff dead, prompting calls from rights groups and officials for a transparent investigation. Critics say recent personnel reductions in Pentagon civilian-protection units could make it harder to conduct credible probes into such incidents.
Bahrain’s air-defense systems have shot down more than 200 drones and 124 missiles launched from Iran over the past two weeks, the kingdom’s defense forces have said.
A residential area in the central Iranian city of Arak was reportedly damaged in US–Israeli airstrikes early Saturday morning, the local state broadcaster Press TV has said, sharing footage of smoke rising from the site.
The death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanon earlier on Saturday has risen to five, RT’s correspondent in Beirut Joelle Maroun has reported.
Hundreds of people have been killed in Lebanon during the latest round of Israeli strikes linked to the widening regional conflict with Iran, with Lebanese authorities putting the death toll at around 700 and humanitarian agencies warning of a deepening crisis.
Israeli bombardment has displaced more than 800,000 people and damaged large parts of southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to United Nations and aid-group assessments, as cross-border fighting with Hezbollah intensifies.
More than 52,000 flights linked to the Middle East have been cancelled since the start of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, affecting over six million passengers, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
The company said the cancellations were recorded between February 28 and mid-March out of roughly 98,000 scheduled services, as missile threats, airspace closures and airport disruptions forced airlines to suspend operations across key regional hubs.
An explosion damaged a Jewish school in Amsterdam early on Saturday, Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing local authorities.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said she believed the incident was a deliberate attack targeting the Jewish community, although the blast caused only limited damage and there were no immediate reports of injuries.
A fire broke out at the Fujairah oil port in the United Arab Emirates following a reported missile attack, Iran’s Press TV said, citing footage from the scene.
An American tanker caught fire after an attack off the coast of Sharjah, UAE near the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian broadcaster Press TV reported, publishing footage of the incident.
Trump has said the US does not need Ukraine’s assistance in strengthening anti-drone defenses amid ongoing hostilities in the Middle East. Speaking in an interview with Fox News aired on Friday, Trump replied “no” when asked whether Kiev was helping counter aerial threats, adding that American forces “know more about drones than anybody” and possess “the best drones in the world.”
His remarks appeared to dismiss earlier claims by Zelensky that they could share battlefield experience in countering Iranian-designed strike drones. The Ukrainian leader had previously said Kiev agreed to a US request to help protect American military bases in Jordan.
The US has deployed about 10,000 AI-enabled Merops interceptor drones to the Middle East to help counter Iranian aerial attacks, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Bloomberg. The systems were developed under a Pentagon program and previously tested in Ukraine before being transferred to the region following the start of the latest hostilities.
Washington plans to use the drones as a lower-cost layer of air defense in order to avoid fielding expensive missile interceptors such as Patriot systems while responding to waves of rockets, missiles and drones, the report said.
Iranian missiles struck parts of northern Israel on Saturday, triggering fires in the port city of Haifa and air-raid sirens across several areas, media and officials in Tehran have said. The projectiles reportedly hit locations including the Naqab region and the Al-Matla area, causing damage, while emergency alerts were activated amid a fresh wave of attacks.
Israel’s Home Front Command said warning sirens sounded in the western Galilee community of Shtula over fears of drone infiltration. Lebanon’s Hezbollah group also launched strikes toward the Israeli city of Safed during the barrage, according to regional media reports.
Several Gulf states reported intercepting Iranian aerial threats overnight, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has released a statement on the situation at Kharg Island following US airstrikes, dismissing President Donald Trump’s claims of the complete destruction of the island’s defense systems.
The US forces targeted around 15 locations, including the Iranian army’s air defense positions, the Joshen Naval Base, the airport watchtower, and a helicopter pad, the IRGC has confirmed, but claimed that the island’s defenses resumed operation within an hour.
The IRGC also emphasized that none of the oil infrastructure on Kharg Island – which handles approximately 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports – was damaged in the attacks. The statement reiterated Tehran’s prior warning about the consequences of any strike on the country’s energy infrastructure.
“If Iran’s energy infrastructure is attacked, all oil and gas infrastructure in the region in which the United States and its allies have interests will be set on fire and destroyed,” the IRGC said.
The IRGC has shared new footage of its strikes against the US and Israeli positions, showing a swarm of Shahed-136 drones taking off from an undisclosed airfield.
Iraqi officials told AP that a helipad at the US embassy in Baghdad was hit by a missile, with new videos showing one of the complex’s towers on fire. Meanwhile local pro-Iranian sources claimed that an air defense radar system was damaged in a kamikaze drone attack.
Iranian air defenses reportedly shot down yet another US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the strategic port city of Bandar Abbas at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Press TV. US officials previously confirmed that 11 Reapers, each estimated at over $30 million, have been lost during bombing raids against Iran so far.
The US Embassy in Iraq has reportedly been targeted by a drone strike, with Iranian and local media circulating videos that appear to show smoke rising from the diplomatic compound in the Green Zone of Baghdad.
President Trump has shared a declassified combat video allegedly showing US bombing raids against “military targets” on Kharg Island that he called the “crown jewel” of Iranian oil production.
At least 15 large explosions rocked Kharg Island following US airstrikes earlier in the day, with thick smoke seen rising from Iran’s key oil hub, Press TV reports. Neither Tehran nor Washington has yet confirmed the scope of the damage, after President Trump insisted he ordered the Department of War to target only “military infrastructure” but spare oil facilities for now.
President Trump has reiterated his claim that the US military campaign against Iran is “way ahead of schedule” but refused to offer any specific timeline for ending the war.
“I mean, I have my own idea, but what good does it do?” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews , before adding that the war will go on for “as long as it’s necessary.”
Asked to explain what kind of “unconditional surrender” he expected from Tehran, Trump told journalists it would meann “very simply that we are in a position of dominance that nobody has ever seen before."
Tehran has threatened to turn all US-linked oil infrastructure across the Middle East into a “pile of ashes” if its own facilities come under attack.
“All the oil and energy infrastructure belonging to oil companies across the region that have American shares or cooperate with the United States will be destroyed and turned into a pile of ashes,” a spokesperson for the Central Headquarters of Khatam al-Anbiya said in a statement appearing to directly respond to President Donald Trump’s claims about a US bombing raid on Iran’s Kharg Island.
Trump previously claimed he spared Iran’s main oil hub, which handles approximately 90% of the country’s oil exports, during the “most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East.” But he threatened to “immediately reconsider this decision” if Iran or anyone else were to block the flow of oil through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia’s air defenses have intercepted at least 7 drones that breached the country’s airspace over the past two hours, according to the Defence Ministry.
The IDF has once again urged Israelis to seek shelter after detecting more missile launches from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps previously shared a video of its forces launching heavy ballistic missiles “at specified targets in the occupied territories,” referring to Israel.
Five more US Air Force refueling planes were “damaged but not fully destroyed” in an Iranian missile attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing two unnamed US officials. The attack, not yet acknowledged by the Pentagon, allegedly happened in recent days, and the aircraft are reportedly being repaired.
The Department of War previously confirmed that six US airmen were killed in an unexplained crash of a KC-135 Stratotanker in “friendly airspace” over western Iraq, while another refueler was damaged but managed to land safely in Tel Aviv. Officials insist the loss of the aircraft was not the result of “hostile or friendly fire.”
13 March 2026
The Pentagon has yet to unveil which targets were hit or which assets were used in the bombing raid on Iran’s Kharg Island. However, earlier on Friday, CENTCOM shared a video of B-2 stealth bombers taking off to eliminate the Iranian “threat” and the country’s “ability to rebuild in the future.”
The US has conducted a bombing raid on Iran’s “crown jewel,” Kharg Island, which handles 90% of the country’s oil exports, President Donald Trump announced in a new post on Truth Social.
“Moments ago, at my direction, the United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island,” Trump wrote.
The US president claimed that he has chosen not to wipe out Iran’s oil infrastructure on the island “for reasons of decency” – as Brent futures spiked above $103 on Friday. Washington has been struggling to cushion the global economic impact of the war by releasing crude oil from strategic reserves and even temporarily lifting sanctions on Russia.
“However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision,” he stated.
The Nepalese consulate in Beirut has condemned the Israeli attack on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) outpost hosting a Nepalese battalion, calling it a serious breach of international law.
“The Nepalese soldiers participating in UNIFIL have served for many years with a spirit of commitment and discipline to promote peace and stability in southern Lebanon,” the consulate said. It is unclear if anyone was injured or killed.
At least 13 civilians, including children, were killed by Israeli attacks across Lebanon on Friday evening, according to local health officials.
The death toll over the past two weeks has risen to more than 773 people, including over 100 children, and nearly 2,000 injured.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said one of the strikes hit an emergency point operated by the Islamic Health Authority and the Islamic Risala Scouts, killing two rescuers and wounding at least five others. The state-run National News Agency said another six people, including a young girl, were killed when Israeli warplanes struck a house in the city of Nabatieh. Three more people were killed in the border city of Bint Jbeil , while two children were killed in the coastal town of Ghazieh.
Tehran is allegedly considering allowing oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz if their cargo is traded in Chinese yuan, rather than US dollars, an unnamed senior Iranian official told CNN.
Responding to a question from an RT India correspondent earlier on Friday, Iran’s ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, highlighted converging interests between the two countries and when asked directly whether India would receive safe passage through the strait, he replied: “Yes, because India is our friend.”
The United States has been aggressively defending the petrodollar system, utilizing a combination of financial sanctions and military-backed pressure since its establishment in the 1970s. President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused BRICS nations of seeking to undermine the US dollar’s dominance in global trade. Moscow argues Washington itself undermined its currency by using it as a weapon, while Russia and its partners were merely forced to seek alternatives.
At least six Iranian civilians have been killed and seven others injured in a suspected Israeli attack on a village in the central Markazi province, according to Fars news.
Qatar has ordered evacuations from “a number of specified areas as a temporary precautionary measure, in the interest of public safety until the threat has subsided.”
The Interior Ministry has urged everyone to “rely on official sources for information and to adhere to the issued instructions” – but did not immediately provide any specifics or a list of affected areas.
Israeli shells reportedly hit a United Nations peacekeeping base near the border village of Mays al-Jabal in southern Lebanon, landing inside the Nepalese battalion’s compound, according to state-run National News Agency.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or comments from UNIFIL, Nepal, or Israel.
Earlier this week, Ghana urged the international community to condemn another missile attack that injured four of its soldiers serving with the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.
Ghana’s foreign minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, described last Friday’s bombing as “an attack on multilateralism” and “every principle that the UN Charter exists to defend.”
Sirens have blared in Tel Aviv as the Home Front Command instructed residents to seek shelter in a protected space and remain there until further notice. The IDF said it detected several missile launches from Iran – hours after Israel announced a new wave of strikes against Tehran.
“Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the IDF said.
The Pentagon has approved sending a Marine expeditionary unit and additional warships to the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported citing three unnamed US officials. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has approved a request from US Central Command for the additional assets, including the amphibious assault-ready expeditionary unit, which typically consists of some 5,000 Marines and sailors.
European countries thought they would get more support for Ukraine by backing the war against Iran, but instead, the conflict resulted in sanction relief for Russian oil imports, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.
Except for Spain and a few other nations, European countries and the European Union condemned the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which legal scholars have deemed unlawful, by criticizing the Iranian government.
”Europe thought backing illegal war on Iran would win US support against Russia,” Araghchi wrote in a post on X. “Pathetic.”