Iran War News Highlights: Trump says he wants to ‘take the oil’ in Iran, suggests targeting Kharg Island

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said a peacekeeper was killed when a projectile exploded at one of its positions near the southern Lebanese village of Adchit al-Qusayr on Sunday.

Another peacekeeper was critically injured, it said in a statement early on Monday.

Indonesia's foreign ministry said on Monday the deceased peacekeeper was one of its citizens and that three others were injured by ⁠indirect ​artillery fire in the vicinity of the Indonesian UNIFIL contingent's position near Adchit al-Qusayr.

"We do not know the origin of the projectile. We have launched an investigation to determine all of the circumstances," UNIFIL said.

A tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia has arrived at an oil refinery in Japan, according to the NHK national broadcaster, as the ongoing US-Israeli attack on Iran continues to raise concerns about crude oil supplies.

The tanker was carrying about 100,000,000 liters (628,981 barrels) of crude oil, and arrived at a petroleum wholesaler’s refinery in Ehime Prefecture’s Imabari City on Sunday, the report said.

The US president was also asked about an Iranian plan to charge toll fees through the Strait of Hormuz.

He said “I’d have to find out if that is true” but the US could shut that operation down vert fast.

“We could close that up in two minutes. We could close that up so fast, your head would spin,” he said.

Read the full copy here.

Kuwait’s Ministry of ⁠Electricity and Water has said an⁠ ⁠Indian worker was killed in ⁠an Iranian attack on ⁠a power and water desalination plant ‌in the country.

The attack also damaged a service building at the ⁠facility, it said in a social media post.

The markets have just opened in Asia and the oil price has climbed to over $115 a barrel. The price of Brent crude is $115.84, a 2.9% increase.

Oil was trading at around $72 a barrel before 28 February, when the US and Israeli strikes on Iran began.

Last week it peaked at $118 a barrel on 19 March and as of Friday afternoon was sitting at just below $112 - significantly up from its pre-war price.

The US embassy in Baghdad is warning that Iran and its allies may target American universities in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah and Dohuk as well as other universities perceived to be connected to the US.

"Iran has specifically directed threats toward American universities across various parts of the Middle East," the embassy says.

"Iran-aligned terrorist militias have carried out widespread attacks on American citizens and US-associated targets throughout Iraq, including in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region," the embassy says, adding that Americans need to leave Iraq immediately.

The Israeli military says its air force has intercepted two drones launched from Yemen in the past hour.

As our correspondent just mentioned, countries in the Gulf are keen to have a say in any future peace talks in the Middle East.

Today, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia will join his Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish counterparts in Islamabad for talks aimed at trying to de-escalate tensions in the region.

The talks are expected to take place on Sunday and Monday. -BBC

The Fars news agency is reporting that five people were killed and four others wounded in a US-Israeli attack on a pier in the city of Bandar e Khamir in the province of Hormozgan.

It said two vessels and a vehicle were hit and damaged in the attack.

Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on northern Israel, targeting the town of Metula with a rocket salvo at 5am local time and the village of Shtul at 6:20am. The group also carried out a drone attack on the Rawiya base in the occupied Golan Heights and launched rockets at a site in the village of Ghajar at 6:25am.

Missile warnings have continued throughout Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday morning in Israel.

The latest was within the last hour, with the military saying they detected a missile launched from Iran aimed at southern Israel.

Sirens were sounded throughout the Negev and the Dead Sea areas before authorities said it was intercepted. There was another missile earlier, again aimed at the south of the country, launched from Iran. Authorities say that that one, too, was intercepted.

Not long after Israel and Kuwait reported Iranian attacks, the United Arab Emirates is now saying it has also activated its missile defence systems.

"The sounds heard in scattered areas of the country are the result of the UAE air defence systems intercepting ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones," the UAE Ministry of Defence says in a post on X.

The military has identified the solder as Moshe Yitzhak HaCohen Katz and said he was killed in battle in southern Lebanon.

In a post on X, the military said three other soldiers were wounded in the same battle.

As we’ve been reporting, Israel has been expanding its ground offensive in southern Lebanon in a bid to create what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a “buffer zone”.

The risk of an expanded Iran war grew as Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday launched their first attacks on Israel since the start of the conflict, as additional US forces reached the Middle East.

Washington has dispatched thousands of Marines to the Middle East in the month-old war. The first of two contingents arrived on Friday on an amphibious assault ship, the US military said on Saturday.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that US officials said the Pentagon was preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, possibly involving raids by Special Operations and conventional infantry troops. Whether President Donald Trump would approve plans for deploying ground troops remained uncertain, the Post reported.

Reuters has reported the Pentagon was considering military operations that could include deploying ground troops ⁠in Iran.

Iran’s Press TV has listed the various sites targeted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Iranian army and Tehran’s allies in the Middle East on Saturday.

It said the IRGC “used long-range and medium-range solid and liquid-fueled systems and attack drones to target several industries belonging to the Israeli-American enemy” in Israel and other locations.

A member of Iran’s parliament has announced that a bill had been submitted demanding that Tehran withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

In a post on X, Malek Shariati said that the bill has been referred to the deputy of laws in parliament.

Demands have grown for Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT as the US and Israel continued to launch multiple strikes on Iran’s nuclear energy facilities including in Bushehr.

Shariati said he is also pushing for a repeal of an Iranian law, which serves as a framework for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which US President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in office.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) says some 3,500 additional troops have arrived in the Middle East on board the USS Tripoli.

The sailors and marines are with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and arrived in the region on March 27, along with “transport and strike fighter aircraft, as well as amphibious assault and tactical assets”.

The deployment comes even as Trump claims that negotiations are under way to end the war on Iran. The US military is also expected to deploy thousands more soldiers from its 82nd Airborne Division.

The Pentagon is preparing plans for weeks of ground operations in Iran potentially including raids on Kharg Island and coastal sites near the strait of Hormuz – though President Donald Trump has not yet approved any deployment, the Washington Post is reporting.

Any ground operation would stop short of a full-scale invasion, instead involving raids by special operations forces and conventional infantry troops, the Post said, citing unnamed officials.

US secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted on Friday that the US “can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops,” but the Post said planning is advanced, with one official saying: “This is not last-minute planning.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) has threatened to target Israeli and American universities in the Middle East, following the attack on the University of Science and Technology in Tehran.

The IRCG says all universities in the region are considered legitimate targets "until two of their universities are struck in retaliation for the Iranian universities that were attacked".

“We advise all staff, faculty, and students of American universities in the region, as well as residents in their vicinity, to maintain a distance of 1km from these universities to ensure their safety”.

The statement adds that the US must condemn the bombing of Iranian universities to avoid retaliation at US institutions in the region, giving a deadline of 12:00 local time on Tuesday, 30 March to do so.

The Israeli army says it has detected a missile attack launched from Israel, adding that its forces are working to intercept it.

Air defences shot down a drone near the residence of ⁠the ​leader of the Iraqi ​Kurdish ruling ​party, Masoud Barzani, ⁠in Erbil, security ‌sources told Reuters early Sunday.

Security sources said on Saturday ⁠that ⁠a drone attack targeted ⁠the ‌home ​of the ‌president of Iraq's ‌Kurdistan ​Region ​in an ​incident that comes ​as tensions continue ⁠to rise across northern Iraq.

This was reported by the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA citied by Aljazeera.

The report said the price of a barrel of Kuwaiti oil rose by $8.10 to reach $118.93.

Oil prices have been rising since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been brought to a near halt by attacks – or the threat of attacks – from Iran.

About a fifth of global energy exports passes through the waterway, making it a vital chokepoint for the world’s gas and oil supplies.

Israel stopped a missile fired from Yemen on Saturday, the first time it had faced fire from that country since the war in the Middle East erupted last month. Concerns rose about the Iran-backed Houthis' possible entry into the fighting.The group's previous attacks on vessels during the Israel-Hamas war upended shipping in the Red Sea.Before the attack from Yemen, there appeared to be a breakthrough as Tehran agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israel said it was attacking Tehran and defending against missiles fired from Iran on Saturday, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US expected to conclude military operations within weeks, not months.

An Iranian attack on an air base in Saudi Arabia wounded 12 US military personnel, two seriously, a US official told Reuters on Friday, as drones and missiles continued to strike around the Gulf.

A month after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, the war has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and causing the biggest disruption ever to energy supplies, hitting the global economy and fuelling ⁠inflation fears.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says it has identified a missile launched from Yemen, in what Reuters and Agence France-Presse report is the first fired from Yemen since the war began.

"The IDF has identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward Israeli territory, aerial defense systems are operating to intercept the threat," the Israeli military wrote on Telegram. Less than 15 minutes later, the IDF announced it was safe for people to leave protective spaces across the country.

It comes after a spokesperson for Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis said they would enter the war in the Middle East if attacks continue in Iran.

In a statement on Telegram, Yahya Saree, the spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces – the Houthi faction of Yemen's military – says "our fingers are on the trigger for direct military intervention" in the following cases:

The statement says this is in response to the "continued aggression by the American and Israeli enemy against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Palestine and Gaza, Iraq and Lebanon".

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has condemned Israel's strikes on two major steel plants, a power plant, and civilian nuclear sites, stating that Iran will exact a "heavy price" for these actions. Israel claims it acted in coordination with the US, contradicting President Trump's extended deadline for diplomacy.

US President Donald Trump expressed disappointment with NATO's response to the war on Iran, calling the alliance a "paper tiger" and stating that the US has always helped NATO but received little support in return.

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