The West Asia conflict, triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran, entered its eleventh day as attacks across the Gulf region roiled markets, upended global energy and transport sectors and pushed oil prices past $100 a barrel for the first time in years, even as Washington and Tehran remained poles apart on when the war might end.
TOP DEVELOPMENTS
Trump says war will end 'soon': US President Donald Trump pushed the idea of the Iran war ending soon, but remained vague on a timeline. further warning of 'much, much harder' if Tehran blocks oil supplies.
'Eye for an eye' response: Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that any attack on the Islamic republic's infrastructure would result in a tit-for-tat response.
Ruwais refinery shut: UAE's largest refinery has halted operations as a "precaution" following a drone attack on the industrial complex housing the facility
War 'not done yet': Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the country's military offensive against Iran was "not done yet", saying the operation was degrading Iran's clerical leadership.
Death toll: Iran’s health ministry said on Monday that over 1,200 people had been killed, including about 200 women and 200 children under 12, with more than 10,000 civilians injured. In Lebanon, the health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 486 people and wounded 1,313 since fighting began last week.
The Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee said on Tuesday that 15 of its rescuers had been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the latest war in Lebanon on March 2.
In a statement, the medics said their crews were subjected to "a series of direct attacks since the beginning of the aggression, which led to the martyrdom of 15 people and the wounding of more than 30 among the paramedics who were performing their humanitarian duty of rescuing the wounded and providing relief to civilians".
AFP journalists heard three explosions in the Iranian capital Tehran on Tuesday evening, more than a week into the Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic.
The blasts shook the windows of an AFP journalist's apartment in northern Tehran. There was no immediate information as to the intended targets.
Iran accused Israel on Tuesday of killing four of its diplomats in a weekend strike on a seafront hotel in Beirut, according to a letter addressed to the United Nations chief.
"In the early hours of Sunday, 8 March 2026, the Israeli regime carried out a deliberate terrorist attack against the Ramada Hotel in Beirut, which resulted in the assassination and martyrdom of four diplomats of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Tehran's permanent mission to the UN said.
Lebanon's government said on Tuesday that nearly 760,000 people had been registered as displaced since the outbreak of the new war between Israel and Hezbollah.
In an updated figure, the government's disaster management unit said the total number of people who registered their names on a website affiliated with the social affairs ministry reached 759,300, including 122,600 people staying in government shelters.
The United Nations rights chief voiced alarm Tuesday at the Middle East conflict's deepening impact on civilians, warning of the dangers of the seeming "tit-for-tat dynamic" between the warring sides.
With hostilities intensifying, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk deplored the extensive attacks in residential areas, on health facilities, schools, cultural property and water and energy infrastructure.
"This apparent tit-for-tat dynamic, involving essential infrastructure with extremely significant civilian impacts, will only increase risks for civilian populations more broadly, with potentially dire consequences across the entire region," he warned in a statement.
Turk stressed that "under the laws of war, civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all costs".
The Iranian army said it had targeted a military and an intelligence site in Israel.
"The army, using attack drones, struck a military centre in Haifa and the reception centre for spy satellites," it said in a statement.
The military centre "plays a key role in arms production and is of major strategic importance for strengthening the enemy's combat capabilities", added the statement carried by Tasnim news agency.
Iran launched a new salvo of missiles on Tuesday at Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and US targets in the region, the Revolutionary Guards said, as fighting between the foes showed no signs of letting up.
The latest salvo utilised "strategic" missiles, including some of the most powerful in Iran's arsenal, such as the Fattah, Emad and Khaibar missiles, the Guards said in their statement.
Ukrainian military experts are due this week in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists on Tuesday, where they will share expertise on downing Iranian drones.
"The first three countries to which we sent them, according to our agreements, are Qatar, the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia," Zelensky said in an audio message sent to reporters, including AFP.
Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Tuesday that any attack on the Islamic republic's infrastructure would result in a tit-for-tat response.
"The enemy should know that whatever they do, undoubtedly it will have a proportionate and immediate response," Ghalibaf wrote on X, more than a week into the Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
"We today go with the rule of 'an eye for an eye', without compromise, without exception," he said. "If they start a war on infrastructure, we will undoubtedly target infrastructure."
Iran's intelligence ministry announced on Tuesday the arrests of 30 people accused of spying, including one foreigner, on the 11th day of the Middle East war.
The foreigner, whose nationality was not revealed, "was spying on behalf of two Persian Gulf countries in the name of the American-Zionist enemy" and was arrested in northeastern Iran, the ministry said in a statement published by the judiciary's Mizan Online news portal.
The individual is accused of "transmitting to the enemy information about the location and movements of police and army forces" and military installations, the ministry said, without revealing when the person was arrested.
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said IEA member government representatives would meet Tuesday to assess "the current security of supply and market conditions" amid the US-Israel war on Iran.
"I have convened an extraordinary meeting of IEA member governments, which will take place later today to assess the current security of supply and market conditions to inform a subsequent decision on whether to make emergency stocks of IEA countries available to the market," Birol said following a meeting of G7 energy ministers.
The Lebanese and Syrian presidents agreed on the need to "control the border" between the two countries, after the two countries had traded accusations over cross-border gunfire.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun received a phone call from his Syrian counterpart, Ahmad al-Sharaa, during which they agreed that "the current sensitive situation requires enhancing coordination and consultation... especially with regard to the necessity of controlling the border", a Lebanese presidency statement said.
A strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, state media reported, after the Israeli military renewed its warning for people to evacuate the area.
"Israeli warplanes launched a raid a short while ago on the southern suburbs, the first after the warning issued by the enemy," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said.
Footage on AFPTV's live broadcast showed smoke rising from the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, while the Israeli military said it began "striking Hezbollah infrastructure" in the area.
A UAE refinery that is one of the world's largest has halted operations as a "precaution" following a drone attack on the industrial complex housing the facility, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Tuesday.
"The Ruwais refinery has halted operations out of precaution," the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, after the attack caused a fire in the Ruwais Industrial City where it is based. The source did not say whether the refinery had been hit.
State-owned oil company Adnoc describes its Ruwais facility as "the world's fourth-largest single-site refinery".
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday will be the most intense day yet of US strikes inside Iran as the Islamic Republic, its firepower diminished, vowed to fight on.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said "we are breaking their bones" and said the war's aim is a popular overthrow of Iran's government.
"Our aim is to bring the Iranian people to cast off the yoke of tyranny; ultimately, it depends on them," Netanyahu said.
The Kremlin declined on Tuesday to say whether the US had warned it against sharing intelligence with Iran, as the war in the Middle East entered its 11th day.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that Moscow had passed sensitive intelligence to Tehran, including the locations of US warships and aircraft in the region.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff said Saturday he had "strongly" communicated to Russia not to share targeting information with Tehran.
When asked by AFP about Witkoff's statement, or whether US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had discussed this in a phone call on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "All I can say is that Witkoff is in constant contact with his Russian counterparts, and that this channel of communication indeed allows us to hand each other signals about the most sensitive issues."
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had begun a new wave of strikes on Tehran, on the 11th day of the West Asia war.
"The IDF has begun a wave of strikes against Iranian terror regime targets in Tehran," the military said in a brief statement.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that the West Asia war had exposed Europe's "vulnerability" and dependence on fossil fuels as the conflict entered its second week.
"For fossil fuels, we are completely dependent on expensive and volatile imports. They are putting us at a structural disadvantage to other regions," she said at the opening of a nuclear energy summit in Paris.
"The current Middle East crisis gives a stark reminder of the vulnerability it creates," von der Leyen added.
A strike hit near the south Lebanon city of Tyre on Tuesday, state media reported, after the Israeli military said it would target Hezbollah infrastructure there and warned residents to leave.
"The Israeli enemy launched a strike on the threatened area" in the Abbassiyeh area, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said.
The Israeli military had said it would strike a building there and in the coastal city of Sidon.
The Middle East war could be disastrous for oil markets and it is vital to reopen the Strait of Hormuz shipping route, Saudi Aramco's CEO and president Amin H. Nasser said on Tuesday.
"There would be catastrophic consequences for the world's oil markets the longer the disruption goes on, and the more drastic the consequences for the global economy," he told a media call.
"It's absolutely critical that shipping resumes in the Strait of Hormuz," Nasser added.
Thailand and Vietnam encouraged public employees on Tuesday to work from home and take up other energy-saving measures as the West Asia war disrupted oil supplies and sent fuel prices swinging.
Thai authorities said government workers should shift to remote work where possible and asked that government offices set their air conditioners to 26C to conserve energy. It also urged officials to avoid overseas trips.
Thailand said last week it had secured two months' worth of oil supplies but was suspending exports to conserve its holdings. It also capped the price of diesel at just under 30 baht ($0.94) per litre for a 15-day period.
In neighbouring Vietnam, the government scrapped duties on Monday on many imported petroleum products in an effort to prevent fuel shortages and stabilise the domestic market. It also encouraged companies to allow employees to work from home "whenever feasible" to alleviate demand for fuel, the government said on its website.
Vietnam has so far avoided mass shortages, but state media reported that dozens of smaller petrol stations have either temporarily closed or shortened their operating hours due to dwindling supplies.
The United Nations said Tuesday that more than 100,000 people had been newly displaced within Lebanon in just 24 hours amid the West Asia war.
"As of today, more than 667,000 people in Lebanon have now registered on the (Lebanese) government's online platform as displaced -- and this is an increase of 100,000 in just one day," said Karolina Lindholm Billing, the UN refugee agency's representative in Lebanon.
"That's a faster pace of displacement compared to 2024," she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Beirut.
Azerbaijan on Tuesday sent humanitarian aid to Iran, appearing to offer an olive branch days after an Iranian drone attack sparked fears of the Middle East war spilling into the Caucasus.
Baku, a close partner of Israel, accused Tehran of "terrorism" after Iranian drones hit an airport and exploded near a school last week, wounding four people in Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhichevan, which borders Iran.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered the armed forces to prepare retaliatory measures, placing them on the highest level of mobilisation, and its diplomats were pulled out of the country.
Iran's military denied launching the drones and accused Azerbaijan's ally Israel of staging a provocation.
But in an apparent sign of detente, Azerbaijan's emergency situations ministry said on Tuesday it had shipped tonnes of food and medicines to Iran "following the telephone conversation on March 8 between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Iran."
The oil price spike caused by the war in the Middle East has sparked unrest in Bangladesh and exasperation at petrol pumps around Asia, where many economies are heavily dependent on fossil fuel imports.
Even as governments move to limit the impact on fuel prices, lines have formed at petrol stations in countries including Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines, although the situation remains stable elsewhere.
In Bangladesh -- which imports 95 percent of its oil and gas needs -- the military has been deployed at major oil depots, as police patrol in and around filling stations.
More than 10,000 Chinese have returned from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and elsewhere in the region after additional flights were sent to bring back stranded people, the Chinese government said.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, has arranged for Chinese airlines to significantly increase flight capacity,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Tuesday in Beijing.
Sirens sounded in Jerusalem on Tuesday after Israel's military warned of incoming missiles from Iran, AFP journalists reported.
The warning came as the US-Israeli war against Iran entered its 11th day, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel was "not done yet" with its military campaign.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has set up a committee to review supplies of commercial cooking gas as the hospitality sector experiences a shortage of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders.
India relies heavily on oil and gas shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has attacked several ships in the strait and threatened any ships that try to pass through, effectively closing it.
Industry groups in India say restaurants in some major cities including Mumbai and Bengaluru are struggling to secure cooking gas cylinders. They warn some eateries could shut within days if supplies are not restored.
Indian authorities have prioritized LPG supplies for household use, tightening availability for commercial users such as hotels and restaurants.
Israel's military said on Tuesday it would soon strike Hezbollah infrastructure in the southern Lebanese cities of Tyre and Sidon, warning residents to move away from targeted buildings.
"Urgent warning to the residents of Tyre and Sidon. The IDF will soon attack military infrastructure belonging to the terrorist organisation Hezbollah," one of the military's Arabic-language spokesmen, Avichay Adraee, posted on X.
"We urge residents of the buildings marked in red on the two attached maps and the nearby buildings: you are located near buildings used by Hezbollah. For your safety, you must evacuate immediately and move at least 300 metres away," he added.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the country's military offensive against Iran was "not done yet", saying the operation was degrading Iran's clerical leadership.
"Our aspiration is to bring the Iranian people to cast off the yoke of tyranny... ultimately, it depends on them. But there is no doubt that with the actions taken so far, we are breaking their bones -- and we are not done yet," Netanyahu said during a visit to the National Health Command Centre on Monday night, according to a statement published Tuesday.
Iran’s judiciary is warning its local media about what and how it reports as the war with Israel and the United States goes on. That was a comment made by judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir as reported by the state-run IRNA news agency.
It said Jahangir said local outlets “that did not comply with security issues and had taken videos and photos of certain places solely for the purpose of informing were given the necessary warnings.”
“If this happens again, the necessary legal measures will be taken,” he said, without elaborating.
Egypt raised domestic fuel prices by up to 30 percent on Tuesday, blaming "exceptional" global energy pressures caused by the Middle East war, which has disrupted oil supplies and shipping routes.
The increases, announced by the petroleum ministry, apply to gasoline, diesel and natural gas used in vehicles.
"This comes in light of the exceptional situation resulting from the geopolitical developments in the Middle East region and their direct impacts on the global energy markets," the ministry said in a statement.
Turkey said Tuesday a Patriot missile defence system was being deployed in the country's centre, a day after NATO intercepted a second ballistic missile fired from Iran in Turkish airspace.
"A Patriot system assigned to support the protection of our airspace is being deployed in Malatya," said a defence ministry statement. The area is known as the location of the Kurecik air base, which houses a NATO early-warning radar system that can detect Iranian missile launches.
The Israeli military on Tuesday reiterated the call for all residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes as it planned to “operate forcefully” in the southern area against Hezbollah.
Israel issued similar warnings during its war with Hezbollah in 203-2024, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday they targeted a US base in Iraq's Kurdistan region as the war with the United States and Israel continues.
"The headquarters of the invading US army in Al-Harir Air Base in the Kurdistan region was targeted with five missiles," the Guards said in a statement on their Telegram channel.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had completed a series of strikes targeting Hezbollah’s financial arm, al-Qard Al-Hasan.
Israel says Hezbollah uses al-Qard al-Hasan to finance its military activities.
Israel targeted several of the group’s branches in southern and eastern Lebanon last week.
Four fighters from the Tehran-backed Kataeb Imam Ali group were killed on Tuesday in air strikes blamed on the US in northern Iraq, the armed faction announced. The group said its fighters were killed in an "American aggression" on their position in the Debs district in Kirkuk province.
The West Asia war has unleashed a torrent of AI-driven disinformation. Beyond entirely fabricated visuals, another kind of content is spreading: authentic images "enhanced" in ways that experts say are subtly distorting perceptions of what's happening on the ground.
In one striking photo, a kneeling US pilot is confronted by a Kuwaiti local, moments after parachuting from his jet. The high-quality image was widely shared online and even published by media outlets. Yet the pilot appears to have only four fingers on each hand.
Fact-checkers ran the photo through AI detection tools and found it contained a SynthID, an invisible watermark meant to identify images made with Google AI. But that's not the whole story.
The United Arab Emirates said it was intercepting a drone and missile attack from Iran on Tuesday.
"UAE air defences are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran," the defence ministry posted on X.
Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday his country was prepared to continue attacks for as long as necessary and ruled out talks after President Donald Trump said the war with Iran would be over "very soon".
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told US broadcaster PBS News that his country was prepared to continue missile attacks and that negotiations with the United States were "no longer on the agenda."
Israeli strikes hit southern and eastern Lebanon overnight, state media reported on Tuesday, as Israel targets Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
"Enemy warplanes launched strikes overnight on the towns of Almajadel, Shaqra, and Srifa," the National News Agency (NNA) reported, adding strikes had also taken place in the Bekaa Valley.
Air raid sirens were activated across Bahrain on Monday, with the Ministry of Interior urging residents to head to the nearest safe place and remain calm.
An airstrike hit a camp for Iran-backed militias in northern Iraq early Tuesday, killing at least five people, officials said.
The attack also wounded four other militants, said the officials.
Iran’s Mehr news agency says there’s been a US missile attack on a school in the central city of Khomeyn.
It identified the site as Dr Hafez Khomeni School and said a number of residential homes around the building were damaged.
There was no immediate report of casualties.
TOP DEVELOPMENTS
As the West Asia conflict, triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran entered the eleventh day, oil prices soared passed $100 a barrel for the first time since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Trump says war 'pretty much' complete: US President Donald Trump pushed the idea of the Iran war ending soon, but remained vague on a timeline. further warning of 'much, much harder' if Tehran blocks oil supplies.
Iran's new supreme leader: Large crowds have gathered across Iran in support of new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, as US and Israel’s deadly bombardment continues.
G7 'not there yet on oil reserves': French Finance Minister said Monday the G7 was "not there yet" in terms of any release of strategic oil reserves, after talks with his counterparts of the world's leading industrialised nations.
Lebanon death toll: The toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanon rose to 486 people killed and 1,313 wounded since the start of fighting last week, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Iran death toll: Iran's health ministry said on Monday that more than 1,200 people had been killed, including around 200 women and 200 children under the age of 12 with more than 10,000 civilians injured.
The Lebanese armed group says it launched a missile attack on the Givaa drone control base, east of the Israeli city of Safed and fired rockets at the Yiftah barracks near the border in the early hours of this morning.
Hezbollah also said it carried out a drone attack on the Tziporit base east of Haifa on Monday morning and a missile attack on the Tel Hashomer base near Tel Aviv in the evening.
US Vice President JD Vance on Monday attended the dignified transfer ceremony for the seventh soldier killed in the Middle East war.
US Army Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, 26, died March 8 from injuries sustained in a March 1 strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Pennington's hometown was Glendale, Kentucky, and he was assigned to the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade out of Fort Carson, CO.
Egypt hiked fuel prices by up to 17% on Tuesday as the war in the Middle East sent prices of oil soaring.
According to the Petroleum Ministry the cost of a liter of diesel, which is heavily relied on for public transport, increased by more than 17%. The price of the 92-octane gasoline rose by 15% and 95-octane gasoline increased by 14%.
Syria said Iran-backed Hezbollah had fired artillery shells into its territory from Lebanon overnight, state media reported on Tuesday.
Syrian army officials said artillery shells fired from Lebanon landed near the town of Serghaya, west of Damascus, the state news agency SANA reported.
The US president pledged aggressive action against Iran if it continues to block the shipment of oil in the Strait of Hormuz.
“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump posted on social media.
“Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again, Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them, But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!”
The president said his threat was a “gift” to China, among other nations, because it relies on oil from the Middle East.
The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said on Tuesday that the end of the war will be determined by Iran.
Spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini said in a statement published in various Iranian state media and apparently in response to Trump’s remarks Monday that
“Iran will determine when the war ends.”
Bahrain's interior ministry said early Tuesday an Iranian attack on a residential area in the capital Manama killed one person and injured others.
"Initial reports indicate one person died and others were injured in a blatant Iranian attack targeting a residential building in the capital," the ministry said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday urged Iraq's leadership to keep protecting the US embassy after violent protests over the US-Israeli attack on neighboring Iran.
In a call with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Rubio "reiterated the importance of the Iraqi government taking all possible measures to safeguard US diplomatic personnel and facilities," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
Rubio also "strongly condemned terrorist attacks by Iran and Iran-aligned terrorist militia groups in Iraq, including in the Iraq Kurdistan Region," Pigott said.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had launched a wave of "broad strikes" on Tehran, the second of the day.
"For the second time today: the IDF (Israeli military) has begun a broad wave of strikes in Tehran... against terror targets," the military said in a statement.
UN chief Antonio Guterres's office warned Monday of "serious environmental consequences" from recent strikes on oil facilities and desalination plants in the Middle East, saying they pose significant threats to air quality and drinking water.
"We continue to raise the alarm over the humanitarian impact of escalating violence across parts of the Middle East, which is driving rising civilian casualties, damage to civilian infrastructure and growing displacement of people," the secretary-general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press conference.
He added that the United Nations was "particularly concerned by the number of reports of recent strikes on oil facilities, which could have serious environmental consequences across the region, with immediate possible impacts on safe water, on air that people need to breathe, and on food."
US President Donald Trump said Monday that the war against Iran would be a "short-term excursion," while insisting the offensive would continue "until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated."
"We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some people. And I think you'll see it's going to be a short-term excursion," Trump told a gathering of Republicans at his golf club in Doral, Florida.
A powerful explosion was heard in the Iranian capital just after midnight local time on Tuesday at the same time as aircraft were heard overhead, according to a report by AFP.
Several journalists dispersed across the city reported the blast, which was felt from many kilometres away. It was not immediately clear what had been hit.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, after an incoming Iranian missile was intercepted in Turkey's airspace.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has always declared its readiness to reduce tension in the region; provided that the airspace, soil and waters of our neighbours are not used to attack the Iranian people," Pezeshkian said in a statement about the call.
The missile was the second fired from Iran to be shot down in Turkish airspace in five days.
British warplanes have begun "defensive air sorties" in support of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and taken out drones elsewhere in the Middle East amid the ongoing war, the UK defence ministry said Monday.
The development came as Britain's response to the conflict was under criticism, including from the US president and the Cypriot government.
Wall Street stocks vaulted into positive territory Monday after President Donald Trump described the US-Israeli war with Iran as "pretty much" over without giving details of any solution to the conflict still raging in the Middle East.
All three major indices moved suddenly higher after the comments were reported, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing 0.5 percent up at 47,740.80, a swing of 1,125 points from earlier in the day.
Since the US and Israel unleashed strikes on Iran on February 28, war has spread across the region and casualties have been reported in countries across the Middle East.
The figures are based on numbers released by governments, militaries, health authorities and rescue organisations in the affected countries.
Iran: Iran's health ministry said on Monday that more than 1,200 people had been killed, including around 200 women and 200 children under the age of 12 with more than 10,000 civilians injured.
Israel: Israeli first responders and the country's military have reported 13 people in total killed in Israel.
Lebanon: Lebanon's health ministry said on Monday that 486 people had been killed and 1,313 wounded.
The Gulf: Authorities in Gulf states and the United States' Central Command (CENTCOM) have reported 23 people killed in the neighbouring states since the start of the Iranian attacks.
Most of those killed were military or security personnel, including seven US service members, and 10 civilians.
Iraq: Pro-Iran fighters in Iraq said 16 of their members had been killed in air strikes they blamed on Israel and the United States.
In Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, authorities said one airport guard was killed in a drone attack on Erbil airport, while at least two Iranian Kurdish fighters were killed in Iranian strikes.
Jordan: Jordan's military spokesman Brigadier General Mustafa Hayari said 14 people had been injured in various parts of the country due to falling debris from Iranian missiles and drones.
No deaths have been reported in Jordan.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on Monday discussed the Iran war and Ukraine conflict during a "frank and constructive" telephone call, the Kremlin said.
"The accent was placed on the situation surrounding the conflict with Iran and the bilateral negotiations underway with the representatives of the United States on settling the Ukrainian question," Putin's diplomatic advisor Yuri Ushakov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
US President Donald Trump said Monday that Australia had agreed to grant asylum to some of Iran's visiting women's football team, amid fears they could face retaliation back home for not singing the national anthem before a match.
The gesture ahead of the team's Asian Cup match against South Korea last week was seen by many as an act of defiance against the Islamic republic just two days after the United States and Israel attacked it.
Israeli war with Iran was "pretty much" over, without giving details of any solution to the conflict still raging in the Middle East.
"I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they've got no air force," Trump told CBS News by phone, repeating battle damage assessments that he has given in previous days.
Trump told the US broadcaster that the United States was "very far" ahead of his initially stated war time frame of four or five weeks.
Global shipping company MSC announced Monday it was formally halting certain export shipments from the Gulf due to the Middle East war and that "all affected cargo will be discharged".
"In light of the ongoing and exceptional security situation in the Middle East... it is necessary to declare an 'End of Voyage' for certain export shipments" from Gulf ports, "whether located ashore or already onboard", the shipping giant said in a customer advisory.
The head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc Mohamed Raad vowed to continue fighting Israel "whatever the cost", on Monday, in remarks broadcast by Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV.
Defending his party, and blasting the Lebanese government, Raad said the group's goal is to "to drive the enemy out of our occupied land... And quite plainly, we have no other option to preserve honour, pride and dignity than the option of resistance".
His address came hours after Lebanese president Joseph Aoun lashed out at the political party and militant group, saying it "wanted to bring about the collapse of the Lebanese state".
Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on Monday congratulated Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on his appointment as Iran's new supreme leader, the official Oman News Agency reported.
"His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tariq -- may God protect and preserve him -- sent a cable of congratulations to His Eminence Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on the occasion of his selection as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the agency said.
Oman was a mediator in recent talks between Iran and the United States, which collapsed during the war triggered by joint US-Israel strikes on Iran.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday accused Hezbollah of working to "collapse" the state and expressed Beirut's readiness for "direct negotiations" with Israel, drawing the backing of his Syrian counterpart for his goal of disarming the Iran-backed group.
Lashing out at Hezbollah over its March 2 attack against Israel, which has drawn a devastating Israeli retaliation, Aoun told European officials "Whoever launched those missiles wanted to bring about the collapse of the Lebanese state, plunging it into aggression and chaos... all for the sake of the Iranian regime's calculations".
To stop the war, the Lebanese president proposed a four-point initiative and called on the international community to help implement it.
The United Arab Emirates welcomed on Monday the United States' decision to label the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan a terrorist organisation
"The United Arab Emirates welcomed the announcement by the administration of US President Donald Trump to designate the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan as a terrorist organisation," the foreign ministry said in a statement on X.
The UAE has been widely accused of arming the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces -- at war with Sudan's army since April 2023 -- but has repeatedly denied the allegations. Sudan's army has also been accused of links to the Brotherhood, which it denies.