West Asia is facing a rapidly escalating crisis. What began on February 28, 2026, with coordinated military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran has rapidly expanded into a full-scale regional war with no clear end. Now twelve days into the fighting, the conflict has heightened geopolitical tensions, unsettled global energy markets, and raised growing concerns about the safety of civilians across multiple countries.
TOP DEVELOPMENTS
Iran sets conditions to end war: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has set three conditions to end the war, ignited by US and Isreal: Recognising Iran's legitimate rights, paying reparations, and firm international guarantees against future aggression.
India-bound ship crosses Strait of Hormuz: A Liberia-flagged tanker carrying Saudi crude has reached Mumbai Port, becoming the first India-bound vessel to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since the Iran-US conflict began.
Iran continues retaliatory strikes on Gulf: Fresh attacks were reported from Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait airport was hit by drone attacks on Thursday while debris from Iranian drones damaged the country's power lines. Saudi Arabia said it has been intercepting drones heading towards its oil fields. A drone attack caused minor fire at a residential building in Dubai.
Israel intensifies attacks on Lebanon: Israel on Thursday launched several strikes on eastern and southern Lebanon. Israeli military has threatened the residents of eastern Lebanon's Douris village to leave immediately as more strikes are likely.
Oil tanker attacked near Iraq: Iran has ramped up attacks near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. An Indian national was killed when an Iranian boat targeted a US-owned oil tanker near Iraq on Wednesday.
Oil tops $100 (again): The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, topped $100 a barrel early Thursday, just days after it spiked near $120. US benchmark crude oil jumped to about $95 a barrel.
Trump claims victory: President Trump has been repeating his claim that the US has won the war, even as the conflict widens. “It’s just a question of when, when do we stop?” he said.
India on Wednesday condemned the attack on a Thai commercial vessel in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it had taken note of reports about an attack on the Thai-flagged vessel ‘Mayuree Naree” on March 11 while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The ship was reportedly en route to Kandla.
“India deplores the fact that commercial shipping is being made a target of military attacks in the ongoing conflict in West Asia,” the MEA said.
Iran said it was ready for a long war of attrition that would "destroy" the world economy, after firing on two commercial ships and threatening any vessels from the US or its allies.
As Tehran tightened its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea passage for the global oil trade, US President Donald Trump said the war would end "soon" as there was little left for US forces to target in Iran.
Lebanon said the death toll in 10 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah during the Middle East war had reached 634, while more than 800,000 people have registered as displaced.
The International Energy Agency said its 32 member countries would unlock 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves -- the biggest such release ever -- to ease the impact of the war.
Iran's military vowed on Wednesday to launch strikes against US and Israeli economic targets in the region, including banks, after overnight attacks hit an Iranian bank.
"The enemy has given us free rein to target economic centres and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime," the military's central operational command, Khatam Al-Anbiya, said in a statement carried by state TV.
It urged people across the region to refrain from going within one kilometre (half a mile) of banks.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that it had launched a new wave of strikes on Hezbollah targets in the southern Beirut suburbs, vowing to act with "great force" in the area.
The military said it had begun a "large-scale wave of strikes" on Hezbollah infrastructure in Dahiyeh, the Lebanese capital's southern suburb, where the Iran-backed group holds sway.
In a separate statement on X, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said Israeli forces "will soon act with great force against (Hezbollah) facilities, interests, and military capabilities" in the area, after the military reported rocket fire from Hezbollah towards Israel "in the last few hours".
A US military investigation has determined that a US Tomahawk missile struck an Iranian elementary school because of a targeting mistake, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper, citing US officials, said the investigation into the February 28 attack was ongoing but preliminary findings were that the United States was responsible.
A senior military adviser to Iran's Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei insulted US President Donald Trump and vowed to destroy Israel in remarks to state television on Wednesday, as their countries wage a war that has engulfed the Middle East.
"Trump is the most corrupt and stupid American president," Yahya Rahim Safavi said. "He is Satan himself."
He also reiterated longstanding threats to eradicate Israel, which is fighting the Islamic republic alongside the United States.
"In the Middle East region, Israel and Iran cannot be together. One of them must remain. The one that remains is Iran and the one that is destroyed is definitely the Zionist regime," he said.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States would tap its strategic oil reserves "a little," after the International Energy Agency said member countries would unlock supplies amid the Iran war.
"Right now we'll reduce it a little bit and that brings the prices down," Trump said in an interview with Local 12 television in Cincinnati, Ohio, when asked if he was going to tap the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Israeli drones carried out attacks on several Tehran neighbourhoods on Wednesday evening, killing members of the security forces, Iran's Fars news agency reported.
It was the first time since the outbreak of the Middle East war on February 28 that drone attacks had been reported in the Iranian capital.
Fars said the drones flew over southern and northern districts of Tehran, adding that "several members of the security force and the (volunteer) Basij force stationed at checkpoints were martyred".
Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had launched rockets and advanced missiles at northern Israel as part of a new operation against its foe, as Israel carried out fresh strikes on south Beirut.
Hezbollah in a statement said that "in response to the criminal aggression against dozens of Lebanese cities and towns and Beirut's southern suburbs", its fighters targeted sites in northern Israel "with dozens of rockets" as part of a new operation announced a short time earlier.
In subsequent statements, the group said its fighters also targeted other locations in northern Israel as part of the operation, including the headquarters of the Israeli military's northern command near Safed and two bases in Haifa "with volleys of advanced missiles".
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X that "we will respond to them", referring to the Hezbollah operation announcement, and vowed a severe response.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday criticized as politically motivated a resolution passed by the Security Council that demanded an immediate halt to Iranian attacks on Gulf states.
"Today's action represents a blatant misuse of the Security Council mandate in pursuit of the political agendas of the certain members, the various states responsible for the brutal war of aggression against my country," Amir Saeid Iravani told the Council.
The war in the Middle East is likely to result in worsening institutionalised repression of Iranian citizens, UN-mandated investigators probing rights abuses in Iran said Wednesday.
The United Nations' Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said civilians in the country were caught between ongoing armed hostilities and repression that has reached unprecedented levels, which may amount to crimes against humanity.
Iran's deepening human rights crisis "is likely to worsen in the wake of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and Iran's retaliatory strikes across the region", the mission said in a statement.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States must "finish the job" in Iran -- hours after suggesting the war could be over soon because Washington had run out of targets.
"We don't want to leave early, do we? We've got to finish the job, right?" Trump said while talking about the US-Israeli operation against Iran during a speech in Hebron, Kentucky.
Lebanon's health ministry said eight people were killed in an Israeli strike in the country's east on Wednesday.
The strike in Baalbek district "killed eight people and wounded three" others, the ministry said in a statement, also reporting four dead in a strike on Burj al-Shemali near the southern city of Tyre, and 17 wounded in a series of raids on Beirut's southern suburbs.
Israel's military said on Thursday that it was carrying out a "wide-scale wave of strikes" on Tehran after Iran said it had jointly undertaken missile attacks on Israel with its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
"The IDF has begun a wide-scale wave of strikes in Tehran. Details to follow," the Israeli military said on its official Telegram channel.
An attack on oil tankers near Iraq killed one crew member, Iraqi state television reported on Thursday, citing port authorities.
Farhan Al-Fartousi, from Iraq's General Company for Ports, told state television that one crew member had been killed and 38 rescued so far, and the "search continues for the missing." He did not specify their nationalities or provide details on who was behind the attack.
The Iraqi government's media cell told the national news agency INA that "two tankers were subject to sabotage."
The United States Department of Energy said Wednesday it will release 172 million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve "beginning next week," as the Middle East war disrupted oil prices.
The release would "take approximately 120 days to deliver based on planned discharge rates," the agency said in a post to X.
The post also accused Iran of manipulating and threatening "the energy security of America and its allies."
An Iranian drone struck a building in Dubai, Iranian state media reported on Thursday.
State broadcaster IRIB said that a "precision-guided drone" had hit a tower in Dubai.
Dubai's media office posted on X that authorities were responding to "an incident involving a drone that fell on a building in the vicinity of Dubai Creek Harbour."
The Israeli military said Thursday that it struck 10 Hezbollah targets in south Beirut including an intelligence headquarters and command centres after the Lebanese militant group and Iran claimed joint strikes on Israel.
"Over the past hours, the IDF has begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting terror infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization across Lebanon," the Israeli military said, adding it hit "dozens of launchers" as well as intelligence and command sites in south Beirut.
Lebanon's Hezbollah said it launched missiles at an Israeli military intelligence base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv early on Thursday, the Iran-backed group's latest claim in a major operation against Israel it announced hours earlier.
Hezbollah fighters "targeted the Glilot base (the headquarters of the 8200 Military Intelligence Unit)... in the Tel Aviv suburbs with a barrage of advance missiles," the group said in a statement.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said earlier that they had carried out a joint missile operation with ally Hezbollah against targets in Israel.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran was on the verge of defeat, but warned that US forces could escalate strikes such that the country would be "almost impossible" to rebuild.
"They are pretty much at the end of the line," Trump told reporters in Washington.
He added: "We can hit sections of Tehran and other places that if you do it, it'll be almost impossible for them to rebuild their country, and we don't want that."
Saudi Arabia intercepted a drone heading towards the Shaybah oil field on Thursday, as Iran targets the facility again in its campaign to disrupt global energy markets.
"A drone heading towards the Shaybah oil field was intercepted and destroyed," a spokesperson for the country's defence ministry posted on X.
Saudi Arabia had confirmed on Wednesday that it had intercepted several drones targeting the facility, which is crucial to the country's oil production.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Wednesday for Israel to halt its ground offensive in Lebanon and on Iran-backed group Hezbollah to "immediately" stop attacks.
"Hezbollah made a major mistake in dragging Lebanon into a confrontation with Israel. It must immediately cease its attack," Macron posted on X.
"For its part, Israel must clearly renounce any ground offensive in Lebanon," he added.
Iran targeted the world’s busiest international airport Wednesday and attacked commercial ships as U.S. and Israeli strikes rocked Tehran and the U.N.’s most powerful body demanded a halt to Iran’s strikes on its Gulf neighbors that threaten the world’s oil supply.
The latest attacks marked an escalation in the Islamic Republic's campaign aimed at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end the war that started 12 days ago. But there were no signs that the conflict was letting up.
Iran has targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations and effectively stopped cargo traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil passes.
The Israeli military said Thursday that a new barrage of missiles was heading for Israel, following an early wave of strikes that coincided with Israeli strikes on Tehran and Beirut.
"A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat," the Israeli military said on its official Telegram channel.
An air strike killed at least two fighters in northern Iraq on Thursday.
Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, has been dragged into the Middle East war that began when the United States and Israel attacked Iran last month.
Thursday's air strike targeted a base in the city of Kirkuk, occupied by the Hashed al-Shaabi, a former paramilitary coalition, now integrated into Iraq's regular army.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reported the casualties in the coastal area of Ramlet al-Bayda. The strike hit a car along the seaside, where dozens of displaced families were sheltering in makeshift tents.
Donald Trump has said the United States is “looking very strongly” at the Strait of Hormuz as the conflict involving Iran intensifies.
Speaking to reporters in Maryland on Wednesday, Trump said the situation on the battlefield was turning decisively in favour of the United States and its allies.
“We have very good news on the war front. They are absolutely being destroyed. Iran is being absolutely decimated,” he said, adding that Iranian military capabilities had been severely degraded.
According to Trump, Iran’s naval and air power had been largely neutralised. “They’ve got no navy. They’ve got no Air Force. They’ve got no anti-air traffic, anything. They have no systems of control. We’re just riding free range over that country,” he said.
The US President also indicated that Washington was closely assessing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant portion of the world’s oil shipments passes. “And now we’re going to look very strongly at the straits. The straits are in great shape,” he said.
Trump said the United States aimed to conclude the conflict quickly but emphasised that the priority was to secure a decisive outcome. “The main thing is we have to win this. Win it quickly, but win it,” he said. “Most people say it’s already been won. It’s just a question of when we stop. We don’t want to let it regrow.”
He also referred to the possibility of targeting infrastructure in Iran, including in the capital, Tehran, but suggested such actions were not the preferred course.
“We can hit sections of Tehran and other places but if you do it, it’ll be almost impossible for them to rebuild their country. And we don’t want that,” he said.
Trump added that the United States had the capability to disable Iran’s electricity infrastructure rapidly. “We could take apart their electric capacity within one hour and it would take them 25 years to rebuild it. So ideally, we’re not going to be doing that,” he said.
An attack on Iraq's Basra port killed at least one person and forced authorities to halt operations at all the country's oil terminals, officials said Thursday.
Farhan al-Fartousi, the director-general of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, made the announcement in a statement carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency.
The Pentagon provided the estimate to Congress in a briefing earlier this week, according to a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
That comes after it reported spending $5 billion on munitions alone over the first weekend of the war.
The Trump administration had previously indicated it would be sending Congress a request for supplemental funding for the war, but that appears to have cooled, for now.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the GOP chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday that he was not expecting the supplemental request this month.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, topped $100 a barrel early Thursday, just days after it spiked near $120.
Oil prices shot more than 9% higher as supply concerns worsened with Iranian attacks on commercial shipping around the Strait of Hormuz.
US benchmark crude oil jumped to about $95 a barrel.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes early Thursday a town in the hills overlooking Beirut killed three people and wounded a child.
Aramoun, a town about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Beirut where dozens of displaced families have found shelter, has been targeted twice since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel renewed after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2.
The Health Ministry also said the death toll from an earlier Israeli strike on central Beirut had risen to eight people, with 31 wounded.
Bahrain told residents to stay home after an Iranian attack on fuel tanks on Thursday as Tehran carries out a campaign in the Gulf to disrupt global energy markets.
"The blatant Iranian aggression targets fuel tanks at a facility in Muharraq Governorate," Bahrain's Ministry of Interior posted on X.
The ministry told residents in three parts of Muharraq to "remain in their homes, close windows and ventilation openings as precaution against potential effects of smokes from the fire currently being fought."
The UN children’s agency (UNICEF) says the “intensifying conflict” between US, Israel and Iran is creating a “catastrophic” situation for millions of children across the Middle East.
“Since 28 February, more than 1,100 children have been reported injured or killed in the violence. This includes 200 children reportedly killed in Iran, 91 in Lebanon, four in Israel and one in Kuwait,” it said in a statement.
These “numbers will likely climb as the violence intensifies and spreads,” the agency warned, noting that millions of children have also missed schooling due to the crisis, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced by unrelenting bombardment.
“Nothing justifies the killing and maiming of children, or the destruction and disruption of essential services that children depend on,” UNICEF said.
“The region’s children – all 200 million of them – are counting on the world to act quickly.”
President Donald Trump again claimed victory in Iran tonight, telling reporters traveling with him back to Washington, DC, “It’s just a question of when, when do we stop?”
“I think we’re in very good shape – the main thing is we have to win this thing, win it quickly, but win it,” he said. “And there are many people, I’m just watching some of the news, most people say it’s already been won, it’s just a question of when, when do we stop? We don’t want to let it regrow, and ideally would like to see somebody in there that knows what they’re doing – in other words, they can build a country.”
Speaking in Kentucky earlier Wednesday, Trump told supporters, “We won. We won, in the first hour it was over, but we won,” in Iran, without providing substantial evidence.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has set three conditions to end the West Asia war. In a post on X, he said: “The only way to end this war — ignited by the Zionist regime & US — is recognising Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm international guarantees against future aggression.” He said he had conveyed his conditions to “leaders of Russia and Pakistan” and said Iran is commitment to peace in the region.
Talking to leaders of Russia and Pakistan, I reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to peace in the region. The only way to end this war—ignited by the Zionist regime & US—is recognizing Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm int'l guarantees against future aggression.
— Masoud Pezeshkian (@drpezeshkian) March 11, 2026
The United Nations Security Council adopted a draft resolution condemning Iran’s attacks on Gulf countries and Jordan, demanding that Tehran immediately halt hostilities.
Thirteen of the 15 members of the UNSC voted on Wednesday in favour of the resolution sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and cosponsored by an extraordinary 135 other UN member states.
Both China and Russia abstained but notably decided not to use their veto power to block this resolution.
Iran's military vowed on Wednesday to launch strikes against US and Israeli economic interests in the region, including banks, while an Iranian news agency listed tech giants as possible "future targets".
"The enemy has given us free rein to target economic centres and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime," the military's central operational command, Khatam Al-Anbiya, said in a statement carried by state TV in response to reports of a strike hitting an Iranian bank.
It urged people across the region to avoid going within one kilometre (around half a mile) of banks.
A container ship off Dubai in the Persian Gulf came under attack Thursday, sparking a small fire, the British military said.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the attack happened just before dawn. It said an “unknown projectile” hit the vessel as it was some 65 kilometers (40 miles) off the coast of Dubai’s Jebel Ali port.
It added that the crew of the vessel were safe.
Three crew members were "believed to be trapped" aboard a Thai bulk carrier that was hit by two projectiles on Wednesday while travelling through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the vessel's owner said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they had struck the Thai-registered Mayuree Naree, as well as a Liberia-flagged vessel, in the strait because the ships had ignored "warnings".
The Lebanese armed group said that it carried out several attacks against Israeli towns and bases overnight.
These include a drone attack on the northern Ya’ara barracks, and missiles attacks on the Beit Lid base, the Glilot base near Tel Aviv and on the Atlit base near Haifa.
Hezbollah said it also fired artillery at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and launched drones and rockets towards the Israeli city of Nahariya.
The group claimed that a drone attack it launched on the Meron Air Operations Command and Control Base on Wednesday “resulted in damage to one of the radars” there.
Six electricity transmission lines in Kuwait went out of service after debris from intercepted drones fell on the infrastructure, Al Jazeera reported citing the country’s Electricity Ministry.
Authorities said the overall supply of electricity and water across the country remains stable.
Kuwait International Airport was hit by several drones on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported citing the national news agency and civil aviation authorities.
The report added that the attack resulted in "material damage only."
A Liberia-flagged tanker, Shenlong Suezmax, carrying Saudi crude has reached Mumbai Port, becoming the first India-bound vessel to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since the Iran-US conflict began.
According to an ANI report, the tanker had loaded crude from Ras Tanura port in Saudi Arabia on March 1 and departed on March 3. Maritime tracking data showed the vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on March 8 before it temporarily went off tracking systems.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Thursday that any invasion of Iran’s islands will “make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders.”
"Any aggression against soil of Iranian islands will shatter all restraint. We will abandon all restraint and make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders," he said in a post on X.
"The blood of American soldiers is Trump's personal responsibility," he said.
Homeland or Death!
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) March 12, 2026
Any aggression against soil of Iranian islands will shatter all restraint.
We will abandon all restraint and make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders.
The blood of American soldiers is Trump's personal responsibility.
It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the speaker’s comments though there has been speculation that the United States could target Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s main oil terminal.
Iran holds three islands it took from the United Arab Emirates before its formation in 1971.
The IRGC has confirmed it attacked a US-owned oil tanker near Iraq, saying the ship ignored its warnings, reported Al Jazeera.
An Indian crew member was killed when the tanker, Safesea Vishnu --owned by a US company and sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands-- was attacked near the Khor Al Zubair Port in southern Iraq.
The vessel was struck by an Iranian unmanned or suicide boat during the incident. The remaining 27 crew members and personnel on board were safely rescued and have been transported to Basra for further assistance and evaluation.
Iraq has shut oil port operations after the attack.
Israel's Defence Minister Katz said he has given Lebanon's government an ultimatum to stop Hezbollah from carrying out attacks in northern Israel, or threatening to invade Lebanese territory and "do it ourselves."
"Hezbollah launched heavy barrages toward the State of Israel yesterday," Katz was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel.
"I warned the president of Lebanon that if the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening the northern communities and firing at Israel, we will take the territory and do it ourselves," he said.
Up to 3.2 million people have been forced from their homes inside Iran since the Israeli-US war began on February 28, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UN refugee agency said the estimate is based on early assessments of displaced households across the country.
“This figure is likely to continue rising as hostilities persist, marking a worrying escalation in humanitarian needs,” UNHCR said in a statement.
Qatar’s Ministry of Defence has said the country’s military has intercepted a new missile attack aimed at the Gulf nation.
The latest attack followed an “elevated” security threat alert sent out by Qatari officials earlier today.
تعلن وزارة الدفاع القطرية عن تصدي القوات المسلحة لهجمة صاروخية استهدفت دولة قطر.
— وزارة الدفاع - دولة قطر (@MOD_Qatar) March 12, 2026
The Ministry of Defense of State of Qatar announces that armed forces intercepted missile attack which targeted State of Qatar. pic.twitter.com/RsHsoMzySd
Russia has called on the United States and Israel to stop their attacks on Iran and return to negotiations.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow is pushing for steps that could reduce tensions and bring the conflict back to the diplomatic track.
She warned that the humanitarian situation across the region has become extremely difficult and described the continuing escalation as deeply worrying.
The appeal also comes as Russia remains engaged in its own war with Ukraine, now entering its fifth year.
Israel’s military says it has targeted a site it claims is critical to Tehran’s plans to develop a nuclear weapon during attacks on Iran in recent days, Al Jazeera reported.
In a post on X, the military said Israeli warplanes struck the Taleghan site, a facility at the Parchin military complex about 30km southeast of Tehran. It said the location was used by Iran “to advance critical capabilities in developing nuclear weapons”.
The site had also been targeted in Israeli strikes in October 2024, and the Israeli military claimed Iran had recently begun rehabilitating the facility.
Iran has repeatedly said it has no intention of developing a nuclear weapon.
Thailand has asked Iran for an apology after a Thai vessel was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a fire and forcing the crew to abandon ship.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Iran’s ambassador to seek clarification over the attack and the circumstances surrounding the damage to the vessel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later confirmed that the ship had been targeted. In recent days, Iranian government officials have also said that vessels wishing to pass through the Strait of Hormuz must seek permission from Iran.
The US military is currently "not ready" to escort tankers through the critical Strait of Hormuz because all its assets are focused on striking Iran, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday.
"It'll happen relatively soon, but it can't happen now. We're simply not ready," Wright told CNBC. "All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran's offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities."
He added that it was "quite likely" such escorts would be taking place by the end of the month.
Retailers and consumers in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, say prices for key goods imported from nearby Iran have surged as normally busy cross-border trade has been disrupted by the war, Al Jazeera reported.
Iran is a major supplier of essential consumer goods to Turkmenistan, a largely desert country of about seven million people whose economy depends heavily on natural gas exports, primarily to China. Iranian imports include fruit and vegetables, construction materials and cigarettes.
“Stocks are rapidly depleting, and new shipments are not arriving. The outlook is paralysed and uncertain. We are currently selling Iranian goods at a higher price, 50 to 70 percent higher,” Aman, a construction materials dealer in Ashgabat, told the Reuters news agency.
Prices for key staples imported from Iran, including potatoes, cucumbers and fruit, have doubled in Ashgabat bazaars.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman accused the European Union on Thursday of "complicity" in the US-Israeli attacks on the Islamic republic.
"The European Union's indifference and acquiescence in the face of US and Israeli aggression, brutalities and atrocities amounts to nothing less than complicity," Esmaeil Baqaei said in a post on X.
By speaking the truth, you are choosing the right side of history.
— Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) March 12, 2026
The European Union's indifference and acquiescence in the face of U.S. and Israeli aggression, brutalities, and atrocities amounts to nothing less than complicity.
THE WORLD IS WATCHING... pic.twitter.com/ITCrCkDZY5
Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei will issue his first message since his appointment "in a few moments", his official Telegram channel said, without specifying if it will be a recorded message or written statement.
"The first message of Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution, will be released in a few moments," the channel said.
The message will address "the martyred leader of the revolution (Ali Khamenei), the role and duties of the people, the armed forces, executive bodies, the resistance front, as well as the countries of the region and dealing with enemies."
A preliminary US military investigation has found that outdated intelligence likely led to a US missile strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed more than 165 people, many of them children, according to US officials cited by The Associated Press.
The strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School, near an Iranian Revolutionary Guard base, occurred in the early hours of the conflict and has become a major flashpoint in the war. Investigators believe US Central Command used outdated target coordinates provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, a source familiar with the findings said.
US President Donald Trump initially blamed Iran for the attack but later said he would accept the results of the Pentagon investigation. The White House said the probe is still ongoing.
More than 45 Democratic senators have demanded answers from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, raising concerns about cuts to Pentagon offices tasked with reducing civilian casualties.
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has issued a series of strong statements, calling for continued pressure on US forces in the region and warning that strategic measures could be taken in the Strait of Hormuz.
Khamenei said Iran’s forces are focusing their attacks on US military bases in the Middle East and urged regional countries to shut down American bases operating on their soil. He also suggested that keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed could be used as leverage amid the ongoing conflict.
The new leader vowed that Iran would avenge those killed during the war and said Tehran would continue resisting what he described as US aggression in the region.
He also thanked the “resistance front” and allied groups in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq for supporting Iran during the conflict.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards vowed on Thursday to keep the strategic Strait of Hormuz closed after a call to do so by the Islamic republic's new leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
"In response to the order of the commander-in-chief, we will deliver the harshest blows to the aggressor enemy while maintaining the strategy of closing the Strait of Hormuz," said Guards navy commander Alireza Tangsiri in a post on X.
The Israeli military on Thursday warned it would strike a building in the centre of the Lebanese capital that it said was a Hezbollah facility, and told surrounding residents to evacuate.
"You are located near a facility of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, which the Israeli Defence Forces will be targeting," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, warning residents of Beirut's Bachoura neighbourhood to immediately move at least 300 metres away from the targeted building and those adjacent to it.
Italy is temporarily withdrawing all personnel from a military base in Iraqi Kurdistan which came under a drone attack, completing a retreat that was already underway, ministers said Thursday.
"A retreat was already planned" before Wednesday's attack that caused no injuries, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told Italian news programme TG1, a withdrawal confirmed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) will convene an "extraordinary session" next week to discuss threats to shipping in the Middle East and particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, the agency said Thursday.
The meeting, scheduled for March 18-19 at the IMO headquarters in London, was requested by several council members.
The IMO's Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez has held briefings with industry groups and member states to discuss developments in the US-Israel war in Iran over the past two days, the statement added.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran should not participate in the upcoming World Cup in North America, just days after telling FIFA's chief they would be welcome despite the Middle East war.
"The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don't believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Oil prices surged Thursday after new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed "revenge" following Israeli-American strikes and Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) warned they would keep the strategic Strait of Hormuz closed.
Around 1450 GMT, Brent crude climbed 9.46 percent to $100.68 a barrel, having already broken through the $100 mark earlier in the session. Its US equivalent, West Texas Intermediate, gained 10.02 percent to $95.99 a barrel.
The Israeli military said it had begun a wave of strikes across Beirut on Thursday, after it warned residents of a central neighbourhood of the Lebanese capital it would target a building there.
"The IDF has begun a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure across Beirut," a military statement said, as AFPTV footage showed a strike hitting a central Beirut building.
Missiles hit a building in the Beirut neighbourhood of Bashoura, near the centre of the city, on Thursday, after the Israeli military issued a warning of an incoming strike.
An AFPTV live broadcast showed dark smoke rising into the sky above the heart of the Lebanese capital, and an apparent fire started by the first missile impact.
This is the fourth strike in central Beirut since the beginning of the war between Hezbollah and Israel on March 2.
Iran wants to ensure that a war will not be imposed again on it in the future, deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told AFP, as the conflict raged with the United States and Israel.
"We want to see that war is not going to be imposed again on Iran," said Takht-Ravanchi in an interview in Tehran.
"When the war started last June, after 12 days there was so called cessation of hostilities... but after eight or nine months, they regrouped and they did it again."
The United States has struck around 6,000 targets since the start of the war against Iran late last month, the US military said on Thursday.
Among the targets hit were more than 90 Iranian vessels -- around 60 ships and 30 minelayers -- US Central Command, which is responsible for American forces in the region, said.
A strike on a base occupied by a former paramilitary coalition killed at least two fighters from an Iran-backed group on Thursday in the suburbs of the Iraqi capital, two faction officials told AFP.
The bombing targeted a base southwest of Baghdad shared between federal police and the Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF), or Hashed al-Shaabi, a coalition integrated into the regular forces but which includes pro-Iranian groups, a security official told AFP.
"Two Kataeb Hezbollah fighters were martyred in a Zionist-American strike on the Falcon base in Baghdad," an official from the powerful Hezbollah Brigades, allied with Tehran, said.
TotalEnergies said Thursday it had shut down 15 percent of its total oil and gas production due to the war in the Middle East.
"Production has been shut down or is in the process of shutting down in Qatar, Iraq and UAE offshore, representing approximately 15 percent of our total output," the French oil and gas major said.
It said however that higher oil prices were more than offsetting the loss of Middle East production.
Israel's military said Thursday it had struck checkpoints set up in Tehran by the Basij paramilitary force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards as part of efforts to undermine control by the authorities.
"Over the past day, the Israeli Air Force, acting on (military) intelligence, has targeted the Basij roadblocks and operatives," the army said in a statement.
