The US and Israel on Feb 28 launched what they described as a “pre-emptive” joint strike against Iranian targets, with Trump announcing start of “major combat operations”
The European Central Bank has kept its key interest rate on hold, warning that risks to growth and inflation have “intensified” due to the war, Al Jazeera reports.
For the 21 countries that use the euro, the central bank left its benchmark deposit rate at 2 per cent, where it has been since June 2025.
In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump has lashed out at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, writing that he should “spend more time … fixing his broken country … and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran nuclear threat, thereby making the world, including Germany, a safer place”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has had a phone call with Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis, where they exchanged their views on multiple issues, Iran’s Mehrnews agency reports.
Mutual ties, the latest developments in the region and the world and US-Israeli aggression against Iran were among the topics discussed.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz says Germany has sufficient oil and gas supplies, but global shortages have led his government to do everything possible diplomatically to open the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.
“We still have … enough oil and gas supplies. Relatively little of the supply for Europe passes through the Strait of Hormuz. The majority comes from other sources,” he tells a town hall event in the northern town of Salzwedel.
“Nevertheless, the shortages on the global markets are, of course, also an important signal for price developments here. Therefore, everything is aimed, including my own efforts, at making every possible contribution to reopening the Strait of Hormuz.”
Amid Israeli attacks, Lebanon is currently experiencing one of the “most severe forms of food insecurity”, a World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson tells Al Jazeera.
“We are now focusing on the poorest, weakest and most vulnerable in Lebanon,” they say. “The solution to the food crisis in Lebanon lies in a ceasefire. The security situation is hindering food relief operations in Lebanon.
“The damage inflicted on the agricultural sector in Lebanon is deepening the food problem,” the spokesperson adds.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said that “Iran, by exercising control over the Strait of Hormuz, will ensure that it and its neighbours enjoy the precious blessing of a future free from the presence and interference of America”.
“In the year 1622 AD, after 115 years of occupation, we expelled the European colonisers from the Persian Gulf, and we celebrate Persian Gulf Day in honour of this victory,” he wrote on X.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in a message says the country will ensure the security of the Persian Gulf.
“The Islamic Iran, while appreciating the blessing of managing the Strait of Hormuz in practice, will ensure the security of the Persian Gulf,” said Khamenei in a social media post on X.
In another message on X, he says that the “foreigners from thousands of kilometers away, who are greedily carrying out transgressions in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, have no place here except at the bottom of its waters”.
In his message commemorating the “Persian Gulf Day” in Iran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has taken a dig at US President Donald Trump for using “the correct term ‘Persian Gulf’“ in a Truth Social post.
The same post also labelled the Strait of Hormuz as “Strait of Trump”, to which Araghchi said, “Calling Hormuz anything else is indeed a ‘terrible mistake’.”
“Today is Persian Gulf Day in Iran, marking our ancestors’ expulsion of Portuguese from Strait of Hormuz 400 years ago,” the minister noted.
Israeli strikes on south Lebanon have killed nine people, including two children, the health ministry says, shortly after the president decried ongoing Israeli ceasefire violations, according to AFP.
“Israeli enemy strikes on south Lebanon led, in an initial toll, to nine martyrs, among them two children and five women, and 23 wounded, among them eight children and seven women,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Speaking to a delegation from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, President Joseph Aoun had earlier slammed “continuing Israeli violations” in south Lebanon.
He said these were occurring “despite the ceasefire, as do demolitions of homes and places of worship, while the number of killed and wounded rises day after day”.
Mourners gather around the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defence members who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Majdal Zoun, during their funeral in the southern city of Tyre on April 30, 2026. — AFP
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has said that she will continue all diplomatic efforts to ensure the passage of all vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.
Takaichi made these comments after phone talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Takaichi said that in the process of ensuring the safe passage of a Japanese-related vessel through the Strait of Hormuz, she personally appealed directly to the president and, together with the foreign minister and the embassy, carried out various diplomatic efforts.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei also said in his written message that the United States had been defeated in its war on Iran, according to AFP.
“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” said Khamenei in the message read on state television.
In his message, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei further said that Iran will closely guard its nuclear and missile capabilities, an apparent response to the US’s desire to dismantle them, Al Jazeera reports.
Iranians view the country’s nuclear and missile capabilities “as their national capital and will guard them like water, land and air borders”, Khamenei said.
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. — AFP/File
The Strait of Hormuz has “stirred the greed of many devils in past centuries”, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has said, Al Jazeera reports.
But since the US-Israel war on Iran started in late February, Iranians “have witnessed with their own eyes … the beautiful manifestations of the steadfastness, vigilance, and courageous struggle” of Iranian forces.
The leader claimed that “the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America and in the service of the progress, comfort, and prosperity of its peoples”.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has said in a published written message that a new chapter for the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz has been taking shape since the Iran war with the United States and Israel broke out on February 28, Reuters reports.
Iran’s Supreme Leader said that Tehran would secure the Gulf region and eliminate what he described as “the enemy’s abuses of the waterway”.
The supreme leader added that new management of the Strait of Hormuz would bring calm, progress and economic benefits to all Gulf nations.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has decried what he described as Israel’s continued violations of the ceasefire, calling for international pressure on Israel to stop strikes on civilians and paramedics.
Aoun slammed the “continuing Israeli violations” in south Lebanon, saying they were occurring “despite the ceasefire, as do demolitions of homes and places of worship, while the number of killed and wounded rises day after day”.
“Pressure must be exerted on Israel to ensure it respects international laws and conventions and ceases targeting civilians, paramedics, civil defence, and humanitarian health and relief organisations,” he added in a statement, as the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah nears the two-week mark.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has categorically dismissed as “unfounded and baseless” the allegations made in a statement issued by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regarding Tehran’s retaliatory operations amid the US-Israeli war, Press TV reports.
Baqaei said that Iran remained firmly committed to the principle of good neighbourliness and respected the national sovereignty of neighbouring states.
The Iranian diplomat pointed to the “internationally unlawful involvement of certain GCC members in the US-Israeli onslaught against the Islamic Republic,” the report said.
“Despite earlier assurances of commitment to legal and international obligations, and declarations that they wouldn’t allow their territory and facilities to be used in anti-Iran strikes, these governments did not take any measures to stop the process and even actively participated in the anti-Iran aggression,“ said Baqaei.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Vice President of the European Union Kaja Kallas, in a phone call, discussed the regional situation, the Foreign Office (FO) says.
“They discussed the evolving regional situation, including its economic and broader implications,” FO said, adding that Kallas expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s “continued constructive and facilitative role in promoting regional peace and stability”.
“DPM/FM reaffirmed Pakistan’s sustained commitment to promote dialogue and engagement in this regard,” the FO added.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei says the Bahraini government’s move to revoke the citizenship of dozens of nationals on unjustified pretexts is a serious human rights violation, IRNA reports.
The Bahraini government’s action of stripping Bahraini citizens of their nationality under the pretext of sympathising with the Iranian nation and expressing hatred for US and Israeli crimes against Iranians constitutes a gross violation of human rights, he said.
The measure is a sign of the discriminatory approach of the country’s rulers toward their own people, the official noted.
Bahraini officials had earlier announced that the citizenship of dozens of people in the country was revoked due to their support for Iran during the war imposed by the US and Israel.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a call with Foreign Minister Kenya Musalia Mudavadi, called for international action to hold the US accountable for its crimes, IRNA reports.
During the conversation, Araghchi noted that the “international community must take decisive steps to defend the UN Charter and hold the US responsible for its breaches of international law and crimes”.
The world is facing a “major energy and economic challenge” as oil prices have soared in the wake of the war in the Middle East, International Energy Agency (IEA) chief Fatih Birol has said, AFP reports.
“The world is facing the biggest energy crisis in history,” Birol said at a high-level meeting on the energy transition at IEA headquarters in Paris, adding that oil prices were “putting a lot of pressure in many countries”.
International Energy Agency Executive Director Dr Fatih Birol speaks during a press conference on developments in global energy markets, in Brussels, Belgium on March 6, 2026. — Reuters/File
Iranian MP Manouchehr Mottaki has said that if Iran had known early on that the US was seeking zero uranium enrichment, it would have shifted strategies, according to Al Jazeera.
“I have no objection to going to the negotiating table, but we should have looked more closely at how to proceed,” Mottaki, who represents Tehran and previously served as foreign minister, told Iran’s ISNA.
After the first round of talks, Mottaki said, “Trump started whispering outside about zero enrichment”, while US Ambassador to Nato Matt Whitaker did not “dare” mention it.
“If we had concluded that their final opinion was non-enrichment, naturally there would have been no point in negotiating with them, because this issue is fundamentally not related to America,” Mottaki added.
