War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her country would have no problem hosting Iran’s matches in the 2026 World Cup, if football governing body FIFA agrees, Reuters reports.

Iran’s football federation has asked FIFA to move its World Cup matches to Mexico from the United States due to concerns about the safety of its players after the US launched joint air strikes in the country.

French President Emmanuel Macron says France will never take part in operations to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, and that Paris is carrying on with work to prepare a coalition that can provide freedom of navigation once hostilities end, AFP reports.

“We are not party to the conflict and therefore France will never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz in the current context,” Macron has said at the start of a cabinet meeting to discuss the conflicts in the Middle East.

“However, we are convinced that once the situation becomes calmer … we are ready, alongside other nations, to take responsibility for an escort system.”

Hezbollah has denied it had any members in Kuwait after the Gulf country announced the arrest of 14 Kuwaitis and two Lebanese nationals allegedly affiliated with the group over a “sabotage plot”, AFP reports.

Kuwait’s interior ministry had said in a statement Monday that the group “aimed to destabilise the country’s security and recruit individuals to join the terrorist organisation”.

Hezbollah has said in a statement that it “categorically denies the allegations and accusations issued by the Kuwaiti interior ministry”.

The group has called the allegations “baseless” and added: “There are no Hezbollah cells, members or networks in Kuwait.”

Saudi Interior Minister Abdulaziz bin Saud has spoken to his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, about the security implications for the region amid “ongoing brutal Iranian attacks”.

“I affirmed to His Excellency the Kingdom’s stance alongside Qatar in everything that achieves the security and safety of its citizens and residents therein,” the Saudi minister said on X.

British finance minister Rachel Reeves warns that the Iran conflict is likely to put upward pressure on inflation in the UK in the months to come, Reuters reports.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency says Majid Mousavi, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force, has announced a “new phase of effective and heavy strikes across the region against the American-Zionist enemy”, Al Jazeera reports.

“The backbone of arrogance will be broken in the streets and squares”, he added.

The Lebanese health ministry’s emergency operations centre says one person has been killed and nine others wounded in an Israeli air strike on Beirut’s Airport Road, Al Jazeera reports citing Lebanon’s National News Agency.

A senior US counterterrorism official has resigned to protest the US-Israeli war against Iran, AFP reports.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Joseph Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in his resignation letter to President Donald Trump.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reports that “another retaliatory missile” has been launched from Iran towards Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that targeting Tehran’s national security chief, Ali Larijani, was part of efforts to give Iranians a chance to remove their rulers, AFP reports.

“This morning we eliminated Ali Larijani, the boss of the Revolutionary Guards, which is the gang of gangsters that actually runs Iran,” Netanyahu has claimed in a televised statement.

He added that the overthrow of the clerical authorities by Iranians “will not happen all at once, it will not happen easily. But if we persist in this, we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands.”

A projectile has struck a tanker anchored 23 nautical miles (42.6km) east of Fujairah in the UAE, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has said, Al Jazeera reports.

No injuries were reported in the incident, which caused minor structural damage, it added.

According to UKMTO, the vessel’s company security officer said investigations indicate the damage was likely caused by falling debris from interceptions in the area.

Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest defence firm, is seeing a new surge in demand due to the US-Israeli war on Iran after reaping strong revenues as a result of the 2023-2025 Gaza conflict, Reuters reports.

Elbit chief executive Bezhalel Machlis said the company was working around the clock to ensure Israel did not run out of ammunition and other military systems, and to supply foreign customers — including Gulf countries.

“The success of Israel in Iran creates a lot of interest and a lot of traction. There is a lot of interest in many countries who are suffering from the same enemy (Iran),” Machlis told Reuters, citing countries including the United Arab Emirates — where Elbit has a subsidiary — and Bahrain.

Machlis said Elbit supplies a host of systems to the Israeli military for use in Iran, such as long-range guided munitions or equipment used in electronic warfare.

“Customers like to see (systems) tested in battle, so we are engaged with international customers, and we anticipate demand,” said chief financial officer Yaacov Kagan.

A British warship made a stop in Gibraltar as it heads to the eastern Mediterranean amid the US-Israeli war with Iran, AFP reports.

HMS Dragon stopped in the British territory to take on supplies and conduct a personnel changeover, Britain’s defence ministry said in a statement.

The warship, capable of shooting down drones and ballistic missiles, left its base in Portsmouth in southern England on March 10.

Britain deployed the vessel following criticism from opposition politicians and the Cypriot government over a perceived slow response to a drone attack on Britain’s Akrotiri base in southern Cyprus.

Gibraltar, a rocky outpost at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, is a strategic gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting to “review evolving regional developments”, according to the Foreign Office.

In a post on X, it said he took stock of “ongoing efforts by Pakistan’s missions in the region and coordination with relevant departments”.

“He directed all concerned to remain fully engaged and maintain close coordination, particularly to facilitate and support Pakistani nationals in the region, while closely monitoring the situation,” it said.

As the US-Israel war with Iran enters its third week, analysts warn it is severely disrupting fertiliser markets and endangering food security for developing countries in the near term, Reuters notes.

Much of the world’s fertiliser is made in the Middle East, with one-third of global trade in it passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Some 20pc of the world’s oil and LNG also transits the Strait, and its near closure, combined with missile and drone strikes across the Gulf, have forced regional energy facilities to halt output.

About half the world’s food is grown using fertiliser, so prolonged supply disruptions would have major implications for food availability, according to Argus analyst Marina Simonova.

The most important fertilisers near term are nitrogen-based products like urea because, by and large, if a farmer doesn’t apply them for one season, yields will likely be hit. This is less so the case with other key products, like those based on phosphate and potassium.

Read more here.

Israeli rescue workers are “responding to reports of impact sites” after sirens sounded in central Israel, Al Jazeera reports, citing The Times of Israel.

The report said there have been no reports of injuries from the attack, which involved a “small number of missiles”.

Poland will not send troops to Iran as the conflict does not directly affect its security, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said, adding that the United States and other powers understood Warsaw’s decision, Reuters reports.

Poland’s government “does not plan any expedition to Iran, and this does not raise any doubts on the part of our allies,” Tusk said before a government meeting.

He said this covered Poland’s land, air and naval forces, which are still being built up in the face of the conflict over the border in Ukraine.

Tusk said securing the Baltic Sea remained a central element of Poland’s strategy.

A number of other US allies, including Germany, Spain and Italy, have said they have no immediate plans to send ships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil tankers are crossing the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s actions to choke traffic through the shipping route have not hurt the US economy, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett has told CNBC, according to Reuters.

He reiterated the Trump administration’s position that the war should be over in weeks, not months.

“Already you’re seeing tankers are starting to dribble through the straits, and I think it’s a sign of how little Iran has left,” he said.

“We’re very optimistic that this is going to be over in the short run, and then there will be price repercussions when it is over for a few weeks, as the ships make it to the refineries.”

Spain’s energy minister says the country will release up to 11.5 million barrels of oil reserves over 90 days, according to Reuters.

The Israeli military has launched an air strike near Beirut’s airport, in the city’s southern suburbs, according to state media, after several raids hit the area earlier in the day.

“Israeli warplanes launched a raid, the third today on the southern suburbs, targeting the old airport road near the Ansar Stadium in the Burj al-Barajneh area,” a short distance from Beirut International Airport, state media reported.

The Lebanese civil aviation authority, in a statement to state media, said the airport continued to operate normally and that the road leading to it remained passable.

Human Rights Watch has said Iranian strikes across the Gulf were “unlawful” and endangered civilians, Al Jazeera reports.

“Many of the Iranian attacks have struck civilian residential buildings, hotels, civilian airports, and embassies, and have unlawfully targeted civilian objects such as financial centres,” HRW said.

As of Monday, these attacks had caused at least 11 civilian deaths and 268 injuries, with the majority of victims migrant workers, HRW noted, citing government sources.

“Civilians, particularly migrant workers, across Gulf states are being threatened, killed and injured by Iranian drones and missiles,” said Joey Shea, senior Saudi Arabia and UAE researcher at HRW.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has floated the idea of replicating a UN-brokered deal that gets grain out of Ukraine during wartime to solve the crisis resulting from the Strait of Hormuz paralysis.

“Nobody is ready to put their people in harm’s way in the Strait of Hormuz,” Kallas said. “We have to find … diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a … food crisis, fertilisers crisis, energy crisis in the world.”

She said she had spoken to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres about the idea and the UN was “working on this”.

“Now the question is what also the neighbouring countries could agree to, especially Iran,” she said.

Authorities in Qatar have issued an alert saying a “security threat has been eliminated and the situation has returned to normal”, Al Jazeera reports.

This follows a second “elevated” security threat alert that was sent out a “short while ago”, the report added.

Qatar’s defence ministry has said its armed forces “successfully intercepted a second wave of missiles attacks, which targeted the State of Qatar”.