Politics
Trump pleads NATO and China for help to reopen Strait of Hormuz
In a brief interview with The Financial Times, Trump said that as the United States has aided Ukraine in the war with Russia, he expects Europe to help on the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has sent energy prices soaring around the world.
“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” said Trump, who over the years has criticized the alliance as freeloading on US largesse.
Trump also said an upcoming summit in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping could be delayed as he presses for China’s help to open the strait.
“We’d like to know before” the summit, Trump said, noting that China as well as many European countries rely more than the United States on oil flowing from the Gulf.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump said.
Trump said separately to reporters travelling with him on Air Force One that the United States was in discussions with “about seven” countries on getting help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Asked about specific help he was looking for, Trump told the FT he wanted minesweepers as well as “people who are going to knock out some bad actors that are along the (Iranian) shore.”
Uncertainty about how long the war against Iran might last has rattled oil markets, where crude prices have surged over the past two weeks due to the supply risks.
On Sunday, the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate opened 2.5 percent higher at $100.22 a barrel, while the price of Brent, the international benchmark, rose 2.9 percent to $106.11 a barrel.
Flights temporarily suspended at Dubai airport
Flights were temporarily suspended Monday at Dubai’s airport, previously one of the world’s busiest, after a “drone-related incident” sparked a fire nearby, city authorities said.
The incident impacted a fuel tank, the Gulf financial hub’s media office said, later adding authorities had extinguished the blaze that broke out and no injuries had been reported.
Iran calls strikes on Tehran fuel depots ‘ecocide’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that Israeli strikes on Tehran fuel depots constituted “ecocide” due to the long-term risks to residents’ health.
Trump says ‘talking’ to Iran
President Trump said that the United States was in discussions with Iran as the war enters its third week but that Tehran was not ready for a deal to end it. “But I don’t think they’re ready.
But they are getting pretty close,” Trump said. Iran’s foreign minister had denied earlier that any talks with the United States were taking place.
Macron tells Iran attacks on French interests ‘unacceptable’
French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he had told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian it was “unacceptable” to target French interests, after an Iranian-designed drone killed a French soldier in Iraq’s Kurdistan region last week.
“I called on him to put an immediate end to the unacceptable attacks that Iran is carrying out against countries in the region, whether directly or through proxies, as in Lebanon and Iraq,” Macron said on X after his call with Pezeshkian.
Israel strikes Beirut again
Israel launched a fresh strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs late Sunday as Israel’s military said it was striking Hezbollah infrastructure in the city following earlier raids mainly in the country’s south.
On Sunday morning, an AFP photographer in south Beirut saw empty streets covered with debris and buildings flattened, with smoke still rising from strikes in previous days.
Israel has ‘thousands’ more targets
“We still have thousands of targets in Iran, and we are identifying new targets every day,” Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told a televised briefing.
Trump-Starmer call
US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke about the “importance” of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, currently blocked by Iran, the UK leader’s office said.
Iran hikes wages
Iran’s labour minister has announced a more than 60-percent hike in the minimum wage, local media reported, months after anti-government protests that began over discontent with dire economic conditions.
UN force shot at
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said its peacekeepers were fired upon three times, “likely by non-state armed groups”, in the country’s south, two days after another position was hit.
Baghdad airport hit
Five people were wounded in a rocket attack on the Baghdad airport complex, which houses a US diplomatic facility, Iraqi authorities said.
Rafah crossing to partially reopen
Israel said it would partially reopen Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt on Wednesday, after it closed the key gateway when it launched strikes on Iran.
Oil reserves released
Strategic oil reserves will be released “immediately” in Asia and Oceania, and as early as the end of March in America and Europe, the International Energy Agency said, as governments try to contain the surge in prices caused by the war.
Iran says no talks
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran was not interested in talks with the United States, pushing back on Trump’s stance that Tehran wants a deal to end the war.
Israelis injured
At least eight people were injured in Israel following repeated missile launches from Iran, at least two of which contained cluster munitions, according to Israeli authorities.
Italy-US base hit
Italy’s military said there had been a drone attack on the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait hosting Italian and US forces, but said all its personnel were safe.
Lebanon says 850 dead
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed 850 people in the country during two weeks of war between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, including 66 women, 107 children and 32 health workers, with 2,105 wounded.
Hezbollah missile
Hezbollah said its fighters targeted Israel’s Palmachim air base south of Tel Aviv with “an advanced missile”.
Hamas official killed
An Israeli strike in south Lebanon’s Sidon area killed Hamas official Wissam Taha, a source from the Palestinian militant group told AFP, after state media reported a strike on an apartment.
Overnight strikes in Sidon and nearby Al-Qatrani killed at least four people, Lebanese state media and the government said.
- Iran wants “serious review” of Gulf ties, says ambassador to Riyadh.
- Alireza Enayati did not say who had carried out attacks in Kingdom.
- “Iran was only attacking US and Israeli targets and interests.”
RIYADH: Iran’s relations with Gulf states will require a “serious review” in light of the US-Israeli war on Iran, limiting the power of external actors so the region can become prosperous, Tehran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia told Reuters on Sunday.
Asked if he was concerned that relations would be harmed by the war, Ambassador Alireza Enayati said: “It’s a valid question, and the answer may be simple. We are neighbours and we cannot do without each other; we will need a serious review.”
“What the region has witnessed over the past five decades is the result of an exclusionary approach [within the region] and an excessive reliance on external powers,” he said in a written response to questions, calling for deeper ties between the Gulf Cooperation Council’s six members, along with Iraq and Iran.
Gulf Arab states have faced more than 2,000 missile and drone attacks since the outbreak of the war on February 28, with targets including US diplomatic missions and military bases but also critical Gulf oil infrastructure, ports, airports, and hotels.
The United Arab Emirates, which normalised relations with Iran’s arch-foe Israel in 2020, has faced the brunt of the attacks. But all Gulf Arab states have been impacted, and all have condemned Iran.
Behind the scenes, analysts and regional sources say there is also growing frustration at the US, long their security guarantor, at dragging them into a war they did not endorse but for which they are paying a hefty price.
In Saudi Arabia, attacks have been concentrated on the eastern region where most of the kingdom’s oil is produced, as well as the Prince Sultan Airbase hosting US forces east of Riyadh, and the Diplomatic Quarter on the Saudi capital’s western edge, according to Saudi defense ministry statements.
Saudi Arabia and Iran re-established full diplomatic relations in 2023 after years of enmity.
Iran ‘not responsible’ for attacks on Saudi oil sector
Enayati denied that Iran was responsible for the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, including the Ras Tanura refinery on the east coast and dozens of attempted drone attacks on the Shaybah oil field in the desert near the UAE border.
“Iran is not the party responsible for these attacks, and if Iran had carried them out, it would have announced it,” he said. He did not say who had carried out the attacks.
Saudi Defense Ministry statements have not assigned blame for individual incidents. Enayati said Iran was only attacking US and Israeli targets and interests.
Enayati said he personally was in ongoing contact with Saudi officials, with relations “progressing naturally” in many areas. He highlighted Saudi cooperation regarding the departure of Iranians who were in the kingdom for religious pilgrimage and the provision of medical assistance to others.
He said Tehran was in contact with Riyadh regarding Saudi Arabia’s publicly stated position that its land, sea and air would not be used to attack Iran, without elaborating on the discussions.
His message to Gulf states was that the war “has been imposed on us and the region.”
To resolve the conflict, the US and Israel must halt their attacks and regional countries should not be involved, while international guarantees must be secured to prevent their recurrence, he said.
“Only then can we focus on building a prosperous region,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video of himself getting a cup of coffee and chatting with his aide on Sunday, after rumours that he was dead or injured were aired by Iranian state media and spread online in Iran.
In the video, taken at a cafe in occupied Jerusalem’s outskirts and posted on Netanyahu’s Telegram account, his aide asks him about the rumours.
Netanyahu responds with a pun on the word dead — which in Hebrew slang can be used to describe “being crazy about” someone or something — as he reaches for a cup of coffee.
“I’m crazy about coffee. You know what? I’m crazy about my people,” Netanyahu tells the aide.
He then raised his hands to the camera, asking, “Do you want to count the number of fingers?” — a reference to speculation on social media that his latest televised address was generated by AI as he appeared to have six fingers on one hand.
Reuters verified the video’s location from file imagery of the cafe, which matched the interiors seen in the video. The date was verified from multiple videos and photos of Netanyahu’s visit posted by the cafe on Sunday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) threatened on Sunday to kill Netanyahu, as the war against the Islamic republic led by Israel and the US entered its third week.
“IRGC vows to pursue and kill ‘child-killer’ Netanyahu if he is still alive,” Iran’s IRNA news agency said in a post on X.
Since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, Netanyahu has visited at least two towns hit by Iranian missiles, a hospital, port and military bases, but there was little to no media access, and videos were distributed by his office.
Netanyahu, who rarely gives interviews to Israeli press or holds news conferences, convened his first press conference since the start of the war via a video link on Thursday, a similar format to the one he used in June during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran.
Emergency safety restrictions in Israel since the start of the war ban public gatherings and have kept most people at home or close to shelters and safe rooms, with schools shut across most of the country.
— With additional input from AFP
KOLKATA: Indian police said Sunday they had arrested a Bangladeshi man for allegedly helping two fellow nationals, accused of murdering a popular student leader in Dhaka, enter India illegally.
Sharif Osman Hadi, a vocal India critic who took part in Bangladesh’s 2024 mass uprising, was shot by masked assailants in Dhaka on December 12 and later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Singapore.
West Bengal police named Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Hossain as the prime suspects in the killing and said they allegedly fled Bangladesh through the Haluaghat border with India shortly after Hadi’s attack. India arrested the pair on March 8 and they remain in police custody.
On Sunday, West Bengal’s Special Task Force Superintendent Indrajit Sarkar told AFP that Philip Sangma had been arrested on suspicion of helping Masud and Hossain enter the state of West Bengal through its porous border.
Sangma was “held on Saturday for facilitating the illegal entry of the two prime suspects in the murder of Bangladeshi youth activist (Sharif Osman) Hadi,” Sarkar said, adding that he appeared in a district court on Saturday before being remanded to police custody for a week.
Hadi’s death set off violent protests in Bangladesh, with angry mobs torching several buildings, including two major newspapers deemed to favour India, as well as a prominent cultural institution.
The killing further strained ties between India and Bangladesh that had frayed since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the pro-democracy uprising and sought refuge in India.
India’s foreign ministry has said it rejects “false narratives” about New Delhi’s involvement in Hadi’s killing.
In a sign of a potential thaw, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for winning the first parliamentary elections since Hasina’s exit.
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