Strait of Hormuz closed, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander has said that the strait of Hormuz – the world’s most critical oil route – is closed and Iran will set any ship trying to pass on fire, Iranian state media is reporting.
It is Tehran’s most explicit warning since announcing it was closing the route on Saturday in a move that could choke a fifth of global oil flows and send prices rocketing.
“The strait (of Hormuz) is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guards and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze,” Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the Guards commander-in-chief, said in remarks carried by state media.
The strait is the world’s most vital oil export route, which connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
We have an explainer on the strait of Hormuz and why it is so vital for global oil supplies here:
Updated at 15.58 EST
Key events
48m ago
Strait of Hormuz closed, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says
1h ago
‘Killing terrorists is good for America’: White House says 49 senior Iranian leaders killed in strikes
1h ago
US military claims it has destroyed all Iranian ships in Gulf of Oman
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Israel’s UN envoy says Iran operation will last ‘as long as it takes’
2h ago
UK ‘doesn’t believe in regime change from the skies’, says Starmer
2h ago
The day so far
3h ago
Israeli strikes kill over 50 in Lebanon
4h ago
Trump says US’s mission in Iran ‘substantially ahead’ and could last 4-5 weeks
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US continues to carry out ‘large-scale operations’ in Iran, Trump says
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Trump doesn’t rule out possibility of US boots on ground in Iran
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Iran Revolutionary Guards say targeted 500 US, Israeli sites
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Pentagon to brief media this morning on Trump’s Iran strikes
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Fourth US service member ‘killed in action’ – Centcom
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QatarEnergy halts liquefied natural gas production after attacks
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What we know so far…
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Two drones heading towards RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus intercepted, spokesperson says
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US says three jets ‘went down’ over Kuwait ‘due to an apparent friendly fire incident’
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Iran’s ‘reckless’ attacks threaten regional stability, US and allied Gulf states say
10h ago
Saudi Arabia halts some operations at Ras Tanura refinery after reported attack
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Mass evacuation of cities across Middle East may be necessary if nuclear power stations attacked, UN nuclear chief says
12h ago
IDF says ‘all options on table’ in response to question about possible ground invasion of Lebanon
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At least 555 people have been killed in Iran by US-Israeli attacks, Iranian Red Crescent Society says
12h ago
Saudi oil refinery reportedly halts operations after drone attack
13h ago
Kuwait says ‘several’ US warplanes have crashed in the country, with all the crew surviving
14h ago
Summary
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Israeli military says fighting Hezbollah could take ‘many’ more days
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US embassy in Kuwait warns of attack threat and urges people to take cover
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Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill 31 – report
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Iran launches another attack wave on Israel and Gulf cities
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Israeli general says strikes on Lebanon will intensify
16h ago
Iran’s security chief says it ‘won’t negotiate’ with US
17h ago
At least 10 killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut – report
18h ago
Streams of people flee Beirut amid airstrikes and evacuation orders
18h ago
UK responding to suspected drone strike at Cyprus base, says MoD
19h ago
Opening summary
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Fran Lawther
The US embassy in Amman, Jordan was temporarily evacuated on Monday due to a threat, it said in a statement. The embassy did not elaborate on the nature of the threat.
In a security alert posted on X, embassy staff wrote:
double quotation markOut of an abundance of caution, all personnel at the U.S. Embassy have temporarily departed the Embassy compound due to a threat.
ShareFran Lawther
We reported earlier that Kuwait’s army said a sailor with its naval forces was killed during an “operation” by its armed forces. That number has now risen to two, according to Agence France-Presse. The army did not elaborate on the circumstances of their deaths.
The general staff of the army identified the men as Sergeant Walid Majid Sulaiman and Sergeant Abdulaziz Abdulmohsen Dakhel Nasser, adding in two separate statements that they were killed during “duty as part of the national missions entrusted to the armed forces”.
Updated at 15.46 EST
And here we have a visual guide on how the escalating US-Israeli war on Iran is threatening oil supplies, driving up oil and gas prices, and stoking inflation around the globe.
ShareStrait of Hormuz closed, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander has said that the strait of Hormuz – the world’s most critical oil route – is closed and Iran will set any ship trying to pass on fire, Iranian state media is reporting.
It is Tehran’s most explicit warning since announcing it was closing the route on Saturday in a move that could choke a fifth of global oil flows and send prices rocketing.
“The strait (of Hormuz) is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guards and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze,” Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the Guards commander-in-chief, said in remarks carried by state media.
The strait is the world’s most vital oil export route, which connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
We have an explainer on the strait of Hormuz and why it is so vital for global oil supplies here:
Updated at 15.58 EST
‘Killing terrorists is good for America’: White House says 49 senior Iranian leaders killed in strikes
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that “49 of the most senior Iranian regime leaders” have been killed in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, declaring that “killing terrorists is good for America”. That number includes supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
“Preventing this radical regime and its terrorist leaders from threatening America and our core national security interests is a clear-eyed and necessary objective,” she said in a post on X.
ShareUS military claims it has destroyed all Iranian ships in Gulf of Oman
The US military said that it has struck over 1,250 targets in Iran since operations started on Saturday.
In a separate statement, US Central Command said it had struck and destroyed 11 Iranian ships (Trump earlier said 10). In a post on X it said:
double quotation markTwo days ago, the Iranian regime had 11 ships in the Gulf of Oman, today they have ZERO.
The Iranian regime has harassed and attacked international shipping in the Gulf of Oman for decades. Those days are over. Freedom of maritime navigation has underpinned American and global economic prosperity for more than 80 years. US forces will continue to defend it.
Multiple outlets are carrying satellite images showing dark plumes of smoke rising from a number of burning vessels – one of which is 750 feet long – at a military harbour in Bandar Abbas, Iran.
Updated at 14.58 EST
The Kuwaiti army said a sailor with its naval forces was killed during an “operation” by its armed forces. The army did not elaborate on the circumstances of his death.
ShareIsrael’s UN envoy says Iran operation will last ‘as long as it takes’
Israel and the US will not stop their military campaign against Iran until its objectives are achieve, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said earlier.
Speaking at UN headquarters in New York, Danon said the US and Israel would do everything necessary to ensure that Tehran does not have nuclear capabilities.
He said of the operation’s objectives are “clear”:
double quotation markNo nuclear weapons, no ballistic missile threat, destroy their navy and crash the regime’s proxy network.
The joint operation, he said, will last “as long as it takes” and Israel will do “whatever is necessary to protect our people and borders”.
double quotation markWe will not stop until we achieve our objectives.
Danon also accused Iran of “lashing out in desperation”. He said he believed freedom for the Iranian people “will come sooner than later”, and he hoped for a new leadership.
Danny Danon speaks to the press at UN headquarter in New York. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/ReutersShare
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned US -Israeli strikes on Iranian schools and hospitals.
He said in a post on X:
double quotation markAttacks on hospitals strike at life itself. Attacks on schools target a nation’s future. Targeting patients and children blatantly violates humanitarian principles. The world must condemn it. I stand with my grieving nation. Iran will not remain silent or yield to these crimes.
A devastating strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, on Saturday killed 165 people and injured 96 others.
Updated at 14.29 EST
Iranian state media earlier confirmed that Mansoureh Khojaste Bagherzadeh, the wife of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, had also been killed “at home”.
Iranian outlets had previously reported that Bagherzadeh had slipped into a coma after suffering injuries in the US-Israeli attacks on Tehran on Saturday.
Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild and son-in-law were also killed, state media confirmed previously. Khamenei and his wife had six children, four sons and two daughters.
ShareUK ‘doesn’t believe in regime change from the skies’, says Starmer
Earlier, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said that his government does not “believe in regime change from the skies” as he set out to parliament why Britain will not join its closest military partner in offensive action against Iran – suggesting that to do so would be unlawful.
He told the House of Commons:
double quotation markThis government does not believe in regime change from the skies. The lessons of history have taught us that it is important when we make decisions like this, that we establish there is a lawful basis for what the United Kingdom is doing.
Last night, Starmer announced that the UK had agreed to a US request to use British military bases for “defensive” strikes on Iranian missile sites.
Per my colleague Andrew Sparrow, the UK PM has been under pressure from the left and the right for first saying the UK would not get involved in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and then allowing the US to use UK bases in their operations after criticism from Donald Trump.
Addressing that criticism before parliament on Monday afternoon, he said that Iran’s “outrageous actions” could not be ignored and that the UK would continue engaging in defensive actions while still not joining in on the strikes.
“I am not prepared to commit our military service people to action unless I am sure that what they’re doing is lawful,” Starmer added.
Keir Starmer making a statement in the House of Commons after allowing the US to strike Iranian missile sites from British bases. Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PAShare
Updated at 14.09 EST
US Central Command said in a post on X that last night, U.S. B-1 bombers “struck deep inside Iran to degrade Iranian ballistic missile capabilities”.
double quotation markAs the President stated, ‘we’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground’.
Updated at 13.57 EST
A fire ignited at a fuel storage station in Abu Dhabi after it was targeted by a drone was “promptly contained” today, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said.
“No injuries were reported and there was no impact on operations” after the fire at the Musaffah fuel tank terminal, according to the agency.
ShareThe day so far
Here’s a brief recap of the developments so far, on the third day of US and Israel attacks on Iran, and of Tehran continuing retaliatory strikes against US allies across the Gulf after the killing of its supreme leader on Saturday.
At least 555 people have been killed in Iran by the Israel-US attacks across 131 cities since Saturday, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. US Central Command also said a fourth US service member has been killed.
Speaking at the White House for the first time since attacking Iran, Donald Trump said the US military is continuing to carry out large-scale operations in Iran and said the campaign could continue for four to five weeks or more. The US president claimed his objectives in Iran are “clear”. They include “destroying Iran’s missile capabilities” and “annihilating their navy”, as well as preventing them from ever having nuclear weapons; he said that Tehran “cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside their borders”. He also cited the apparent lack of progress in diplomatic negotiations as further justification for the strikes.
Trump notably did not mention regime change today, having previously called on the Iranian people to “seize control of your destiny” and “take over your government”. Since the operation began he has also suggested he has an idea of who he would like to rule Iran next.
The US president earlier did not rule out the possibility of boots on the ground in Iran if necessary, in an interview with the New York Post. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground – like every president says ‘there will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump said. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’” His defense secretary Pete Hegseth had earlier said there weren’t plans to have service members on the ground in Iran, but had also been reluctant to say whether this was the administration’s lasting stance. “We’re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do,” he told a Pentagon press conference earlier.
Trump also told CNN that the “big wave” of strikes against Iran is yet to come. “We haven’t even started hitting them hard,” the US president said. “We’re knocking the crap out of them.”
Hegseth said earlier that the US “didn’t start this war but we’re finishing it”, while also claiming that the US’s goal was not regime change in Iran (even though Trump has pushed for this and Hegesth himself then urged Iranians to “take advantage” of this opportunity for just that). Hegseth also indicated that the US did not plan to effect a democratic transition in Iran – and refused to establish a clear timeline for how long the US operation will continue. We have a story on that here.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 52 people in Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said, and wounded more than 150. Israel argued that its strikes were necessary after Tehran’s ally Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel (which Israel intercepted) in response to the Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
Updated at 15.35 EST
Israeli strikes kill over 50 in Lebanon
Lebanon’s health ministry has said more people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
It said the death toll is now at 52, with 154 wounded.
The Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah, one of Tehran’s principal allies in the Middle East, had earlier launched rockets towards Israel.
Israel then responded with sweeping airstrikes, which it said targeted the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut and struck senior militants.
The Lebanese state news agency NNA earlier had an initial tally of 31 people killed and 149 injured.
Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, condemned both attacks launched from Lebanon and Israel’s counterstrikes.
He warned that “persisting in using Lebanon once again as a platform for wars we have no part in will expose the country to new risks.”
Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike on Bourj Al Barajneh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPAShare
Updated at 15.08 EST
The spiralling war in the Middle East is putting civilians in “grave danger”, the head of the Red Cross warned Monday, saying a large-scale conflict would outstrip any ability to help.
The war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran has spread across the Middle East and beyond, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah entering the fray and a British military base in European Union member Cyprus coming under attack.
“Widening hostilities across the Middle East are putting civilian lives in grave danger,” said Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“The scale of major military operations flaring across the Middle East risks embroiling the region – and beyond – into another large-scale armed conflict that will overwhelm any humanitarian response.”
Britons are now being advised against “all but essential travel to Jordan”, as the situation in the Middle East continues to escalate.
The Foreign Office updated its travel advice for the country on Monday.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) website now reads:
double quotation markFCDO now advises against all but essential travel to Jordan.
FCDO continues to advise against all travel to within 3km of the border with Syria.