Main Points Key Reads
Ronan McGreevy – 48 minutes ago
Hauliers demand suspension of the carbon tax
The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has threatened to bring the centre of Dublin to a halt before St Patrick’s Day because of rising fuel costs.
IRHA president Ger Hyland told RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh programme the Government needed to suspend the carbon tax while the crisis in the Middle East is ongoing.
Hyland said the cost of diesel for one of his members had gone up by €9,000 in the nine days since the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran started.
He said his sector had paid more than €1 billion since the carbon tax was introduced in 2010 “and got nothing in return”.
No sector is more heavily taxed, he claimed, and 65 per cent of the price of fuel goes back to the Government.
“The big profiteers from all of this is the Government and it is time they gave back because it is going to put our members out of business.”
Ronan McGreevy – 1 hour ago
Zelenskiy seeks US Patriot missiles in return for drone help in Middle East
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is trying to leverage his nation’s war savvy to keep it on the world’s agenda as the Iran conflict increasingly absorbs the attention of president Donald Trump, putting the US-brokered peace talks with Russia on indefinite hold.
On Thursday, he offered to share his country’s expertise in protecting against explosives-laden Iranian drones, which are swarming the defences of the US and its Middle East allies.
“Our appeal is very simple: we would like to fill our deficit of Patriot missiles and supply a certain number of interceptors,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv.
Earlier, he had suggested the Arab states could help persuade Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire, giving Kyiv free hands to dispatch anti-drone specialists to the Middle East. He said he had fielded a frenzy of calls from Gulf leaders in recent days, as well as US requests for sharing expertise.
Zelenskiy said in a post on X late on Thursday that Ukraine received a request from the US to help protect the Middle East region against Iran’s “Shahed” drones. The president gave instructions to provide the necessary means and to ensure the presence of Ukrainian specialists who can “guarantee the required security.” – Bloomberg
Ronan McGreevy – 1 hour ago
Putin congratulates new Iranian leader
Russian president Vladimir Putin congratulated Mojtaba Khamenei on his appointment as Iran’s new leader, the Kremlin said on Monday.
Putin said he was confident Khamenei would continue his father’s work “with honour” and unite the Iranian people “in the face of severe trials”.
He added that Russia would continue to stand by Tehran, saying he wished to “confirm unwavering support for Tehran and solidarity with our Iranian friends.” – Reuters
Ronan McGreevy – 1 hour ago
Japan has reportedly told its national oil reserve storage site to be prepared to release crude as the Iran crisis deepens.
Akira Nagatsuma, senior Japanese parliament member, told Reuters that an official at the Shibushi national oil storage base had received a directive from the country’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy on Friday.
Japan relies on the Middle East for around 95 per cent of its crude supplies, with roughly 70 per cent shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed following US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Japan built up its own national reserve after the 1970s oil crisis nearly brought its economy to its knees. – Reuters
Ronan McGreevy – 1 hour ago
Protesters hold placards during a rally in solidarity with Iran outside the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia Iranians living abroad ‘could have property confiscated’
Iranians living abroad could have property confiscated and face other legal penalties if they express support for the United States and Israel, the Iranian prosecutor general’s office said on Monday.
Some members of the Iranian diaspora who want political change in Tehran took to the streets of European and American cities to celebrate the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli war against Iran. Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father.
“A warning has been issued to those Iranians living abroad who in different ways sympathise, support or co-operate with the American-Zionist (Israeli) enemy,” the prosecutor general’s office was quoted as saying by state media.
“They will be met with the confiscation of all their properties and other legal penalties in accordance with the law.”
Newly established channels on Telegram have shared details of prominent Iranians living abroad who have posted comments critical of Iran’s clerical authorities and supportive of the US-Israeli military campaign that began on February 28th.
Up to five million Iranians live abroad, the majority of them in the United States and western Europe, according to Iranian government data. Iranian media put their numbers closer to 10 million.
UK PM calls for de-escalation
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has defended his decision to send British military assets to the Gulf.
Starmer was criticised by US president Donald Trump for not allowing the US to use the Diego Garcia base to attack Iran.
He has since given permission to the Americans to use bases in Cyprus, but only to protect Gulf allies who are being attacked by Iran.
Starmer said there needed to be a way to de-escalate the situation in the Gulf.
He was “acutely aware” of the potential impact of the conflict on the cost of living.
He said he had experience growing up of his family not being able to pay the bills. “I know personally what that feels like and what people are going through.”
Ronan McGreevy – 3 hours ago
Quds back Iran’s new supreme leader
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ elite Quds Force has pledged allegiance to new Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
Quds is the Iranian equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency and was designated a terrorist organisation by the United States in 2019 as it is the chief liaison group between the Iranian state and its proxies in the Middle East: Hizbullah, Hamas and the Houthis.
In January 2020 the first Trump administration assassinated then-leader of Quds Qasem Soleimani.
In a statement issued this morning, Quds said: “The fighters of the boundless front of truth will stand firm with all their might against the oppressors and in defence of the oppressed.”
Iranians attend funeral ceremonies for victims of the war between Iran, Israel and the US, at the Behesht Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran, Iran. Photograph: EPA Iranian activist: Ireland can help Iran transition to democracy
A prominent Iranian activist has suggested Ireland could play a role in helping Iran to transition towards being a democratic state.
Negin Shiraghaei is a former BBC Persian TV presenter and the founder and director of Azad Network, a grassroots initiative committed to promoting alternative voices to the current Iranian government.
She is in Ireland as a guest of Caradem, a not-for-profit pro-democracy organisation cofounded by two former ministers for foreign affairs, Simon Coveney and Eamon Gilmore.
Caradem chief executive Catherine Heaney said the organisation wanted to work with Shiraghaei to build democratic alternatives that could fill a void in the event of the current Iranian regime falling as a result of the US-Israel attacks.
You can read the full story here.
Ronan McGreevy – 4 hours ago
Video evidence suggests strike on girls’ school was by the US
The New York Times has provided compelling evidence that the missile that hit a primary school in Iran killing 175 people was fired by the United States military.
A newly released video adds to the evidence that indicates it was an American strike despite US president Donald Trump’s assertion that it was most likely a “friendly fire” incident by Iran.
The video, uploaded on Sunday by Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency and verified by the New York Times, shows a Tomahawk cruise missile striking a naval base beside the school in the town of Minab on February 28th. The US military is the only force involved in the conflict that uses Tomahawk missiles.
A body of evidence assembled by the Times – including satellite imagery, social media posts and other verified videos – indicates that the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on the naval base. The base is operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
A man walks past an electronic display of the Nikkei Stock Average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo. Photograph: Philip FONG/AFP via Getty Images
Ronan McGreevy – 4 hours ago
Share markets nosedived in Asia on Monday as the inflationary jolt from surging oil prices threatened to raise living costs and interest rates across the globe, while investors desperate for liquidity fled to the US dollar.
Brent crude soared 27 per cent to $117.58 a barrel, the biggest daily gain since at least 1988, which came on top of a 28 per cent rise last week. US crude shot up a staggering 28 per cent to $116.51, promising to push petrol prices quickly skyward.
You can read more here.
Ronan McGreevy – 4 hours ago
Shia Muslims in Budgam, India, trample over photographs of president Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a protest against the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Donald Trump envoys plan meeting with Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel, reports
Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are planning to travel to Israel on Tuesday and meet Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, according to an Axios reporter.
Barak Ravid’s post on X cited a “US official and a source with knowledge”.
The plan is yet to be officially verified.
Ronan McGreevy – 4 hours ago
Motorists queue at a gas station in Taipei. The price of the main US benchmark for oil surged more than 30 per cent on March 9th, 2026, over concerns that the Middle East war could create prolonged supply disruptions. Photograph: Getty Images Oil prices rise above $100 a barrel
Share markets nosedived in Asia on Monday as the inflationary jolt from surging oil prices threatened to raise living costs and interest rates across the globe.
Brent crude soared 27 per cent to $117.58 a barrel, the biggest daily gain since at least 1988.
Read more here.
Ronan McGreevy – 5 hours ago
Damaged oil trucks in an oil-storage facility after overnight strikes by US and Israeli forces in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, March 8th, 2026. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi/the New York Times
Saudi Arabia warns Iran it would be ‘the biggest loser’ if it continued to attack Arab states
Saudi Arabia warned Iran it would be “the biggest loser” if it continued to attack Arab states, hours after Iran had named its new supreme leader.
US president Donald Trump said the announcement of Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the late supreme leader, as the Islamic Republic’s next ruler, was “unacceptable”.
Saudi Arabia’s statement came after a new drone attack apparently targeted its massive Shaybah oilfield and followed comments by Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday that said Iran had halted its attacks on Gulf Arab states.
“The kingdom affirms that the Iranian side has not implemented this statement in practice, neither during the Iranian president’s speech nor afterward,” Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Iran has continued its aggression based on flimsy pretexts devoid of any factual basis.”
It added the Iranian attacks mean “further escalation which will have grave impact on the relations, currently and in the future”.
The US State Department issued an order for non-emergency staff and families to leave Saudi Arabia after it announced a US service member had died of injuries sustained during an Iranian attack on the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence also confirmed on Sunday that a military projectile that fell on to a residential area killed two foreign-born residents and wounded 12 others – all from Bangladesh – in Al-Kharj governorate, the first casualties of the war reported in the country. – PA
Ronan McGreevy – 5 hours ago
People in front of a picture of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son and successor to the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, on March 9th, 2026. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi/the New York Times Israeli military launches fresh wave of strikes as Mojtaba Khamenei named as Iran’s new supreme leader
The Israeli military said it launched a wave of strikes targeting “regime infrastructure” in central Iran on Monday, the first such announcement since the appointment of the new Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Kahmenei.
The military also announced strikes on Iran-backed militant group Hizbullah in Lebanon.
Iranian state media also showed a projectile said to be launched at Israel bearing the slogan “At your command, Sayyid Mojtaba”, using an Islamic honorific.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s elevation marks the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution that Iran’s supreme leadership has passed from father to son. It is a development likely to ignite debate inside Iran about the emergence of a dynastic system in a state founded explicitly to overthrow hereditary rule after the shah.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled for 37 years, was killed in a US-Israeli strike on Tehran on February 28th, on the first day of the war with Iran.