![\"Smoke](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774006388_573_NCZKCN4RA6L632R4KB7FX5FBVU.jpg\")
Smoke and flames rise from an energy installation in the Gulf emirate of Fujairah on March 14th. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\nMain PointsKey Reads <\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 15 minutes ago<\/p>\n
Israel Defense Forces confirms killing of Iran\u2019s Islamic IRGC spokesperson<\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson, Ali Mohammad Naeini, has been killed, confirming earlier reports in Iranian media. The Israeli military said in a post on X that he was killed in an overnight airstrike.<\/p>\n
Israeli military begins strikes east of Tehran<\/p>\n
The Israeli military has said it has begun attacking Iranian targets east of the capital Tehran, Reuters reports. <\/p>\n
Trump reportedly considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran\u2019s Kharg Island <\/p>\n
According to a report in Axios, the Trump administration is considering occupying or blockading Iran\u2019s Kharg Island to pressure Iran into reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The report cited four sources who all spoke under the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants Hormuz open. If he has to take Kharg Island to make it happen, that\u2019s going to happen. If he decides to have a coastal invasion, that\u2019s going to happen. But that decision hasn\u2019t been made,\u201d a senior administration official told Axios.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always had boots on the ground in conflicts under every president, including Trump. I know this is a fixation in the media, and I get the politics, but the president is going to do what\u2019s right,\u201d a second senior official said. No decision has been made yet, the official said.<\/p>\n
Kharg, an 8km-long coral island in the Persian Gulf about 26km from the mainland, is a key processing hub for Iran, through which 90 per cent of the country\u2019s oil exports typically flow. The island had been largely left untouched by the US-Israeli attacks during the first two weeks of the war.<\/p>\n
But US president Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that US strikes had \u201ctotally demolished\u201d most of Kharg Island, telling NBC News that its military may hit site \u201ca few more times just for fun\u201d.<\/p>\n
Smoke and flames rise from an energy installation in the Gulf emirate of Fujairah on March 14th. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n
Use of British bases seen as \u2018participation in aggression\u2019, Iranian foreign minister says<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told his British counterpart, Yvette Cooper, in a phone call that any US use of British bases would be seen as \u201cparticipation in aggression\u201d against the Islamic Republic, Reuters reports.<\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n
Both sides in US-Israeli war on Iran may have committed war crimes, UN chief suggests<\/p>\n
The there were \u201creasonable grounds\u201d to believe both sides in the US-Israeli war on Iran may have committed war crimes, the UN secretary general, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, has said in an interview with Politico,<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are attacks either on Iran or from Iran on energy infrastructure, I think that there are reasonable grounds to think that they might constitute a war crime,\u201d Gutteres said. <\/p>\n
Earlier this week Israel\u2019s attack on Iran\u2019s massive South Pars gasfield \u2013 which it shares with Qatar \u2013 triggered Iranian retaliatory strikes on Qatar\u2019s Ras Laffan gas complex, in what was a major escalation of the conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see any difference. It doesn\u2019t matter who targets civilians. It is totally unacceptable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUCULGQ2M5ABHDDJQHFYQOESOU.jpg\")
A section of the South Pars gas field facilities in the southern Iranian port town of Assaluyeh. Photograph: Atta Kenare\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n
IRGC spokesperson killed in US-Israeli airstrikes<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC), Ali Mohammad Naini, has been killed in US-Israeli airstrikes, Iranian media has been reporting, including the Tasnim news agency.<\/p>\n
Targeted Israeli\/US-Israeli attacks have already killed the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the security chief Ali Larijani, head of the paramilitary Basij force, Gholamreza Soleimani, and the intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, among others.<\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 3 hours ago<\/p>\n
War in Iran threatens fresh food-price shock across developing world<\/p>\n
Disrupted fertiliser shipments and soaring energy prices from the war in Iran are threatening to unleash a fresh food-price surge \u200cacross vulnerable nations, risking a years-long setback just as many were recovering from successive global shocks.<\/p>\n
Developing countries were strengthening – and attracting investment – after the global pandemic and the Ukraine war sent food, fuel and financial markets into turmoil. Now the Iran conflict threatens \u200bto unravel those gains and leave households struggling to feed families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could have a big impact on prices, food prices, over time,\u201d said Odile Renaud-Basso, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a core lender across some 40 emerging economies.<\/p>\n
Food and fuel make up less than a quarter of the consumer inflation basket in most developed economies, but account for 30 per cent to 50 per cent in many emerging markets, said Marie Diron, managing director with Moody\u2019s Ratings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis exposure leaves many economies particularly \u200bvulnerable to externally driven price volatility,\u201d Diron said.<\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka refuses to allow the US to station warplanes at one of its airports<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka, which has strong economic and diplomatic ties with both Iran and the US, refused to allow the US to station two of its warplanes at an airport in the island\u2019s south in early March, the country\u2019s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, told parliament earlier today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted to bring two warplanes armed with eight anti-ship missiles from a base in Djibouti to the Mattala International Airport from March 4th to 8th and we said \u2019no\u2019,\u201d Dissanayake was quoted by the AFP news agency has having said.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean more than 3,200km from the Gulf, has had a policy of non-alignment since it became independent in 1948.<\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard says Tehran still building missiles<\/p>\n
Tehran was still building missiles, the spokesman for Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted on Friday, seeking to counter a claim by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that it no longer could. <\/p>\n
Gen Ali Mohammad Naini made the comments in a report quoted by Iran\u2019s state-run IRAN newspaper.<\/p>\n
Referencing how Iranian schools consider a 20 as a perfect score, the general said \u201cour missile industry score is 20 and there is no concern in this regard because we are producing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said the war would go on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people expect the war to continue until the enemy is completely exhausted,\u201d the general said of the Iranian public. \u201cThis war must end when the shadow of war is lifted from the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n
Iran hits Kuwaiti oil refinery<\/p>\n
A Kuwaiti oil refinery came under attack early on Friday from Iranian drones and sirens sounded in Israel warning of incoming fire, while explosions boomed over Tehran as Israel hit Iran as the country marked the Persian New Year.<\/p>\n
As the war that has rocked the global economy neared the end of its third week, Iran showed no signs of letting up on its attacks on the Gulf region energy structure, as Kuwait said drone strikes at its Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery sparked a fire and crews were working to control the blaze.<\/p>\n
The refinery, which can process 730,000 barrels of oil per day, was already damaged on Thursday in another Iranian attack.<\/p>\n
It is one of three oil refineries in Kuwait.<\/p>\n
Iran stepped up its attacks on energy sites in Gulf Arab states after Israel on Wednesday bombed Iran\u2019s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field in the Gulf.<\/p>\n
![\"Lights](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774006388_578_5FUPLGPM5JAHT3HZEUAACDA4KY.jpg\")
Lights from missile defence interceptors are seen in the sky above the oil refinery in Israel’s northern city of Haifa on Thursday night. Photograph: Odd Andersen\/AFP <\/p>\n
Heavy explosions shook Dubai as air defences intercepted early incoming fire over the city where people were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and mosques made the day\u2019s first call to prayers.<\/p>\n
Bahrain\u2019s interior ministry said a fire broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile landed on a warehouse, while Saudi Arabia reported shooting down multiple drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.<\/p>\n
The renewed attacks came after an intense day that saw Iran hit energy infrastructure around the region and launch more than a dozen missile salvos at Israel following the attack on South Pars.<\/p>\n
South Pars, the Iranian part of the world\u2019s largest gas field, is located offshore in the Gulf and is owned jointly with Qatar.<\/p>\n
With some 80 per cent of power generated in Iran coming from natural gas, the attack posed a direct threat to the country\u2019s electricity supplies.<\/p>\n
In Israel, sirens sounded early on Friday, warning of attacks on Jerusalem and in the north of the country, sending people again scrambling to shelters. There were no immediate reports of casualties.<\/p>\n
Jade Wilson – 5 hours ago<\/p>\n
Deaths soar as conflict continues <\/p>\n
More than 3,000 people are believed to have been killed across Iran so far, and the Pentagon says more than 15,000 targets in the country have been hit in the first two weeks. <\/p>\n
A girls\u2019 school in the southeastern Iranian city of Minab lies in rubble, with about 175 children and teachers killed in a strike that the US is believed to have carried out. <\/p>\n
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea passage turned chokepoint for the Gulf\u2019s oil and the world, has, in effect, been closed by Iran. As Eoin Burke-Kennedy writes, Iran\u2019s economic warfare has reshaped the battlefield<\/a>.<\/p>\n And the bill, according to analysts at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, is growing by roughly half a billion dollars every day.<\/p>\n Jade Wilson – 5 hours ago<\/p>\n Fuel prices hit<\/p>\n Asian shares were mixed on Friday following Wall Street losses, and oil prices pared earlier gains on the intensifying Iran war, falling back to about $107 a barrel. US futures were higher.<\/p>\n Oil prices had a rollercoaster day on Thursday with the Brent crude, the international standard, briefly surging to about $119 per barrel as attacks by Iran on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf escalated after Israel\u2019s attack of Iran\u2019s key natural gas field.<\/p>\n In early Friday trading, Brent crude fell 1.6 per cent to $106.90 a barrel, following Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu\u2019s<\/a> remarks that he would hold off on further attacks on Iran\u2019s gas field at the request of US president Donald Trump.<\/a> Benchmark US crude was down 2 per cent to $93.63 a barrel.<\/p>\n As Jack Power writes from Brussels, <\/a>European gas prices jumped by 35 per cent on Thursday as Iran and Israel traded strikes on sites involved in the production and supply of oil and gas.<\/p>\n The targeting of energy infrastructure sent alarm bells ringing in Washington and European capitals, where governments had already been trying to contain an earlier surge in fuel prices, as the war heads towards its fourth week.<\/p>\n Governments across Europe are mulling short-term interventions to insulate households and industry from the worst of the spiralling fuel costs.<\/p>\n Jade Wilson – 5 hours ago<\/p>\n Israel pounds Tehran with air strikes<\/p>\n Israel <\/a>pounded Tehran with air strikes on Friday as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year, and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu<\/a> denied he \u201cdragged\u201d US president Donald Trump<\/a> into the war with Iran.<\/a><\/p>\n Activists reported hearing strikes around Iran\u2019s capital. The attacks occurred a day after Israel pledged to refrain from more strikes on a key Iranian gas field and Iran intensified attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf.<\/p>\n The strikes come as questions mount about how aligned the US and Israel are in their war aims, with Netanyahu saying that Israel had acted alone in the bombing of Iran\u2019s South Pars gas field. He also confirmed that Trump had asked Israel to hold off on such attacks.<\/p>\n Iran is being \u201cdecimated\u201d and no longer had the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, but a revolution in the country would require a \u201cground component,\u201d he said, without elaborating.<\/p>\n The Israeli premier also rejected the notion that he had dragged Trump into the conflict, implying he was the junior partner in the joint assault on Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes anyone really think that someone can tell president Trump what to do?\u201d Netanyahu told reporters, at a press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t need any convincing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think any two leaders have been as co-ordinated as president Trump and I. He\u2019s the leader. I\u2019m, you know, his ally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Main PointsKey Reads Jade Wilson – 15 minutes ago Israel Defense Forces confirms killing of Iran\u2019s Islamic IRGC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,11829,3410,14396,43,40,38,41,39,115],"class_list":["post-356017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Israeli](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/7VBXAYHFKZ5AQP2RNVBNWIKGCA.jpg\")
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun\/AP <\/p>\n