Tehran warns Europe to stay out of conflict or face ‘retaliation’ – as it happened | US-Israel war on Iran

The head of the world’s vitality watchdog has sought to allay fears over a world oil disaster as the conflict within the Middle East escalates, saying there may be “plenty of oil” within the markets due to a “huge surplus”.

This is regardless of studies that gas oil merchants in Asia are struggling to safe different ​provide as US-Israel war on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes curtail shipments from key Middle Eastern suppliers by means of the Strait of Hormuz, the place a few fifth of the world’s oil is shipped by means of.

“There is plenty of oil, we have no oil shortage,” Fatih Birol, the chief director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), informed reporters in Brussels. “There is a huge surplus in the market.”

“We are facing a temporary disruption, a logistical disruption.”

The oil value is on monitor for its largest weekly acquire in 4 years, fuelling fears of an inflation spike that can reignite the price of residing disaster and harm progress across the globe.

For extra updates on the financial influence of the Middle East conflict, observe our enterprise liveblog right here:

A senior Israeli official mentioned the US-Israeli army marketing campaign in Iran was going “much better than expected”.

“Nobody could have expected such smooth execution,” the unnamed official informed the Times of Israel. “With such payloads being dropped, and such a complex level of coordination required – no one could have anticipated such success so soon.”

The official went on to describe Israel’s achievements as “epic”.

US and Israeli officers mentioned their militaries have all however seized the skies over Tehran, having reportedly destroyed most of Iran’s air defences and missile launchers. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned the strikes have been “about to surge dramatically”, whereas the Israeli army indicated that it has begun a brand new section in its bombing marketing campaign, with “additional surprising moves in our hands”.

The Iranian military, in the meantime, vowed to proceed concentrating on Gulf nations in retaliatory strikes, together with US army bases situated throughout the area.

“Over the past few hours, various types of destructive drones of the army’s ground forces have targeted American military bases in Kuwait in large numbers,” the Iranian military mentioned at this time in an announcement carried by Iran’s semi-official Mehr information company.

“These attacks will continue in the coming hours.”

Displaced households in Lebanon’s capital Beirut huddle on the streets to break their Ramadan quick, pressured out of their houses within the southern suburbs by the Israeli army following a large-scale evacuation order.

The UN refugee company (UNHCR) mentioned practically 100,000 individuals have been displaced inside Lebanon and tens of hundreds of Syrian refugees within the nation have fled again over the border. It described the state of affairs within the area as a “major humanitarian emergency”.

News businesses on the bottom have spoken to some of the displaced individuals, many of whom have been pressured to flee their houses as soon as once more as Israel renewed its strikes towards Iran-backed Hezbollah militants within the beleaguered nation.

“We’re sleeping here in the streets – some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach,” Jamal Seifeddin, 43, informed Reuters. “I’ve never slept on the ground like this. I’ve been forced to. No one even brought a blanket.”

One man, who declined to give his identify, informed AFP: “We fled from the suburbs, we were humiliated. We’ll sleep on the road tonight and God alone knows what will happen to us.”

The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, mentioned the evacuation order issued by the Israeli army for southern Beirut raises severe issues beneath worldwide legislation, “in particular when it comes to issues around forced transfer”.

Azerbaijan is withdrawing diplomatic workers from Iran for their very own security, overseas minister Jeyhun Bayramov mentioned.

His feedback come a day after Azerbaijan mentioned 4 Iranian drones had crossed its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave.

Speaking at a press conference at this time, Bayramov mentioned Azerbaijan was evacuating workers from its embassy in Tehran and its consulate common in Tabriz north-west of Iran.

“We cannot put the lives of our people at risk,” he mentioned.

Volker Türk, the UN excessive commissioner for human rights, has urged the US to transfer “very quickly” with its investigation right into a lethal strike on a college in Iran, which Tehran has blamed on the US and Israel.

Iranian officers mentioned the assault on Shajareh Tayyebeh ladies’ college in Minab, which happened on Saturday in the beginning of the US-Israeli combing marketing campaign on Iran, killed at least 165 students.

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, continued to deny accountability for the strike, saying it was being investigated and that Americans “never target civilian targets”.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva at this time, Türk mentioned:

“What we’ve got requested for is clearly immediate, clear and neutral investigations, which we perceive has been introduced by the United States of America.

“We need this to happen very quickly and we need to also make sure that there is accountability as well as redress for the victims.”

The president of Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has urged for peace, after his nation allowed an Iranian ship to dock in a single of its port and allowed 200 crew members to enter the island.

Sri Lankan officers introduced 208 individuals on the vessel to the capital Colombo whereas their ship, the Irins Bushehr, was into custody in Trincomalee on the east coast.

Authorities are nonetheless looking for people who find themselves believed lacking after a US submarine torpedoed the Iranian warship Iris Dena off the Sri Lankan coast on Wednesday. Rescuers discovered the our bodies of 84 individuals in oil-slicked water whereas 32 lives have been saved. The 180-crew Iris Dena was on its means dwelling after collaborating in naval workouts hosted by India in late February, officers mentioned.

In an announcement posted on X, Dissanayakes mentioned:

No civilian ought to die in wars. Our strategy is that each life is as treasured as our personal. We jealously guard our non-aligned coverage whereas making certain that humanitarian values and the saving of lives stay our prime precedence.

What the world urgently wants at this time is peace. There is an actual threat of a extreme world financial disaster, and whole societies are dealing with severe and complicated challenges.

We name upon all events to exhibit a agency dedication to peace. As a state, Sri Lanka stands prepared to help each step towards ending hostilities. All our actions are aimed toward saving lives and making certain that humanity prevails.

Gaby Hinsliff

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist. She has written this opinion piece in regards to the disappearing fantasy of Dubai portrayed by influencers:

To be fooled by a mirage, you needn’t be misplaced within the desert. Sometimes, the phantasm is strongest simply if you thought you have been safely dwelling, posting from the pool about your teenage daughter’s spa get together and your personal glittering life in a metropolis the place “the possibilities are endless”, as they have an inclination to be for billionaires’ daughters residing in tax havens. Only then does the fantasy explode in a puff of intercepted missile smoke, leaving simply one other lady in her pyjamas telling Instagram (as Petra Ecclestone did at the weekend) that she moved to Dubai “to feel safe” and war was by no means talked about within the small print.

Who may have guessed that residing a couple of hundred miles as the drone flies from Tehran may need dangers? Certainly not the nameless hedge funder who fumed to the Financial Times that “the trade was not that you were getting exposed to geopolitics”.

But if it’s onerous to sympathise with the super-rich, as they uncover that there are some issues cash can’t purchase, then they don’t seem to be the one Britons trapped within the Gulf. The deal Dubai supplied financial migrants – which is what Britons searching for a greater life within the Gulf are, a lot as some will hate the label – was a sort of real-life Truman Show: a sunny, shiny, sterilised low-crime haven for anybody itching to get wealthy or stay that means, sustained by stiff penalties for anybody publicly shattering its illusions.

Alongside the wealth managers, property brokers and taut-skinned trophy wives who at all times accompany the mega-rich are a military of youthful non permanent staff to clear their swimming pools and nanny for his or her children and train them pilates, many of whom have households again dwelling now frightened sick. Gloat if you happen to should that they’re now discovering out why different individuals stay dwelling within the rain, however schadenfreude is a grim look when fellow human beings are sleeping of their basements as the tyrannical Iranian regime tries to kill them.

You can learn the remaining of her opinion piece right here: