Oil price jumps amid strikes on energy infrastructure across Middle East, as Iran names new leader

cassius marcellus clay Khamenei's boy Mojtaba elect as Iran's young supreme leader

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Reuters

Turkey's defence ministry says NATO defences have intercepted a ballistic missile that entered the country's airspace.

Monday's interception was the second reported incident in Turkey since the start of the Iran war. 

Iran has fired missiles and drones at several countries across the region since the U.S. And Israel attacked the country, triggering a war in the region.

The Lebanese parliament extended its term by two years in a vote today due to the ongoing Iran war that has thrust the country into the widening conflict.

Currently, half a million people in Lebanon have been displaced as a result of Israel stepping up its attacks on Lebanon following renewed strikes with the militant group Hezbollah.

Lebanon's state news agency said 76 legislators voted in favour of the decision, 41 were against, and four abstained. 

Hezbollah's 13-member bloc in parliament voted in favour of the extension.

Parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for May. The war has made it difficult to hold a vote in large parts of the country. 

Oil prices have soared about 20 per cent in early trade today, hitting their highest since July 2022. 

Share markets have meanwhile skidded on fears that the escalating war will squeeze energy supplies and hamstring industries around the world.

Bangladesh was the latest to announce plans to reduce the impact of the war on their economy.

The South Asian country said it will close all universities from Monday, bringing forward the Eid al-Fitr holidays as part of emergency measures to conserve electricity and fuel.

On Friday, Bangladesh, which relies on imports for 95 per cent of its energy needs, imposed daily limits on fuel ⁠sales after panic buying and stockpiling. 

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has led some major Middle East oil producers to cut supplies and on concerns of prolonged disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Associated Press

The investigative group Bellingcat says newly released video "appears to contradict" Trump's claim that Iran was responsible for an explosion at an Iranian school that killed over 165 people more than a week ago.

It comes as mounting evidence points to U.S. Culpability for the Feb. 28 strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Minab, Iran, in the country's southern Hormozgan Province. 

Experts interviewed by The Associated Press, citing satellite image analysis, say the school was likely struck amid a quick succession of bombs dropped on the compound. 

The video shared by Bellingcat is a three-second clip of a video taken the day the school was struck and circulated Sunday by Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency. The video shows a munition falling on a building, sending a dark plume into the air that mingles with smoke that likely came from earlier strikes on the compound. 

Trevor Ball, a Bellingcat researcher, geolocated the video to a site near the school, something also done by the AP. 

Ball identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile — which only the U.S. Is known to possess in this war. It's the first evidence of a munition used in the strike. Israel has denied conducting the strike.

Complicating any assessment of the incident is the lack of images of bomb fragments from the blast. No independent agency has reached the site during the war to investigate. 

The U.S. Military's Central Command and the Israeli military did not immediately reply to requests for comment Monday on Bellingcat's analysis.

U.S. President Donald Trump was displeased with Iran's move to name Mojtabah Khamenei the new supreme leader but Israel has not yet publicly reacted to the move.

Last week, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to kill any Iranian leader picked to succeed Khamenei.

"Any leader selected by the Iranian terror regime to continue leading the plan for Israel's destruction, threatening the United States, the free world and countries in the region, and suppressing the Iranian people, will be a certain target for assassination, no matter his name or where he hides," Katz said in a post on X on Wednesday.

The Associated Press

Iran launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf countries Monday, hours after Iranian state TV said a new supreme leader had been named.

Sirens sounded in Israel warning of a missile attack from Iran for the sixth time Monday.

Israeli officials say a man was killed in an Iranian missile attack in central Israel, raising the country's death toll to 11 since the war was launched on Feb. 28. Israel said in a new warning Monday that it also identified missiles launched from Iran toward northern and southern Israel.

Saudi Arabia sharpened its warnings to Iran, telling Tehran on Monday it would be the "biggest loser" if it continues to attack Arab states. The Saudi Defence Ministry said it intercepted drones early Monday in the northern Jawf region and the vast Shaybah oil field. Late Sunday an attack in the central city of Kharj killed the two Bangladeshi nationals and wounded 12 others.

The United Arab Emirates reported another missile attack in the capital, Abu Dhabi, urging people to remain in safe locations.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that Tehran has no war to fight with its Muslim neighbours but must target "facilities used by aggressors" for its legitimate defence, according to a Reuters report. He also downplayed the likelihood of a ceasefire as long as attacks on Iran continued.

Reuters

The Israeli military kept up its airstrikes in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday, sending plumes of smoke ​across the city. It reiterated warnings for residents to leave, and announced it would ⁠act against Al-Qard Al-Hassan, the financial institution it says funds the militant group.

On Sunday, an Israeli ​drone struck a hotel in Beirut's seafront Rouche district. The Israeli military said the strike killed five senior commanders ​of what it described as the Lebanon ⁠corps of Iran's Revolutionary Guards's Quds force.

The Israeli military has sent more troops into southern Lebanon since the start of the war, to guard against Hezbollah attacks into Israel. Lebanon was pulled into the war when Hezbollah, founded by ​Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, opened fire to avenge the killing ​of Iran's supreme leader.

Hezbollah said Monday its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in eastern Lebanon. In its statement, Hezbollah said its fighters had observed 15 helicopters flying over eastern Lebanon just after midnight, dropping Israeli troops on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in ‌Lebanon by Israeli strikes since March 2, Lebanon's Health Ministry has reported, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

Israel's military announced on Sunday that two Israeli soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, the first casualties in the Israeli army ⁠since the war began.

Reuters

Turkey plans to deploy six F-16 fighter ‌jets to northern Cyprus on Monday ​to bolster the defences ​of the Turkish community there, ​broadcaster NTV said, citing ⁠a ⁠civil ‌aviation official from the breakaway Turkish Republic of ⁠Northern Cyprus.

On Saturday, a Turkish defence ‌ministry source said Turkey was considering the deployment of F-16 ​aircraft to ⁠Cyprus, among other steps being ⁠taken to ⁠ensure ⁠the ​security of the Turkish Cypriot ​state ⁠as conflict spreads in the region.

The Associated Press

Oil prices spiked near $120 a barrel for a time Monday as the U.S.-Israel war against Iran entered its 10th day. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, surged to $119.50 per barrel but later was trading at $107.80 per barrel.

The last time Brent and U.S. Crude futures traded near the current level was in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Prices moderated after  the Financial Times reported  that some G7 members were considering releases of strategic oil reserves to alleviate pressure on the markets. The unconfirmed report cited unnamed people familiar with the talks.

Roughly 15 million barrels of crude oil — about 20 per cent of the world's oil — typically are shipped every day through the Strait of Hormuz, according to analysts. The threat of missile and drone attacks has all but stopped tankers from travelling through the strait.

As well, Iran, Israel and the United States also have attacked oil and gas facilities since the war started, exacerbating supply concerns.

The price of natural gas also has climbed during the war, though not by as much as oil. The surge in oil and natural gas is pushing fuel prices higher, cascading through other industries and jolting Asian economies that rely heavily on energy imports from the Middle East.

Reuters

Thick smoke was seen rising from ‌the direction of an oil refinery in ​Bahrain, where state oil company Bapco declared force majeure on its shipments after the government said it was struck overnight Monday by an Iranian drone.

The legal maneuver releases the company of contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.

Bapco is ⁠Bahrain's main ⁠oil ⁠refinery ​and a key ​facility ⁠in the country's energy sector.

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