Trump threatens to seize Kharg Island oil terminal, attacking Iran's energy infrastructure

ruff threatens civilian force, irrigate substructure in Iran

U.S. President Donald Trump openly mused about seizing Iran's Kharg Island oil terminal in the Persian Gulf as the United States and Israel kept up their attacks on Monday, even as there were signs of progress in nascent ceasefire talks.

Pakistan has said it will host talks between the U.S. And Iran, though it was unclear whether discussions on the monthlong war would be direct or indirect.

Iran received messages via intermediaries indicating Washington's willingness to negotiate, but deemed U.S. ​proposals to be "unrealistic, illogical ​and excessive," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson ​Esmaeil Baghaei on ⁠Monday.

Trump on Monday on social media said "great progress is being made" in talks with Iran but said if the Strait of Hormuz is not immediately reopened, the U.S. Would broaden its offensive by "completely obliterating" power plants, oil wells, Kharg Island and possibly even desalination plants that supply drinking water.

The laws of armed conflict allow attacks on civilian infrastructure such as energy plants only if the military advantage outweighs the civilian harm, legal scholars say. It's considered a high bar to clear, and causing excessive suffering to civilians can constitute a war crime.

In the interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump suggested it could mean a longer-term commitment if the U.S. Tries to take Kharg Island, while expressing confidence that, "we could take it very easily."

The U.S. Has already launched airstrikes against military positions on the island. Experts say that holding the island would also be a challenge, because in addition to its missiles and drones, it would be well within artillery range from the Iranian mainland.

Trump has not stated who the U.S. Is negotiating with. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28. His son and successor has not seen in public since, and a host of other top Iranian officials have been killed.

Iran fired multiple waves of missiles at Israel on Monday, and kept up the pressure on its Gulf Arab neighbours.

Israel's military said it had taken out two drones launched from Yemen, where the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the war on Saturday with a missile attack.

In Kuwait, an Iranian attack hit a power and desalination plant, killing one worker and injuring 10 soldiers, the state-run KUNA news agency reported. Desalination plants remain crucial to water supplies in the Gulf Arab states, and are often paired with power plants, because of the large amount of energy required to remove salt from the water to make it drinkable.

A ballistic missile launched ‌from Iran entered Turkish airspace before being shot down by NATO ​air and missile defences, Turkey's defence ministry ​said on Monday. It was the fourth such incident since Feb. 28. Tehran has denied in the previous three incidents that ​it authorized such launches.

Israel's military launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying it was striking "military infrastructure" across Tehran. Iranian media also reported that one of the facilities of Tabriz Petrochemical was struck in a northern province of the country. They said no hazardous materials had been released.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon says three peacekeepers, all Indonesian, have been killed in less than 24 hours.

The first incident occurred Sunday when a projectile exploded near a village in southern Lebanon, leaving three others injured. The details of the newer incident that killed two more peacekeepers weren't immediately clear.

The peacekeepers are the first from the UN force known as UNIFIL to be killed in the current war.

It followed a weekend in which at least 10 paramedics and three journalists were killed in Israeli strikes. UN Security General Antonio Guterres and Gregory Galligan, Canada's ambassador to Lebanon, were among those condemning the deaths and calling for the protection of peacekeepers.

Israel's military said on Monday that a sixth soldier had been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, while Lebanon's armed forces said one of its soldiers had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

U.S.-based rights group HRANA says nearly 3,500 people have been killed in Iran, including 1,550 civilians, while authorities in Lebanon say nearly 1,240 people have been killed there. Over 400 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since it fired on Israel on March 2, sources told Reuters, but it is unclear if the official death toll includes those fighters.

At least 100 people have been killed ⁠in Iraq and 13 U.S. Service members have been killed.

In Gulf states, 20 people have been killed. Four have been killed in the occupied West Bank.

Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world's oil is shipped in peacetime, has sent prices for oil, gas, fertilizer, plastic and aluminum surging, along with fuel for planes and shipping.

As pressure has grown on Trump to bring an end to the conflict, the U.S. Has presented Iran a 15-point plan that includes it agreeing to open the strait to shipping. Iran, meantime, has produced a five-point plan with its own terms, including maintaining its sovereignty over the key waterway.

Finance ministers from the G7 including Canada met on Monday and said in a statement they were ready to "to take all necessary measures in close co-ordination with our partners, including to preserve the stability and security of the energy market."

The spike in prices has been particularly bad news for Asia, as much of the region is highly dependent on energy from the Middle East. South Korea is considering extending driving curbs to the general public if crude prices rise to around $120–$130 US a barrel, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said on Sunday.

Europe's heavy reliance on energy imports has left it exposed to spiraling prices, as well. European ‌gas prices have jumped more than 70 per cent since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began on Feb. 28.

European Union energy ministers will hold talks on Tuesday to co-ordinate their response to the ​disruption and the war, an internal EU briefing document showed.

The EU says its oil and gas supplies remain secure in the short term, ​since the bloc's top suppliers are Norway and the United States.

Pakistan's foreign minister said on the weekend that Iran had agreed to allow 20 oil tankers through the strait, at a rate of two ships per day.

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