Main Points
- Yemen’s Houthi have confirmed an attack on Israel, in a further expansion of the conflict in the Middle East
- Israel’s military says it has launched new strikes on Iran
- Fifteen US troops were wounded, five of them seriously, in an Iranian military strike on Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia
- US secretary of state Marco Rubio says the US expects the military campaign against Iran to end within weeks
- Two broadcast journalists have died following an Israeli strike in the south of Lebanon, according to local media reports
The situation at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant continues to deteriorate and attacks pose a direct threat to nuclear safety, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Saturday after another strike near the facility.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday that Iran had informed it of another strike in the vicinity of Bushehr, the third such incident in 10 days, with no damage to the operating reactor and no release of radiation reported.
Ukraine denies Iranian claims over air defence depot
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has denied y a statement by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that claimed it had destroyed a Ukrainian air defence depot in Dubai.
“This is a lie. We officially refute this information,” Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesman for the ministry, told reporters.
“The Iranian regime frequently carries out such disinformation campaigns.”
The story comes soon after Ukraine signed a military agreement with Saudi Arabia as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy seeks to develop ties in the Middle East amid rising uncertainties over Western support for his nation.
The accord lays the foundation for future military contracts, technological cooperation and investment with Saudi Arabia, Zelenskiy said on X on Friday after a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Ukrainian leader is leveraging his nation’s anti-drone warfare expertise amassed over the four years of fending off Russian aerial strikes to attract foreign support and funding.
Indian tankers carrying LPG crossing Strait of Hormuz
Two liquefied petroleum gas tankers are crossing the Strait of Hormuz bound for India, according to ship tracking data.
The war against Iran has all but halted shipping through the strait, but Iran said this week that “non-hostile vessels” may transit the waterway if they coordinate with Iranian authorities.
The two India-flagged vessels have crossed the Gulf area and are in the eastern Strait of Hormuz, the data showed.
India is gradually moving its stranded LPG cargoes out from the strait, with four LPG tankers moved so far – Shivalik, Nanda Devi, Pine Gas, and Jag Vasant.
India, the world’s second-largest LPG importer, is battling its worst gas crisis in decades, with the government cutting supplies for industries to shield households from any shortage of cooking gas.
Lebanese media has just reported that two broadcast journalists have died following an Israeli strike in the south of the country. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports.
US aircraft carrier in Croatia for repairs following fire
The US aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, which had been deployed in operations against Iran, anchored in Croatia’s Adriatic port of Split today for repairs and maintenance.
The Ford, America’s newest and the world’s largest carrier, was operating in the Red Sea when a non-combat fire broke out in its main laundry room on March 12th, injuring three sailors.
Nearly 200 sailors were also treated for smoke-related issues, a US official said at the time. The fire took hours to bring under control and had an impact on roughly 100 sleeping berths.
The warship has been deployed for nine months and also took part in operations against Venezuela in the Caribbean prior to arriving in the Middle East.
It has been plagued by plumbing problems during its deployment, affecting the nearly 650 toilets.
The Ford had temporarily stopped at Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete. The government of Croatia, which is a NATO-ally of the US, approved its arrival earlier this week.
The aviation crisis starting to grip Asia is threatening to intensify and spread to Europe and beyond, as energy turmoil caused by the Iran war collides with seasonal travel demand, Bloomberg is reporting.
The amount of jet fuel lost because of the conflict is ultimately too much for the world’s refiners to offset.
Airlines from Vietnam to New Zealand have started cancelling flights as prices surge to record highs, while China has curbed fuel exports to secure supplies. Asia has been particularly affected because of its exposure to crude oil that normally comes through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iran.
The European Union and the UK could be weeks away from similar conditions as they depend on supplies from refineries inside the Gulf.
Even in the US – a net oil exporter – some regions are reliant on vulnerable Asian supply, and carriers such as United Airlines are already responding to high prices by cancelling some unprofitable services.
“You can’t fly the same amount of flights without the same amount of jet fuel,” Vikas Dwivedi, global energy strategist at Macquarie Group, said in an interview. If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, there will be an acceleration of grounded planes over the coming weeks, he added.
Even if the vital waterway that connects oil infrastructure inside the Gulf to the rest of the world is opened soon, the damage done to the global supply chain means a full recovery will take weeks or months.
Trust needed before talks on conflict resolution – Iranian PM
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian has told Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, that trust is needed to facilitate talks and mediation on the conflict in the Middle East, the prime minister’s office said this morning.
It said Pezeshkian had praised Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts and that the two leaders had discussed hostilities in the region and efforts to end the conflict during a call that lasted more than an hour. Sharif briefed Pezeshkian on Pakistan’s diplomatic contacts with the United States and Gulf states, it said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, has confirmed he is to host the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt in Islamabad tomorrow and Monday for a series of “in-depth discussions” focusing on efforts to “de-escalate tensions in the region”.
Ukraine and UAE agree to work together on security
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has met United Arab Emirates president sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan after which he said they had agreed to co-operate in the field of security and defence.
“Our teams will finalise the details,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.
The two leaders tackled opportunities to advance bilateral co-operation under the Comprehensive Economic Agreement between the two sides, the Emirati state news agency WAM said, without further elaborating.
They also discussed the security developments and military escalation in the region and their impact on international navigation and the global economy, WAM added.
Drones attack Kuwait’s main airport
Kuwait International Airport was targeted by multiple drone attacks that caused significant damage to its radar system but resulted in no casualties, state news agency KUNA has said citing the country’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Going back to the Iranian attack on an airbase in Saudi Arabia, more than two dozen US troops have been wounded in Iranian attacks on the Prince Sultan airbase in the past week, AP sources say.
Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at the base in a Friday attack that wounded at least 15 troops, including five seriously, according to the sources.
US officials initially reported that at least 10 US troops were injured, including two seriously wounded. The base had come under attack twice earlier this week.
Yemen’s Houthis confirm attack on Israel
Yemen’s Houthis say an attack on Israel on Saturday came after continued targeting of infrastructure in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestinian territories.
The group said the attack was made with a barrage of missiles, adding that their operations would continue until the “aggression” on all fronts ends.
Sirens sounding in Bahrain
Sirens have been sounding in Bahrain through Saturday morning, with authorities warnings of potential attacks.
The country’s interior ministry has urged people to head to the nearest safe location. Earlier in the day, the ministry said civil defence officials had extinguished a fire at a facility that had been targeted by Iran.
Bahrain has so far seen two deaths since the war began, with the most recent drone strike hitting a residential building in the capital Manama, according to the interior ministry.
in Oman, a worker has been injured in a drone attack at Salalah port while a crane suffered limited damage, Oman’s government said on Saturday.
Oman had served as a mediator between the US and Iran before the current war.
But earlier this month, Oman’s foreign minister claimed the US had “lost control of its own foreign policy” and accused Israel of persuading Donald Trump’s administration to go to war with Iran. – Guardian