Beirut: Fears of a global energy crisis rose on Monday as the war in the Middle East raged on, with more US-Israeli strikes on the Iranian capital and Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon. An Iranian drone strike temporarily shut Dubai’s airport, a crucial global travel hub, underscoring the threats to the world economy.
Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran more than two weeks ago, Tehran has regularly fired on Israel, American bases in the region, and Gulf Arab countries’ energy infrastructure with drones and missiles.
Iranian strikes on commercial ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz and even just the threat of those attacks have also effectively stopped shipping traffic in the vital waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported. That has dramatically increased the price of oil and put pressure on Washington to do something to ease the pain for consumers.
Brent crude, the international standard, remained stubbornly over USD 100 a barrel on Monday. It was at USD 104 in early trading, up nearly 45 per cent since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. It has spiked as high as about USD 120 during the conflict.
US President Donald Trump said he has demanded that about seven countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but his appeals have brought no commitments.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called claims that his country may be seeking a negotiated end to the war “delusional,”
saying in a social media post early Monday that Iran was seeking neither “truce nor talks.”
Meanwhile, massive explosions were heard in Beirut as Israel launched new attacks on the Lebanese capital before dawn, saying it was striking infrastructure related to the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia group.
The Israeli army has issued evacuation orders for many neighbourhoods in Beirut as well as southern Lebanon. To date, more than 800,000 people have been displaced by Israel’s campaign in Lebanon.
In southern Lebanon, seven people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to authorities and news reports. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two of them were paramedics responding to an earlier strike.
At least 850 people have been killed by Israeli strikes so far.
Not long after Israel’s military announced it had launched new strikes on Tehran targeting infrastructure, explosions were heard in the Iranian capital and outlying areas.
More details were not immediately available, with information coming out of Iran severely limited by internet outages, round-the-clock airstrikes and tight restrictions on journalists.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran so far, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
Israel has carried out some 7,600 strikes on Iran so far, knocking out 85 per cent of its air defences, military spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani told reporters Monday. It has also destroyed 70 per cent of Iran’s missile launchers, but Shoshani said Israel still has thousands of targets to hit and would continue attacks “for as long as needed.”
In Israel, 12 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. At least 13 US military members have been killed.
Dubai airport temporarily closed after drone strike
Dubai: As morning broke on Monday, a drone hit a fuel tank near Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international passenger traffic, causing a large fire.
Firefighters contained the blaze, and there were no injuries reported, but the airport suspended all flights before resuming them a few hours later.
Later, a person was killed in the capital of the United Arab Emirates when an Iranian missile hit a vehicle, the Abu Dhabi media office said. Fire also broke out at an oil facility in Fujairah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates, following a drone attack.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, said it intercepted a wave of 35 Iranian drones sent to its eastern region, home to major oil installations.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones toward countries in the region hosting US military assets since the war began. Israel’s military said early Monday that Iran launched missiles toward Israel as well.
The conflict is battering the world economy, driving up energy and fertiliser prices; threatening food shortages in poor countries; destabilising fragile states; and complicating efforts by central banks to drive down prices for consumers. Much of the difficulty stems from the virtual shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz.
