Smoke rises from the positioning of airstrikes in a central space of the Iranian capital Tehran on March 6, 2026.
Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty Pictures
The U.S. authorities on Monday ordered non-emergency authorities workers to depart Saudi Arabia because the conflict engulfing Iran widened throughout the Center East, pushing oil costs above $110 per barrel and triggering a market sell-off in Asia.
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh cited heightened dangers from armed battle, terrorism and missile and drone assaults from Yemen and Iran. That marked the primary such departure order issued by Washington in Saudi Arabia for the reason that conflict started.
The Israeli army mentioned Monday that it had begun a new wave of strikes concentrating on the infrastructure of the “terror regime” in central Iran.
It adopted strikes on a number of Iranian oil services Sunday, igniting fires and sending thick smoke over Tehran and the neighboring metropolis of Karaj. The assaults gave the impression to be the primary on the nation’s power infrastructure for the reason that conflict started.
Crude costs spiked above $110 per barrel Monday morning after a number of Center East power producers introduced plans to chop output. G7 finance ministers are
ICE Brent Crude
The surge adopted days of disruptions within the Strait of Hormuz, one of many world’s most vital oil choke factors. Tankers have prevented the slim waterway after Tehran threatened to assault vessels making an attempt to transit the strait.
With tanker site visitors disrupted, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq mentioned they might minimize output.
U.S. Vitality Secretary Chris Wright mentioned Sunday that site visitors via the Strait would resume as soon as Washington destroys Tehran’s means to threaten transport.
“The grace interval that the market had in place for many of final week — assuming that this factor wouldn’t get uncontrolled and begin to unfold with contagion to different elements of the financial system — has clearly come to an finish,” mentioned Clayton Seigle, chair in power and geopolitics at CSIS. “We’re in all probability going to have a disaster interval for longer. The market … is type of scrambling to catch up.”
Iran’s subsequent chief ‘unlucky’ decide
Israel warned beforehand that any successor to Khamenei could be a possible goal, whereas U.S. President Donald Trump threatened {that a} new chief in Tehran could be short-lived if the choice was made with out his approval.
Former CIA director David Petraeus mentioned Sunday in an interview with CNN that the brand new management decide was “unlucky,” as Mojtaba was seen as a “continuation of what his father was, which is a really hardline ideological cleric.”
Trump can be reportedly weighing deploying particular forces on the bottom to grab Tehran’s near-bomb-grade uranium, Bloomberg reported, as officers sought to confirm the placement of the stockpile of extremely enriched materials.
Shortly after oil surged previous $100 Sunday night stateside, Trump posted on Fact Social {that a} achieve in “quick time period oil costs” was a “very small worth to pay” for destroying Iran’s nuclear menace. “Solely fools would suppose in a different way!”
Equities in Asia plunged on Monday as buyers rushed to cut back threat publicity over rising considerations that the preventing could last more than anticipated, triggering an oil provide shock to the worldwide financial system.
South Korea has reportedly reviewed whether or not to introduce an oil worth cap for the primary time in 30 years, based on Yonhap Information.
Ukraine’s interceptor drones
Tehran had earlier signaled its intent to ease tensions with neighboring international locations. In a pre-recorded video launched on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized for putting Center Jap neighbors and mentioned Tehran would cease firing at international locations that weren’t aiding the U.S. and Israel of their joint operation towards Iran.
Nonetheless, Saudi Arabia mentioned Sunday that Iranian assaults have continued. Riyadh warned that the assaults are based mostly on “flimsy pretexts that don’t have any foundation in actuality,” resulting in additional escalation of tensions and hurt relations “now and sooner or later.”
Iran has launched swarms of its Shahed ‘kamikaze’ drones to overwhelm the air protection programs throughout the Gulf, citing the presence of U.S. army bases and regional assist for American strikes.
The drones have additionally grow to be a daily fixture of Russia’s arsenal in its years-long invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine has developed countermeasures to shoot them down. The drones are far cheaper than the interceptor missiles utilized by U.S.-supplied gear, such because the Patriot air protection system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed The New York Instances that Kyiv has agreed to a U.S. request to ship interceptor drones and a group of drone specialists to guard American army bases in Jordan.
“We’ve got obtained some messages concerning methods to assist civilians within the Center East and methods to assist American troopers deployed in sure international locations,” Zelenskyy added individually in a publish on X Sunday. “We responded: ‘We are going to ship specialists and supply all the pieces wanted to guard them.'”
Different international locations are additionally contemplating requests from Gulf nations for assist in containing the assaults. Australia mentioned it was reviewing requests from Gulf nations for defensive army assist whereas reiterating that it might chorus from collaborating in offensive motion towards Iran.
China despatched a particular envoy to the Center East final week to mediate a ceasefire. Its high diplomat Wang Yi reiterated Beijing’s name for an finish to the army motion throughout a press convention Sunday, lamenting the battle as a conflict that “ought to by no means have occurred.”
