US military hits Iran’s Kharg Island: Live updates

Kharg Island has been hit by several strikes, Iranian media has reported.

The island is one of the most important owned by Iran, as it is an oil export hub.

Earlier in the way, the US bombed it but Donald Trump explicitly said he was leaving Iran’s oil infrastructure alone.

But he has, on several occasions, threatened to invade the island to take control of Iran’s oil.

Wall Street stocks retreated early Tuesday while oil prices pushed higher as President Donald Trump doubled down on threats to massively bomb Iran if it doesn’t accept US war demands.

A whole civilisation will die tonight,’ Trump said on social media, amplifying an earlier vow to level bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure if the country does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil-tanker traffic.

Stocks had risen Monday on hopes for a ceasefire, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7 percent early Tuesday to 46,368.33.

About 10 minutes into trading, the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.5 percent to 6,576.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.6 percent to 21,859.32.

Markets view Trump’s extreme rhetoric as a negotiating tactic, said David Waddell, chief investment strategist at Waddell & Associates.

‘The markets are taking it in stride because they’ve learned not to over-index Trump’s threats, recognising it’s probably more negotiation than reality,’ Waddell said.

Iran has permitted two French former prisoners to leave the country.

Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris have been held in French diplomatic premises since they were released from prison in November.

Kohler, 40, and Paris, in his 70s, were arrested in 2022 on the last day of their trip to Iran.

They were held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison in Section 209, which is typically only used for political prisoners.

Announcing their release, French president Emmanuel Macron thanks Oman for mediating the French pair’s release.

Four members of the Gershovich family were killed when an Iranian missile hit their building on Monday.

Lena, 70, her husband. Vladmir, 73, their son Dima, 42, and his wife Lucille-Jane, 30, were killed as the buidling collapsed in the strike on their home in Haifa, Israel.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters that the nation’s allies will close the Bab El-Mandeb Strait ‘if the situation gets out of control’.

They added that if the US and its allies in the Middle East continue to strike Iranian power plants, ‘the entire region and Saudi Arabia will fall into complete darkness with Iran’s retaliatory strikes.’

Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said its air defences have taken down four drones in the past few hours.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper has reported that emergency services are convening on the location of a direct hit to a building in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona.

No casualties have been reported yet.

Sirens are also said to be sounding in Negev, which sits near the Gaza Strip.

Pakistani officials are still working to facilitate talks between the US and Iran.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan earlier said Islamabad’s ‘positive and productive’ efforts to stop the conflict are reaching a ‘critical, sensitive’ stage.

The Israeli military bombed ten ‘key’ sections of rail and bridges in Iran to stop the IRGC from moving weapon systems around, the Times of Israel reports.

Early this morning, Israel warned Iranians to stay away from trains and railway lines or else risk possible death and injury.

Russia’s prime minister Mikhail Mishutin has said the disruption caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has created ‘new opportunities.’

Mishutin said Russia was seeking to increase its exports of scarce resources, as it deals with the fallout from turning the nation’s economy to a war footing.

He said: ‘For our country, the current situation – if we consider exclusively the economic aspects – creates new opportunities to improve the financial position of export-oriented industries and to provide additional budget revenues.

‘Our country has the capacity to increase overseas shipments of resources that are currently scarce due to the Middle East crisis, or that may become scarce in the near term, including food-related supplies.’