Pete Hegseth guarantees Iran will ‘surrender’: Live updates

Good morning, if you’re just joining us we are continuing our live coverage of the US-Israel war with Iran as the conflict enters a new week.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know:

• Oil prices rise have surged more than $100 a barrel for first time in four years as Asian markets slid at the start of trading
• Pete Hegseth, the US Defense Secretary, last night guaranteed Iran will ‘surrender’ and President Donald Trump will set the terms of their defeat
• Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, was selected by the country’s Assembly of Experts to succeed his father
• Human Rights Watch accused Israel of “unlawfully” using white phosphorus over residential parts of the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor last week
• Bahrain’s health ministry said that an Iranian drone attack on the island of Sitra overnight wounded 32 civilians, all of them Bahraini citizens
• Several explosions have been heard in the Qatari capital Doha as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait all reported new attacks
• The US military has confirmed a seventh service member has killed following an Iranian attack in Saudi Arabia

by Patrick Harrington

A spike in prices at the petrol pump is feared after the cost of a barrel of oil rocketed above $100 for the first time in four years.

An emergency meeting of the G7 has been called, where firefighting options including the release of all oil reserves will be discussed.

The Straight of Hormuz is at a standstill amid the Middle East conflict, which means there is major uncertainty hanging over short-term supply.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to ‘set ablaze’ any Western tanker that attempts to navigate the strait, meaning hundreds of ships laden with oil have amassed outside it.

For the first time since war broke out, the effect of the disruption was felt acutely this morning when the price of a barrel of Brent crude was up almost 24 percent.

About a fifth of the world’s oil supply is usually shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, but traffic through the narrow passage has all but halted since the war started a week ago.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on ’60 Minutes’ Sunday night that America is going to ‘make sure that their nuclear ambitions are never achieved,’ when asked about the operation in Iran.

‘We’re willing to go as far as we need to to be successful,’ he said.

When he was then asked about the option of sending boots on the ground, Hegseth said: ‘We reserve the right – we would be completely unwise if we did not reserve the right to take any particular option, whether it included boots on the ground or no boots on the ground.’

Hegseth was also asked what President Donald Trump meant when he said the US is demanding ‘unconditional surrender.’

”It means we’re fighting to win. It means we set the terms. We’ll know when they’re not capable of fighting. There’ll be a point where they’ll have no choice but to do that. Whether they know it or not, they will be combat-ineffective. They will surrender,’ he replied.

The Defense Secretary noted that Trump will ultimately set the terms of Iran’s surrender.

‘Whether they want to admit it or not, whether their pride lets them say it out loud or not — it’s President Trump who will set the terms of that,’ Hegseth said.

A human rights group has accused the Israeli military of ‘unlawfully’ using shells containing white phosphorus, a controversial incendiary munition, in Lebanon.

Human Rights Watch said Israel fired white phosphorus using artillery at residential areas in the southern Lebanese village of Yohmor.

The group said it happened hours after the Israeli military warned the residents of the village and dozens of others in southern Lebanon to evacuate.

Human Rights Watch said it could not independently identify if any residents were still in the area or if anyone was harmed.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, it has maintained that it uses white phosphorus as a smoke screen and not to target civilians.

Human rights advocates say the use of white phosphorus is illegal under international law when the white-hot chemical substance is fired into populated areas.

It can set buildings on fire and burn human flesh down to the bone. Survivors are at risk of infections and organ or respiratory failure, even if their burns are small.

A black smoke cloud is filling the skies above Beirut after an Israeli airstrike on the capital’s southern suburbs earlier today.

Footage on AFPTV’s live broadcast showed large plumes of smoke rising from the area, a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group.

Earlier on Monday, the Israeli military warned it would strike branches of Al-Qard al-Hassan, a Hezbollah-linked financial firm mainly operating in the group’s strongholds.

London’s FTSE 100 Index fell nearly 2% soon after opening amid a mounting oil crisis as the Middle East conflict causes an acute supply crunch.

The blue chip share index down 1.8% within the first 10 minutes after trading opened.

The Frankfurt and Paris stock markets also shed more than 2.5% in morning deals.

It comes after Asian markets also slid during trading today.

Japan’s Nikkei index of stocks closed down more than 5% and South Korea’s Kospi by 6% on Monday, on the back of turmoil in the Middle East.

by Tom Midlane

United Arab Emirates air defences shouted ‘target destroyed’ as they hunted down and shot Iranian drones.

The UAE foreign ministry released the dramatic footage showing Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being lined up in an anti-missile system’s crosshairs.

A rattle of gunfire can then be heard as the drones are exploded, before the operator reports: ‘Target destroyed, sir.’

Writing on social media, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they were ‘ready to deter any threat’.

The Ministry posted on X: ‘Footage showing the UAE’s air defences intercepting and destroying Iranian UAVs that attempted to target the country.

‘There is no compromise when it comes to the nation’s security and sovereignty. The UAE Armed Forces stand ready to deter any threat.’

As Iran retaliates against its oil-rich Gulf neighbours, the benchmark price for a barrel of crude soared beyond $100 for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

Trump dismissed the price spike, a politically sensitive issue in the United States, as a ‘small price to pay’ for removing the alleged threat of Iran’s nuclear programme.

In a sign that the United States does not expect a quick end to the war, the State Department ordered non-emergency staff to leave Saudi Arabia, days after a drone hit the US embassy.

As questions swirl over the length of the war, Trump told the Times of Israel that any decision on when to end hostilities will be a joint one with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘I think it’s mutual… a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account,’ Trump said.

China has declared it opposes any attempts to target Mojtaba Khamenei after he was named Iran’s new Supreme Leader to replace his father.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters today that Iran’s decision to appoint the younger Khamenei was ‘based on its constitution’.

‘China opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs under any pretext, and Iran’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity should be respected,’ he said when asked about the threats against the new leader.

Israel’s military has threatened to target any successor to former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed over a week ago in a first wave of US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Donald Trump had previously dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as a ‘lightweight’, and insisted again Sunday on ABC News before the announcement that: ‘If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long.’

Mojtaba Khamenei has been named as Iran’s next supreme leader, Iranian state TV said on Sunday.

The 56-year-old is the second eldest son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose death was announced on February 28 after he was killed in joint Israeli-US missile strikes.

Mojtaba had long been considered a contender for the post despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.

As Supreme Leader he will now be the commander-in-chief of the regime’s armed forces and appoint the leaders of all military branches, as well as choosing the head of the judiciary.

He is expected to continue Ali Khamenei’s hardline policies and is a supporter of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon, unlike his father who had issued a fatwa against their acquisition and use.

Mojtaba was born in Mashhad in 1969 and served in the Iran-Iraq war, later becoming one of the wealthiest people in Iran.

He has huge wealth stored in banks in the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Venezuela, and Africa, along with around $300 million in gold and diamonds, and Swiss bank accounts, according to the Arab-language Alquds Alarabi newspaper.

G7 finance ministers will today discuss a joint release of oil from emergency reserves co-ordinated by the International Energy Agency, it has been reported.

Three G7 countries, including the US, have so far expressed support for the idea, according to the Financial Times.

A senior Japanese parliament member said on Sunday that the government instructed a national oil reserve storage site to prepare for a possible release of crude.

Japan relies on the Middle East for around 95% of its crude, with roughly 70% shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.

The spike in oil prices weighed on stock markets in Asia, with Japan’s Nikkei down 5.8% and import-reliant South Korea falling 6.5%.

Bahrain’s state-owned oil company Bapco has declared force majeure on its shipments after Iran struck the kingdom’s only oil refinery causing a fire to break out.

The sprawling Al Ma’ameer complex was targeted by a strike earlier this morning.

‘Outbreak of a fire due to the Iranian aggression targeting a facility in Al Ma’ameer, with material damage reported but no casualties recorded, and the competent authorities have begun firefighting procedures,’ Bahrain News Agency said in a post on X.

As a result, Bapco has declared force majeure, a legal maneuver that releases a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.

Bapco ‘hereby serves notice of force majeure on its group operations which have been affected by the ongoing regional conflict in the Middle East and the recent attack on its refinery complex’, said a statement posted by the company.