LIVE: Countries warn global energy crisis is now ‘critical’

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has declared the time has come for negotiations with Iran to reopen the blocked Strait of Hormuz given the perilous energy situation around the globe.

Speaking in Australia at the conclusion of a new free-trade agreement between the EU and Australia, she said: ‘The situation is critical for the energy supply allies worldwide.

‘We all feel the knock-on effects on gas and oil prices, our businesses and our societies, but it is of utmost importance that we come to a solution that is negotiated, and this puts an end to the hostilities that we see in the Middle East.’

Amazon’s cloud arm has said its service in Bahrain had been disrupted after drone attacks hit the region.

An Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesperson said the disruption was ongoing, without specifying the exact location affected or any potential damage done.

‘The AWS Bahrain Region has been disrupted as a result of the ongoing conflict,’ the spokesperson said, adding that the company was helping affected customers migrate to AWS servers elsewhere in the world.

‘We are working closely with local authorities and prioritising the safety of our personnel.’

AFP journalists based in Bahrain said the government’s portal for online procedures was inaccessible, as were several other services.

The country’s main telecommunications company sent a message to its customers apologising for a ‘technical problem’ affecting its operations.

Donald Trump has held talks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the Iran war and how the Strait of Hormuz can be kept open.

The talks were revealed by the American ambassador to India Sergio Gor.

Iran will demand significant concessions from the US if mediation efforts lead to talks, three sources have said in Tehran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are said to exert growing influence over decision-making which has resulted in a hardening of its negotiating position, it is claimed.

In any talks with the US, Iran would not only demand an end to the war but concessions that are likely red lines for Donald Trump – guarantees against future military action, compensation for wartime losses and formal control of the Strait of Hormuz, the sources said.

Iran would also refuse to negotiate any limitations to its ballistic missile program, they said, an issue that had been a red line for Tehran during the talks that were taking place when the U.S. and Israel launched their attack last month.

Trump said on Monday that Washington had already had ‘very strong talks’ with Tehran more than three weeks into the war, but Iran has publicly denied this.

Three senior sources said Iran had only had preliminary discussions with Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt over whether the groundwork existed for talks with the United States over ending the war.

Iran has named a former Revolutionary Guards commander to succeed Ali Larijani as head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, whose appointment was confirmed by state television, is a former deputy commander-in-chief of Iran’s ideological army who has also held senior posts in the interior and justice ministries.

Larijani was killed last week in an Israeli strike, ending the life of one of the most heavyweight non-clerical figures in Iranian politics who had been seen as a possible pointman in any eventual talks with the United States.

Zolghadr’s career has been embedded in the Revolutionary Guards, whose stated aim is to protect the Islamic revolution from internal and external threats.

After serving in the 1980s war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Zolghadr was the head of the Guards joint staff for eight years, and then as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Guards for another eight years.

In 2005, he was named deputy interior minister for security and police in the government of then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a move that was seen at the time as bolstering the Guards’ influence in politics.

Since 2023, he had been the secretary of the Expediency Council, a powerful body which plays both an advisory and mediating role between Iran’s various power structures and the supreme leader.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the economic challenges from the Iran war may be ‘significant’ as she shared that contingency planning was under way for energy bill support ‘for those who need it most’.

She told the Commons: ‘The previous government pushed up borrowing, interest rates, inflation and mortgage costs with an unfunded, untargeted package of support under Liz Truss. That gave the support to the most wealthiest of households.’

Ms Reeves added: ‘That left us with high levels of national debt, a cheque written then for a bill that is still being paid today.

‘I can confirm to the House that contingency planning is taking place for every eventuality so that we can keep costs down for everyone and provide support for those who need it most, acting within our ironclad fiscal rules to keep inflation and interest rates as low as possible.’

Hezbollah will fight to prevent Israeli troops from occupying southern Lebanon, one of the group’s high-ranking officials has said.

Hassan Fadlallah said such an occupation would pose an ‘existential threat’ to Lebanon as a state.

Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz said earlier today that he had instructed the military to establish a ‘security zone’ south of the Litani River, which runs about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the Israeli border.

Katz has previously threatened Lebanon’s government it would lose territory if it did not disarm Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Tehran that drew Lebanon into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran when it fired into Israel on March 2.

On Tuesday, Katz said in a meeting with the military chief of staff that the military would ‘control the remaining bridges and the security zone up to the Litani’, and was creating a ‘defensive buffer’.

The Litani River meets the Mediterranean about 30 km (20 miles) north of the Israeli border with Lebanon.

The military has destroyed five bridges over the river since March 13 and has accelerated the demolition of homes in Lebanese villages close to the Israeli border as part of a campaign that Israel says is aimed at Hezbollah and not Lebanese civilians.

Iran’s embassy in South Africa has mocked Donald Trump over claims the US held constructive talks with Iran to end the war.

Diplomats in Pretoria posted an imagined one-way conversation between Trump, named President of PEACE, and the Ayatollah in which the President agrees to pause strikes for five days.

It comes after Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday that the US and Iran had held ‘very good and productive’ conversations about a ‘complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East’.

As a result, Trump said he was postponing for five days a plan to hit Iran’s power plants, which he had threatened if Iran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Sri Lanka has ordered street lights, neon signs and billboard lighting to be switched off in a drive to cut energy consumption by 25 percent to tackle supply shortages.

Government spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa said all state institutions had been asked to reduce the use of air conditioning as the Middle East war entered its fourth week, driving up oil and gas prices.

Sri Lanka has already raised fuel prices by a third since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, triggering retaliatory attacks that have disrupted global energy supplies.

‘We need to reduce consumption by at least 25 percent,’ Jayatissa told reporters in Colombo. ‘We hope the private sector too will abide by the guidelines drafted by a panel of experts.’

The island has introduced a four-day work week and brought back work-from-home arrangements since last week, to reduce pressure on the transport network.

The minister said the new measures include switching off advertising illumination after 9:00pm (3:30pm UK time) and all street lights, except in high security areas.

Bangladesh have hiked jet fuel prices by 79 per cent as costs surge in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran.

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) order, the second this month, means aviation fuel prices have leapt by 111 percent since the start of the war, with the price now set at $1.32 per litre.

‘We had to adjust the jet fuel price for the second time this month, considering the international fuel price rate which has shot up,’ BERC Chairman Jalal Ahmed said in a statement.

Millions of Bangladeshis work abroad – many in Middle East nations – and the price rise sparked worries of another cost to their plane ticket.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a state of ​national energy emergency in response to the Middle ‌East conflict and what he called an ‘imminent danger’ posed to the country’s energy supply.

Marcos said a committee has been formed to ensure the ​orderly movement, supply, distribution and availability of fuel, ​food, medicines, agricultural products and other essential goods.

The state of emergency was declared just hours after the country’s energy secretary said the Philippines planned to boost the output of its coal-fired power plants to keep electricity costs down as the war wreaks havoc with gas shipments.

‘A state of national energy emergency is hereby declared in light of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and the resulting imminent danger posed upon the availability and stability of the country’s energy supply,’ the executive order released tonight said.

The Philippines, which has some of the region’s highest energy costs, is heavily dependent on imported fuel to keep its power plants running.

European stock markets steadied, oil prices jumped and the dollar rebounded as traders turned cautious over the prospect of a settlement to end the Iran war.

Markets across the Europe and US rallied on Monday after Donald Trump delayed strikes on Iranian energy sites and hailed ‘very good’ talks with Iran.

Asian equities caught up with the strong gains earlier today but European stock markets failed to build on the previous session’s surge.

Oil prices, which had tumbled on Monday, rebounded slightly with Brent going back over $100 a barrel.

‘European equities have shown the first sign of fading momentum after yesterday’s relief rally, with markets increasingly questioning the validity of Trump’s claim of positive negotiations with Iran,’ noted Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

Trump on Monday stepped back from his threat to attack energy sites citing ‘very good’ talks to end the war.

Key figures at around 11am UK time:

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.5 percent at $101.45 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.6 percent at $90.45 per barrel

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,911.79 points

Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 7,730.13

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.3 percent at 22,560.68

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.4 percent at 52,252.28 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 2.8 percent at 25,063.71 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.8 percent at 3,881.28 (close)

New York – Dow: UP 1.4 percent at 46,208.47 points (close)