LIVE: Iran blitzes Gulf as Trump says US will leave war ‘very soon’

France and Germany has hit back at Donald Trump after the President declared he was considering pulling the US out of Nato.

Trump said he could order the action after allies failed to back US military action against Iran and refused his suggestion to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking at a conference in Paris, Alice Rufo, a French junior minister, said: ‘Let me remind you what NATO is. It is a military alliance concerned with the security of the Euro-Atlantic region.

‘It is not designed to carry out operations in the Strait of Hormuz, which would be a breach of international law.’

While a German government spokesperson reaffirmed Berlin’s commitment to the Nato.

‘This isn’t the first time he’s done this, and since it’s a recurring phenomenon, you can probably judge the consequences for yourself. It’s not my place here to comment on the American president’s words.

‘I simply want to state on behalf of the German government that we are, of course, committed to Nato’.

Children as young as 12 are being allowed to join Iran’s feared Basij volunteer paramilitary force to help catch people sharing intelligence.

Basij units, part of the ideological army of the Revolutionary Guards, are believed to have played a role alongside other security forces in the violence against anti-government protesters in January which left thousands dead.

Rahim Nadali, an official with the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, said on state television last week that Basij units had been inundated with volunteers.

‘Considering the ages of those requesting to join, we have now lowered the minimum age to 12 years old, because children aged 12-13 want to be involved,’ he said.

Analysts have varying interpretations of the move, with some seeing it as a sign of desperation, or a lack of volunteers.

Others said the move was evidence of a more radical turn by authorities.

UAE petrol prices increased more than 30 per cent today with diesel soaring 72 per cent, one month into the Middle East war.

Monthly rates set by the UAE’s fuel price committee put petrol up 31-33 per cent for April, with the highest grade at 3.39 AED ($0.92). Diesel, commonly used by trucks and buses, rose to 4.69 AED ($1.28) per litre.

Iran, the UAE’s near neighbour across the Strait of Hormuz, has targeted the major oil producer with daily drone and missile attacks since February 28.

The strait, which normally carries about 20 per cent of global oil production from the Gulf, is largely closed under the threat of Iranian attacks, sending prices per barrel soaring.

Petrol, up sharply around the world, also rose in other Gulf countries. In Kuwait, another OPEC oil producer, high-grade petrol is up 12.5 per cent for April, while Qatar’s standard gasoline lifted 7.9 per cent.

Japan and France have agreed to push for an end to the Iran war and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to oil and gas tankers, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said.

Speaking after meeting Emmanuel Macron in Tokyo, Takaichi said there is ‘great significance’ in deepening ties between the two countries.

Japan, which normally gets around ​90% of its ⁠oil from the Middle East, has begun drawing on its oil reserves to cushion the economic blow.

Speaking alongside Takaichi, Macron said he shared her position on the need to restore freedom of navigation in the strait.

France has held talks with dozens of countries as it seeks proposals for a mission to reopen the waterway once the conflict ends.

Japan has said it could consider dispatching minesweepers, though the scope of any role would be constrained by its pacifist constitution.

The US military yesterday accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of ‘spreading lies’ following its claims US marines were attacked in Saudi Arabia

US Central Command, otherwise known as CENTCOM, took the step to call out Iran’s miliary which claimed a gathering of American pilots and marines were targeted at the Al-Kharj Air Base.

The Guards claimed at least 200 soldiers were killed or wounded during its operation in a statement published yesterday.

But CENTCOM says the claim is false and is being spread to ‘distract from the truth’ in the conflict.

It said in a post on X: ‘IRGC leaders said the same thing for Dubai on March 28. The Iranian regime’s claims were false then and are false now for Saudi Arabia. No U.S. personnel have been attacked.

‘The IRGC’s continued efforts to spread lies are desperate attempts to distract from the truth. Iranian forces are losing vast amounts of military capability as U.S. forces continue delivering unrelenting firepower.’

A Houthi soldier mans a machine gun during a rally in Sanaa earlier this month

by David Patrikarakos, Special Correspondent

The world is lurching towards a new era of mass warfare in which ever more advanced technology is deployed in the service of increasingly primitive ideologies. Nowhere is this clearer than with the Houthis of Yemen.

In recent days, the terror group has launched ballistic missiles at Israel, claiming to have targeted military sites, though Israel says only a limited number were fired and all were intercepted.

Officially known as Ansar Allah (Defenders of God), the Houthis are a clan from the remote mountain province of Saada in Yemen’s north west, rooted in the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam.

The group emerged in the 1990s under Hussein al-Houthi, a man profoundly influenced by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, and his tenets remain its ideological bedrock. Killed by the Yemeni government in 2004, he was succeeded by his equally fanatical brother, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who leads the movement to this day.

From a few thousand fighters in the early 2000s, the UN now estimates their forces to be in the hundreds of thousands.

New images have emerged showing a fire near Kuwait’s international airport after fuel tanks were struck by a drone.

The attack sparked a large fire but causing no casualties, Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA said earlier today.

Emergency teams rushed to the site, but initial reports ​showed only ​material ⁠damage at the facility run by the Kuwait Aviation Fueling Company, the agency added, citing a spokesperson for civil aviation authorities.

Iran’s steel facilities have been targeted by US-Israeli airstrikes, Iranian media is reporting.

According to Fars news agency, production plants in Isfahan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces were damaged during ‘massive attacks’.

‘Initial assessments indicate massive attacks, with significant damage and destruction to production units’ at Mobarakeh Steel Company, one of Iran’s biggest, in the central province of Isfahan

It added that the fresh attacks took place last night, hitting the complex in Isfahan as well as one of the company’s subsidiaries, Sefid Dasht Steel, in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province which ‘sustained damage and losses’.

Steel is a strategically important material essential for industrial and military production, including of missiles, drones and ships.

by Imogen Garfinkel, Senior Foreign News Reporter

Donald Trump last night gave one of his strongest signals yet that his war may be coming to an end as he vowed to ‘leave’ Iran within two or three weeks.

But as he prepares to address the nation tonight ‘to provide an important update on Iran,’ could the US President be buying time for a surprise invasion on Good Friday?

Ever since the start of the conflict, Trump has sent out a flurry of contradictory messages: from declaring the war is won, to giving the regime ten more days to make a deal, to threatening to ‘completely obliterate’ Iran’s energy infrastructure the Strait of Hormuz was not ‘immediately’ reopened for business.

Nato nations have been taunted as ‘cowards’ and nothing more than a ‘paper tiger’ alliance which the US ‘needs nothing from’, while at other points they are called upon to ‘go to the strait’ and reopen it themselves.

While the US has said talks with Iran were ongoing and expressed optimism, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Tuesday he had received direct messages from US special envoy Steve Witkoff but those did not constitute ‘negotiations’.

Airstrikes earlier today hit an area near the former US embassy in Tehran, damaging parts of the complex’s outer walls, it has been reported.

Footage carried by the Mehr news agency showed the aftermath of the strikes in central Tehran, with shops damaged, windows blown out and debris scattered across the area near the site.

The wall of the former embassy complex, now a museum known as the ‘Den of Spies’, appeared damaged in the footage.

It was not immediately clear what had been targeted in the area.

The complex, daubed with anti-American murals, has become a symbol of the decades-long animosity between Iran and the US.

Starmer insists he’s making decisions ‘we think are right’ as he avoided saying people should change their behaviour in wake of the Iran oil crisis.

Asked about whether the public should take any actions following directives from other world leaders, Sir Keir said: ‘We had a COBRA meeting looking at the ongoing impacts here in Britain yesterday – that is being monitored daily’.

It comes after Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged people to use less of their cars in the coming weeks.

Sir Keir said he had spoken to the relevant business leaders in shipping, finance, insurance and energy supply and added he is making decisions ‘that we think are right’

‘I emphasise again, it’s clear to me that the main determinant now of the impact is going to be how long the conflict goes on and the question of how quickly we can get safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz,’ he added.

Britain will pursue a closer security and economic partnership with the European Union in light of the Iran oil crisis, Sir Keir Starmer said.

Speaking at a No 10 press conference, Sir Keir said: ‘We will continue to stand up for the British national interest, and we will continue to do what we must to guide our country calmly through this storm.

‘However, it is increasingly clear that as the world continues down this volatile path, our long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the European Union.’

He added: ‘As the Chancellor has rightly pointed out, Brexit did deep damage to our economy, and the opportunities to strengthen our security and cut the cost of living are simply too big to ignore.’

Sir Keir said a new EU summit will be announced in the coming weeks.