LIVE: Iran vows to mine Persian Gulf if Trump attacks Kharg Island

An aerial view of Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil exports hub

Iran’s state media is reporting any attack on the country’s southern coast and islands will lead to Gulf routes being cut with the laying of sea mines.

The US is considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran’s Kharg Island, the country’s main oil export hub, to pressure Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping, according to Axios.

‘Any attempt to attack Iran’s coasts or islands will cause all access routes in the Gulf (…) to be mined with various types of sea mines, including floating mines that can be released from the coast,’ a statement from , Iran’s Defence Council said today.

‘In this case, the entire Gulf will practically be in a situation similar to the Strait of Hormuz for a long time (…) One should not forget the failure of more than 100 minesweepers in the 1980s in removing a few sea mines.’

The Defence Council recalled that non-belligerent states can only pass through the Strait of Hormuz by coordinating passage with Iran.

General Sir Richard Barrons, who headed the UK’s Joint Forces Command between 2013 and 2016, said Iran’s power may have been ‘serially underestimated’.

The former forces chief was responding to questions over whether Trump was right to say the UK had done ‘too little and too late’ or whether opponents of the war were correct that the UK had been sucked into an American war.

He added: ‘Both could be true. War generally does not follow a script and the enemy always gets a vote and, in this case, the enemy’s vote, Iran, has been serially underestimated.’

Listen to his remarks below:

Thousands of US Marines are heading to the war-torn Middle East as Washington decides how to force open the Strait of Hormuz.

It is reportedly mulling a potential invasion of Kharg Island to seize the strategically vital territory through which Iran exports 90 per cent of its crude oil and to force Tehran to surrender.

Last week it was reported the White House was discussing plans to occupy or blockade the island.

‘We’ve always had boots on the ground in conflicts under every president, including Trump,’ a senior official told Axios. ‘I know this is a fixation in the media, and I get the politics. But the president is going to do what’s right.’

At the end of last week, America announced the deployment of 5,000 marines and sailors, as well as USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, to the Middle East, signalling the possibility of a ground operation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also hinted at putting boots on the ground as war rages on, admitting there must be a ‘ground component’ involved in forcing the Iranian regime to crumble.

US-Israeli strikes near the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran are extremely dangerous with Russia sharing its concerns with the US, the Kremlin has said.

Such strikes could have irreparable consequences, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia has today called for ‘political and diplomatic’ settlement to the war after Donald Trump’s ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

‘We believe that the situation should have transitioned to a political and diplomatic settlement,’ Peskov told journalists at a briefing.

‘This is the only thing that can effectively contribute to defusing the catastrophically tense situation that has now developed in the region.’

There is ‘no assessment’ the UK is being targeted by Iranian missiles, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Asked whether the UK was within range of Iranian missiles following an attempted strike against Diego Garcia, Sir Keir told broadcasters: ‘We carry out assessments all the time in order to keep us safe, and there’s no assessment that we’re being targeted in that way at all.

‘But of course, it’s my job to ensure that British interests, British lives are always uppermost in my mind.

‘What we need here is de-escalation, and that’s why we had a statement from a number of countries last week about what we need to do about the Strait of Hormuz, which obviously needs careful coordination and a viable plan.

‘But it’s very important we defend our interests, we defend British lives, but without getting dragged into the war, and that’s the clear divide I’ve put in place.’

by Angharad Carrick, Business News Editor

The FTSE 100 plunged into the red once again this morning to reach a three-month low, as President Trump stepped up his threats against Iran over the weekend.

London’s main index lost 1.75 per cent, or 170 points, at the open, after losing 3.34 per cent last week to finish at 9,918.33, the lowest since the end of December.

Investors are retreating after Trump’s threats over the weekend to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by the end of today. Iran warned that it would target more of the region’s energy sites in retaliation.

Reports of preparations being made for US troops on the ground in Iran are also causing concern, as investors brace for a protracted conflict.

Elsewhere, Iran declared force majeure on oilfields run by foreign companies, which prompted another surge in brent crude, which reached $118 a barrel at one point last week before closing at $112.19. It climbed 1 per cent to $113 this morning.

Israel’s military said its own artillery fire killed an Israeli civilian close to where forces are fighting Hezbollah.

The civilian was killed yesterday near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

After opening an investigation, the military said ‘the initial findings suggest that the Israeli civilian was killed by IDF artillery fire conducted to support IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon’.

The IDF added that ‘several severe issues and operational errors took place during the incident, including both the planning and execution of the fire’.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to chair a Cobra meeting today on the war in the Middle East following talks with Donald Trump

The leaders spoke last night about the need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: ‘The Prime Minister spoke to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, this evening.

‘The leaders discussed the current situation in the Middle East, and in particular, the need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to resume global shipping.

‘They agreed that reopening the Strait of Hormuz was essential to ensure stability in the global energy market. They agreed to speak again soon.’

China has warned further attacks in the Middle East risk is creating an ‘uncontrollable situation’ in the region as Donald Trump threatens to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants.

The conflict and its impact on Hormuz has threatened global energy security as well as China’s oil supplies and the ‘use of force will only lead to a vicious cycle’, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news conference, when asked about Trump’s threats.

‘If the war expands further and the situation deteriorates again, the entire region could be plunged into an uncontrollable situation,’ he said.

Beijing is a partner of Iran, which has been targeted by US-Israeli attacks since last month, but has also said it ‘does not go along’ with Tehran’s strikes against Gulf states housing US military bases and urged a ceasefire.

Trump, who was due to visit Beijing this month but delayed his trip to deal with the fallout from the war, had called on China and other countries to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump gave Tehran a 48-hour deadline on Saturday to end its partial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway into the Gulf through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil flows, or risk an attack on its vital energy infrastructure.

European stock markets extended heavy losses at the start of trading today following sharp falls in Asia as oil prices jumped on the escalating Iran war.

London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index shed 1.4 per cent, Paris lost 1.7 per cent and Frankfurt tumbled 2.0 per cent.

In Asia, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index and Japan’s Nikkei sharply dropped in early trade.

The Kospi was down 4.69 percent at 5,509.88 points. The Nikkei 225 was down 3.54 percent at 51,483.91 points.

Chris Beauchamp, Chief Analyst at IG commented: ‘Investors who have spent the weekend watching fresh strikes in the Middle East are now waiting to see what will happen when Trump’s 48 hour deadline expires tonight.

‘But they are in no mood to hang around, and have continued to sell stocks and precious metals. Each day that the war goes does more damage to the global economy and drives inflation higher, with recession chances rising by the hour.’

Power cuts have been reported across Tehran today after the latest Israeli airstrikes rained down on Iran’s capital.

According to the New York Times, multiple people living in different neighbourhoods of the city are reporting outages.

Powerful explosions were reported across central, southern and eastern Tehran, with Iranian air defence systems activated throughout the capital, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Middle East Eye has reported residents using torches in Khorramabad, west of Tehran, where a building was destroyed by bombing.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported airstrikes had targeted five areas of the Iranian capital while Israeli military said it had ‘begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting Iranian terror regime infrastructure’.

by Andrew Jehring and Martin Robinson

Donald Trump has promised the ‘total decimation’ of Iran as reports emerged of American plans for a lengthy ground war in the Middle East with thousands of US marines arriving in the region this week.

Amid reports he is ready to send his troops, Mr Trump promised that the destruction of Iran would ‘work out very good’ and the rogue state is ‘getting their comeuppance’.

He may seize Kharg Island, Iran’s oil terminal in the Persian Gulf, although the White House insists no final decision has been made.

Iran has ferociously rejected President Trump’s ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Midnight tonight, UK time, and threatened to wipe out the entire region’s energy infrastructure.

Trump warned Tehran on Saturday it had 48 hours to allow cargo through the vital global shipping lane ‘without threat’ or he would ‘obliterate’ their power plants.

But the regime hit back yesterday saying if its plants were targeted then energy infrastructure ‘across the entire region’ would be ‘irreversibly destroyed’.