LIVE: Iran threatens US with ‘crushing’ attacks

Oil prices have risen to $106 per barrel after the US President addressed in his first primetime speech since launching the war on Iran.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil was $99 before he spoke to the nation yesterday.

Trump blamed the spike on the ‘Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighbouring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.

He did briefly acknowledge concerns among US citizens about the war causing soaring fuel prices.

However, Trump insisted these rising prices would soon go down while also adding that countries that get most of their oil from the Gulf region should lead the way in opening the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively blocked by Iran.

Britain, France and other U.S. allies have said they are willing to help to keep the strait open, but only after hostilities have ceased.

‘They can do it easily,’ Trump said. ‘We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.’

Trump was also frustrated that NATO allies had not offered to help open the strait, even threatening to withdraw from the 76-year-old alliance.

While he had told Reuters earlier in the day that he would discuss the US relationship with NATO in his speech, he did not mention the bloc.

The US President vowed to bring Iran back to the ‘Stone Ages’ in a televised speech on Wednesday.

The US President said his military had nearly accomplished its goals in Iran, but offered no clear timeline for the conflict coming to an end.

Despite facing pressure from allies amid sliding approval ratings, Trump declined to lay out a concrete plan to wind down the war, which is now in its fifth week.

He insisted the US would finish the job ‘very fast’ and that they had ‘all the cards’ in his first primetime address since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.

He glossed over some major unresolved issues such as the status of Iran’s enriched uranium and access through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic passage for global oil supplies, which Iran has effectively closed.

Trump said the strait would open ‘naturally’ once the war ended’, breaking little ground to offer reassurance to the US allies as well as the American public.

The president and his advisers have offered shifting explanations and timelines for the conflict, as well as what they will require from Iran for it to end.

While portraying Iran as militarily neutered, Trump also said on Wednesday night the US would hit the nation hard for another two or three weeks.

If the country’s new leaders did not negotiate satisfactorily, he said, his country. would begin attacking the nation’s electricity generation and oil infrastructure.

We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said. ‘

We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”

In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.

Yet if during this period of time, no deal is made, we have our eyes on key targets.”

A day before, Trump told reporters Tehran did not have to make a deal as a condition for the conflict to wind down.

by Imogen Garfinkel, Senior Foreign News Reporter

Donald Trump threatened to stop supplying weapons for Ukraine in order to pressure European nations into joining a ‘coalition of the willing’ to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to people briefed on the discussions.

Ever since the war began, the Islamic Republic has enforced the de facto closure of the vital waterway through which a fifth of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply passes.

Last month, the US President called on Nato nations to help him reopen the narrow passageway, but he was rebuffed by European capitals which said it would be impossible while fighting was ongoing, with several also claiming that this was ‘not our war’.

In response, Trump threatened to stop supplies to Nato’s Purl, a European-funded initiative which secures the procurement of US weapons for Kyiv’s war, according to the Financial Times.

As a result of the US President’s warning, and at the urging of Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, a group of countries including France, Germany and the UK issued an urgent statement on March 19 which said: ‘We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait [of Hormuz].’

Former Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi was critically injured in a strike that also resulted in the death of his wife, according to reports from Iranian media.

Kharazi, who remains an advisor to the government and was reportedly working with Pakistan on possible US-Iran negotiations, was targeted earlier today at his residence in Tehran.

The attack was a joint US-Israeli strike, according to Iranian newspapers Shargh, Etemad, and Ham Mihan.

Following the attack, he suffered severe injuries and was hospitalised.

Kharazi served as foreign minister from 1997 to 2005 under reformist former President Mohammad Khatami.

China called on Thursday for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, after US President Donald Trump threatened heavy strikes on the Islamic republic in the coming weeks.

‘Military means cannot fundamentally solve the problem, and the escalation of conflicts is not in the interests of either side,’ Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference, urging ‘the parties concerned to immediately cease military operations.’

Israel said it had launched 400 strikes on Iran in the past two days in a bid to wipe out weapons manufacturing sites.

An ‘extensive wave of strikes overnight’ targeted ‘the heart of Tehran’, a spokesman for the IDF wrote on Telegram messaging app.

‘The IDF intensified its strikes against the Iranian regime’s military manufacturing industries and attacked approximately 15 weapons production sites, including a central complex of the Iranian Ministry of Defense,’ the statement read.

‘This complex housed facilities for the production and development of advanced missiles designed to target fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles.

‘Additionally, air defence systems, launch sites, and facilities for the production and storage of ballistic missiles and anti-aircraft missiles were attacked. The strikes that were carried out are part of an effort to intensify the damage to the core systems and foundations of the Iranian terrorist regime.’

Almost three dozen countries will meet on Thursday in an effort to exert diplomatic and political pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route that has been choked off by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the virtual meeting chaired by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper ‘will assess all viable diplomatic and political measures we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and to resume the movement of vital commodities.’

Iranian attacks on commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe’s oceans, shutting a critical path for the world’s flow of oil and sending petroleum prices soaring.

The U.S. is not among the countries attending Thursday’s meeting. Trump has said securing the waterway is not America’s job, and told US allies to ‘go get your own oil.’

Thirty-five countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and the United Arab Emirates have signed a statement demanding Iran stop its attempts to block the strait.

They have pledged to ‘contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage’ through the waterway.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned Donald Trump for saying he would bring Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages’.

It comes after the US President vowed to attack Tehran’s energy infrastructure if a deal is not struck.

CAIR said Trump’s administration had pulled the US into ‘an illegal war of aggression’ against the desire of the American people.

They added:

Saying tonight that Iranians should be bombed ‘back to the Stone Ages where they belong’ is anti-Muslim, racist, and dehumanising, and targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime.”

They also called on Congress to stop funding and probe Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth.

There have been no injuries after Tehran launched attacks on Israel overnight, according to media reports.

No impacts have been reported following the launch of four missiles last night, The Times of Israel reported.

The fourth missile targeted the north of Israel, the publication said.

The IDF claimed one of the airstrikes carried a cluster bomb warhead.

The Iranian Consulate in Mumbai took to X to launch a scathing response to Donald Trump’s remarks that he had ‘destroyed’ Iran’s missile capabilities.

They attached a video of several missiles being launched into the sky alongside the below caption.

Footage has emerged online appearing to show an Iranian missile striking a US base in Jordan. This video is yet to be verified.

The United Arab Emirates intercepted incoming missiles and drone attacks just before Donald Trump addressed the US.

The country’s ministry warned citizens about sounds heard across the country while confirming the attacks were from Iran.

It said it was working to intercept the attacks from Iran.

During his primetime address, Trump thanked the UAE as well as other allies in the Gulf who have faced retaliatory attacks from Iran.