Closing summary
Hello and thank you for tuning into our live coverage of events in the Middle East.
We are closing this blog, but you can continue to follow our coverage in our new blog.
For now, here is a quick recap of the latest developments:
The Iranian army has vowed revenge for the killing of security chief Ali Larijani in an Israeli airstrike, with Iran’s army chief threatening to launch a “decisive and regrettable” retaliation.
Iran also confirmed the death of the Basij militia commander Gholamreza Soleimani, after Israel earlier claimed its military assassinated him. It marks the highest level assassination in the war since joint US-Israeli strikes killed the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei on 28 February.
The Israeli military called on residents of a central Beirut neighbourhood to evacuate early Wednesday, warning of an imminent attack on the Lebanese capital targeting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. In a statement on social media, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee issued “an urgent warning to residents of... Bashoura neighbourhood”, saying Israeli forces would operate against a Hezbollah facility there.
Donald Trump continued to lash out at Nato allies, claiming “we don’t need” their help in the Iran war after pressuring them to help the US secure the strait of Hormuz, but added that “they should’ve been there”. Trump said Nato was making a “foolish mistake” and once again framed the issue as a loyalty test for the alliance.
The US military said it targeted sites along Iran’s coastline near the strait of Hormuz because Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a risk to international shipping there. US Central Command said US forces successfully employed “multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions” in the strikes.
Trump’s former director of the national counterterrorism center Joe Kent quit, saying he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran”. In his resignation letter, Kent accused “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” of deploying “a misinformation campaign” that ultimately “sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran”.
Israel’s assault on Lebanon has killed at least 912 people, including 111 children, and wounded 2,221 others, per the Lebanese health ministry, with over a million people displaced.
Israeli attacks on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in Lebanon may amount to war crimes, the United Nations human rights office said.
The Israeli military earlier issued a fresh evacuation order for the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre and its surrounding villages and Palestinian refugee camps, sparking an exodus of residents from Lebanon’s fourth largest city.
A projectile hit the premises of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday night. But no damage to the plant or injuries to staff were reported, Iran told the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Updated
Middle East crude oil benchmarks have soared to all-time highs, becoming the most expensive in the world, even as trade slumps because of the war in Iran.
With airstrikes on shipping and energy infrastructure and the effective closure of the key strait of Hormuz – the gateway for one-fifth of the world’s oil – some traders are even saying the benchmarks have lost relevance because of the disruption to supply.
Oil prices generally fell slightly this morning after sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures showed an increase in US crude inventories. But prices remain well above where they were before the war with Iran.
And that surge in the benchmarks, used to price millions of barrels of Middle Eastern crude bound for Asia, is pushing up costs for Asian refiners, forcing them to seek alternatives or reduce output further in coming months.
