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Middle East crisis live: Israel says it has launched ‘extensive strikes’ on Iran as Trump says US ‘not ready’ to make a deal to end war

Dubai authorities have temporarily suspended flights at the city’s international airport after a “drone incident” caused a fire in the area. The Dubai media office said a little earlier that Dubai civil defence teams had contained the fire, which resulted “from impact to one of the fuel tanks” in the vicinity of the airport. The office later posted on X: Dubai Civil Aviation Authority announces the temporary suspension of flights at Dubai International Airport as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of all passengers and staff. Travellers are advised to contact their respective airlines for the latest updates regarding their flights. Further updates will be announced through official channels as soon as they become available.

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy wants new system to control Ukraine drone sales

Foreign countries and firms that wish to buy Ukrainian drones should not be able to bypass the Ukrainian government by talking directly to manufacturers, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in remarks released Sunday. Zelenskyy said a new system was needed to prevent this from happening, and that his government had already reprimanded one manufacturer for selling interceptors without considering the implications for Ukraine’s defences. The US-Israel war with Iran has sparked renewed interest in Ukrainian drone interceptors, with the United States and its Middle Eastern allies looking for ways to counter Iranian drone attacks. Ukraine is waiting on Washington and Moscow for the next round of trilateral peace talks, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian president told reporters that the US had proposed hosting a meeting, but Russia refused to send a delegation. “We are waiting for a response from the Americans,” added Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy appeared to push back against Donald Trump’s claim that the US did not need Ukraine’s help on drone defence. The US has reached out to Ukraine “several times” to ask for help for a particular country, or for support for Americans, Zelenskyy said. “All our institutions received these requests, and we responded to them,” he told a briefing, without providing specifics. Trump said on Sunday that Nato faces a “very bad” future if US allies fail to help open the strait of Hormuz, the critical oil transport conduit effectively shut by Iran in the Mideast war. In a brief interview with the Financial Times, Trump said that as the US has aided Ukraine in the war with Russia, he expects Europe to help on the strait of Hormuz, whose closure has sent energy prices soaring around the world. “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato,” said Trump, who over the years has criticised the alliance as freeloading on US largesse. Mr Nobody Against Putin, about a young Russian schoolteacher waging quiet resistance against Russia’s war on Ukraine, won the Oscar for best documentary feature on Sunday. The film, directed by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin, uses two years of footage shot by Talankin to show how the Russian state indoctrinates students with pro-war messages. The videographer documents his own persecution and eventual exile in the film, which The Hollywood Reporter called a “touching, intimate chronicle”. Moldova triggered an environmental alert following a fuel spill in the Dniester River triggered by a Russian military strike in Ukraine, the government said on Sunday. Authorities have “declared a state of environmental alert in the Dniester River basin for 15 days, effective March 16, 2026”, the CNMC government crisis management centre said in a statement. The fuel spill is thought to have been caused by a Russian attack on the Dniester hydroelectric Power Plant in Ukraine on 7 March. After the US waived sanctions on Russian oil, Zelenskyy said he was against allowing oil from Russia to transit through Ukraine via the Druzhba pipeline, which until late January transported Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. “Why can we, in one case, tell the United States that we oppose lifting sanctions, while on the other hand forcing Ukraine to resume oil transit through Druzhba – and at a political price that effectively pays for anti-European policies?” Zelenskyy asked. In 2023, what were thought to be Nazar Daletskyi’s remains were buried in his home village and his mother, Nataliia, visited the grave every week. Three years later, he spoke to her on the phone. Read Shaun Walker’s extraordinary story of the soldier who came back from the dead.

Oil prices rise after Trump claims US ‘totally demolished’ Iran’s Kharg Island export hub

Oil prices have climbed again amid mounting supply fears after the US struck Iran’s vital Kharg Island oil hub and Donald Trump demanded allies help reopen the strait of Hormuz. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.8% to $104.98 per barrel during early trading on Monday. Another weekend of violence across the Middle East compounded concerns over the conflict, and its ramifications for global energy markets. The US president claimed on Saturday that US strikes had “totally demolished” most of Kharg Island, telling NBC News that its military may hit site “a few more times just for fun”. Kharg, a five-mile-long coral island in the Persian Gulf 27 miles from the mainland, is a key processing hub for Iran, through which 90% of the country’s oil exports typically flow. Trump claimed on social media that he had avoided striking oil and energy infrastructure on the island “for reasons of decency”, and that only military targets had been hit. But the decision to strike Kharg, which had been largely left untouched by the US-Israeli operation during its first two weeks, did not soothe the apprehensions rattling through global markets. The strait of Hormuz, one of the most important waterways in the world, through which about a fifth of international oil supplies usually travel, has been all but closed since the start of the crisis. Trump claimed this weekend “many countries” will send ships to help reopen the strait. He did not identify which countries would purportedly do so, but publicly urged specific US allies – France, Japan, South Korea and the UK – and China to join a “team effort” to protect ships passing through the strait from Iranian strikes. The response was decidedly muted. South Korea’s foreign ministry said it was “exploring various measures from multiple angles” to help secure energy transport routes. UK ministers are drawing up plans to send minesweeping drones to the strait, amid concerns that complying with Trump’s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis. Oil prices topped $100 per barrel last week for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago, as the US-Israel triggered a market rally which increased fuel costs around the world – and propelled shares in major oil companies to all-time highs. Frustration has been growing in recent days as fuel costs continued to rise around the world. The average US fuel price hit $3.70 per gallon on Sunday, according to AAA, up 62 cents on where it stood a month ago. “I don’t give a shit about Iran. I don’t want to pay higher gas,” Kevin Dass, an underemployed father of two, told the Guardian in Detroit last week, after paying $3.49 per gallon to fill up his vehicle. Trump, for his part, attempted to play down the risk of fuel prices remaining high for a sustained period. “I think they’ll go lower than they were before,” he told NBC. “There’s so much oil, gas – there’s so much out there,” Trump added. “But you know, it’s being clogged up a little bit. It’ll be unclogged very soon.” Countries across Asia have been scrambling to confront the energy crunch, from fuel subsidies in Thailand to rationing in Bangladesh.

Starmer to announce support for households hit by energy price spike

Keir Starmer will on Monday announce tens of millions of pounds’ worth of support for Britons hit by a spike in energy prices as a result of the Iran war. The prime minister will lay out the plans during a press conference in Downing Street on Monday, during which he will also take aim at some suppliers of heating oil for price gouging. The support package is understood mainly to be targeted at people who use heating oil to warm their homes, many of whom live in rural areas of Northern Ireland where the prime minister visited last week. Starmer will say: “It’s moments like this that tell you what a government is about. “My answer is clear. Whatever challenges lie ahead, this government will always support working people. That is my first instinct – my first priority – to help you with the cost of living through this crisis.” Oil prices have jumped in recent days as a result of the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s oil supply passes. The impact is being felt both at petrol forecourts and in the estimated 1.7m UK households that use heating oil, which are not covered by Ofgem’s energy price cap. The Guardian revealed last week that ministers would provide help to those in England via councils using the new crisis and resilience fund, while devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive money to deliver the help. As well as announcing the extra support, Starmer will criticise suppliers of heating oil, after the competition regulator warned there was evidence that deliveries that had already been agreed were being cancelled or renegotiated. The Competition and Markets Authority has begun a review into the sector and has written to suppliers, asking them for more information about their contracts. Starmer will say on Monday: “I will not tolerate companies trying to exploit this crisis to make money from working people … If the companies have broken the law, there will be legal action.” Ministers are also not ruling out the possibility of cancelling a planned fuel duty rise in September. Asked on Sunday whether that rise would still go ahead, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, told the BBC: “We will stand by the British people in this crisis, and we’ll do what it takes to do that.”

UK plans to send minesweeping drones to help reopen strait of Hormuz

Ministers are drawing up plans to send minesweeping drones to the strait of Hormuz amid concerns in Whitehall that complying with Donald Trump’s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis. The government is considering dispatching aerial minesweepers to help clear the vital waterway of mines in an attempt to allow the flow of oil exports to resume. However, officials said that sending ships, as requested over the weekend by the US president, could worsen the situation given the volatile nature of the war. Keir Starmer will announce tens of millions of pounds to support Britons feeling the impact of higher energy prices at a Downing Street press conference on Monday, where he will also emphasise the importance of de-escalating the crisis. “We will continue to work towards a swift resolution of the situation in the Middle East. Because there is no question that ending the war is the quickest way to reduce the cost of living,” the prime minister will say. Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said: “It is very important that we get the strait of Hormuz reopened … There are different ways that we could contribute, including with mine-hunting drones.” He added: “All of these things are being looked at in concert with our allies … Any options that can help to get the strait reopened are being looked at.” Iran’s announcement that it would target ships using the strait, through which 20% of the world’s oil supply normally passes, has sent oil prices soaring from about $65 (£57) a barrel to more than $100. Economists are predicting higher inflation and lower growth this year as a result, though the exact impact will depend on the length of the conflict. The situation has put further pressure on the relationship between Trump and Starmer, which has been damaged by the prime minister’s refusal to allow the president to use British bases to launch his initial attack on Tehran. A week ago Trump dismissed recent offers of British help as coming “a little bit late”, but this weekend he changed tack, calling for several countries to deploy ships to the strait. “Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. Starmer spoke to Trump over the phone on Sunday night. Downing Street said afterwards: “The leaders discussed the situation in the Middle East, including the impact of the continued closure of the strait of Hormuz on international shipping.” Officials in the UK, Japan, China and South Korea are considering Trump’s demand. Takayuki Kobayashi, a senior politician in Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party, said on Sunday the request was “something we should judge cautiously”. South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement it was “exploring various measures from multiple angles to protect our citizens and secure the safety of energy transport routes”. British officials say they are open to the idea and are expected to lay out further plans in the coming days. However, they are sceptical about sending ships to the strait given the depleted state of the navy and the likely consequences of doing so. HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, left Portsmouth last week heading for Cyprus, and could be redeployed to the Middle East. Officials have told the Guardian, however, that it is unlikely to reach Cyprus for at least another week, meaning it would take even longer to reach the strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Britain’s last minesweeping ship in the region, HMS Middleton, departed Bahrain for maintenance days before the war began, a move now at the centre of a government row over whether the UK did enough to prepare for the conflict. Officials are more optimistic about the possibility of using minesweeping drones, which cause mines to explode safely by mimicking the movement of ships. They are also planning to send Octopus counter-drones, which are being made for Ukraine but could be deployed in the Gulf. While the government considers its options, it has come under fire from the Conservatives for not spending more on defence. Kemi Badenoch, the opposition leader, said in a speech last week that ministers were dragging their feet on raising defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product, which the government has promised to do by 2027. However, internal Ministry of Defence (MoD) figures seen by the Guardian show spending on counter-drones and missile defence fell in the last few years of the Conservative government. The detailed budget breakdown shows spending on ground-based missile defence fell from £158m in 2021-22 to £49.4m in 2023-24, while investment in counter-drone systems fell from £22.4m in 2021 to £18.1m in 2023. The number of mine-hunting ships was cut from 16 when the Tories took office to seven. An MoD spokesperson stressed that defence spending had gone up under the current government. They added: “This spending is going to boost our defences, including on new tech like the Dragonfire laser, which will be fitted to Type 45 destroyers in 2027.” The Conservatives have been contacted for comment.

First-round of French local elections sees strong showing for National Rally and LFI

The first-round of the French municipal elections have seen a strong showing for Marine Le Pen’s far-right the National Rally (RN), as well as for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left, with both parties likely to increase their local presence ahead of next year’s French presidential race. The French local elections, which now go to a final round runoff on 22 March, are seen as a crucial test of the political temperature before next year’s presidential election. Emmanuel Macron’s two terms in office come to an end in spring 2027 and there is uncertainty about who will next lead the EU’s second-largest economy. For years, French local mayors and councillors – particularly in large cities – have been dominated by the historic, traditional parties: Socialists on the left and Les Républicains on the right. The first-round results on Sunday showed a significant increase in votes in certain towns and large cities for the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI), whose leader Mélenchon is expected to make a fourth bid for president next year. The LFI, which has not historically had a large local presence, scored high in the north, in the town of Roubaix, where it could win the mayor’s position. It also had significant scores in cities including Toulouse, Lille and Limoges, having mobilised young voters. Anti-immigrationRN, which has traditionally fared less well in local elections, also celebrated scoring symbolically high in the first round alongside its allies. In France’s second biggest city, Marseille, Franck Allisio, the RN candidate who ran a campaign based on bringing “order” to the streets amid drug gang crime, scored level with the incumbent leftwing mayor, Benoît Payan, at about 35.4%, projections showed. There will now be a tense final-round runoff. Allisio said: “The wind of change is blowing over Marseille … This is more than a score, it’s a promise that tomorrow Marseille becomes the new French example.” Much in Marseille will now depend on whether Payan’s left coalition, which includes the Socialists and Greens, could form an agreement with the LFI to try to hold the RN back. The LFI reached the second round on around 12%, as did the traditional right’s candidate, similarly on 12%. The RN held on to the mayorship of Perpignan, near the Spanish border, which, with a population of 121,000, is the largest city the party has run in the past 20 years. But the RN also scored high in the south in Toulon and Carcassonne, which will face run-offs. In Nice, France’s fifth biggest city, Éric Ciotti, who quit as leader of the traditional right’s party, Les Républicains (LR), to join forces with Le Pen in 2024, scored high and is hoping to win the city from his bitter rival and one-time rightwing ally, Christian Estrosi. The RN would describe the win of a major French city – such as Nice – as a stepping stone to the presidency next year. In Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, the mayoral candidate for a left coalition including Socialists and Greens, was in the lead ahead of the rightwing former culture minister Rachida Dati, projections showed. Paris, which has been run by the left for 25 years, will now face a second-round runoff. Sophia Chikirou, the LFI candidate, also made it to the final round in Paris, as did the centrist Pierre-Yves Bournazel. Chikirou said: “We exist, our voices count.” Her party wanted to stop the right from winning Paris, she said, adding she was open to forming an “anti-fascist front”. Édouard Philippe, the former prime minister, who intends to run as a centre-right presidential candidate next year, had a strong first-round score in the northern port of Le Havre and will now face a final round. In Lyon, the Green mayor Grégory Doucet scored higher than was predicted against Jean-Michel Aulas, the former head of Olympique Lyonnais football club, who is running for the right. There will now be a second-round runoff.

Israeli police kill two young Palestinian boys and their parents in West Bank

Israeli police have killed two young Palestinian brothers and their parents in the occupied West Bank, shooting all four in the head and face as the family returned from a Ramadan shopping trip. Mohammed, five, Othman, seven, who was blind and had special needs, their mother, Waad Bani Odeh, 35, and father, Ali Bani Odeh, 37, were driving through their home town of Tamoun late on Saturday when Israeli forces opened fire. Israeli forces target Palestinians with near total impunity in the occupied West Bank, where the last attack that led to a homicide indictment was a 2019 shooting, according to legal data compiled by the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. Since then Israeli forces have killed more than 1,400 people, including more than 320 children and over 30 women, UN figures show. Israeli settlers killed at least 44 other Palestinians. The Bani Odeh family were killed just hours after Israeli settlers shot and killed Amir Moatasem Odeh, 28, in Qusra south of Nablus. The attackers also stabbed his father, Moatasem Awda, who was taken to hospital in serious condition. There has been a surge of Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since Israel and the US launched their war on Iran at the end of February. Over two weeks Israeli settlers have shot six civilians dead during invasions of Palestinian olive groves, villages and grazing land, and one man died after inhaling military-grade teargas used by the Israeli army. The attack on the Bani Odeh family brought the number of Palestinians killed to 11. Two brothers survived the shooting. Khaled, 11, the oldest of the siblings, said he had heard his mother crying and his father praying before they died. After the gunfire stopped, Israeli border police dragged him out of the wreckage, taunted him about the murders of his family and attacked him. One of the Israelis said “we killed dogs”, he told Reuters. The family had been in the nearby city of Nablus to buy clothes for the upcoming Eid, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Families often stay up late in a month when adults fast during daylight hours. “What did this family do? They went to buy Eid necessities, and to put a smile on those children’s faces,” said Mansour Abu Islam, a neighbour and cousin of Ali. “This is clear evidence that Palestinian lives have no value.” The gunmen were an undercover unit who were not in uniform and were driving a car with Palestinian licence plates, Abu Islam said. Israeli forces opened fire without warning, Khaled said in an interview from hospital. After the shooting an Israeli asked him who had been in the car. “I said: ‘My father, my mother, my three brothers, and me’. He said: ‘You are lying,’ and then they started beating and kicking me.” All four victims were shot in the head and face, and Ali, who was driving, was also shot in the chest and left hand, the Palestinian health ministry said. The two surviving boys sustained shrapnel wounds in the eye and the head, their grandmother, Najah al-Subhi, told the Associated Press. Israeli forces initially prevented ambulances reaching the scene, the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement. The military later towed the family car away, according to witness accounts and video shared on social media. The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs said the killings were “a shocking act of extrajudicial execution”, carried out by Israeli forces exploiting global attention on the war with Iran. “Such crimes, alongside the escalating violence carried out by Israeli settlers across the occupied West Bank, are not isolated incidents, but part of a broader and systematic campaign aimed at the destruction and forced displacement of the Palestinian people,” the ministry said in a statement. A spokesperson for the Israeli police said the Bani Odeh family had been killed during a joint operation with the Israeli military. Forces opened fire on the vehicle when they “perceived an immediate threat” after it accelerated, the statement said. Asked what threat was posed by four young children and their unarmed parents, or whether the shooting violated Israeli rules of engagement, the police and military declined to comment. The police and military were in the area to “arrest wanted suspects believed to be involved in terrorist activity”, the statement said. “The circumstances of the incident are under review by the relevant authorities.” No arrests were reported on Sunday. The Israeli military has command responsibility for all forces operating in occupied Palestine. A spokesperson said border police killed the Bani Odeh family and declined to comment further, referring all questions to the police. Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza on Sunday killed 12 people, medics and the interior ministry said. A pregnant woman was bombed with her husband and son in Nuseirat, and another strike hit a senior police officer and eight others from his team in the entrance to Zawayda town, AP reported.

Initiative may be slipping away from US and Israel as Middle East crisis deepens

Few doubt that in the first days of the new war in the Middle East, the initiative belonged to the US and its ally Israel. Now it seems less sure, however. Mohsen Rezaee, a senior officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, on Sunday said “the end of the war is in our hands” and called for the withdrawal of Washington’s forces from the Gulf and compensation for all damage caused by the assault. Three weeks ago, it appeared unlikely that Tehran’s senior officials would ever sound quite so confident. The conflict began with a surprise strike by Israel that killed the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. US and Israeli warplanes then swiftly proved they could operate with impunity over Iran, drawing on deep reserves of intelligence to strike at thousands of targets. The only significant losses were inflicted by friendly fire. Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles and drones launched at Israel that were largely intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems. So far, 12 people have been killed in Israel by attacks by Iran. The toll is still substantially lower than in the much shorter conflict between the two powers last year. Countries in the Gulf did less well when targeted by Iran, but have still been able to protect their residents and infrastructure from any crippling damage – though whether their stocks of crucial interceptor missiles will run out is much debated, and their reputation as oases of calm, luxury and wealth is in ruins. The US and Israel prove each day their massive conventional military superiority with more strikes on Iran, but it could appear the initiative is slipping away from them. Donald Trump has given multiple timelines for the duration of the conflict, but in recent days has suggested it would only end after Iran has been forced to make concessions. Many analysts believe the US is getting trapped in a much longer war than it wanted. The critical change has been the closure of the strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil and gas. This has sent shock waves through the global economy, sending oil prices soaring and spiking prices at the pump. The US president is now coming under domestic and international pressure to bring hostilities to a rapid end. Danny Orbach, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, nonetheless insisted Israel and the US were still directing the dynamic of the war. “Having the initiative means you are setting the agenda … Iran is running out of missile launchers … so the only thing open to Tehran was to escalate the conflict and hope that somehow it will stop. That is why it attacked the Gulf states and then closed the strait of Hormuz,” he said. Some have suggested Trump could order US marines who are on their way to the Middle East to seize Kharg Island, which is Iran’s principal oil export hub, to pressure Tehran. But the marines will not arrive for at least two weeks. Trump may also order the destruction of the oil facilities on Kharg, crippling Iran’s economy potentially for years to come. So far, only military targets there have been hit, a choice made “out of decency”, Trump said on Saturday. “Iran is dependent on a US decision on whether to blow up or not their economy. If there is any stalemate, it is not an equal one,” said Orbach. But other analysts disagree. Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at King’s College London, said Iran had played a bad hand successfully. “For a number of days now, the US has been trying to find a good response to the closure of the strait of Hormuz, that they clearly didn’t expect … I think the Iranians now have the initiative,” Neumann said. Trump has called on other countries to send warships to join a US attempt to reopen the strait. None have so far accepted, and most analysts say such an effort would be fraught with risk. Not only would protecting hundreds of tankers demand the diversion of huge military resources, but it could never guarantee total security for shipping. A single Iranian missile, mine or small boat loaded with explosives could have a devastating effect. This suggests the decision to reopen the strait will have to be taken in Tehran. There is little evidence that Iran’s current leadership is inclined to do anything that would mitigate the threat to the global economy, or that the regime change that Israel and the US hoped to bring about in Iran is imminent. Neumann added: “Despite the great success in destroying military and economic infrastructure in Iran, this hasn’t had the desired political effect. The regime seems weak but stable.” Israeli commentators on Sunday described government efforts to lower expectations raised at the start of the war. Yoav Limor wrote in the mass market newspaper Israel Hayom that officials believe regime change is less likely and blamed “the powerful grip the regime has continued to maintain on the security forces and the ruthless suppression that deeply terrified the Iranian public”. But within this spiralling regional crisis, other smaller conflicts may follow their own dynamics. Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq still seem unwilling to commit entirely to the defence of Iran, while the Houthis in Yemen have yet to enter the hostilities. In Lebanon, Hezbollah surprised Israel by seeking to avenge the death of Khamenei with a series of extensive barrages with missiles and drones. Since then, the Iran-backed Islamist movement has continued to fire salvoes into northern Israel, revealing a strength unsuspected by many analysts. Israel has responded with a massive air offensive that has killed more than 800 people and forced the displacement of about 800,000. David Wood, a Lebanon analyst at the non-profit International Crisis Group, said Hezbollah did not hold the same cards as the Iranians. “Israel have clear and ambitious aim of eliminating Hezbollah as a threat to its national security, though their means of achieving this are unclear. Hezbollah has one clear objective: to survive,” said Wood. “Hezbollah might have surprised even the Israelis at the beginning of the conflict but we shouldn’t assume it will be able to maintain that over the long term given the massive Israeli military superiority.”