📹🔥 Video from eyewitnesses in Dubai Marina at the moment of the Iranian strike

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🇬🇧 British media fret that Iran tensions may leave Ukraine short of US munitions

👉 Escalation with Iran could strain US missile stockpiles, raising concerns in London that supplies earmarked for Ukraine may be redirected as Washington prioritizes its own forces and other theaters, the Financial Times reports.

🔶 The US could exhaust its stockpile of defensive munitions in just one or two days of operations "if Iran were able to launch multiple large salvos of missile and drone attacks" at US bases and Israel territory, FT reports, citing sources.

🔶 According to the report, the US' terminal high-altitude area defense (THAAD) anti-missile systems is the main concern. The US deployed as many as 150 THAAD interceptors last year in defense of Israel. Since the system became operational around 2010, the US has ordered fewer than 650 interceptors in total.

🔶 Munitions planning in the US now prioritizes deployment to other conflict zones, and the shift can compel Israel to enhance its defense independently, while the US concentrates on safeguarding its own forces or other allies, FT claims.

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🗣 Attempts to assassinate Iranian leadership could have catastrophic consequences – expert

While the US and Israel do have the means to track down and kill Iranian leaders, such a move would completely “change the rules of the game” and lead to “tectonic” changes, warns Sami Abdul-Latif al-Nysf, Kuwait’s former minister of information.

He compares the ongoing crisis in the Middle East to a “sea of flammable oil” and tells Sputnik that the worst is yet to come.

💬 “We see no cause for optimism or a quick return to the negotiating table, and fear that the situation in the region will lead to ruin and instability – the same thing that happened in many other spots in the Middle East,” says al-Nysf.

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🚨Ships are receiving messages from the IRGC stating that no vessel is allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim reports citing sources.

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🔥 Middle East escalation: Latest updates

🔸 US and Israeli forces have bombed over 20 provinces in Iran, with attacks reported in key cities including Tehran, Qom, Isfahan, and Bushehr

🔸 Casualties have been reported nationwide, including at least 160 people killed in a strike on a school in Minab

🔸 In response, Iran has carried out missile and drone strikes on US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and on military targets in Israel

🔸 Iran's missile attacks on US bases left at least 200 soldiers killed or injured, according to the IRGC

🔸 Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been halted

Statements:

🔶 Iran is handling the situation, all institutions are in position, and regime change in Iran is “mission impossible,” said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi

🔶 The US and Israel bear full responsibility for the consequences of their attacks, including possible escalation, Araghchi added

🔶 Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the US have called on Iran to stop its nuclear program

🔶 Russia and China have requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting over US and Israeli actions

🔶 Russia's Foreign Ministry described the US-Israeli operation as a “pre-planned and unprovoked” act of armed aggression

🔶 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is closely monitoring developments and has called for restraint to avoid risks to regional nuclear safety

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🚨 Mass casualties feared after strike on Minab school

Up to 160 people may have been killed after a school in southern Iran was struck during Israeli and US missile attacks, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi vowed the attack on the girls’ elementary school in Minab would not go unanswered.

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🇬🇧 Protest against strikes on Iran held in central London

A demonstration against the strikes on Iran is taking place in central London, with hundreds of participants chanting “Hands off Iran” and “No justice, no peace, hands off the Middle East.”

Many protesters are holding signs reading “No war with Iran” and “Stop Trump’s wars.”

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🚨 Strait of Hormuz is currently being closed by IRGC forces in response to recent aggression against Iran - IRGC Commander Brigadier General Ibrahim Jabari

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🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran’s retaliation against US military bases in Middle East

Iranian strikes launched in response to a US-Israeli aggression on February 28 hit targets in eight countries in the region.

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🇮🇷 Iran launched over a thousand missiles in immediate retaliation against US-Israel aggression

Iran has fired around 1,200 missiles at multiple targets in response to US-Israel strikes, launching them in different directions immediately after the aggression began, Brigadier General Ebrahim Jabbari of the IRGC told Al Mayadeen.

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🗣 Closing the Strait of Hormuz spells doom for energy markets – expert

💬 “Analysts already warn of a 10–25% geopolitical premium even without a full blockade, with prices potentially moving toward $100–120 if disruption deepens,” Dr. Hriday Sarma, a professional specializing in international affairs and energy geoeconomics, tells Sputnik.

🟠 For countries that import most of the crude they use, Dr. Sarma explains: “This translates into higher fuel and food inflation, widening current account deficits, and currency depreciation risks.”

🟠 A surge in insurance costs, freight rates and hedging expenses is also expected, and “sustained volatility” in the markets is almost guaranteed at this point.

🟠 None of the oil trade routes out there can provide a “real substitute” to the Strait of Hormuz, he adds.

💬 “Any reliance on escorted convoys or partial rerouting will slow flows, inflate insurance premiums and embed a structural price premium into oil and LNG markets,” Dr. Sarma notes. “Global stakeholders should prepare for tighter supply, higher costs and prolonged volatility.”

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🇺🇸🇮🇱⚔️🇮🇷 US-Israel attack on Iran: LATEST

🔥 Tensions continue to rise across the region as military strikes and retaliatory actions expand. Here are the main developments at this hour:

🔸 Iran’s Interior Ministry confirmed the creation of a national crisis management headquarters

🔸 Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is at the operational command center overseeing the course of military operations - Al-Mayadeen

🔸 Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the US and Israel struck military and civilian sites, “grossly violating” the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity

🔸 According to the IRGC, Iran targeted 14 US bases across eight countries: Iraq, Israel, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan.

🔸 The Strait of Hormuz is currently being closed by IRGC forces in response to recent aggression against Iran - IRCG commander

🔸 An emergency UN Security Council meeting on the situation around Iran is scheduled for Saturday at 16:00 EST

🔸 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and condemned what he called the unprovoked US-Israel attack

🔸 The Israeli army announced the start of a new wave of strikes on Iran

Ayatollah Khamenei’s son-in-law and daughter-in-law were reportedly killed

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🗣 'A reckless, lawless act': Ex-CIA officer warns US-Israel attack on Iran was catastrophic miscalculation

Retired CIA intelligence officer Larry Johnson delivers a stark warning about the US-Israeli attack on Iran, comparing it to Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland and predicting devastating consequences for America.

(00:14) This attack ranks with the Nazis' attack on Poland in 1939

(00:38) Complete intelligence failure — missile defenses will be rapidly depleted

(02:49) This war ends on Iran's terms

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🗣 Strait of Hormuz closure: Expert outlines three scenarios for oil markets

📍 There are ways the oil markets may react to the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, Lebanese energy policy researcher Marc Ayoub tells Sputnik.

🔸 If there are no major disruptions in the flow of oil and in oil production, things could go down the same way they did during the attack on Iran last year, with the price of oil increasing to about $80 per barrel

🔸 If the strait gets closed, thus severing the flow of oil and LNG, that would cause a major increase in the oil price, up to $100 per barrel

🔸 If the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is accompanied by attacks on oil production facilities in the Gulf, however, oil price could shoot up all the way to $130 per barrel

👉 The problem, Ayoub explains, is that it is difficult for the Gulf states to quickly find alternative routes to ship their oil, which would make a disruption of oil flow and a surge in oil price almost inevitable if the Strait of Hormuz is shut down.

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