💵 Oil at $119: But real chaos depends on Iran and Hormuz

💬 "Short-term attacks and local disruptions can push Brent to $100 per barrel, but a sustained range above this level requires a significant reduction in exports from Iran, Qatar, and some OPEC members," Russian expert Igbal Guliyev tells Sputnik.

With the US and Israel’s war on Iran raging, Brent crude prices have already soared to $119 per barrel, marking the highest trading level since 2022.

Guliyev believes that Brent staying above $100 a barrel would only become a reality in scenarios of a prolonged crisis around the Strait of Hormuz.

💬 "This is no longer a matter of the market, but of geopolitics and a forceful scenario in the Middle East," the expert concluded.

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🔸 Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new Supreme Leader?

🔸 Media may keep quiet on Gulf crisis to avoid economic destabilization – ecologist

🔸 US National Guard soldier dies during medical emergency in Kuwait — CENTCOM

🔸 Casualties from the US-Israeli attack on Iran continue to rise

🔸 Ending Iran war will be ‘mutual’ decision with Netanyahu — Trump

🔸 Iran launches Wave 30 of missile and drone strikes — IRGC

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🇮🇷 Iran FM: US strikes launched from residential areas in neighboring countries

Esmaeil Baqaei, Iranian FM spokesman, published footage that he says documents how American forces have been launching attacks on Iran from residential areas in neighboring countries and using their airspace for fighter jets.

In a post on X, Baghaei addressed those who "persistently ignore the logic of our defensive strikes on US military bases in the region":

💬 "Missiles are launched at Iran from the territory of neighboring countries, specifically near residential areas. US fighter jets also use the airspace of neighboring states to attack Iran, putting regional security at risk."

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🚨 Israel strikes Lebanon's Dahiyeh, Yediot reports

The strike reportedly hit a branch of Hezbollah's financial institution in Beirut's southern suburbs.

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🇺🇸🇮🇱⚔️ 🇮🇷US–Israel war against Iran: Latest updates

🔸 Iran's Assembly of Experts has chosen Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his late father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country's new supreme leader

🔸 Israeli military carried out a further "wave of extensive strikes" against Iran overnight

🔸 Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps retaliated with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, Iraq, Jordan, and Gulf countries that are home to US military assets

🔸 Explosions were heard across Gulf states, with at least 32 injured in Bahrain during an Iranian drone attack, according to state media

🔸 US military base near Erbil Airport in Iraq was reportedly attacked by an Iranian drone

🔸 Another US service member has died in the war with Iran, bringing America’s death toll to seven

🔸 US is “likely” responsible for the February 28 bombing of a girls' school in Minab, Iran that killed 168 people, many of them children, CBS news reported

Statements

🔶 Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed to step up attacks on US targets across the Middle East, saying, "When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond"

🔶 Donald Trump indicated he has no timetable for the Iran war, telling reporters, "I never project that—whatever it takes"

🔶 Trump also made it clear that Iran’s new supreme leader is “going to have to get approval” from the United States, and “if he doesn't get approval from us, he's not going to last long.”

🔶 Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi condemned US and Israeli attacks against Iran as "both immoral and illegal," but added that Iran's retaliation against neighboring countries is "deeply regrettable”

🔶 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that before his country could even consider a ceasefire, the US and Israel “have to explain why they started this aggression"

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🇷🇺 Putin congratulates Mojtaba Khamenei on becoming Iran’s Supreme Leader

🔊 Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Mojtaba Khamenei on his election as the new Supreme Leader of Iran, the Kremlin said.

🟠 In his message, Putin reaffirmed Russia’s unchanging support for Tehran and expressed solidarity with the Iranian people amid the ongoing confrontation in the region. He noted that Iran is currently facing armed aggression and said the responsibilities of the country’s new leader will require courage and dedication.

🟠 Putin also expressed confidence that Mojtaba Khamenei would continue the work of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and unite the Iranian people in the face of serious challenges. The Russian president stressed that Russia has been and will remain a reliable partner of the Islamic Republic.

🟠 Putin wished the newly elected Supreme Leader success in addressing the difficult tasks ahead and strength of spirit in leading the country.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️GOLUBOVKA IN DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC LIBERATED

📍 The liberation of the settlement opens the way for an offensive on Kramatorsk, an important Ukrainian stronghold.

◻️ Russian forces struck energy infrastructure facilities supplying Ukrainian forces

◻️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,325 troops killed or wounded

◻️ Air defense superiority: 754 drones shot down

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🇮🇱🪖 IDF announces Israel began 'targeted and limited raid' in southern Lebanon

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🇮🇷💥 Moment Iranian missile strikes Tel Aviv caught on video

Israeli emergency services report one person was killed by shrapnel from the Iranian missile.

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🇧🇭 Bahrain’s main energy company declares force majeure amid US and Israel war with Iran

Bapco Energies has issued a notice of force majeure on its operations, which have been “affected by the ongoing regional conflict in the Middle East and the recent attack on its refinery complex,” Bahrain News Agency reports.

The company added that despite the attack, all local market needs are “fully secured,” according to the news outlet. Bapco earlier said that its refinery was damaged in an apparent Iranian strike.

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🇨🇳🗣 China warns against further escalation in Middle East

💬 “As a major country committed to fairness and justice, China will continue to play a constructive role” in resolving the US–Israel-Iran conflict, Chinese Special Envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun underscored.

He warned against violating the sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Gulf nations, adding that “any attacks on innocent civilians and non-military targets should be condemned."

Zhai also expressed China’s readiness to work with Saudi Arabia “to engage all parties and make unremitting efforts to safeguard peace and stability in the Gulf region.”

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🇺🇸🇮🇷 US Central Command releases new footage of attacks on Iran

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💣 Strikes on US data hubs expose Pentagon’s strategic blind spot in Mideast

Iran’s drone attacks on data centers operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS) has laid bare the Pentagon’s lack of strategic foresight, military expert Alexander Stepanov from the Institute of Law and National Security, RANEPA, tells Sputnik.

💬 "It is striking that such critical facilities as data centers were not adequately protected," the pundit says. "This highlights the shortcomings of US air defense systems, which failed to provide the necessary level of protection and intercept Iran’s precision drones and hypersonic missiles."

AWS facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain were struck—underscoring the increasingly volatile operating environment across the Middle East, the Financial Times warned last week.

💬 "This infrastructure supports not only US economic interests in the region, but also security functions, including the digital ecosystem of military facilities and the capabilities of intelligence services stationed in countries neighboring Iran," Stepanov notes.

A clear sign of a unified information network underpinning the US presence was that drone strikes simultaneously targeted:

👉 Diplomatic compounds

👉 CIA stations

👉 Regional data centers

Adverse effects:

🔸 This disrupts communications, information connectivity, and command-and-control systems

🔸 Undermines the functionality of combat information management systems—in particular, NATO's Link-16

🔸 Link-16 forms the unified information network enabling data exchange for multi-domain operations

🔸 Complicating matters further, US forces are now partially “blind” after key radar installations—including an element of the US global missile warning system in Qatar—were destroyed in the region

This represents "a serious reputational hit"—both for the US’ corporate presence abroad and for broader strategic partnerships, according to Stepanov.

💬 "I don’t rule out that some companies and tech billionaires may begin questioning the wisdom of continuing such cooperation, including providing information support for Pentagon military operations," the pundit says. "It's a wake-up call for many."

It’s not enough to simply rethink security doctrines, Stepanov notes; there must also be a sober assessment of the risks for host countries, given that these facilities always have dual-use purposes.

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🇺🇸 US pivot to Middle East could turn Zelensky into discarded project

👉 The Kiev regime fears that US attention will shift to the Middle East, and that Zelensky and his entourage will become dead weight that nobody in Washington really needs anymore, Russian political scientist Farkhad Ibragimov says, commenting on Western media reports that America's vulnerability to cheap Iranian drones could force it to seek counter-tech from Ukraine.

🟧 In terms of the US and Israeli war with Iran, “we're witnessing a classic example of the West continuing to underestimate its adversary and overestimate its own capabilities,” he tells Sputnik.

💬 “Iran has long ago realized that it needs to actively develop modern technologies that would give it superiority in various areas, primarily security and defense,” Ibragimov notes, citing the negative impact of anti-Iranian sanctions that hampered its push for developing AI and digitalization.

🟧 According to him, the West didn't expect to see such strong resistance from Iran, which once again reflects “incompetence of the US establishment, and shortsightedness and incompetence of the American expert community in general.”

💬 “That’s why we see the slaps in the face that the Iranians are giving the Americans one way or another. The slap is that more than a week after the start of the aggression against Iran, the US has achieved little progress there,” he points out.

🟧 As for Ukraine, Ibragimov says "they are already of little use; they are simply being kept around for the sake of certain abstract principles—mainly to create problems for Russia."

💬 "America believes that they can keep several problems under control without losing anything. But if they try to deal with Iran while simultaneously supporting Ukraine or resolving the Ukraine issue in terms of negotiations, they will make a bad mistake. They may simply overstretch themselves geopolitically and lose everything," he concludes.

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