Al Jazeera

By Ted Regencia and Erin Hale

    US President Donald Trump announced that discussions are ongoing with Iran to “determine whether a broader agreement can be reached”, saying that “this time, Iran means business; they want to settle. They want peace”.

    But Tehran denied that talks with the US are taking place, with Iran’s parliamentary speaker saying such claims are “fake news” and being “used to manipulate financial and oil markets”.

    Oil prices dropped by about 11 percent after Trump announced a delay to attacks on Iran’s power plants for five days amid his claims of talks.

    Despite Trump’s comments, US Central Command says US forces “continue to aggressively strike” targets in Iran, as Iranian missiles and drones continued to target Gulf countries – including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – overnight.

    Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut’s southern neighbourhood as the Lebanese Health Ministry said the death toll from Israel’s attacks on the country had reached 1,039 people, with 2,786 people injured, since March 2.

    Visit our live tracker for the latest casualty figures from across the region.

More on latest IRGC attack against Israeli targets

    Earlier, we reported on the launch of a new wave of Iranian missiles towards Israel.

    In a statement published by the state-run IRIB, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) confirmed the attack on Israel in the early hours of Tuesday.

    The IRGC said in the statement that “Iranian missiles pass[ed] through several Israeli missile defences”.

    Israel’s military later reported that “rescue and recovery forces” were deployed to a site in northern Israel, “where reports of an impact have been received”.

    Israel’s emergency services said a man was in stable condition after suffering a shrapnel wound following an overnight attack.

Signs of insider trading on Trump war news: Report

    Crypto-based prediction betting sites Polymarket and rival Kalshi have both tightened rules to prevent insider trading following a series of suspiciously well-timed bets on the US-Israeli war on Iran and after the US abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.

    In one of the latest examples, eight accounts on Polymarket created on Saturday placed big bets on the chance of an Iran ceasefire shortly before Trump announced his intentions of “winding down” military operations there, according to The Guardian newspaper.

    The accounts bet nearly $70,000 on the prediction, and stand to win $820,000 if a ceasefire is reached before March 31, The Guardian said. A similarly well-timed bet was made in advance of the US and Israel’s February 28 strike on Iran.

    Polymarket users have bet nearly $39m on predictions that the US and Iran will reach a ceasefire by several benchmark dates between March and December. Only 14 percent of users have currently bet that a ceasefire will be reached by March 31.

    Earlier this year, a mystery Polymarket trader made $400,000 on a bet that Maduro would be ousted shortly before US special forces abducted him, according to The Wall Street Journal.

‘Another long night’ of missile attacks on Israel

By Rob McBride

Reporting from Amman, Jordan

    The latest missile has actually just fallen a short while ago and is said to have fallen harmlessly in an open area in central Israel.

    This had been detected a short while before by the Israeli military, which raised the alarm. Sirens sounded in the Tel Aviv area, as well as parts of the occupied West Bank.

    This comes at the end of another long night of missile activity from Monday evening through to the early hours of Tuesday morning.

    Mainly targeting broad swaths of Israel in the centre of the country and in the north, alarms were raised around the Jerusalem area, Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Western Galilee.

    It is understood that at least one of these missiles contained cluster warheads, which came down spreading multiple bomblets, and we saw damage being recorded around the port city of Haifa.

Israel issues new missile threat alert

    Israel’s air defence system has been activated after the military detected new incoming missiles from Iran, the military said in a message posted on Telegram.

    “In the past few minutes, the Home Front Command has sent a precautionary directive directly to mobile phones in the relevant areas,” the military said.

    The military has directed the public to enter a protected space and remain there until further notice.

Insider trading concerns as traders bet $580m ahead of Trump’s Iran talks comments: Report

    The Financial Times reports that traders bet more than half a billion dollars on oil futures in the 15 minutes before President Trump announced yesterday that the US had held two days of “very good and productive conversations” with Iran.

    Oil futures are contracts that buy and sell oil at a pre-determined price. They are used as a hedge against price volatility because they lock in oil at a certain price, but contracts are also traded on the market.

    Analysis of Bloomberg data shows that 6,200 Brent and West Texas Intermediate oil contracts were traded between 6.49am and 6.50am New York time (10:49 and 10:50 GMT) – just 15 minutes before Trump’s announcement, the FT said.

    Traders likely made a fortune, although the exact number is unknown.

    Trump’s Truth Social post – shared on Monday morning local time and immediately denied by Tehran – sent the price of oil tumbling, triggering a global sell-off in oil.

    The FT said the high volume of trade so close to Trump’s announcement has raised eyebrows in the financial world. It also follows a slew of recent high-profile betting on sites such as Polymarket that have been timed extraordinarily close to major White House decisions – raising questions of insider trading.

    “My gut from watching markets for the last 25 years is this is really abnormal,” a portfolio manager told the UK newspaper.

    “It’s an unusually large trade for a day with no event risk… Somebody just got a lot richer,” the manager said.

Senior Iran parliament member urges caution amid reported talks with US

    Iranian officials “need to think wisely” before entering into any talks with the US, a senior Iranian parliament member warned, citing Washington’s recent history of launching attacks on Tehran while talks to achieve peace were in progress.

    “This is not the first time they have lied about negotiations,” Esmaeil Kowsari, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.

    “Trump, Netanyahu, and their ilk are inherently liars, and their nature is to sow division,” Kowsari said.

    “Their nature is to create division so that they can make people sceptical of the authorities and feel that something has been done, when nothing has been done,” said Kowsari, who is also a major-general in the military.

South Korean currency recovers slightly after plunging to 17-year low

    South Korea’s won gained 1.7 percent against the US dollar on Tuesday, recovering from a 17-year low in the previous trading session, amid growing optimism for a resolution of the conflict in the Middle East.

    Monday’s level marked the weakest showing for the won against the US dollar since March 9, 2009, when the won plummeted during the global financial crisis, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency noted.

Pentagon closes news offices after judge throws out Trump’s credential rules

    The US Department of Defense has announced it will remove media offices from the Pentagon after a district court threw out the Trump administration’s new credential system for reporting.

    Last year, the Trump administration set new rules that reporters must sign a document promising not to publish classified information or solicit any information not authorised by the Pentagon to obtain their press credentials.

    The new system was struck down on Friday following a successful lawsuit from The New York Times that argued it violated reporters’ freedom of speech.

    Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the Pentagon would be closing its famous “Correspondents’ Corridor” and moving press offices to an unnamed annex.

    Reporters can still attend news conferences and visit the building for interviews, but they will need to be escorted by officials while in the building.

Pro-government demonstrators rally in Tehran

    Pro-government demonstrators have gathered on the main streets in the Iranian capital, Tehran, as they continue to denounce the US-Israel military war on their country, which is now in its 25th day.

    Despite threats of new bombardments and heavy rain, people gathered on Tehran’s longest street, Valiasr, waving flags and blasting patriotic slogans on a loudspeaker in support of the government, according to images of the event shared by the Mehr news agency.

    Hundreds of people also gathered well into the early morning of Tuesday at Enghelab Square, also known as Revolution Square, where images of the country’s current supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and his predecessors are prominently displayed.

    Similar scenes were also reported by the Mehr news agency in Karaj, a suburb west of Tehran, as well as in Ilam, in western Iran, near the border with Iraq, and in Sari, a northern city near the Caspian Sea.

South Korean FM in calls with Iran’s Araghchi about Strait of Hormuz

    South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on X that he spoke with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, on Monday evening and expressed his “deep concern” about the war and its impact on the global economy.

    During the phone call, Cho called for de-escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has closed to most maritime traffic, and urged Iran to take “proactive measures to ensure safe navigation” through the waterway.

    Cho also asked Iran to ensure the safety of ships and crew still stranded in the strait, including those owned and operated by South Korean companies.

Middle East hopes for the best, but bracing for worst amid reports of peace talks

By Malik Traina

Reportinf from Kuwait City, Kuwait

    Just in the last 40 minutes, we’ve heard the alarms sounding once again. That’s the seventh time since midnight – in the last four and a half hours.

    So, these attacks continue.

    The Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy said that… debris from air defence operations damaged seven power lines and that some areas are now dealing with partial power cuts. They also said that teams will be working throughout the night to repair those damages.

    In Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Defence in the last couple of hours intercepted more than 20 drones targeting the eastern area of the country – that’s where a majority of their energy and oil facilities are. And in Bahrain, the Ministry of Interior sounded the alarm numerous times.

    I think everyone across the Gulf – officials and people – throughout this conflict have been calling for de-escalation and for dialogue to take place.

    I think there’s a glimmer of hope happening right now. People are hopeful that some kind of negotiations will take place. That seems to be the message from the US president.

    But there’s also some doubt. People have received conflicting messages from the White House.

    So, I think, for people here across the region, they’re hoping for the best but bracing themselves and planning for the worst.

Israeli escalation of attacks on Beirut, south Lebanon makes life ‘extremely difficult’ for civilians

By Obaida Hitto

Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

    We are in a significant escalation now in Lebanon, with the Israeli military saying it is expanding its ground operations in the country.

    There was a warning earlier in the day on Monday by the Israeli military for the southern suburbs in the capital, Beirut, asking people to continue to evacuate the area, and then there have been several attacks so far on the southern suburbs in Beirut.

    The situation in the south of the country is also escalating. The fronts are definitely widening.

Israel has carried out attacks throughout the southern front throughout the day, attacking vital infrastructure, including bridges that connect the north to the south of the country, today, destroying another bridge…

    This is making it extremely difficult for people who are still stuck south of the Litani River to get out.

    And it’s making it difficult for the Lebanese armed forces to reach anybody who needs help or even to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, with over a million people displaced in Lebanon today.

    This is putting the country in a very difficult situation.

Brent crude back over $100 a barrel amid uncertainty over Trump’s Iran talks claims

    Brent crude oil jumped back above $100 per barrel on Tuesday amid continuing uncertainty after Iranian officials urged defiance as US President Donald Trump claimed he was in talks with Iran, which officials in Tehran denied.

    Brent rose 2.9 percent to $102.84, while West Texas Intermediate jumped 3.5 percent to $91.20.

    On Monday, Brent plunged more than 10 percent in reaction to Trump’s statements that he had delayed strikes on Iran’s power plants for five days after what he described as “very good” talks with Tehran.

    Iranian officials have accused Trump of making his comments to manipulate oil and financial markets.