Al Jazeera

By Ted Regencia

    United States President Donald Trump says in an interview he wants to “take the oil in Iran” as Tehran accuses Washington plotting a ground attack despite publicly pushing for a negotiated deal.

    Kuwait says an Indian worker has been killed in an Iranian attack on a power and desalination plant, as Gulf states report intercepting drones and missiles.

    US-Israeli strikes hit a petrochemical plant in Iran’s Tabriz and knock out power across parts of Tehran, as Iranian forces target an industrial zone in southern Israel, sparking a fire and fears of a chemical leak.

    Israel intercepts two drones fired by Yemen’s Houthis, as the UN reports the killing of a peacekeeper in an attack in southern Lebanon.

    Foreign ministers from Pakistan, Egypt, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia meet in Islamabad and say they are committed to paving a path to de-escalation in the US-Israel war.

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

Fire at Tabriz petrochemical plant ‘completely contained’

    We’ve been repairing on a suspected US-Israeli attack on a unit of the Tabriz Petrochemical Company.

    According to Fars news agency, the attack earlier today resulted in a fire, but was quickly contained by “safe and firefighting teams”. At present the fire has been “completely contained” and the situation at the plant is under “complete control”, the agency said.

    “Engineers and technical experts are also busy closely examining the technical aspects and the extent of the damage,” it added.

• How are Iranian officials responding to Trump’s claim of talks

By Mohamed Vall

Reporting from Tehran, Iran

    Iranian officials seem to have come to the conclusion that whenever the American president talks about imminent peace, that means that war is imminent.

    The fighting is already ongoing, but they are expecting an intensification of that war now that he’s talking about being close to a deal, and describing the Iranians as reasonable. This is their understanding of the American mentality, particularly under Trump, and so they are focusing more on the possibility of a ground offensive rather than the events in Islamabad.

    Most of their comments are on Iran’s preparations and readiness for a ground offensive, because they think that is what is going to happen instead of a peace deal.

    That’s why the speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, reminded the US that putting boots on the ground means a protracted war. That’s the worst case scenario for Trump with the midterm elections approaching and with the unpopularity of this war, which is already very noticeable. The US Congress has also not yet approved it.

    The Iranians are well aware of these factors, and they also say that when the American troops invade Iran, that means Iranians will be on level ground with the Americans. They have hundreds of thousands of troops, they have hundreds of thousands of Basij paramilitary forces, and they are prepared to defend their nation, which is going to mean deaths among American soldiers, and make the entire project of this war very detrimental to Trump’s presidency.

Philippines refinery secures 2.5 million barrels of crude from Russia

    Petron Corp, the Philippines’ sole oil refinery, has secured nearly 2.5 million barrels of crude from Russia, out of “extreme necessity”, according to the AFP news agency.

    In a report to the Philippine stock exchange, Petron said it had agreed to purchase Russian crude after seeing at least four million barrels in shipments cancelled since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The purchase came after the US eased sanctions on Russian oil tied to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

    “The purchases were undertaken strictly out of extreme necessity as an extraordinary emergency measure in response to unprecedented geopolitical and supply-chain disruptions and only after exhausting all commercially and operationally viable alternatives,” Petron said. “A refinery shutdown for failure to secure crude would lead to serious nationwide fuel shortages and sharp price spikes,” said the company, whose refinery accounts for about 30 percent of the country’s fuel needs.

    Crude oil undergoes a process at oil refineries to turn into fuel like diesel.

    Based on 2024 estimates, the daily diesel consumption in the Philippines is 201,927 barrels per day.

    According to the Marcos administration, as of March 27 the country has an inventory of gasoline good for 53 days, diesel for 45 days, kerosene for 97 days, LPG for 23 days, and jet fuel for 38 days.

    Fuel prices have doubled since February 28 and are expected to rise further on Tuesday.

Asian currencies remain weak against the US dollar

    The South Korean won fell anew against the US dollar, opening at 1,515.2 per US dollar, down 6.3 won from the previous session.

    The won has been hovering around the psychologically important 1,500 level in recent sessions, and fell to as low as 1,517.3 on March 23, its weakest level in 17 years.

    Japan’s yen remains volatile, opening at 159.84 per US dollar earlier today, about 2.46 percent weaker than on February 28.

    The Singapore dollar is trading at about 1.29 to a US dollar, compared with 1.26 on February 28.

Israel announces wave of attacks on Tehran

    The Israeli military says it is “currently attacking the infrastructure” of the Iranian government, “throughout Tehran”.

Trump claims US military has ‘destroyed’ high-value targets across Iran

    The US president has commented on the war on Iran on his Truth Social platform.

    “Big day in Iran. Many long sought after targets have been taken out and destroyed by our GREAT MILITARY, the finest and most lethal in the World,” Trump wrote in a brief post.

    Earlier, he told reporters on board Air Force One that the US was negotiating with Iran “directly and indirectly” and that the negotiations were going “extremely well”.

    He also said he was “pretty sure” of a deal with Iran, but there was a possibility that this may not happen. Still, he claimed that the US had achieved “regime change” in Iran.

    In a separate interview with The Financial Times, Trump said he wants to take Iran’s oil and that the US could capture the Iranian export hub on Kharg Island.

Japan receives first Middle East crude shipment since war on Iran

    A tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia has arrived at an oil refinery in Japan, according to the NHK national broadcaster, as the ongoing US-Israel attack on Iran continues to raise concerns about crude oil supplies.

    The tanker was carrying about 100,000,000 litres (26,400,000 gallons or 205 628,981 barrels) of crude oil, and arrived at a petroleum wholesaler’s refinery in Ehime Prefecture’s Imabari City on Sunday, the report said.

    The oil was transported along a route that bypassed the Strait of Hormuz, NHK said.

    NHK quoted Taiyo Oil as saying that it is the first shipment of crude oil from the Middle East to reach Japan since the US and Israel launched their military operation against Iran on February 28.

Australia cuts fuel tax to bring down costs

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government is cutting the country’s tax on fuel and diesel to help bring down costs for households amid the supply crunch due to the ongoing US-Israel war against Iran.

    “The halving of the fuel excise will reduce the cost of fuel by 26.3 cents per litre [$0.18],” Albanese said. “We are making fuel cheaper today because we understand that Australians are under serious pressure.”

    The cuts will take effect next Wednesday and will remain in place for at least four months.

    National Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the tax cut will mean a reduction of about 19 Australian dollars ($13) for a 65-litre (17-gallon) tank.

    “So it is a substantial cost-of-living relief. It is timely, it is temporary, and it is responsible,” Chalmers said.

Hezbollah claims more attacks on northern Israel

    The Lebanese armed group says its fighters have launched rockets at the village of Dovev and a site in the village of Ghajar.

The attacks took place at 2am (23:00 GMT, Sunday) and 2:50am local time, respectively

    Hezbollah also said it carried out a drone attack on the Shoumira barracks in the Western Galilee region at 3:50am (00:50).

Trump says US would ‘close up’ any Iran move to charge toll fees in Strait of Hormuz

    The US president was also asked about an Iranian plan to charge toll fees through the Strait of Hormuz.

    He said, “I’d have to find out if that is true”, but the US could shut that operation down very fast.

    “We could close that up in 2 minutes. We could close that up so fast, your head would spin,” he said.

    Trump said Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain are fighting back against Iran.

    “They were surprised to be hit. I was very surprised they got hit. And once they got hit, they started fighting very well. [We have] very strong communications, but all of those kind of people said, they’ve all been fighting,” he added.

Trump says Iranian leaders ‘not gonna have a country’ if they don’t give up nuclear weapons

    The US president says he doesn’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon and that Iranian leaders will give up their atomic ambitions.

    “They are decimated right now. They’re gonna give up nuclear weapons. They’re gonna give us the nuclear dust. They’re gonna do everything that we want to do, and you know what  They’re gonna go on and maybe have a great, a great country again. But if they don’t do that, they’re not gonna have a country. They’re not even gonna have a country,” he said on board Air Force One.

Sirens blare in Bahrain

    Authorities in the Gulf state have told people to “remain calm and head to the nearest safe place” in what is the third activation of alarm sirens over the past four hours.

Trump says US has ‘lots of alternatives’ to ground troops in Iran

    More from the US president’s comments on board Air Force One.

    Trump said he does see a deal with Iran and that it “could be soon”.

    When asked if he would put boots on the ground, Trump said he has “lots of alternatives”. “We are weeks ahead of schedule” in the war on Iran, he said.

    When asked if Mojtaba Khamenei is alive, he again said, “We think he may be”, but that he is likely “seriously wounded”.

    When asked whether the US has heard from Iran on the 15-point plan, he said: “They gave us most of the points. Why wouldn’t they  They are agreeing with us on the plan. We asked for 15 things for the most part and we are going to be asking for other couple things.”