Dubai, March 31: US strikes hit a city on Tuesday that is home to one of Iran’s main nuclear sites, sending a massive fireball into the sky, and Tehran attacked a fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.
The attacks were a testament to the intensity of the war more than a month after the US and Israel launched their first strikes. The conflict has left more than 3,000 dead and caused major disruptions to the world’s supply of oil and natural gas. On Tuesday, the average price of gasoline in the US shot past USD 4 a gallon — just another sign of the war’s effects far beyond the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump said countries upset by high fuel prices should “go get your own oil” as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. He expressed his frustration on social media toward allies who have been unwilling to help the US reopen the critical passageway. “Go get your own oil,” Trump wrote. He also said they should buy from the US because “we have plenty.”
Trump, who has vacillated between insisting there is progress in diplomatic talks with Iran and threatening to widen the war, shared footage of the attack on Isfahan. The central city is home to one of three nuclear enrichment sites attacked by the US in a 12-day war in June, and analysts believe much of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely stored there.
The war is roiling the oil market
Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading out of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported during peacetime, has driven up global oil prices, as have Tehran’s attacks on regional energy infrastructure. That has shaken stock markets around the world and pushed up the cost of many basic goods.
Spot prices of Brent crude, the international standard, hovered around USD 106 a barrel Tuesday, up more than 45 per cent since the war started Feb. 28.
Trump warned this week that if a ceasefire is not reached “shortly,” and if the strait is not reopened, the US would broaden its offensive, including by attacking the Kharg Island oil export hub and possibly desalination plants.
Israel and the US launch a new wave of strikes on Iran
Israel and the US launched a wave of strikes on Iran, hitting Tehran in the early morning.
The video shared by Trump appeared to show a massive attack on Isfahan, and NASA fire-tracking satellites suggest explosions happened in a mountainous region on the city’s southern edge. Iran has not confirmed the attack.
A satellite image taken just before the June war suggests Tehran transferred a truckload of highly enriched uranium to a nuclear facility about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Tuesday’s strikes.
Analysts believe the truck — which the image showed going into a tunnel loaded with 18 blue containers — likely carried most or all of Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent purity. That’s a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels.
Iran hits oil tanker in waters off Dubai
An Iranian drone hit a Kuwaiti oil tanker in waters off the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, sparking a blaze that was later put out, the Dubai Media Office said. Authorities said no oil spill resulted.
Four people were also wounded when debris from an intercepted drone fell into a residential area, and loud explosions could be heard later from another attack in Dubai.
Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain, while Saudi Arabia said it intercepted three ballistic missiles launched toward its capital. Loud explosions were also heard in Israel not long after the military warned of an incoming missile barrage from Iran.
Gulf allies of the United States that have been hit hard have urged Trump to continue the conflict until Iran’s military capabilities are destroyed, according to US, Gulf and Israeli officials.
In response to that growing anger, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted Tuesday that Tehran is only targeting US forces in the region.
“Our operations are aimed at enemy aggressors who have no respect for Arabs or Iranians, nor can they provide any security,” Araghchi wrote on X. (AP)
