Iran war: Tehran names Mojtaba Khamenei as new leader, oil prices spike as war enters 10th day

“They can’t seem to get it together,” Trump said of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“But I think it was a positive call on that subject.”

He said the pair talked about the Middle East, and that Putin wants to be “helpful.”

“I said you could be more helpful by getting the Ukraine-Russia war over with. That would be more helpful,” he said.

“But we had a very good talk and he wants to be very constructive.”

Source: Reuters

The U.S. president called the war on Iran a “short-term excursion.”

“We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil. And I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion,” Trump said at a Republican conference in Doral, Florida.

His comment came a little more than an hour after CBS News published an interview of the president in which he said the war was “very complete.”

Listen to his full remarks in Florida in this live video below.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Trump on Monday and shared his proposals, aimed at a quick settlement to the Iran war, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

The leaders also discussed the Ukrainian conflict and the situation in Venezuela in the context of the global oil market situation, Ushakov said.

Source: REUTERS

Air defences intercepted and shot down a drone near Baghdad International Airport, according to security sources.

Source: REUTERS

Trump has spoken with NBC about the election of new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, saying: “I think they made a big mistake.”

It was too soon to talk about seizing Iran’s oil, Trump added, without ruling it out.

U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the United Nations continues to warn of the humanitarian toll of escalating violence across the Middle East, citing rising civilian casualties, damage to civilian infrastructure and increasing displacement.

“We’re particularly concerned by the number of reports of recent strikes on oil facilities, which could have serious environmental consequences across the region, with immediate possible impacts on safe water, on air that people need to breathe, and on food. This comes on top of strikes on water desalination plants reported in several countries,” he said at a regular briefing in New York.

“We reiterate again that all possible precautions must be taken to protect civilians from the impact of hostilities and to avoid damage to health facilities, schools, water systems and other essential infrastructure.”

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Israel should cease its operations in Lebanon. She said diplomacy offers the best chance of preventing Lebanon from sliding into chaos.

“Hezbollah’s decision to attack Israel in support of Iran endangers the entire region and adds a deadly dimension. Israel has the right to self-defence in line with international law,” Kallas said in a statement.

“At the same time, Israel’s response has been heavy-handed. Its retaliation is causing mass displacement and is further destabilising a fragile situation,” she said, adding that “Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected.”

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi has been speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Paris.

He said about half of Iran’s uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade, was stored in an underground area at Isfahan that seems largely unharmed by U.S. and Israeli bombing.

“We believe Isfahan had a bit more than 200 kg of 60% uranium. The widespread assumption is that the material is still there,” Grossi said, adding that there was an impact close to one of the tunnels at Isfahan.

Having earlier posted on Truth Social berating Australia over the Iranian women’s soccer team, Trump has now posted again to say he has spoken with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Trump appeared to confirm reports in Australian media that five players from the Iranian women’s soccer team were now under the protection of the Australian Federal Police, seeking assistance from the government.

As we reported earlier, the ministers were discussing the response to the overnight surge in oil prices.

There was broad agreement among the G7 finance ministers not to release strategic oil reserves just yet, a G7 official said. The G7 said in a statement they were ready to take “necessary measures” to support the global supply of energy, including the release of stockpiles, but stopped short of doing it now.

“There was broad consensus on this,” one G7 official with insight into the discussions told Reuters. “It was not that someone was against, it’s just about timing. More analysis is needed,” the official said. G7 energy ministers are to hold a teleconference on the same issue on Tuesday and G7 leaders later this week, the official said. “In my opinion the final decision will be by the leaders,” the official said. The G7 comprises the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, Britain, Germany and France.

Source: Reuters

Trump has weighed into a story that has attracted a lot of attention: the fate of the Iranian women’s soccer team, who are in Australia for the Asian Cup. The team were denounced as “wartime traitors” on Iranian state television after they did not sing the national anthem before their match against South Korea on March 2.

Three days later, the team sang the anthem and saluted before their second match, against Australia.

This led human rights campaigners to raise the alarm over their safety on that the women had been coerced by government minders.

The team was knocked out of the tournament on Sunday after losing 2-0 to the Philippines, prompting fears that they would be flown back to Iran and face retribution there.

When asked whether Australia would grant the players asylum, Matt Thistlethwaite, the assistant minister for foreign affairs and trade, said the government could not “go into individual circumstances for privacy reasons”.

Australia’s SBS News said five players from the Iranian women’s football team had “broken free” and were now under the protection of the Australian Federal Police, seeking assistance from the government.

Here is what Trump had to say about the issue on Monday:

Oil prices surged to more than $119 a barrel on Monday, hitting levels not seen since mid-2022. Prices rose as some major producers cut supplies and fears of prolonged shipping disruption gripped the market due to the expanding U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, is virtually shut.

Monday’s prices compare with all-time highs of around $147 a barrel in 2008, according to LSEG data going back to the 1980s.

Also boosting prices is the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader, signalling that hardliners remain firmly in charge in Tehran a week into its conflict with the U.S. and Israel.

The war could leave consumers and businesses worldwide facing weeks or months of higher fuel prices even if the conflict ends quickly, as suppliers grapple with damaged facilities, disrupted logistics and elevated risks to shipping.

“Alternatives are limited, such as tapping strategic oil reserves, but in comparison to the potential magnitude of the supply disruption if the Strait stays closed longer, they are a drop in the ocean,” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

Iranian state media has shown large crowds in the streets of several cities expressing support for their new leader, carrying Iranian flags and portraits of his father Ali Khamenei, killed by strikes on the war’s first day.

Iranians our colleagues were able to reach by telephone were divided however, with supporters of the authorities elated at the choice as a wartime declaration of defiance, and opponents fearful it would dash their hopes for change.

Many Iranians had celebrated the elder Khamenei’s death, weeks after his security forces killed thousands of anti-government protesters in the worst domestic unrest since the era of Iran’s 1979 revolution. But there has since been little sign of anti-government activity, with activists fearful of taking to the streets while Iran is under attack.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received 13 incident reports affecting vessels operating in and around the Strait of Hormuz between February 28, when the conflict began, and March 8. The reports included 10 attacks and three cases of suspicious activity, it said. The war has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes.

Source: REUTERS

IRAN
At least 1,230 people have been killed, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed in a missile strike on a primary school in Minab in the country’s south on the war’s first day, according to the non-profit humanitarian group Iranian Red Crescent Society. It was unclear if the overall death toll included Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military casualties. The Iranian army has said that at least 104 people were killed after a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast last week. Those deaths were not included in the toll given by the Red Crescent.

LEBANON
At least 394 people have been killed in Israeli strikes, including 83 children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

ISRAEL
The military said two soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, the first fatalities among its troops since hostilities with Hezbollah resumed last week after the group attacked Israel in support of Iran. Eleven civilians have been killed, including nine people in an Iranian missile strike on Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem on March 1, according to Israel’s ambulance service Magen David Adom.

UNITED STATES
Seven servicemembers have been killed in action during operations against Iran, the U.S. military said.

IRAQ
At least 15 people have been killed, according to Iraqi police and health officials. One commander from Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, was killed in an airstrike on his vehicle on March 5, police sources told Reuters.

SYRIA
Four people were killed when an Iranian missile struck a building in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on February 28, state news agency SANA said.

GULF NATIONS
Kuwait has reported five deaths, the United Arab Emirates has reported four and Saudi Arabia two. Bahrain and Oman have each reported one death.

Source: Reuters

We reported earlier that a French government source said G7 finance ministers would discuss the possibility of the joint release of emergency oil reserves in a meeting on Monday. EU Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen has now confirmed that discussion will take place. She also told reporters in Brussels that EU member states have sufficient stocks of oil and gas despite the disrupted supply chains due to the war in the Middle East. “We are far less concerned about the security of supply than we are of the high energy prices,” she said. She said EU members had stocks of oil or equivalents to last up to 90 days, and that there was no sign of any emergency situation.

NATO air defences in the eastern Mediterranean have shot down a ballistic missile that was fired from Iran and entered Turkey’s airspace, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Monday. The ministry warned it would take necessary steps without hesitation. This marks the second time an Iranian ballistic missile has been intercepted heading into the airspace of NATO member Turkey in the last week. In a statement, the ministry said some ammunition parts had fallen in the southeastern province of Gaziantep and that there were no casualties in the incident. It called on all parties to adhere to Ankara’s warnings. Turkey warned Iran on Saturday against firing more missiles towards it.

The United Arab Emirates defence ministry said on Monday that air defences had detected 15 ballistic missiles. Twelve of them were destroyed while three fell into the sea, the ministry said. It added that 18 drones were also detected, with 17 intercepted and one falling within the country’s territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Mojtaba Khamenei on his appointment as Iran’s new leader, the Kremlin said. Putin said he was confident Khamenei would continue his father’s work “with honour” and unite the Iranian people “in the face of severe trials”. He added that he wished to “confirm unwavering support for Tehran and solidarity with our Iranian friends”.