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WorldMiddle EastMiddle East at war

US-Iran war as it happened: Trump calls on countries to send warships to reopen Hormuz; UN chief urges Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting

Caroline Schelle, Caitlin Fitzsimmons and Josefine Ganko
Updated ,first published

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Three more Iranian soccer players decide to return home
UK ‘discussing options’ to help secure Strait of Hormuz

What we covered today

By Caroline Schelle

Thank you for following our rolling coverage of the conflict in the Middle East. We will resume our live reporting tomorrow morning.

Here’s a wrap of what we covered:

  • Three more Iranian women’s soccer players have decided to return home rather than seek asylum in Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed.
  • Two oil tankers were berthed at key Iranian oil-export facility Kharg Island hours after the US attacked military installations there, according to a satellite firm.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is supplying Iran with Shahed drones to use against the US and Israel, in an interview with CNN.
  • US President Donald Trump has not asked Australia to send a warship to the Strait of Hormuz as he seeks to rally a multinational coalition to protect the global oil trade, and any such request would probably be greeted warily by the Albanese government.

Trump is rallying nations to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz. Australia is wary

By Matthew Knott

US President Donald Trump has not asked Australia to send a warship to the Strait of Hormuz as he seeks to rally a multinational coalition to protect the global oil trade, and any such request would probably be greeted warily by the Albanese government.

As the war between Israel, the US and Iran enters its third week, the regime in Tehran is digging in for a long fight. And oil prices are surging as the key trade route remains effectively shut down.

A Thai cargo vessel on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, reflecting the danger of Iranian attacks.AP

Trump used a social media post on Sunday to list countries, including China, that he believed should send warships to the Strait of Hormuz to protect oil tankers from Iranian attacks.

“Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Key UAE port resumes oil operations after drone strike

By

Oil-loading operations at a key port in the United Arab Emirates resumed after a drone strike and fire forced a halt to exports on Saturday.

Operations at Fujairah, which sits outside the Strait of Hormuz, have restarted, according to people familiar with the situation, who can’t be identified as they are not authorised to comment.

Calls to the port, as well as state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., were not answered.

The blaze was extinguished as of early Sunday morning (UAE time), Bloomberg News reported earlier.

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Iran arrests 20 people accused of being informants to Israel

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Turning back to Iran, where 20 people were arrested for attempting to co-operate with Israel.

That’s according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which cited a statement from West Azerbaijan province’s prosecutor office. The agency has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The people arrested are accused of sending location details on Iran’s military and security assets to Israel.

Israel has launched a new phase of its assault on Iran, targeting security checkpoints based on tip-offs from informants on the ground, a source briefed on Israel’s military strategy told Reuters last week.

Reuters

Israeli forces kill four in West Bank, Palestinian authorities say

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Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including two children, during a raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health authorities said.

Among those killed were a woman, 35, and man, 37, who were shot along with their children aged five and seven in the West Bank village of Tammun, the Palestinian health minister said on Sunday.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

The Palestinian authorities also said one Palestinian was killed in an attack by settlers overnight on Saturday.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank are taking advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the war on Iran ​to attack Palestinians, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances reaching victims quickly, rights groups and medics say.

Reuters

Oil tankers spotted at Iranian export facility after US attack

By

Two oil tankers were berthed at key Iranian oil-export facility Kharg Island hours after the US attacked military installations there, according to a satellite firm.

The report comes from Tankertrackers.com, which specialises in studying satellite imagery to track ship movements.

One of the tankers is a very-large crude carrier with a capacity of about 2 million barrels of oil. The other is a smaller Aframax vessel, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of Tankertrackers.com.

Kharg Island is the most valuable piece of economic infrastructure to Iran.AP

Both were observed mid-morning local time on Saturday. Neither vessel was there on Friday, he said.

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North Korea fires missiles adding to geopolitical risks

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North Korea fired more than 10 ballistic missiles toward the waters off its eastern coast, days after testing cruise missiles from a new warship, adding to global geopolitical risks that were already mounting after the US and Israel attacked Iran.

State media KCNA, in a report on Sunday, said leader Kim Jong-un presided over a drill involving multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies a day earlier.

Kim said after the drill the weapons were means of “deterring war” but North Korea would use them as means of a “massive, destructive strike” in response to provocation or an attack.

“As I have said several times, if this weapon is used, the opponent’s military infrastructure within its striking range can never survive,” Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA, adding the launch would show enemies the power of North Korea’s tactical nuclear weapons.

The launch coincided with annual US–South Korea military exercises that are running from March 9 to March 19, drills that Pyongyang has long denounced as rehearsals for invasion.

ICYMI: Treasurer probed over Australia running out of fuel

By Caitlin Fitzsimmons

Earlier, Treasurer Jim Chalmers appeared on Sky News where he was asked about the possibility of running out of petrol.

Here’s what he told host Andrew Clennell:

That’s not something we’re expecting, in fact, we have really more than enough fuel as it stands right now.

We’ve got big stockpiles of fuel, whether it’s petrol or diesel or jet fuel, and we work around the clock to make sure that Australia doesn’t run out, we’re certainly not expecting that we will.

Clennell also asked how high petrol prices could go and if they could pass $3 a litre.

The Treasurer said the government did not have a model that has petrol prices that high, but there was a lot of volatility and unpredictability in the global oil market that would flow on to the petrol bowser in Australia.

Much depended on the duration of the war, he said.

Sending Japanese ships to the Middle East faces ‘high hurdles’

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Dispatching Japanese military vessels to the Middle East to escort ships would face “high hurdles”, a senior official from Japan has said.

It comes after US President Donald Trump expressed hope that Tokyo would join the US to keep the Strait of Hormuz “open and safe.”

“While it is not legally ruled out, given the ongoing conflict, it is something that should be judged carefully,” ruling Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi told Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

Kobayashi’s response to Trump came days ahead of a planned visit to Washington by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Japan’s plans to reaffirm its alliance with the US, and discuss trade and investment deals at a March 19 summit, had already been overshadowed by the war in Iran.

Japan is heavily reliant on oil from the Middle East to power its economy. Yet the country, which has maintained a pacifist constitution for eight decades, hasn’t taken a clear stance on the Iran war.

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Who is US secretary of war Pete Hegseth?

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The war in the Middle East has thrown the spotlight on Pete Hegseth, US Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defence.

The role has been rebranded as secretary of war.

During the senate confirmation hearings, we heard that Hegseth was a decorated veteran and right-wing author and television host on Fox News who had no previous expertise in government.

His scant experience in leadership roles had been tarnished by claims of mismanagement and unprofessional behaviour.

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