Iran-US war latest: Tehran threatens to ‘completely close’ Strait of Hormuz after Trump issues 48-hour ultimatum

Rocket trails are seen over the Israeli coastal city of Netanya during a fresh barrage of Iranian missile attacks in the early hours.

Earlier, Israel also launched a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure in Tehran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have said they will target Israel’s power plants and those supplying US military bases if Iran’s electricity infrastructure is attacked — appearing to walk back earlier threats to strike Gulf desalination plants.

“If you hit electricity, we hit electricity,” the Guards said in a statement today. “We are determined to respond to any threat at the same level as it creates in terms of deterrence.”

The statement accused US president Donald Trump of misrepresenting Iran’s intentions, saying Mr Trump had “claimed that the Revolutionary Guards intends to attack the water desalination plants and cause hardship to the people of the countries in the region.”

Mr Trump set a Monday evening deadline on Saturday, warning the US would strike Iranian power plants if Tehran failed to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

The top commander of US Central Command has said the military campaign against Iran is “ahead or on plan,” as Israel launched what it called a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure in Tehran this morning.

US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, speaking to Farsi-language network Iran International, said Iran’s rate of fire had slowed significantly since the war began. “At the beginning of the conflict, you saw large volumes in the dozens of drones and missiles. You no longer see that. It’s all one or two at a time,” he said, describing Iran as acting “in a sign of desperation.”

Kuwait and the UAE said their air defences were dealing with Iranian missile and drone attacks early on Monday, while air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones in the Eastern Province. An Indian national in Abu Dhabi was injured by shrapnel after a ballistic missile was intercepted near Al Dhafra Air Base.

The war’s death toll has risen to more than 1,500 in Iran, more than 1,000 in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 US military members. Millions have been displaced in Lebanon and Iran.

The International Energy Agency is consulting governments in Asia and Europe on releasing more stockpiled oil “if necessary,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said this morning, as he began a world tour starting in Australia.

“If it is necessary, of course, we will do it. We look at the conditions, we will analyse, assess the markets and discuss with our member countries,” Mr Birol told Australia’s National Press Club in Canberra.

IEA member nations agreed on 11 March to release a record 400 million barrels — 20 per cent of overall stocks. Mr Birol said there would be no specific price trigger for a further release, cautioning that stockpile drawdowns were not a solution in themselves.

“A stock release will help to comfort the markets, but this is not the solution. It will only help to reduce the pain in the economy.”

The war on Iran had removed 11 million barrels a day from global supply — more than the two 1970s oil shocks combined.

“The single most important solution to this problem is opening the Hormuz Strait,” he said.

Maritime intelligence firm Windward AI reported Sunday that Strait of Hormuz traffic was “near collapse,” with only “16 AIS-visible crossings recorded over the past seven days,” Fox News reported.

Transit is controlled increasingly stringently, with vessels rerouting via Iran’s territorial waters, the firm said. Gulf energy exports continue to decline, with crude and LPG flows at recent lows, the firm added.

The Israeli military just said it has begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure in Tehran, as Iran’s state-run Mizan News Agency reports explosions across several parts of the capital.

An airstrike flattened residential buildings in Urmia in northwest Iran, with rescuers searching for survivors under the rubble, state-affiliated Nour News reported.

At least one person was killed in a separate strike on a radio station in the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas, semi-official Mehr News Agency said.

The strikes come as US president Donald Trump’s 48-hour deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz — or face US strikes on its power plants — approaches its evening deadline today. Iran had warned it would target energy and water infrastructure across the Gulf, including desalination plants, if its power grid was attacked.

In a post on Truth Social Sunday, Donald Trump claimed the “death of Iran” while taking aim at the Democrats.

From his Florida golf retreat, he wrote: “Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The president claimed victory over Tehran on Friday as the war enters its fourth week, with strikes continuing. Despite this, there has been no regime change and Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz with a significant knock-on effect to global trade.

The head of the International Energy Agency has warned the world is facing an energy crisis more severe than any in living memory, saying the current disruption is the equivalent of “two oil crises and one gas crash put all together.”

Speaking at Australia’s National Press Club in Canberra, IEA director Fatih Birol said the world had already lost 11 million barrels of oil a day — more than the combined loss from the 1973 and 1979 oil shocks. Gas losses from the current crisis, at 140 billion cubic metres, were nearly double those caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said.

“The global economy is facing a major, major threat today,” Mr Birol said. “No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction.”

He said at least 40 energy assets across the region had been “severely or very severely damaged” and that the IEA was consulting with governments in Asia and Europe about releasing further stockpiled oil, on top of the record 400 million barrels already agreed this month. Mr Birol added that the crisis was also severely affecting petrochemicals and fertilisers, with lasting impacts to follow.

Goldman Sachs has raised its 2026 average price forecast for Brent crude to $85 a barrel from $77, and its West Texas Intermediate forecast to $79 from $72, citing extended disruptions to crude shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and increased strategic stockpiling.

The bank expects Brent to average $110 a barrel in March and April, up from a prior forecast of $98, as traders attach a growing risk premium amid uncertainty over how long supply disruptions will last.

In a worst-case scenario, Goldman warned oil could hit $135 a barrel “if the market required a risk premium to generate precautionary demand destruction offsetting supply destruction over six months in a risk scenario of 10 weeks of very low flows and two million barrels a day of persistent production losses.”