Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, on Monday.
Bilal Hussain/AP
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Bilal Hussain/AP
Iran launched new attacks on Israel and several Gulf states on Monday, just hours after naming Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader.
The 56-year-old is the son of former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike at the start of the war. He has close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, suggesting a continuation of his father’s regime and hardline stance.
Meanwhile, Israel launched new strikes overnight, which it said targeted sites linked to the militant group Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut and more regime-linked infrastructure in Tehran.
The rise rattled markets, with crude oil prices briefly hovering near $120 a barrel on Monday. The widening conflict has raised fears of supply disruptions across the region.
In Bahrain, the country’s state oil company BAPCO declared ‘force majeure’ on its operations, allowing it to suspend contractual obligations amid extraordinary disruptions following drone strikes.
The war has killed more than 1,200 people in Iran, nearly 400 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to figures from Iranian and Lebanese health officials and Israeli officials.
The Pentagon says 7 US service members have been killed since the war began. Six people were killed in a drone attack in Kuwait and the latest casualty died after being injured during an Iranian attack on a military base in Saudi Arabia.
Here’s what to know about the latest developments in the conflict:
Iran has retaliated after Israel launched new attacks on Beirut and Tehran
Iran on Monday night launched a new round of missile and drone strikes targeting Israel and several Gulf states. The attacks came after Israel said the militant group had carried out new attacks on sites linked to Hezbollah in Beirut’s southern suburbs and on regime-related infrastructure in Tehran.
On Monday, Bahrain’s state news agency said at least 32 people, including children, were injured in an Iranian attack on the island of Sitra, south of the capital Manama.
Qatar’s foreign ministry condemned what it called an Iranian strike on a residential facility in Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, saying two civilians had been killed and others injured.
Officials in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, said a fire broke out at an oil plant that was attacked overnight. Saudi Arabia says it has intercepted several drones targeting its Shaiba oil field.
In a statement on Monday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry reiterated its “firm condemnation of Iranian attacks against the Kingdom” and neighboring countries and warned it was ready to defend itself against any future attack.
“The State affirms that it retains its absolute right to take all measures necessary to safeguard its security, sovereignty and the safety of its citizens and residents and to prevent aggression.”
– Rebecca Roseman
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son has been named the new Supreme Leader
In an announcement early Monday in Iran, the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for electing the country’s supreme leader, said a majority of its members had voted to appoint Mojtaba Khamenei as the Islamic republic’s third leader since its founding in 1979.
The meeting called on the Iranian public, political figures, intellectuals and senior clerics to pledge their allegiance to the newly appointed leader.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was Iran’s supreme leader for 37 years and was killed in a US-Israeli strike in Tehran on February 28, marking the first day of the war.
President Trump says Khamenei’s son is unacceptable for Iran’s leadership.
Israel’s military has previously said it would pursue any successor to Khamenei and target participants in the selection process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a press conference that he was trying to “destabilize the regime and enable change.”
Crude oil prices are above $100 a barrel
Global oil prices soared into triple digits as war continued to disrupt shipping and energy infrastructure in the Middle East.
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, briefly touched $120 a barrel in early trading on Monday, amid concerns that the conflict could sideline tankers and restrict supplies. Crude oil traded above $100 a barrel in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The move had been in the making for days. Before the war started, crude oil was around $70 a barrel. Prices then jumped to just under $80 by the middle of last week. The price gains then began to accelerate, closing at around $93 on Friday.
“We’ve gone from traders with ice in their veins to traders with fear in their veins,” Rebecca Babin, an energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth, said on Friday.
According to AAA, the average gasoline price in the US has already risen nearly 50 cents a gallon in a week, from just $2.98 to $3.45. Patrick de Haan, a petroleum analyst with the GasBuddy app, says gasoline is likely to hit the $4 national average this week.
The surge has also rattled Asian financial markets. Japan’s Nikkei fell more than 5% on Monday as oil prices rose.
– Camilla Domonoske
Bahrain’s state oil company declares ‘force majeure’ on operations
Bahrain’s state oil company Bapco Energies declared force majeure on Monday, according to its state-owned news agency, saying the ongoing regional conflict and recent attacks on its refinery complex had disrupted operations.
Force majeure is a legal maneuver that allows a company to suspend contractual obligations amid extraordinary events.
Top Senate Democrats condemn strike on Iranian girls’ school
Senate Democrats condemned what they called a U.S. strike on a girls’ elementary school in southeastern Iran on Feb. 28, saying they were “appalled” by reports that at least 175 people were killed, most of them children.
NPR Reported on March 4Based on a review of commercial satellite imagery and interviews with independent experts, the strike hit more sites than initially reported and appeared consistent with a precision airstrike on a nearby military compound — raising questions about whether outdated targeting information led to the damage to the school.
In a joint statement, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Gene Shaheen (DNH.), Jack Reed (DRI), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) called for an independent analysis, saying the strike was “entirely verifiable and could have been carried out by US forces”.
He referred to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as his “extremely cavalier” use of force and called for a “thorough” investigation into “whether any policy decisions may have contributed to the tragedy”.
