Trump tells allies facing high fuel prices to 'get your own oil' from Strait of Hormuz

Video captured the dramatic explosion as an Israeli airstrike destroyed another building in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israeli airstrike destroys Beirut building

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Israel had issued an evacuation order for the location earlier.

The British Defense Ministry said today that it will send additional air defense support to the Gulf region.

The air support includes a Sky Sabre air defense system that will be deployed to Saudi Arabia and the extension of Royal Air Force Typhoon jets in Qatar, the ministry said.

“UK Typhoons and F-35 jets, together with Wildcat helicopters, have continued their defensive missions overnight, including over Cyprus, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE,” the ministry said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said today in conversation with European Council President António Costa that there is a will to end the conflict with the U.S. and Israel provided certain conditions are met, especially a guarantee that Iran will not be attacked again, according to state media outlet IRNA.

A residential building hit by a drone attack in Tehran. Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

Pezeshkian told Costa that Iran had entered negotiations with the U.S. "sincerely" but was instead attacked twice, which shows that the U.S. is trying to impose its own interests rather than seek diplomacy.

He also said that the disruption in marine traffic in the Strait of Hormuz was caused by U.S. and Israeli aggression and will end only when their attacks on Iran do, according to the state outlet. He warned that if there was any foreign intervention in the Strait of Hormuz, there would be dangerous consequences.

Costa said European nations do not support attacks against Iran and encourage all parties to resolve their issues through negotiations, according to the IRNA.

The Iranian army said it struck telecommunications and industrial centers belonging to Siemens and AT&T near Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and in Haifa, Israel, today.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on X that Trump will give an “Address to the Nation to provide an important update on Iran” tomorrow night.

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday. Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

"TUNE IN: Tomorrow night at 9PM ET, President Trump will give an Address to the Nation to provide an important update on Iran," she wrote.

Surveillance video verified by NBC News shows a missile streaking down into a sports field and erupting into an orange ball of flame across the street from a school complex in Iran’s southern Fars province. The explosion from the Feb. 28 strike in Lamerd county hurled shrapnel and debris into an area where students would typically be present.

The attack took place on the first day of a broader wave of U.S. and Israeli attacks across Iran. The same day, a strike on a school in Minab, which is also in southern Iran, killed more than 170 people, many of them children, while another strike in Qazvin in northwest Iran narrowly missed a boys’ school.

Jeffrey Lewis, who directs the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at Middlebury in Monterey, California, told NBC News that the missile in the video appears to be a Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). Lockheed Martin described the PrSM as a “long-range precision-strike missile designed for the U.S. Army” that “provides ... increased range, lethality, survivability and missile load out.”

More than 1,900 people across Iran have been killed since the war started, according to the country's deputy health minister.

Iranian security forces have arrested at least 1,500 people since the war began Feb. 28, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group, said today.

The group said the real number may be even higher. It said targets of the repression have included religious minorities, activists, protesters and the families of activists abroad.

“The Iranian authorities are exploiting the cover of war to launch a sweeping campaign of repression,” Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi said in a statement. “These arrests are not about security — they are about silencing dissent, punishing critics, and instilling fear across society.”

Trump said flat-out “no” when he was asked whether Iran has to make a deal for the U.S. to end its military operation against the country.

“Iran doesn’t have to make a deal, no,” Trump said.

“When we feel that they are — for a long period of time, put into the Stone Ages, and they won’t be able to come up with a nuclear weapon, then we’ll leave,” he said.

“Whether we have a deal or not, it’s irrelevant,” he added.

Trump said the Iranian leadership wants to "make a deal” but also said the war is winding down.

“In a fairly short order of time we’ll be finished," he said.

Trump said the U.S. would be wrapping up the Iran war soon and predicted that would happen within two to three weeks.

"We’ll be leaving very soon," he said at an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office.

He added: “I would say that within two weeks maybe. Two weeks, maybe three."

Asked for clarification, he said, "We'll leave."

Trump also said the U.S. has no responsibility for the closed Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of global oil flows.

“We have nothing to do with that. What happens with the strait, we’re not going to have anything to do with,” he said.

About 348 U.S. service members have been injured since Operation Epic Fury started, a U.S. official familiar with operations told NBC News.

About 91% of them, 315, have returned to duty, the official said.

Six service members are seriously wounded, the official said.

Some Persian Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have told the Trump administration to press ahead with bombing Iran to ensure the regime can no longer threaten countries in the region with ballistic missiles and drones, according to three senior officials in Gulf states, a U.S. official and a congressional aide.

Although they have misgivings about the way the war has been handled and are skeptical about efforts to topple the regime in Tehran through air power, these allies also have expressed concerns to the White House that ending the war prematurely could leave their countries vulnerable to future attacks by the regime.

“Our message is: Finish the job,” said one of the senior Gulf officials.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck 20 weapons manufacturing sites in Iran over the past day.

The army also said it struck infrastructure in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' naval headquarters.

NBC News has not independently verified the report.

Jordan's armed forces said today they had intercepted and destroyed four Iranian missiles in the past day.

They added on X that they also responded to 17 reports of falling debris and projectiles during the same period.

Spain, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Union have criticized the Israeli parliament's decision to pass a measure establishing the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the move "an asymmetric measure that would not be applied to Israelis who committed the same offenses." Spain has been vocal in its support of Palestinian human rights, and it permanently withdrew its ambassador to Israel this month, marking an escalation in tensions between the nations.

"That is not justice. It is one more step toward apartheid," Sánchez wrote on X.

E.U. Special Representative for Human Rights Kajsa Ollongren also criticized the death penalty bill, saying it is "a violation of the right to life" and "discriminatory in nature."

Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist and Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi is in critical condition and may have experienced what could have been a heart attack, according to a representative.

Last week, Mohammadi was found unconscious and with her eyes rolled back while she was in bed in Iran’s Zanjan Prison, according to an update posted to her foundation's website. That lasted for more than an hour, and despite indications that she'd suffered a heart attack, Mohammadi wasn't allowed to transfer to a hospital or visit a specialist, the statement said.

Mohammadi's lawyers and sister visited her in the prison for the first time Sunday, after over 100 days of detention, and saw her looking very unwell, the representative said. Mohammadi has critical heart disease and was recently subjected to physical trauma and injuries, the representative said.

"Observations by the lawyers indicate that Narges Mohammadi’s general health status is extremely unfavorable, alarming, and critical," her representative said in a statement to NBC News. "She appeared severely pale and thin, and she entered the meeting room just minutes after being transferred to the infirmary due to intense chest pain, subsequently brought to the meeting location accompanied by a nurse from the prison clinic."

Since her arrest in December, Mohammadi has reported experiencing headaches, nausea and “decreased vision in both eyes,” according to her foundation, which reported that her arrest was violent and that she was subjected to "repeated blows to her head."

A roadside explosion appears to have struck the convoy of two Indonesian peacekeepers killed in southern Lebanon, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said today, citing initial findings of an investigation.

The two peacekeepers with the UNIFIL force were killed yesterday near Bani Hayyan in south Lebanon, and two other soldiers were wounded. Another Indonesian soldier was killed overnight Sunday into yesterday when a projectile exploded near one of the group’s positions.

“UNIFIL is conducting investigations to determine the circumstances of these reprehensible developments,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the head of U.N. peacekeeping, said at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Lebanon.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, blamed the peacekeepers’ deaths on Hezbollah. He charged that the group launches rockets from villages next to U.N. positions, “putting peacekeepers directly in the line of fire.”

Asked about Danon’s statement, UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said: “We invite them to share their evidence with our investigative team.”

Operation Epic Fury is "making undeniable progress in eliminating Iran’s ability to project power in meaningful ways," Adm. Brad Cooper of U.S. Central Command said during an update today.

Cooper said that there are 50,000 troops in the Middle East operating air defenses in the region as well as launching attacks from the air, land and sea.

European Union governments should prepare for a prolonged disruption to energy markets as a result of the Iran war, the bloc’s energy chief has told ministers ahead of an emergency meeting today.

In a letter to energy ministers dated yesterday and seen by Reuters, E.U. Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said governments were “encouraged to make timely preparations in anticipation of a potentially prolonged disruption.”

Europe’s heavy reliance on imported fuel exposes it to the Middle East conflict’s impact on global energy prices. European gas prices have risen more than 70% since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began Feb. 28.

The bloc’s supplies of crude oil and natural gas have not been hit directly by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, since Europe imports most of those energy sources from suppliers outside of the Middle East.

Pakistani and Chinese officials who met in Beijing today are calling for an end to the fighting in the Middle East.

They released a five-point initiative to restore peace in the region.

Both countries are calling for an end to hostilities in the region, a return to peace talks and the security of nonmilitary targets and shipping routes, including the Strait of Hormuz.

The nations have also called for returning to the primacy of the U.N. charter and adopting a long-lasting peace agreement based on international law.

Surging oil prices continue to ripple through the global economy because of the war with Iran. Now, some analysts say the worst could still be ahead as the conflict drags on.

The concern is that beyond immediate knock-on effects from rising gasoline prices, the war’s disruption could come in waves — ones that will play out over weeks and months and leave few parts of the global economy untouched.

“We haven’t seen the brunt of it yet,” said Samantha Gross, director of energy security and climate at the Brookings Institute. “I feel like markets are so far underestimating the effect of the war. It seems that they expect this war to go quickly, and they expect that we can go back to the world before when it’s over. And I don’t think either of those ideas is true.”

The warning signs are already here. The global oil price benchmark, Brent crude — which heavily influences U.S. gasoline prices — briefly topped $119 a barrel last week, the highest since the war began and a level last seen in July 2022 amid the pandemic-era inflation wave. As of Monday, Brent prices had settled at about $113 a barrel.

Read the full story here.

The reality in Tel Aviv these days is that no one needs an alarm clock, because those bomb sirens are regularly going off as was the case very early this morning when a number went off.

The warnings were real, and on one street two people were injured. An explosive projectile, presumably fired from Iran, got through and also blew up some cars.

The White House says that they have diminished Iran’s capability to fire ballistic missiles and drones by 90%.

But attacks like these keep happening.

Iran’s Supreme ⁠Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is in the ⁠country ​but is ⁠refraining from making public appearances “for understandable reasons,” the RTVI news outlet quoted Russia’s ambassador ⁠to the country ‌as saying on ‌Tuesday.

Mojtaba replaced his father, Ayatollah Ali ⁠Khamenei, who ⁠was killed ​when Israel and the ⁠United States launched ‌their war on Iran more ⁠than a month ago. The U.S. has said it believes Mojtaba himself ‌is wounded and ⁠likely disfigured.

Russia has close ties ⁠with Iran, with ⁠which it signed a strategic ​partnership treaty last year. 

The average price of a gallon of gasoline hit $4 on Tuesday for the first time since mid-2022, as the cost of oil surges due to the Iran war.

In the month since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, the average price of unleaded gas has spiked more than a dollar a gallon. On Tuesday morning, the average price nationwide was $4.02 per gallon, motor club AAA said.

It’s not just retail gasoline. The diesel fuel used to power trucks delivering goods to stores, farm equipment and public transit has risen to $5.45 per gallon, more than $1.80 higher than it was a year ago.

Driving that is the soaring cost of crude oil worldwide. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude has risen more than 50% since the war began Feb. 28, while Brent, the international benchmark, has seen a jump of nearly 60%.

Read the full story here.

Qatar has warned against targeting desalination plants in the Middle East after both the U.S. and Iran threatened to bomb the facilities, which remove salt from seawater.

“This region depends heavily on desalination,” Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry, said during a media briefing on Tuesday. 

“We have very few other sources of drinking water or natural water. And therefore, we see this as a very big threat to people’s lives here in the region.”

Qatar relies on desalination for 99% of its drinking water, according to the Gulf Cooperation Council, meaning disruption to its plants could plunge the small nation into chaos.

Israel’s ​decision to pass a law making death by hanging a default sentence ⁠for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks is ‘very concerning’ for the European ⁠Union, said ​a ⁠Commission spokesperson on Tuesday.

“This is a clear step ⁠backwards,” added the spokesperson ​at a ⁠news briefing. “We ‌call Israel to abide by its previous principled position, its ‌obligation under international ‌law and its commitment to democratic principles,” he said.

He added ⁠he had no speculation to make regarding any steps that could be taken by the EU Commission over Israel’s move.

On Monday, Israel’s ‌parliament making death ​by hanging a default sentence ‌for Palestinians ⁠convicted in military courts of ⁠deadly attacks, fulfilling a pledge ‌by ​Prime Minister Benjamin ‌Netanyahu’s far-right allies.

An image released by CENTCOM yesterday shows a U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress mid-air refuelled during a combat flight last week.

@CENTCOM via X

Responding to a question about Trump’s threat to blow up Iranian desalination plants, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. has “numerous processes and systems to carefully consider the whole range of considerations, from civilian risk to legal considerations.”

The president said yesterday that if there was no deal to end the war soon he would obliterate civilian energy infrastructure “and possibly all desalinization plants” which he said “we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.”

Millions of people across the Middle East rely on these plants for drinking water. They are not considered military targets and Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have said bombing them would be a war crime.

Hailing the U.S. military as “the most professional force in the world,” Caine said: “With any target, and as targets come before us, we run it through the same process that we always do and always strike. It’s in accordance with the normal procedures that we use.”

Once the war is over gas prices “will plummet back to the multi-year lows American drivers enjoyed before these short-term disruptions,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement today.

She added that President Donald Trump remained “committed to fully unleashing American energy dominance, lowering costs, and putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families.”

Responding to a question about the timeline of the war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said: “Don’t tell your enemy what you’re willing to do or not do, and don’t tell your enemy when you’re willing to stop.”

He declined to answer the question and pointed to the president's comments on a potential timeline.

“He said four to six weeks, six to eight weeks, three — It could be any any particular number, but we would never reveal precisely what it is, because our goal is to finish those objectives, and we’re well on our way,” he said.

"It will be the president's determination and the president's determination alone when those objectives are complete and when it serves the interest of the American people to cut that deal to make sure that Iran doesn't have a nuclear capability, and ultimately that our objectives or our interests are advanced," he added.

A video President Trump shared on Truth Social last night showed an ammunition depot in the Iranian city of Isfahan being struck by American bombers, the defense secretary has confirmed.

Trump posted the video without any additional context.

But Pete Hegseth said that just last night the U.S. carried out some 200 "dynamic strikes" — where the target changes after the aircraft has taken off — in addition to planned targets. He did not say when the video shared by Trump was filmed.

“You don’t get to see many of those videos because, as a reminder, Iran has still shut off the internet to 99.9% of its population,” Hegseth told the briefing.

Asked to what extent Russia and China are helping Iran, Hegseth has told the news conference that “we know exactly what they are doing” — or not.

“The President’s been very clear,” he said. “We know exactly what they’re doing, what they are or are not doing.”

Hegseth takes questions at the Pentagon today. Win McNamee / Getty Images

“Where necessary, we’re addressing it, we’re mitigating it and or we’re confronting it head-on,” he added.

Hegseth reiterated Trump's message to Iran on the Strait of Hormuz, the major shipping route that Iran has largely closed.

"The president's been clear: To Iran, open it for business, or we have options, and we certainly do," Hegseth said.

He pointed to Trump's Truth Social post this morning, when the president called on other countries to "go get your own oil."

"I think the president was clear this morning in his Truth, that there are countries around the world who ought be prepared to step up on this critical waterway as well," he said. "It's not just the United States Navy."

Hegseth opened the briefing by saying that on Saturday he visited with troops who were fighting in Iran. He declined to say where specifically he traveled.

"We were on in the ground" in the Middle East for about half the day, Hegseth said. “For reasons of operational security, so those troops are not targeted, the places and bases will not be named. Suffice it to say, the trip was an honor."

Hegseth detailed his conversations with troops and said he witnessed "motivation," and "sheer mission focus," adding that "it was the American warrior unleashed."

He said he asked troops what they needed.

"Nobody said better equipment," he said. "Nobody said more comfortable living conditions. Nobody said, 'Send me home.' Well, of course, eventually we want all those things they do too."

"But what those Americans said to me, young and old, officer and NCO, male and female, Black and white, was, 'Let's finish the mission. Get us even more bombs, bigger bombs, more targets,'" he continued, referring to non-commissioned officers as NCOs.

At his latest Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says that “the upcoming days will be decisive” in the war.

“American firepower is only increasing. Iran’s decreasing,” he told a news briefing. “We have more and more options, and they have less.”

Hegseth at the Pentagon today. Win McNamee / Getty Images

Israel's military said has started to strike Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in Beirut, shortly after its Arabic-language spokesman ordered residents in seven southern suburbs of Beirut to “evacuate immediately.”

The Israel Defense Forces is continuing “operations and attacks” on military infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah militant group, Avichay Adraee said on X. He did not specify exactly what would be targeted.

The Haret Hreik, Ghobeiri, Laylaki, Hadath, Burj al-Barajneh, Tahwita al-Ghadir and Chiya would be affected, he said.

“The IDF does not intend to harm you; therefore, for your safety, you must evacuate immediately,” he added. 

China has expressed its “appreciation” to Iran for allowing three of its ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Ship tracking data showed that two Chinese container ships crossed the narrow waterway yesterday, the first such cargo vessels to do so since the start of the war.

They had done so “after coordination with relevant parties,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a briefing today. “We express appreciation for the assistance of relevant parties.”

China is one of the world's top recipients of oil and other goods that typically travel from the Persian Gulf through the now almost-blockaded strait.

Israel is “prepared to keep operating for weeks to come” in Iran, the country's military spokesperson told a news conference this morning.

"We have the targets for that, the munition for that, the manpower for that, and it's up to for the leadership to decide," Nadav Shoshani said.

His comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu said yesterday that the war was “beyond the halfway point,” although he made it clear this was not in terms of time frame, but military goals.

Allies like the U.K. that didn't join the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran but are facing fuel shortages should “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT,” President Donald Trump said this morning in a post on Truth Social.

“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” he said, adding that Iran had been “essentially, decimated.”

“The hard part is done,” he said. “Go get your own oil!”

In a second post shortly afterward, Trump said France had been "VERY UNHELPFUL" because it had not allowed planes headed to Israel with military supplies to fly over its territory.

The comments come amid renewed questions over Trump's commitment to seeing the Strat of Hormuz fully reopened before ending the war.

Pictures have started to emerge of the damage to the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi crude oil tanker after it was hit by a strike today.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said in a statement that the Al-Salmi was struck by an Iranian attack at a port in Dubai.

“No injuries were reported among the 24 crew members, and no oil spill or environmental damage occurred,” the statement added. “KPC is continuing to assess the damage in coordination with relevant authorities.”

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation via Reuters

Discussions are under way for a U.N. investigation into the killing of more than 390 employees in the two-year Gaza war, the head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday, making it the deadliest conflict in the global body’s history.

“I believe that we need to have a panel — a high-level panel of experts to look into the killing of our staff,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General at a press conference in Geneva on the last day of his term.

The topic has been raised with the office of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and with member states in New York, he said. “Part of the reason this has not (been) operationalized yet is there is still an ongoing conflict,” he said, referring to Israel’s continuing airstrikes in the enclave despite an October ceasefire that ended the Israel-Hamas war.

The Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Three explosions were heard in Tehran just now. It is unclear what caused them.

Eight people were “lightly wounded” by a suspected Iranian missile struck the outskirts of Tel Aviv this morning, Israel's prime emergency service said this morning.

Magen David Adom said in an update that it was providing medical treatment to the casualties in Bnei Brak.

Israel will demolish “all homes” near its borders in southern Lebanon as it attempts to create a buffer zone and prevent future missile attacks, the country's defense minister said today.

A man checks his damaged apartment in Lebanon's southern port city of Tyre, following an Israeli airstrike on Thursday. Hussein Malla / AP

The Israeli military “will position itself in a security zone inside Lebanon along the defensive line” and “will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani River, including the remaining Litani bridges,” Israel Katz told a news briefing.

The Litani River sits around 20 miles north of the Israeli border with Lebanon.

Katz said that the 600,000 Lebanese people who live in the area would be “completely prohibited” from returning “until the safety and security of northern Israeli residents is ensured.”

As many as 4 million people could be pushed into poverty in Arab nations as a result of the war in Iran, the United Nations Development Programme said in a report today.

A resident weeps near a residential building that was hit in an airstrike yesterday morning, in the west of Tehran.  Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

Middle Eastern nations could lose between 3.7% and 6% of their entire gross domestic product, the equivalent of $120 billion to $194 billion, with unemployment in the region set to rise by 4%, the report said.

The UNDP said its assessment “exposes the concerning reality of structural vulnerabilities characteristic to the region, which enable a short‑lived military escalation to generate profound and widespread socio‑economic impacts that may persist over a long-term.”

Four people suffered minor injuries after they were hit with debris from "successful interception" over southern Dubai, the city's media office said on X.

The debris hit residential houses, the post said. It did not say what had been intercepted over the city.

Three children and two mothers were among 11 people killed in a strike on the Iranian city of Mahallat, the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported this morning.

Four residential buildings were destroyed in the attack and another six were either heavily or partially damaged the report said.

New York University has temporarily closed its Abu Dhabi campus following threats from Iran targeting U.S.-affiliated universities in the Middle East. 

In an email to NBC News, the university said it was relocating students, staff and faculty who reside on campus. Classes, which were moved online earlier this month, will continue virtually, it added.

“We’ve continued to act out of an abundance of caution, and our priority in every decision is the safety of our students, faculty and staff,” said Wiley Norvell, senior vice president for university relations and public affairs.

The threat from Tehran came after Israeli airstrikes hit Iranian universities over the weekend.

U.S. gas prices have risen by more than $1 a gallon since the war in Iran started, with the average price reaching $4 for the first time since 2022 today.

Prices were $2.98 on average on Feb. 27, the day before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on the Islamic Republic.

A gas station in Los Angeles yesterday. Mario Tama / Getty Images

Fears are rising that an extended conflict the Middle East could push prices beyond their all-time high of $5.016, as tracked by the American Automobile Association.

That price was reached months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which greatly destabilized energy markets and infrastructure.

China has said that it “commends” Pakistan’s mediation efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, as the country's top diplomats are set to meet in Beijing later. 

“We commend Pakistan’s mediation effort for deescalation and support Pakistan in continuing to play its role as mediator,” said China'sForeign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning yesterday. 

The comments came a day before Pakistani Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar’s visit to China. 

“The upcoming visit will provide an opportunity for both sides to hold in-depth discussions on regional developments, as well as bilateral and global issues of mutual interest,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement today. 

Videos geolocated by NBC News show intense overnight explosions sending a fireball into the sky above Iran’s strategic central city of Isfahan.

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Fighter jets hit military targets in the city overnight, according to Isfahan's deputy governor.

“There is still no information available regarding the extent of the damage or the number of casualties and injured from these attacks,” the official was quoted as saying by the government-supported Iranian Student News Agency.

Oman’s largest port will “gradually resume operations” after it was hit by a drone attack, Maersk has confirmed. 

The Port of Salalah was hit in the early hours of Mar. 28 (local time), according to an earlier statement by the Danish shipping company, adding that no Maersk crew or vessels were affected.

“Additional precautionary security measures have been implemented at the port,” the company said in a statement. It added that the port will “undergo steps” to return to full capacity.

Dubai authorities have extinguished a fire involving a Kuwaiti tanker laden with oil after it was hit by a drone, the emirate’s media office said in a statement.

No oil leakage or injuries were reported among the 24 crew members onboard. 

“Dubai authorities confirm that response teams have successfully contained the incident involving the Kuwaiti oil tanker in Dubai waters,” the statement said.

The average price of a gallon of gas in the United States smashed through the $4 barrier early today, the highest since 2022, as the war in Iran continues to hit the energy industry in the Middle East and push crude oil prices higher.

The American Automobile Association's tracker put regular gas at $4.018, up from $3.990 yesterday, and diesel at $5.454, compared to $5.416 yesterday.

West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S benchmark, is trading at about $102, compared to $59 at the start of the year as oil prices spike across the world. The international benchmark Brent Crude is at about $112.

Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows.

• Are there talks to end the Iran war? Depends on which side you ask
• Vital U.S. radar aircraft was destroyed by Iranian strike on U.S. base in Saudi Arabia, photos show
• ‘You know the drill’: Iran takes on Trump on social media
• The world economy is experiencing the most severe oil shock in decades. The worst could still be on the way.