Live updates: Oil price spikes again as Iran ship attacks surge

Israel says it has struck a recently rebuilt compound linked to Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Iran has only just reconstructed the Taleghan facility, at the Parchin military complex in the country's southeast, after it was bombed and destroyed by Israel in 2024, according to the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank.

Today the Israel Defense Forces said it “struck” the site again — although it did not say how badly it was damaged. The IDF said Taleghan has been used to “develop advanced explosives and to conduct sensitive experiments” having previously been part of Iran’s “covert nuclear weapon development program” in the 2000s.

Iran has always denied pursuing nuclear weapons.

This combination of pictures created on March 11, 2026 using satellite images shows a view of the Taleghan 2 facility at the Parchin military complex n March 6 (top) and on March 11, after airstrikes.  © 2026 Vantor / AFP via Getty Images

The Kremlin said discussions are taking place between Moscow and Washington about ways of cooperating to help stabilize energy markets reeling from the conflict in the Middle East and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“It is obvious that interaction between Russia and the United States, including on energy markets, could and should be an important factor in stabilizing those markets,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Person said. “At the moment, it is still too early to speak about any effective cooperation, but the topic is certainly being discussed,” he added.

There was no immediate confirmation of such discussions from the White House.

Trump signalled a possible lifting of sanctions on the oil products of “some countries” earlier this week, without mentioning Russia directly. The U.S. already issued a 30-day waiver last week, allowing India to buy Russian oil.

Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev said earlier today that he had discussed the current energy crisis with his U.S. counterparts as part of a meeting of the U.S.-Russia working group on the economy that took place in Florida. Peskov added they are awaiting Dmitriev’s report to Putin on these talks.

The war is “creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,” the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report released today.

The IEA said that oil running through “the crucial waterway” of the Strait of Hormuz had been reduced to “a trickle.” Iran has threatened to attack any U.S., Israeli or allied ship that tries to get through the strait, through which around a fifth of the world’s oil typically passes.

The agency, which released a record 400 million barrels yesterday in an attempt to counter the blockage, said that “oil prices have gyrated wildly” since the U.S. and Israel launched the war late last month.

It said that the release was only a “stop-gap measure,” and that the market would ultimately be dictated by the intensity of attacks, damage to infrastructure and “the duration of disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says he has instructed the military to prepare to expand its operations in Lebanon.

Katz made the comments during a meeting at an underground command center with other Israeli military and intelligence leaders.

“I warned the president of Lebanon,” Joseph Aoun, “that if the Lebanese government cannot control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening northern communities and firing at Israel, we will take the territory and do it ourselves,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and I have instructed the IDF to prepare to expand its operations in Lebanon and to restore quiet and security to the northern communities,” Katz added.

Lebanon has said that an Israeli airstrike on its capital's downtown seafront has killed at least eight people and injured 31 others.

The Ministry of Public Health said the attack hit the public beach of Ramlet al-Baida in Beirut.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces said it had carried out a “wide-scale wave of strikes” across Lebanon, targeting the “terror infrastructure” of Hezbollah, the Iran-allied militant and political group. The IDF has not commented on the beachfront attack specificially.

Lebanon is facing a humanitarian crisis, with some 700,000 people displaced from their homes in the south of the country as Israel issues evacuation orders and carries out attacks.

Firefighters work at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs today.  AFP via Getty Images

A man walks amid damaged buildings following overnight Israeli airstrikes in the Mcharafieh neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs today. Ibrahim Amro / AFP via Getty Images

Since the start of the war Feb. 28, more than 570 people have been killed and around 1,400 injured, according to Lebanese government figures. Scores of children are among the dead, according to UNICEF.

Citibank will close its branches and financial centres in the United Arab Emirates through March 14 as a precautionary measure, the bank’s website showed this morning, following a wave of banks sending staff home as the crisis in the Middle East deepens.

The U.S. bank plans to reopen all affected branches on March 16, but the branch in the Mall of the Emirates in central Dubai, will remain open during this period, it said.

Banks across the region have stepped up precautions after Iran threatened Gulf banking ​interests linked to the U.S. ‌and Israel.

Despite dozens of countries agreeing to release 400 million barrels of oil — the most in history — prices for crude have barely calmed at all.

Crude oil prices have come down to below $100 a barrel, but were on the rise again early this morning, creeping above $92 as of 5 a.m. ET.

That’s because there’s little sign of de-escalation in the Persian Gulf, a vital maritime trade route for oil and other goods that has ground to a halt amid the conflict, according to experts at the Dutch bank ING.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve storage at the Bryan Mound site in Freeport, Texas. Brandon Bell / Getty Images

The International Energy Agency, which works with major producers to shape global policy, tried to counter these prices — which peaked above $120 this week — by coordinating its record-breaking oil splurge.

“The key question is, why is the market rallying despite this large release?” strategists at ING said in a memo Thursday. The reason is twofold: “First, there are no signs of de-escalation in the Persian Gulf,” it said, coupled with “concerns about the speed at which this oil” released by the IEA “will reach the market.”

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific has announced that the fuel surcharge on all its flights, including to and from the U.S., will increase by as much as twice, saying the surcharges "will be adjusted by taking into account of fuel prices on a monthly basis."

A Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 flying over Hong Kong in 2025. Ben Marans / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images file

Long-haul passengers are hit the hardest, with those on U.S. flights now required to pay almost $150 one-way, up from the present rate of nearly $73. Airlines require passengers to pay fuel surcharges to account for the fluctuation in the fuel costs.

The hiked rate comes as fuel prices soar around the world and rattle the global aviation business. Air India said Tuesday it would also charge a higher fuel surcharge rate, with passengers on U.S. flights paying an additional $50 on top of the existing $150.

Air New Zealand said this morning it would slash 5% of its flights through early May after it led other airlines including Australia’s Qantas Airways, Scandinavia’s SAS and Thai Airways in announcing price hikes.

Iran has responded to the latest wave of American and Israeli attacks by launching a new volley of missiles against its Washington-allied Gulf neighbors.

Hours after the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution demanding Tehran stop its “egregious attacks,” the Islamic Republic fired missiles at Jerusalem; at Saudi Arabia, targeting an oil field and the diplomatic quarter of Riyadh; at Bahrain, causing a fire near the country’s main airport; at Kuwait, where a building was damaged and two people were injured; and at the United Arab Emirates, where air defense systems intercepted attacks aimed at Dubai, one of which caused a fire at a high-rise building, officials in those places said.

In the Persian Gulf itself, a container ship was hit by an “unknown projectile” causing a small fire, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization, a monitoring service run by the British navy, reporting that all the crew were safe.

This was the 16th attack on shipping since the U.S. and Israel launched their assault, after which Iran vowed to attack any ship allied to those nations attempting to cross the vital Strait of Hormuz.

A hard-line television presenter has threatened possible protesters against Iran’s theocracy.

Reza Mollaei, speaking Wednesday on the television program “Samt-e Khoda,” or “Towards God” in Farsi, said hard-liners were “waiting, when the dust of this unrest settles ... (to) grab you by the collar, every single one of you. And that’s already happening.”

“Confiscating your properties in nothing, we will make your mothers mourn you,” Mollaei said. “Those of you who now have foolish ideas and think things are chaotic and something must be done, this message is for you, both inside the country and outside.”

One person has died after a U.S.-owned crude oil tanker was attacked near southern Iraq, according to the Indian embassy in Baghdad. 

The tanker, Safesea Vishnu, which was sailing under the Marshall Islands flag, had a 16-person crew, of which 15 have been “evacuated to a safe place,” the statement read. 

Two more tankers were also hit earlier, the British military said, adding that they were struck by a projectile near Iraq’s southeastern region. The crew have been evacuated, it added.

Two oil tankers catch fire after Iranian attacks in Iraqi waters

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Iran has stepped up its attacks on shipping in the region, with its stranglehold on the crucial Strait of Hormuz effectively halting supplies through the crucial waterway.

With the announcement of emergency supplies of oil to be released, analysts say, gas prices may rise more slowly but won’t come down soon.

Critical to reversing the surge in prices is getting ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz, the experts say.

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• Iran’s regime shows it can still rattle the global economy amid U.S. bombardment
• Why it’s so hard to get oil through the Strait of Hormuz right now
• Dozens of countries agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil. But it didn’t bring down prices.
• Outdated intel likely led to deadly U.S. strike on Iranian elementary school, sources say
• Trump tries to navigate Iran war and rising gas prices at first rally since strikes began
• First 6 days of Iran war cost $11.3 billion, Pentagon tells Congress
• Iran appears to have conducted a significant cyberattack against a U.S. company, a first since the war started