Iran war live: Trump delays attacks on Iranian energy sector by 10 days

A Thai-flagged cargo ship that came under attack from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and was abandoned by its crew has run aground, Iranian media report.

The Mayuree Naree came under attack March 11 with three of its mariners going missing and still not found.

The semi-official Tasnim and Fars news agencies, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, reported the cargo ship ran aground near the village of Ramchah on Qeshm Island.

Air strikes are continuing across the country. In Tehran, we’ve heard the sound of air defence systems, usually triggered by drone attacks or threats, since yesterday evening. Overnight we heard massive blasts.

The attacks extend beyond the capital as well. The latest reports indicate at least six people have been killed in the city of Qom and a residential complex targeted in Urmia.

Attacks have also been reported in Karaj, to the west of the capital, and Isfahan, specifically its industrial area. Operationally speaking, we are far from any point of de-escalation.

Vietnamese airlines are imposing major cuts on domestic and international flights in April due to the rising cost of jet fuel, according to a report on Friday in Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

• National carrier Vietnam Airlines is suspending seven domestic routes from April 1.
• The airline could make deeper cuts of 10 to 20 percent of its flight volume if jet fuel prices rise between $160 to $200 per barrel.
• Domestic routes will see the most cancellations with cuts of 12 to 26 percent to flight volume, while international routes will see cuts of 4 to 18 percent.
• Pacific Airlines, a budget carrier, said it will cut capacity by 8 to 30 percent from April 1 by cutting flights during off-peak hours.
• VietJet Airlines, another budget carrier, will cut flight capacity by 18 percent from April 1, with a focus on its domestic service.

We are seeing fuel shortages across Asia, with some countries even beginning procedures to ration out fuel.

We are seeing people struggle all the way from Asia to Australia.

The repercussions of this war are starting to be felt on a global scale.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Oil just said yesterday that if the war were to end tomorrow, it would take three to four months to reach normal capacity.

So I think everybody across the world has a vested interest in this war coming to a swift end.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Iran has the legal right to block “enemy vessels” in the Strait of Hormuz.
• A US-Israeli attack has reportedly killed six people in the Iranian city of Qom, while another attack “completely destroyed” four residential buildings in Urmia, in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province.
• Israel said it had launched a “wave of extensive strikes” on Tehran, where the Iranian Red Crescent reported strikes and was working to help survivors.
• Vietnam’s Finance Ministry suspended an environmental protection tax and special consumption ‌tax on fuels, amid shortages caused by the Strait of Hormuz closure.
• International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has warned that attacks near Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant could cause a “major radiological accident”.

Disruptions to Taiwan’s natural gas supply and a limited 11-day liquefied natural gas (LNG) reserve have fuelled speculation online that it could face an energy crisis, but open-source intelligence shows that deliveries of gas have continued throughout the war.

LNG makes up about half of Taiwan’s energy supply, and it sources about 30 percent from Qatar. Those exports have been disrupted since the start of the war, forcing it to look further afield to replace them.

Satellite and remote sensing data show that 23 shipments arrived at Taiwan’s LNG terminals since March 1, the geospatial intelligence firm IngeniSpace told Al Jazeera.

Taiwan’s government said on Friday it will impose price controls in April for household natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leadership summit, scheduled for May, will proceed as planned, but with a <shortened “bare-bones” programme focused on the fallout from the Iran war.

The itinerary will focus on issues such as fuel supplies, food prices and migrant workers, according to the Philippines online Inquirer news site.

“It will be a very barebones summit, which will focus very closely on those three subject matters,” Marcos said, according to the site.

Marcos is serving as the rotating chair of ASEAN, a post he will hold until October.

The Houthi-founded Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC) – which manages Houthi maritime security in the Red Sea – has told maritime intelligence company Lloyd’s List that there is no reason for concern regarding oil tankers transiting the waterway via the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

“There is no cause for concern in this regard, and at present there is no reason to prevent this trade from continuing,” the HOCC was quoted as saying in a Lloyd’s report on Friday.

“As you can see, dozens of vessels, including oil tankers, transit the Bab al-Mandeb Strait every day. In this context, the Republic of Yemen remains committed to safeguarding navigation in the Red Sea and the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, as well as ensuring the free flow of trade,” the centre said.

Bab al-Mandeb has become an increasingly important sea route for crude oil exports leaving Saudi Arabia due to the de facto shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz to most vessels amid the US-Israel war on Iran.

There were reports this week that the Iran-backed Houthis could join the war in support of Iran, and observers say the Bab al-Mandeb Strait could become a military target.

The UN Security Council has scheduled a closed consultation on Iran at 10am New York time (14:00 GMT) on Friday.

According to The Associated Press news agency, Russia asked for the meeting on US-Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure in the country, two UN diplomats said.

The US, which currently holds the rotating Security Council presidency, scheduled the meeting.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has responded to Donald Trump’s claim that Australia’s response to his request for help to secure the Strait of Hormuz had been “not great”.

Watch below:

Oil prices have fallen as US President Donald Trump pushed back a deadline for US attacks on Iran’s energy facilities.

The gains on Friday only partially pared the previous day’s price surge amid growing anxiety that the conflict will last far longer than first thought.

Brent crude was down 1.5 percent at 02:30 GMT on Friday, selling at $93.07 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 1.8 percent, at $106.12.

Brent is up almost 50 percent in price since the war on Iran began, while WTI has risen about 40 percent.

Japan’s government plans to temporarily lift restrictions on coal-fired power plants, as it seeks to ease an energy strain caused by the war in the Middle East.

Takahide Soeda, an official from the Japanese Industry Ministry, confirmed the accuracy of the reports to the AFP news agency.

He stated that the plan would be formally presented during an expert panel meeting scheduled to begin at 11am local time (02:00 GMT) on Friday.

In the last couple of hours, the alarm sounded here in Kuwait, and earlier we heard explosions.

The Kuwaiti National Guard said they intercepted two drones.

What we’ve learned here in the Gulf is that even when these interceptions occur, they can be dangerous and sometimes quite deadly.

In the UAE on Thursday, authorities there said that debris from an interception killed two people and injured three others in Abu Dhabi.

We’ve also seen attacks across the Gulf, as we’ve seen for nearly a month now on a daily basis.

Saudi Arabia said that it intercepted drones in the eastern area, and alarms were sounded in Bahrain as well.

So, a month into this war, these attacks keep on coming.

As the war on Iran dominates headlines, residents in Friendly, Maryland, describe relying less on television for news and increasingly on social media feeds shaped by algorithms.

Many voiced scepticism, taking reports on the war with a grain of salt and seeking out opposing views, while some say they have largely tuned out entirely.

Al Jazeera’s Richard Gaisford reports from Maryland.