War Intensifies: Israel Bombards Tehran During Persian New Year, Energy Markets Shake

AP

Israel pounded Tehran with airstrikes on Friday as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year, in the midst of a war that has sent shock waves through the global economy and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbours directly into the conflict.

Activists reported hearing strikes around Iran’s capital. The attacks came a day after Israel pledged to refrain from more strikes on a key Iranian gas field and Iran intensified attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf.

Heavy explosions shook Dubai early Friday as air defences intercepted incoming fire over the city, where people were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramzan, and mosques made the day’s first call to prayers.

Iran kept up its wave of attacks launched at Israel that have sent millions of people to shelters, with sirens sounding across a wide swath of the north, from Haifa to the Galilee to the border with Lebanon. It came after an intense day that saw more than a dozen missile launches on Thursday alone, according to Israel’s military.

'A new stage in the war': Iran's military

March 20, 2026 8:53 am

Doha/Washington/Jerusalem: Iran's military said strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure had led to "a new stage in the war" in which it had attacked energy facilities linked to the United States. "If strikes (on Iran's energy facilities) happen again, further attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not stop until it is completely destroyed," Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said, according to state media. Reuters

Energy crisis escalates

March 20, 2026 8:49 am

Doha/Washington/Jerusalem: With no end in sight to the conflict, and the threat of a global "oil shock" growing by the day, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan issued a joint statement expressing "our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait". They also promised "other steps to stabilise energy markets, including working with certain producing nations to increase output". Reuters

Israel launches new wave of attacks on Iran as crisis deepens

March 20, 2026 8:45 am

Doha/Washington/Jerusalem: Israel launched a fresh wave of attacks on Iran on Friday, a day after President Donald Trump told it not to repeat its strikes on Iranian natural gas infrastructure, which sharply escalated the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Reuters

Netanyahu says Iran’s military has been severely hit

March 20, 2026 8:18 am

Dubai: At Thursday’s news conference, Netanyahu said: “Iran’s air defenses have been rendered useless, their navy is lying at the bottom of the sea. ... Their air force is nearly destroyed.”       He said he hopes the Iranian people will rise up against the Islamic Republic that has ruled for nearly a half-century. There’s been no sign of any organized opposition since the war began, after Iranian authorities crushed mass protests in January. AP

UN Security Council meets over Iran’s attacks on Gulf states

March 20, 2026 8:18 am

Dubai: The United Nations Security Council held an urgent closed meeting Thursday during which Gulf countries stressed the need for Iran to halt attacks on them, said Bahrain’s UN Ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei, the Arab representative on the UN’s most powerful body. But Iran has showed no signs of backing down. Saudi Arabia said its SAMREF refinery in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu was hit. Saudi Arabia had begun pumping large volumes of oil west toward the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. Qatar, a key source of natural gas for world markets, said Iranian missiles that caused extensive damage to the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility, reduced its exports by about 17 percent and will cost about USD 20 billion in lost revenue a year. 

The damage will take up to five years to repair, even though production at the facility had already been halted after earlier attacks. Two oil refineries in Kuwait and gas operations in Abu Dhabi also were targeted by Iran, authorities said. Millions of people fled to shelters in Israel as sirens warned repeatedly after a barrage of Iranian missiles in the central part of the country as well as Jerusalem and areas nearby, including the West Bank. AP