Death toll: Iran: 1,500 people; Lebanon: more than 1,000 people; Israel: 15 people; U.S. military: 13 people
Oil prices slipped back down below $100 a barrel and U.S. markets shot up on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump rolled back his threat to strike Iran’s power plants and hinted at progress toward an end to more than three weeks of strikes across the Middle East.
Trump wrote in an early-morning social media post that U.S. forces would not target Iran’s energy infrastructure for five days because of “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution” of the war. He later told reporters the U.S. had reached “major points of agreement” with Tehran.
Trump’s comments jar with Iran’s fresh insistence on Monday that it was not negotiating with the U.S., off the back of Trump’s Saturday vow to strike Iran’s power facilities if Tehran did not allow normal traffic to resume in the narrow but vital Strait of Hormuz by Monday evening. Iran responded by pledging to attack all-important power and water plants across the Gulf.
Only a trickle of cargo vessels and tankers have made it through the Strait of Hormuz—which usually sees about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas—since Tehran said it would fire on U.S. and Israeli-aligned ships in the area.
The chokehold, paired with damage to oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf, has disorientated global markets and seen fuel prices yo-yo. In the hours after Trump’s announcement, the international oil benchmark—Brent crude—again rose to above $100 a barrel, and deep concerns about worldwide prices persist.
Meanwhile, new blasts were heard in the Iranian capital, and more ballistic missiles headed for Israel on Monday.
Expanded Israeli Operations Loom in Lebanon
The Israeli military has approved plans to broaden its operations and strikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, raising fears of a wider ground invasion over Israel’s northern border.
Israel has for weeks been carrying out airstrikes in Lebanon, including on the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut, where Hezbollah has a long-standing presence. Israeli troops are already deployed in southern Lebanon.
The chief of Israel’s General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said this weekend Israel would “advance the targeted ground operations and strikes” against Hezbollah.
The Israel Defense Forces has targeted bridges that Israel says Hezbollah uses to move fighters and weapons further south over the Litani River, which cuts through southern Lebanon.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said an Israeli strike on the Qasmiyeh bridge, a key route over the Litani, on Sunday was a “prelude to a ground invasion.”
The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, or UNIFIL, said on Monday its headquarters in Naqoura, on the Lebanese coast, had been hit and its personnel were sheltering to avoid injury. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Israeli artillery shelling around Naqoura.
UNIFIL said it assessed that a “non-state actor” was responsible, but it did not elaborate, appearing to reference Hezbollah.
Explosions Rock Tehran
Israel said on Monday it was launching new attacks on “the heart of Tehran,” hours after announcing a “wide-scale wave of strikes” on the Iranian capital. Iranian media outlets linked to the country’s top authorities reported explosions in several districts of Tehran.
Air raid alerts were activated in Israel overnight, warning of incoming ballistic missile attacks.
Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates reported fresh Iranian missile and drone threats into the early hours of Monday.
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