{"id":124090,"date":"2026-03-16T02:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T05:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/899725394"},"modified":"2026-03-16T02:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T05:47:34","slug":"iran-hits-gulf-neighbors-and-keeps-stranglehold-on-oil-shipping-as-concerns-rise-of-energy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/iran-hits-gulf-neighbors-and-keeps-stranglehold-on-oil-shipping-as-concerns-rise-of-energy-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran hits Gulf neighbors and keeps stranglehold on oil shipping as concerns rise of energy crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) \u2014 Explosions echoed across Beirut early Monday as Israel struck the Lebanese capital. It also launched a new wave of attacks on Tehran<\/a>, while Dubai was forced to temporarily close its airport after an Iranian drone hit a fuel tank.<\/p>\n

Since being attacked by the United States and Israel more than two weeks ago, Iran<\/a> has been regularly hitting Israel, American bases and its Gulf Arab neighbors’ energy infrastructure with drones and missiles.<\/p>\n

It has also effectively stopped shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported, giving rise to growing fears of a global energy crisis and putting pressure on Washington as consumers are already feeling the pain<\/a> at the pump.<\/p>\n

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Brent crude, the international standard, remained stubbornly over $100 a barrel on Monday. It was at $104 in early trading<\/a>, up nearly 45% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. It has spiked as high as about $120 during the conflict.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump said he has made demands<\/a> to about seven countries to send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> open, but his appeals have brought no commitments. His party is growingly concerned that rising prices for American consumers<\/a> will hurt the Republicans in elections this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m demanding that these countrie<\/a> s come in and protect their own territory, because it is their own territory,\u201d Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from Florida aboard Air Force One. He did not identify the countries, but has previously appealed to China, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called claims that his country may be seeking a negotiated end to the war \u201cdelusional,\u201d saying in a social media post early Monday that his country was seeking neither \u201ctruce nor talks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur Powerful Armed Forces will keep firing until POTUS realizes that illegal war he’s imposing on both Americans and Iranians is wrong and must never be repeated,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Iran hits Dubai airport, forcing temporary closure<\/h2>\n

As morning broke Monday, a drone hit a fuel tank near Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international passenger traffic, causing a large fire.<\/p>\n

Firefighters were able to contain the blaze and there were no injuries reported but the airport temporarily suspended all flights before resuming them a few hours later.<\/p>\n

Later, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said its forces were working to intercept another round of Iranian missiles and drones.<\/p>\n

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Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones<\/a> toward Gulf countries hosting U.S. military assets since the war began. Emirati authorities say most have been intercepted by air defenses, though debris and some drones have fallen inside the country.<\/p>\n

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Iranian officials have recently accused the UAE<\/a> of allowing its territory to be used for attacks against Iran. Emirati officials have rejected the allegations as misleading and said the country\u2019s actions have been defensive.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, meantime, said it had intercepted a wave of 35 Iranian drones sent at its eastern region, home to major oil installations.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military said early Monday that Iran launched missiles toward Israel as well.<\/p>\n

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Israel\u2019s military says Iran is firing cluster bombs that can evade some air defenses<\/a> and scatter submunitions across multiple locations.<\/p>\n

Israel hits Beirut and launches new attacks on Tehran<\/h2>\n

Massive explosions were heard in Beirut as Israel launched new attacks on the Lebanese capital before dawn, saying it was striking infrastructure related to the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia group.<\/p>\n

The Israeli army has issued evacuation orders for many neighborhoods in Beirut as well as southern Lebanon. To date, over 800,000 people have been displaced by Israel’s campaign in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

At least 850 people have been killed by Israeli strikes so far, including 107 children and 66 women.<\/p>\n

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Not long after Israel’s military announced it had launched new strikes on Tehran targeting infrastructure, explosions were heard in the Iranian capital and outlying areas.<\/p>\n

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran so far, according to the Red Cross.<\/p>\n

In Israel, 12 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire and more have been injured, including three on Sunday. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, six in a plane crash in Iraq<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Trump threatens to \u2018remember\u2019 which allies do not help<\/h2>\n

On Air Force One, Trump wouldn\u2019t say which countries could be part of the coalition he wants to police the Strait of Hormuz to provide security for oil tankers and other commercial ships passing through.<\/p>\n

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But he said he won\u2019t forget the countries that decline to help. He named British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who he said initially declined to put British aircraft carriers \u201cinto harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we get support or not, but I can say this, and I said to them: We will remember,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of a meeting in Brussels, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc’s foreign ministers would discuss possibly extending its Aspides naval mission, which protects ships in the Red Sea, to the Strait of Hormuz, without giving any details on how such a mission would work or how long it would take to decide on it.<\/p>\n

Europeans have been critical of the U.S. and Israel for failing to provide clarity on their objectives in the war, and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Sunday questioned EU involvement, saying security for the Strait of Hormuz can only come \u201cif there is a negotiated solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cEurope always gives constructive support when it comes to securing sea routes, but I see neither an immediate necessity nor above all Germany participating,\u201d he said on ARD television.<\/p>\n

Monday Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told parliament that her government \u201chas not heard anything\u201d from Washington about Trump\u2019s call help protecting the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Japan imports more than 90% of its crude oil from the Middle East, however, and she said there had been discussions about what could be done to protect Japanese ships \u201cregardless of a U.S. request.\u201d<\/p>\n

Japan on Monday began releasing its oil reserves to address concerns about supply shortages and rising prices.<\/p>\n

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Trump has speculated that prices would fall, but wouldn’t directly answer whether his administration is talking about selling oil futures as a way to cap surging oil prices, something his interior secretary had mentioned as a possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prices are going to come tumbling down as soon as it\u2019s over. And it\u2019s going to be over pretty quickly,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Rising reported from Bangkok and Weissert from aboard Air Force One. Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo Sam McNeil in Brussels and Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… . It has also effectively stopped shipping<\/span> traffic in the Strait of Hormuz …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}