SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Thank you for joining our continuing live coverage of the war in the Middle East.
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
- In a prime-time address yesterday, US President Donald Trump repeated his estimate that the war would last another two to three weeks, and said he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages [sic].”
- Trump, in a post on Truth Social overnight, shared a video of a bridge collapsing in Iran, stating there was “much more to follow” and it was time for Iran to “make a deal before it is too late”.
- French President Emmanuel Macron has called for less “chatter” from the US president about the war and a more “serious” approach.
- Opposition Leader Angus Taylor followed up Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s address to the nation with one of his own. “We must dig and we must drill. We need more Australian oil for Australians,” Taylor said.
French President Emmanuel Macron sees scope for cooperation with South Korea to stabilize the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, but only once bombing ends.
“We discussed the situation in the Middle East at length, and I believe we can do useful things to stabilize the situation in Hormuz, and more broadly once the bombardments have ceased,” Macron said after a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Seoul on Friday. “We want to strengthen our ties in strategic and defense matters.”
The escalating conflict in the Middle East has choked off shipping needing to traverse the waterway, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports normally flow. US President Donald Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that the US is “blasting Iran into oblivion” until the strait is opened.
Trump has repeatedly complained about other nations not helping out in the war against Iran. Earlier this week he said South Korea was not contributing to efforts to secure the strait, while thousands of American troops were on the Korean Peninsula, stationed there against a “nuclear” North Korea. The president has also criticized France and other European nations for not aiding the US, calling the NATO military alliance a ″paper tiger.”
Macron urged all parties to be “serious” on Thursday and told reporters in Seoul that the US was undermining trust and fueling uncertainty when casting doubts about NATO’s military commitments.
Bloomberg.
The White House is set to release President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget on Friday, a sweeping blueprint that could boost Pentagon spending to $US1.5 trillion ($2.19 trillion), the largest of its kind in decades, as the US focuses on military investments rather than other domestic programs.
Even before the US-led war against Iran, the Republican president had indicated he wanted to bolster defence spending to modernise the military for 21st-century threats. Separately, the Pentagon last month proposed $US200 billion for the war effort and to backfill munitions and supplies.
Trump, speaking ahead of an address to the nation this week about the Iran war, signalled the military is his priority, setting up a clash ahead in Congress.
“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care,” Trump said at a private White House event Wednesday, Washington time.
“It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare – all these individual things,” he said. “They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal [basis].”
AP
Would Donald Trump’s pledge to strike Iran’s bridges (the US military hit a bridge today) and power plants amount to a war crime? Here’s Reuters’ report on the matter.
The 1949 Geneva Conventions on humanitarian conduct in war prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for civilians.
The Geneva Conventions and additional protocols say that parties involved in military conflict must distinguish between “civilian objects and military objectives”, and that attacks on civilian objects are forbidden.
“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages (sic), where they belong,” Trump said in his address on Thursday, Australian time.
Australia will consider imposing a cap on gas and coal prices if they skyrocket due to the Iran war, Energy Minister Chris Bowen says.
As Australians head into the Easter long weekend, hundreds of service stations across the country are without fuel.
Bowen said unlike the energy situation following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, gas and coal prices were yet to be impacted by the Iran war in the same way.
“The government will act if we see any increases in gas and coal prices further in Australia,” he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
“We have planned for a number of eventualities.”
AP.
US President Donald Trump says the US has begun striking civilian infrastructure in Iran, with power plants next on the agenda.
On Truth Social, his social media platform of choice, he wrote:
Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants! New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST! President DONALD J.TRUMP
The US struck a bridge earlier today in Iran, leaving several people dead, according to Iranian state media.
Dozens of international law experts in the US earlier in the day signed an open letter saying that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes.
This is an interesting detail from a Bloomberg report on talks by a range of countries – that included Australia but not the US – on efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz:
Military planners from the coalition of countries will meet next week to discuss how their naval assets could be deployed to help police and de-mine the strait after the fighting has stopped. There is little appetite among the vast majority of the coalition to attempt to reopen the waterway by force because they don’t see that a viable solution and do not think the crisis can be resolved without the agreement of Iran.
Three tankers broadcasting Omani ownership appeared to enter the Strait of Hormuz by hugging their home country’s coastline, indicating a different route to a northerly path through Iranian waters.
Two oil supertankers and a liquefied natural gas vessel headed east into the strait on Thursday (US time) based on the satellite signals they were broadcasting. All three vessels are managed by Oman Ship Management Company, according to the Equasis marine database. The company couldn’t be reached for comment.
While the Strait of Hormuz has been largely blocked since the start of the conflict, Iran has begun to negotiate transit for a handful of vessels tied to friendly nations, which have followed an agreed northerly route through its own waters.
On Thursday, Iran’s state-run IRNA cited Iran Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi as saying that Tehran is drafting a protocol with Oman to monitor traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Muscat’s position on the comments was unclear.
Bloomberg
US billionaire oil wildcatter Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources plans to increase production as the war in Iran sends crude prices soaring to the highest in four years.
“Continental is increasing our capital budget, which will increase production,” chief executive officer Doug Lawler said today.
Continental is the first prominent US oil producer to say publicly that it plans to ramp up output amid the Iran war, which has crippled supplies from the Persian Gulf and sent crude futures soaring 50 per cent in four weeks to more than $100 a barrel.
Many have speculated rising oil and petrol prices could spur a move to renewable energy – but evidence suggests oil-shocks can be a double-edged sword, as increases in prices also spur oil companies to chase new supplies.
With Bloomberg
While Australia looks for a diplomatic solution to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Bahrain is pushing a more agressive option.
The Middle Eastern country, which chairs the UN Security Council, is formulating a motion to go before the council to authorise countries to use “all defensive means necessary” to reopen the strait – a crucial oil shipping route.
However, speaking to the Security Council, China’s UN envoy Fu Cong opposed authorising the use of force.
He said this would be “legitimising the unlawful and indiscriminate use of force, which would inevitably lead to further escalation of the situation and lead to serious consequences.”
With Reuters
Iran’s Health Ministry says the Pasteur Institute of Iran has been struck in the ongoing conflict.
The facility was established in the 1920s in cooperation with France, Al-Monitor has reported.
Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry, said on X that the strikes on the institute were “a direct assault on international health security” and called on the World Health Organisation and the International Committee of the Red Cross to respond.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on X called it “heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous.” Both shared photos of destruction and rubble.
