Israel denies ‘dragging’ US into war – as it happened | US-Israel war on Iran

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UAE authorities have arrested at least five members of a “terrorist network” linked to Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, state media said Friday.

The alleged network had “sought to infiltrate the national economy and carry out external schemes threatening the country’s financial stability” as part of “a pre-established strategic plan in coordination with external parties linked to Hezbollah and Iran”, the official WAM news agency said, citing the UAE state security apparatus.

The report included mug shots of five detained suspects.

China is clamping down on fertiliser exports to protect its domestic market, a number of industry sources have told Reuters, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

China is among the largest fertiliser exporters, shipping more than $13bn worth of it last year, and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers.

Shipments through the war-blocked strait of Hormuz account for roughly one-third of the sea-borne supply.

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said a proposed framework to halt fighting between Israel and Iran-backed militant Hezbollah was “still on the table”, as he hosted French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reports.

Lebanon was pulled into the regional war on 2 March, when Hezbollah fired rockets toward neighbouring Israel in response to the killing of its ally Iran’s supreme leader in Israeli-US attacks.

Israel responded with heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and ground incursions in the border area, which combined have left more than 1,000 people dead.

Meeting Barrot on Thursday, Aoun stressed “the necessity of a ceasefire, and to provide the necessary guarantees for its success by the parties concerned”, according to a presidency statement.

Oil prices could climb beyond $180 per barrel if the US-Israel war on Iran continues to disrupt energy supplies until late April, Saudi officials project, the Wall Street Journal reports.

That is the “base case” in Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer in the Gulf, according to the Journal, which cites several unnamed oil officials in the country.

Oil prices have already soared to their highest levels in four years since the start of the conflict, which has sparked fears of energy shortages across the world. Brent crude, the international benchmark, is currently trading at $105.81 per barrel.

France plans to sound out permanent members of the UN Security Council to gauge the prospect of a UN framework to secure the strait of Hormuz, Emmanuel Macron said.

The French president’s remarks, reported by the AFP news agency, follow a joint statement from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan, which expressed “readiness” to help shore up the vital waterway.

“We have initiated an exploratory process, and we will see in the coming days whether it stands a chance of succeeding,” Macron said in Brussels, after a European summit.

Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted at a possible “ground component” to the US-Israel warn on Iran – while Donald Trump suggested the US had no plans to put boots on the ground.

“You don’t want to replace one ayatollah with another,” the Israeli prime minister said on Thursday, adding that the Iranian regime is unlikely to be overthrown ​using air strikes alone.

It is “often said” that you can’t “do revolutions from the air”, Netanyahu told a press conference. “There has to be a ground component as well. There are many possibilities for this ground component and I take the liberty of not sharing [those] with you.”

Trump, meanwhile, claimed he had no plans for the US to engage in such an operation. “I’m not putting troops anywhere,” he told a reporter, when asked about using ground troops. “If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.”

Some 65% of Americans believe Trump will order troops into a large-scale ground war in Iran, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, but just 7% support that idea.

Iranian attacks on Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar have reduced the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity by 17%, according to QatarEnergy, the state-run energy giant.

The “extensive damage” could reduce its annual revenues by $20bn and take “up to five years” to repair, Saad al-Kaabi, the Qatari energy minister and CEO of QatarEnergy, said in a statement.

This will impact “supply to markets in Europe and Asia”, he added in a post on X, describing the strikes as “unjustified and senseless”.

After Donald Trump’s calls for countries to help reopen the strait of Hormuz encountered a muted response, the International Maritime Organisation is now trying to launch negotiations over the vital waterway.

Victor Jimenez Fernandez, the organisation’s chair, expressed confidence that it will start talks with Iran and regional powers over the next week.

“No regional country can be outside of these negotiations,” Fernandez told BBC News. “All [of] the region needs to come to gather to find a solution to allow the safety and secure transit of commercial vessels through the strait of Hormuz.”

More on why the strait matters here:

Oil prices have pulled back slightly after Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu moved to address escalating concerns over the US-Israel war on Iran.

Israeli strikes on Iran’s South Pars gasfield on Wednesday, the first targeted attacks on Iranian fossil fuel production since the start of the conflict, further rattled markets and lifted oil prices to fresh four-year highs.

Asked whether the US had been told about the strikes, Netanyahu said that Trump had “asked us to hold off on future attacks and we are”. Trump, for his part, again claimed the war would be over “very soon”, without providing specifics.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price of US crude slipped 1.9% to $94.29 per barrel after the remarks.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates authorities say they have dismantled a “terrorist network” funded and operated by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran, and arrested its members.

The network was involved in “money laundering, financing terrorism and threatening national security”, the state news agency said, according to Reuters. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or Iran.

Reporting from Jerusalem

A fresh ballistic missile launch from Iran has been detected, with the Jerusalem area identified as a potential target, as sirens sound once again — the fourth alert within the space of an hour.

Loud explosions are echoing across the city.

Despite repeated claims by Israel and the US that Iran’s airspace is under control, Tehran has continued to penetrate Israel’s defences, with missiles reaching the skies over the holy city and triggering successive warnings.

Japan tried to explain to Trump that it cannot join his Iran war due to its US-drafted constitution

Robert Mackey

According to a pool report, Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, was asked by Japanese reporters if Donald Trump had privately asked her to dispatch Japanese naval vessels to help reopen the strait of Hormuz.

Takaichi said that she explained to Trump that Japan’s ability to deploy military forces overseas is still limited by the constitution drafted for Japan by the United States after the second world war.

“While the conversation was of a sensitive nature, the consensus was that ensuring the safety of the Strait of Hormuz is of the utmost importance,” Takaichi said. “However, there are certain actions we can and cannot take within the scope of Japanese law, so I provided a detailed and thorough explanation of this matter.”

Japanese law does permit Takaichi to deploy Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels on law-enforcement operations, such as the anti-piracy mission off Somalia Japan took part in in 2009.

But the prime minister is still barred by law from ordering naval ships into combat, and Takaichi has so far declined to say whether Japan consider the US attack on Iran legal under international law.

Iran launched multiple rounds of missiles towards Israel late on Thursday after Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Tehran’s capabilities had been “decimated” by the war, with the Iranian barrage triggering loud blasts over Jerusalem.

Israel’s military said it identified three rounds of missile fire in the hour and a half preceding midnight local time.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the Magen David Adom emergency services.

But AFP reporters heard several loud blasts over Jerusalem following the Iranian fire, as air raid sirens rang out across the city.

As we reported earlier, Netanyahu told a press conference on Thursday evening that Israel and the United States were “winning” the war they launched on Iran 20 days ago.

“We are taking action to destroy the industries that make it possible to build missiles. Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium and manufacture ballistic missiles,” the Israeli prime minister said.

“We are winning and Iran is being decimated.”