Iran-US war latest: Tehran threatens to ‘completely close’ Strait of Hormuz after Trump issues 48-hour ultimatumnewsline24

The International Energy Agency is consulting governments in Asia and Europe on releasing more stockpiled oil “if necessary,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said this morning, as he began a world tour starting in Australia.

“If it is necessary, of course, we will do it. We look at the conditions, we will analyse, assess the markets and discuss with our member countries,” Mr Birol told Australia’s National Press Club in Canberra.

IEA member nations agreed on 11 March to release a record 400 million barrels — 20 per cent of overall stocks. Mr Birol said there would be no specific price trigger for a further release, cautioning that stockpile drawdowns were not a solution in themselves.

“A stock release will help to comfort the markets, but this is not the solution. It will only help to reduce the pain in the economy.”

The war on Iran had removed 11 million barrels a day from global supply — more than the two 1970s oil shocks combined.

“The single most important solution to this problem is opening the Hormuz Strait,” he said.

Maritime intelligence firm Windward AI reported Sunday that Strait of Hormuz traffic was “near collapse,” with only “16 AIS-visible crossings recorded over the past seven days,” Fox News reported.

Transit is controlled increasingly stringently, with vessels rerouting via Iran’s territorial waters, the firm said. Gulf energy exports continue to decline, with crude and LPG flows at recent lows, the firm added.

The Israeli military just said it has begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure in Tehran, as Iran’s state-run Mizan News Agency reports explosions across several parts of the capital.

An airstrike flattened residential buildings in Urmia in northwest Iran, with rescuers searching for survivors under the rubble, state-affiliated Nour News reported.

At least one person was killed in a separate strike on a radio station in the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas, semi-official Mehr News Agency said.

The strikes come as US president Donald Trump’s 48-hour deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz — or face US strikes on its power plants — approaches its evening deadline today. Iran had warned it would target energy and water infrastructure across the Gulf, including desalination plants, if its power grid was attacked.

In a post on Truth Social Sunday, Donald Trump claimed the “death of Iran” while taking aim at the Democrats.

From his Florida golf retreat, he wrote: “Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The president claimed victory over Tehran on Friday as the war enters its fourth week, with strikes continuing. Despite this, there has been no regime change and Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz with a significant knock-on effect to global trade.

The head of the International Energy Agency has warned the world is facing an energy crisis more severe than any in living memory, saying the current disruption is the equivalent of “two oil crises and one gas crash put all together.”

Speaking at Australia’s National Press Club in Canberra, IEA director Fatih Birol said the world had already lost 11 million barrels of oil a day — more than the combined loss from the 1973 and 1979 oil shocks. Gas losses from the current crisis, at 140 billion cubic metres, were nearly double those caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said.

“The global economy is facing a major, major threat today,” Mr Birol said. “No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction.”

He said at least 40 energy assets across the region had been “severely or very severely damaged” and that the IEA was consulting with governments in Asia and Europe about releasing further stockpiled oil, on top of the record 400 million barrels already agreed this month. Mr Birol added that the crisis was also severely affecting petrochemicals and fertilisers, with lasting impacts to follow.

Goldman Sachs has raised its 2026 average price forecast for Brent crude to $85 a barrel from $77, and its West Texas Intermediate forecast to $79 from $72, citing extended disruptions to crude shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and increased strategic stockpiling.

The bank expects Brent to average $110 a barrel in March and April, up from a prior forecast of $98, as traders attach a growing risk premium amid uncertainty over how long supply disruptions will last.

In a worst-case scenario, Goldman warned oil could hit $135 a barrel “if the market required a risk premium to generate precautionary demand destruction offsetting supply destruction over six months in a risk scenario of 10 weeks of very low flows and two million barrels a day of persistent production losses.”

Americans are more confused about the Trump administration’s goals in launching a war with Iran now than when President Donald Trump initiated the military strikes in February, a new survey from CBS News and YouGov found.

In a survey conducted between March 17 and March 20, approximately 68 percent of the 3,300 respondents said the administration had yet to clearly explain the goals of attacking Iran.

That’s six percentage points higher than when the same question was asked in a similar survey conducted between March 2 and March 4 – shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched missiles against Iran.

Gas prices could remain high until summer, Patrick de Haan, head of petroleum analysis at online price tracker GasBuddy, told CNN on Sunday.

He said he thinks the national average for gas prices will likely hit $4 per gallon tomorrow – and that “may just be the tip of the iceberg.”

“Gas prices are not done climbing yet,” de Haan added.

Gas prices have soared to an average of $3.91 nationwide as of Friday, up 93 cents from February 28, when the US-Israeli conflict with Iran began.

Iran is charging some tankers $2 million to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Fox News is reporting.

Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi told state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on Sunday that the massive toll marks the start of a new approach to controlling the waterway, Iran International reported.

“Collecting $2 million as transit fees from some vessels crossing the strait reflects Iran’s strength,” Boroujerdi said during a TV program cited by Iranian media.

At least one person has been killed and another injured in an airstrike in the Iranian gulf port of Bandar Abbas, the New York Times and the Guardian are reporting citing Tasnim, a semiofficial Iranian news agency affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

A state broadcaster’s radio transmitter was struck in a U.S.-Israeli attack. The port city is on Iran’s southern coast on the strait of Hormuz.