A.P. Moller-Maersk announced on Friday that it will temporarily suspend shipping routes connecting the Far East to the Middle East and the Middle East to Europe, due to escalated tensions in the Gulf region. “This decision has been taken as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of our personnel and vessels while minimizing operational disruption across our wider network,” the Danish shipping company said. Previously, Maersk suspended all transits through the Strait of Hormuz, as well as cargo bookings to and from the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, as all these countries were targeted by Iranian projectiles and involved in the conflict.
Iran vows to retaliate anywhere for US attack on warship
Postponement of Khamenei mourning interrupts apparent plan to swiftly anoint his son
Israel to target underground missile sites in second phase of strikes
DUBAI/JERUSALEM, March 5 (Reuters) – The U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran entered its sixth day on Thursday with what residents described as even more intensive bombing, while Iran vowed to retaliate anywhere for a U.S. attack on a ship thousands of miles from the battle zone. Inside Iran, the abrupt postponement of a planned three days of mourning for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei interrupted apparent plans to swiftly anoint Khamenei’s hardliner son as his successor. “Today is worse than yesterday. They are striking northern Tehran. We have nowhere to go. It is like a war zone. Help us,” said Mohammadreza, 36, by phone from Tehran, with a shaky voice as explosions rang out from what Israel described as its latest wave of strikes on Iranian government targets. Although some international financial markets recovered from falls earlier in the week, the economic impact, opens new tab of the campaign intensified, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas. Iran vowed to take revenge for a U.S. torpedo attack on an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday, which killed more than 80 sailors.
Iran’s foreign minister said Washington would “bitterly regret” the precedent it had set by sinking a ship in international waters without warning. A commander of the Revolutionary Guards, General Kioumars Heydari, told state TV: “We have decided to fight Americans wherever they are.”
The body of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the first hours of the U.S.-Israeli air campaign in the first assassination of a country’s top ruler by an airstrike, had been due to lie in state in a Tehran prayer hall from Wednesday evening to launch three days of mourning. But the memorial, expected to draw many thousands of mourners to the streets, was abruptly and indefinitely postponed shortly before it was due to begin. In the hours before announcing the delay, Iranian officials had said they were close to naming Khamenei’s successor, and that the leading candidate was his son Mojtaba, a powerful hardliner whose selection would be a strong gesture of defiance. Iranian officials gave no reason for the postponement of the memorial, but a source told Reuters it was motivated in part by fear of assassination of those attending while Israeli and U.S. warplanes remain in the skies. Memorial ceremonies of Shi’ite political and religious leaders, especially those seen as martyrs, are known for mass public displays of passion. Announcing the younger Khamenei as successor during a mourning period would allow him to take power while his father’s followers were on the streets, rallying support and making it more difficult for any opponents to mount a challenge. Israel has said it would consider any replacement for Khamenei who continued hostile policies an immediate target to be killed. Two sources familiar with Israel’s battle plans said that having killed many Iranian leaders during nearly a week of strikes, Israel was now planning to enter a second phase when it would target underground bunkers where Iran stores its missiles.
Israel has said its aim is to overthrow Iran’s clerical rulers. Washington says its goal is to prevent Tehran from being able to project force beyond its borders, but it has also called on Iranians to rise up and seize power. Many Iranians openly celebrated the death of the supreme leader, whose security forces had killed thousands of anti-government protesters just weeks ago in the worst domestic unrest since the era of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. State television was hacked on Thursday, airing a video of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah who has emerged as a significant opposition figure. “A heavy burden of destiny rests upon the shoulders of us all. And we, together, will walk this path until final victory. Long live Iran,” he said. A 25-year-old woman in Tehran who asked that her name not be used for security reasons said those opposed to the government were not yet able to take to the streets while the country was under attack, but had made their feelings clear by posting online videos of their celebrations at Khamenei’s death. “If Mojtaba takes over, he will be killed as well, so we are not concerned about it,” she said. Air raid sirens in Israel sent Israelis to shelters. Military spokesman Effie Defrin said there had been a decrease in the number of daily missile launches from Iran, although “the threat still exists”. “The more we intensify the damage and eliminate the launchers, the more the threat will diminish over time,” he said. The war has had global economic impact, above all from the interruption to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows along Iran’s coast. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had hit a U.S. tanker in the northern part of the Gulf and the vessel was on fire, the latest of numerous reports of such attacks. Passage through the strait would be under Iranian control, the Guards said. Azerbaijan said four Iranian drones had crossed its border and wounded four people, and it was preparing a response. Iran, which has launched drones and missiles against U.S. allies in the region, denied blame for the incident.
A massive blaze erupted in Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) facilities on Thursday following a new wave of Iranian strikes against the Gulf country. The Iranian leadership announced it would target sites to inflict “maximum economic pain” on countries hosting US forces or supporting the coalition with Israel. Following the threat made on March 2, drones and missiles struck energy infrastructure across the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait.
NN: This is now a oil war. And its going to get bigger!
Six people were injured in a drone attack in the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said on Thursday. The office said they are Pakistani and Nepali citizens and that their injuries, sustained from falling debris, are “minor and moderate.” Earlier today, air defense systems intercepted drones in two locations in Abu Dhabi. The local authorities did not release any information on the damage caused by the attacks.
NN: Further signs of Irans escalation making this a oil war.
The Iranian military likely only has several days’ worth of ballistic missiles left, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous Western officials. The claims resemble statements made by United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that Iran’s capabilities are “evaporating by the hour.” The report was based on Iran’s decreasing frequency of ballistic missile strikes, indicating that attacks by the US and Israel on Iranian manufacturing and storage facilities have been successful. However, a source said that Iran could be “holding back missiles so its operations can last longer.”
NN: Soon the only weapons they will have left will be sticks and stones. Until then the straights will stay closed.
Senior aide to late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber (pictured) said on Wednesday that there would be no negotiations with the United States. “We have no trust in the Americans and have no intention of negotiating with the US. We can continue the war for as long as necessary, just as we did in the eight years of the Sacred Defense [The Iran-Iraq War],” he said on state television, adding that Washington does not seek to conquer Iran, but to divide it. Additionally, yesterday’s reports claimed that Khamenei’s eldest son, Mojtaba Khamenei, would be his successor and serve as the country’s next supreme leader.
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence reached out to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through another country’s spy agency one day after the US and Israeli attacks began to discuss terms for ending the conflict, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing Middle Eastern officials and officials from a Western country briefed on the outreach. According to the report, the US officials are “sceptical” of either US President Donald Trump or the Iranian surviving leadership being ready to make a deal, while Israeli officials reportedly urged Washington to ignore Iran’s outreach.
Meanwhile, the US president said yesterday that even though Iran’s authorities want to talk, he told them that it is “Too Late!”
In a Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) report sent by the SEB team on Tuesday, SEB Chief Commodities Analyst Bjarne Schieldrop warned that “oil is Iran’s weapon of choice, and the U.S. gasoline pump is part of the battlefield”
. “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps last evening declared the Strait of Hormuz for closed and that the military will set any ship on fire if it tries to pass the Strait,”
“Iran is also escalating its retaliatory strikes across the region. Yesterday it was mostly unclear what retaliatory path Iran would take. Would oil, oil installations, and the Strait of Hormuz be part of it or left alone? Now we know,” he added. “Oil is Iran’s weapon of choice and it is aimed straight at President Trump’s Midterm elections. An important part of the battlefield for Iran is thus at the U.S. gasoline pump,” he continued. Schieldrop warned in the report that Brent is now unavoidably heading to $100 per barrel and above “unless Trump finds some kind of offramp, or in other words backs down”. “So far however, his response seems to be to double down. Extending the expected 4-5 weeks to instead ‘whatever it takes’. He is digging in. And while he is doing that, the U.S. retail gasoline prices shoot higher,” he added. Schieldrop stated in the report that Iran may not be able to keep the Strait of Hormuz fully closed but added that “constant risk of strikes, and thus choking and reduced flow, will do plenty good to spike the oil price higher”. According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, the average regular gasoline price in the U.S. is $3.109 per gallon, as of March 3. Yesterday’s average was $2.997 per gallon, the week ago average was $2.951 per gallon, the month ago average was $2.883 per gallon, and the year ago average was $3.097 per gallon, the site showed. In a blog posted on its website on March 2, GasBuddy noted that, according to its data, the U.S. average price of gasoline “has risen 5.6 cents over the last week and stands at $2.94 per gallon”. “The national average is up 7.8 cents from a month ago and is 10.1 cents per gallon lower than a year ago,” GasBuddy added in the blog. The company pointed out in the blog that the most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $2.79 per gallon, which it said was up 10 cents from a week ago. GasBuddy stated in the blog that the median U.S. gas price is $2.79 per gallon, which it noted was up four cents from last week and about 15 cents lower than the national average.
“The national average price of gasoline has climbed for a fourth straight week, driven primarily by seasonal tightening and broader market dynamics,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in the blog.
“Looking ahead, markets will now begin reacting to this weekend’s U.S.-Iran attacks, which have elevated geopolitical risk premiums even in the absence of immediate supply disruption,” he added. “Oil prices have firmed as traders assess the potential for further escalation, and while fundamentals such as inventories and refinery activity remain important anchors, the risk of broader instability – particularly involving key transit routes – has injected fresh uncertainty into energy markets,” he continued.“In the week ahead, gasoline prices are likely to face heightened upward pressure as seasonal trends continue and markets navigate this evolving geopolitical landscape, with the national average poised to reach the $3 per gallon mark for the first time this year,” De Haan went on to state.
NN: I firmly believe Brent will hit at least $100 a barrel
United States President Donald Trump stressed on Tuesday that if Washington didn’t strike Iran’s nuclear sites in 2025, the country would have made “a very powerful nuclear weapon within one month.” Speaking to reporters, Trump insisted that Iran is “evil,” saying that its regime killed 35,000 of its citizens. “Iran is a bad seed. Something had to be done,” he remarked. Talking about energy in relation to the current war with Iran, the US head of state said that it is true that it is affecting both oil and gas, further noting that he hopes the end to the situation will come “as soon as possible,” so that prices could drop.
Crude oil prices continued to surge on Tuesday due to supply risks driven by the Middle East conflict, with European benchmark Brent surpassing $85 per barrel for the first time since July 2024. Brent for deliveries in May jumped 7.19% and went for $84.85 per barrel at 6:23 am ET, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for settlements in April gained 7.69%, going for $77.33 per barrel.
