Middle East crisis live: Trump says he wants to ‘take the oil’ in Iran and could seize Kharg Island ‘easily’

US president tells Financial Times his ‘preference would be to take the oil’ but that ‘some stupid people back in the US say: “why are you doing that?”’ Full report: Iran accuses US of plotting ground assault while publicly seeking talks Analysis: what the Houthis’ entry into the Iran war means for the conflict and the wider region Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Iran war and its impact on the region, the world and the global economy. Donald Trump has said his “preference would be to take the oil” in Iran and that US forces could seize the regime’s export hub on Kharg Island, the Financial Times is reporting, as the US sends thousands of troops to the Middle East. To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.” The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) said a peacekeeper was killed when a projectile exploded at one of its positions near the southern Lebanese village of Adchit al-Qusayr on Sunday . Another peacekeeper was critically injured, it said early on Monday. The Israeli air force intercepted two unmanned aerial vehicles launched from Yemen , the IDF has posted online . Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion of Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon as his forces target Hezbollah. “I have just ‌instructed to further expand the existing security buffer zone. We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north,” ⁠the Israeli PM said in a ⁠video statement from the Northern Command. Israeli forces are currently occupying the area south of the Litani River, and its destruction of key bridges connecting to the rest of Lebanon and forced displacement of residents have stoked fears of a protracted occupation. Pakistan will soon host talks between the US and Iran, its foreign minister said , as top diplomats from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt met in Islamabad to discuss ways to de-escalate the war. Neither Washington nor Tehran have yet commented. Earlier, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iranian forces are “waiting” for US ground troops to arrive so they can “rain fire upon them” , following reports that the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of possible “ground operations” in Iran, and as thousands of US soldiers and marines arrive in the region. Power has reportedly been restored across parts of Iran after Israeli strikes hit “electricity infrastructure” , Iran’s energy minister said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran’s heavy-water production plant at Khondab, which Israel attacked on 27 March, has “sustained severe damage and is no longer operational”. In a post on X, the IAEA added that the Khondab Heavy Water Research Reactor “contains no declared nuclear material”. The Israeli military had described the site as a “key plutonium production site for nuclear weapons” when it bombed the facility on Friday. A fire at an industrial site in southern Israel has been been brought under control, hours after being declared a “hazardous materials incident” in the area. The IDF said the fire at the Neot Hovav industrial complex may have been caused by “a weapon fragment or interceptor fragment”. I‌ran’s supreme ‌leader Mojtaba ​Khamenei thanked ​the ‌Iraqi ​people and religious leadership for ​their ⁠support ⁠of Iran “in ‌the face of aggression”, Iranian state media reported, without saying how this message was conveyed. More than three weeks on from his appointment as supreme leader, Khamenei has still not been seen or heard from in public since he was injured in the US-Israeli airstrike that killed his father, the late ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his wife and son on the first day of the war. On Palm Sunday, the Pope said God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and ​have “hands full of blood” , in an apparent rebuke to Donald Trump’s administration. Continue reading...

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