US President Donald Trump has warned Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or face potential strikes on its power infrastructure.
The ultimatum comes after efforts to restore maritime traffic through the strategic waterway failed, including unsuccessful attempts to secure broader NATO involvement and limited impact from earlier US strikes on Iranian naval assets.
At the same time hostilities intensified on the ground. Iranian missiles struck southern Israel, including the city of Dimona—widely associated with Israel’s undeclared nuclear programme—and Arad. Iranian state media described the attacks as retaliation for earlier strikes on a key nuclear facility in Natanz.
Israeli authorities confirmed more than 100 people were injured in the strikes, including children, and launched an investigation into how air defence systems failed to intercept the incoming missiles.
The conflict is also widening diplomatically and economically across the region. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have expelled Iranian diplomats following reported attacks on their territories, while Iraq has declared force majeure on foreign-operated oilfields. Disruptions to tanker routes through Hormuz have sharply reduced Iraq’s southern oil output, raising fresh concerns about global energy supply.
Meanwhile, a drone strike near a US military installation in Baghdad triggered a large fire.
I thought Operation Epstein Fury had obliterated everything???
Don’t get sucked in by the narrative.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2026/03/seeing-trump-clearly/
Seeing Trump Clearly my foot. Securing a monopoly on Venezuelan oil, that’s a fiction, right there. Many major US oil companies don’t want to go there, as its politically and militarily unstable. Diplomacy at the point of a gun rarely works or lasts.
Trump was compelled into this course by the Israel lobby, who funded his campaign in a big way. I’ll wager too given his advisors are pro Israel, the picture painted for him, was a million miles from the truth of what the US was up against.
Venezuela was about more than just the oil – which the US now controls.
Keep an eye on the ball, not the narrative.
Thanks Tom, things make sense. The flow of the war won’t go as scripted so I can only hope Iran has some very competent people at the helm & their newer missiles are a game-changer.
They have multiple millennia of experience behind them. If anyone can upset the globalists apple cart it is Iran – but they’re up against a formidable force.
lol, that’s just as funny as the first 400 times you said it.
Ha ha ha, lol.
lol, ha ha ha.
Etc
IRAN’S Retaliation Strategy: Iran’s armed forces warned that if its fuel and energy infrastructure was attacked, it would launch retaliatory strikes against all US and regional allied energy, information technology, and desalination infrastructure.
I guess all part of the plan – kill as many of them as you can while making bucket loads of money.
That sounds like war (in a nutshell).
Oh so the orange fog horn is making more noise. Time for threats have past mate, you are at war and what you do to the enemy, they will return to you.
Need to be viewed in the broader context of WW3 being a clash between unipolar and multipolar world orders.
Iranian recent destruction of several American radars in the Middle East have buttressed Russia’s southern flank and improved the safety of Russia’s Black Sea fleets and installations.
Saudi Arabia currently expelling Iranian diplomats which looks like a preparation for more war with the gloves off this time.
Iran has just issued ultimatum to the USA https://news-pravda.com/world/2026/03/22/2171332.html
Iran’s ultimatum to USA aligns with Russia and China’s statements
According to the German Bild, Russia’s first moves in May 2026 will be https://germany.news-pravda.com/en/russia/2026/03/21/121180.html this appears to be a copy of the Soviet offensives in the Baltics in 1944
https://news-pravda.com/world/2026/03/22/2171332.html
https://youtu.be/ezu6-ZL35EY?si=f6oLqBvey0DSsRBk
Alexander Mercouris