The United Arab Emirates on Friday condemned an Iranian attack it said targeted two vessels linked to state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to charge users for passage, which the U.S. fiercely opposes. Iran is in talks with Oman over arrangements for the strait’s future management.

The UAE Foreign Ministry in a statement denounced what it called “the hostile Iranian attack that targeted two vessels affiliated with ADNOC as they transited the Strait of Hormuz, with no injuries reported”.

ADNOC confirmed “two of its vessels were attacked while transiting” the waterway on Thursday evening, adding the situation was “brought under control”, the official WAM news agency reported.

-AFP

More than 25 nations, including France, the U.K. and Canada, yesterday condemned the use of capital punishment by Iranian authorities, saying in a joint statement the Islamic republic was executing protesters to “silence dissent”.

The countries, joined by the European Union’s top diplomat, “condemn in the strongest terms the ongoing executions of protesters and use of the death penalty” by Iran.

“The use of capital punishment to silence dissent, intimidate communities, and punish individuals exercising their human rights can never be justified,” the statement said.

– AFP

The U.S. military yesterday said it had used ⁠missiles to disable the steering ‌gear of a Panama-flagged cargo ‌ship which ‌ignored ⁠repeated warnings ⁠to stop violating a naval blockade on Iranian ‌ports.

A U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two ‌Hellfire missiles into the Vela Nova’s engine ⁠room, the Central Command ‌added.

“As of Aug. 11, CENTCOM has redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting ‌to run the blockade, disabled 3 non-compliant vessels, ⁠and boarded 2,” ⁠it said in ‌a statement.

– Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that he would seek conflict compensation from Iran as part of any peace negotiations, citing attacks and killings stretching back decades allegedly backed or perpetrated by Tehran.

Negotiations on ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz have stalled, and his new demands risk putting a quick agreement further out of reach.

Mr. Trump’s announcement was a direct response to Iran’s insistence that U.S. payment of war reparations is a pre-condition to any resolution of the ongoing hostilities.

“I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran,” he said, noting that his demand included not only damages arising from the current war, but also Iranian attacks on US targets going back more than two decades as well as payments to the families of Iranian protestors killed by authorities over the past 50 years.

– AFP

Pakistan is mediating the peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. The Pakistani official told PTI that the fresh Iran proposal is a phased de-escalation framework, seeking to separate immediate conflict management from the more complex and long-standing dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

There are three broad components of it.

“The first component of the plan focuses on urgent de-escalation measures,” the official said.

“Iran has indicated willingness to ease tensions in and around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, provided Washington reciprocates by scaling back its military posture and easing economic pressure, including restrictions affecting Iranian oil exports,” he said.

Tehran views confidence-building steps as essential before entering substantive negotiations, the official said.

“Secondly, Iran is seeking to decouple the restoration of maritime trade and oil flows from nuclear negotiations, arguing that economic normalisation should precede any binding commitments on its nuclear activities,” he said.

The third component concerns “conditional flexibility” on the nuclear front.

“While reaffirming its position on the right to peaceful nuclear energy, Iran has indicated openness to discussing limits on uranium enrichment and enhanced monitoring mechanisms – but only within a broader agreement that guarantees tangible sanctions relief,” he said. — PTI

Iran launched a hunt for the U.S. crew whose jet Iranian media said had been shot down by the Iran’s air defence systems on Friday (April 3), deploying troops and offering a bounty.

U.S. media reported U.S. special forces had rescued one of the two crew members, and a local official television station in southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province aired footage of what it said was wreckage of the downed plane.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), responsible for military operations in the West Asia, did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on what would be the first known loss of a jet inside Iran since Trump ordered the war.

“Dear and honourable people of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, if you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police and military forces, you will receive a valuable reward and bonus,” said an Iranian television reporter on the official local channel.- AFP

As a fresh West Asia conflict risks sending oil prices sharply higher, Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other key members of the OPEC+ alliance are widely expected to announce an output increase on Sunday (March 1, 2026), analysts say. 

The virtual meeting by the eight members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied nations (OPEC+) known as the “Voluntary Eight” (V8) comes a day after the U.S. and Israel launched an ongoing wave of strikes on Iran.

Last year, the V8 group — comprising Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — boosted production by around 2.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in total before announcing a three-month pause in output hikes.

But now the picture has changed dramatically.

Brent, the global benchmark for crude oil, jumped more than 3% on Friday (February 27) to trade over $73 per barrel, up from $61 at the beginning of the year.

-AFP