LIVE: Iran, Hezbollah ramp up attacks on Israel amid widening regional conflict

The Strait of Hormuz remains open to all shipping except vessels linked to “Iran’s enemies”, Iran’s representative to the UN maritime agency said on Sunday (March 22), after US President Donald Trump warned of possible strikes on Iranian power plants if the waterway was not “fully open” within 48 hours.

However, the threat of Iranian attacks amid the ongoing US-Israeli conflict has deterred most ships from passing through the narrow strait, a key route for nearly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, raising concerns of a global energy shock.

Iran’s military has claimed it carried out a drone strike targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport using its advanced “Arash-2” unmanned aerial vehicle, according to spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia. He said the Arash-2 drones — described as more advanced than earlier models — were the primary systems used in the attack and have a reported range of up to 2,000 kilometres.

However, there is no independent confirmation of the use of the Arash-2 in the strike. Recent verified reports indicate that Iran has primarily claimed attacks on the airport using ballistic missiles such as the Khorramshahr-4, rather than drones.

Three men were arrested in southwest Delhi's Mahipalpur for allegedly hoarding LPG cylinders to sell them at a premium price.

They were identified as Krishna, Dinesh Sahu, and Mithilesh, aged 33, 46, and 39, all from Bihar but living in Delhi.

The police seized 74 LPG cylinders – 70 domestic and four commercial – along with a transport vehicle and refilling equipment in the raid on Saturday.

Among the recovered items were 54 filled and 16 used domestic cylinders, three filled and one used commercial cylinder, an electronic weighing scale, two hanging weighing machines and equipment used for refilling gas.

The three have been living in Delhi for over two decades and were allegedly involved in the illegal LPG trade in the Mahipalpur area for the past three years, the police said.

India's urea plants are reportedly running at half capacity after force majeure declarations disrupted LNG flows through the Strait of Hormuz amid escalating West Asia tensions.

Petronet LNG Ltd, which operates India's largest liquefied natural gas receiving terminal, declared force majeure after upstream suppliers cited their inability to deliver contracted volumes amid disruptions to cargoes transiting the Strait.

The move triggered supply curtailments by state-owned gas distributors GAIL (India) Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), which supply gas under RasGas contracts to fertiliser units across the country.

“Gas supplies have been curtailed to approximately 60-65 per cent of normal levels,” a senior industry official told PTI, adding that when scheduled plant turnarounds over the past six months were factored in, effective supply at some units had fallen below 50 per cent.

Urea output at affected plants has consequently dropped by around 50 per cent. Paradoxically, energy consumption at these facilities had climbed by as much as 40 per cent as large ammonia-urea trains running at reduced loads suffer a sharp deterioration in thermal efficiency, according to plant officials.

“Plants of this scale are not designed to ramp up and down at will,” one plant operations manager said. “Operating under these conditions means you are burning more energy to produce less fertiliser, and that is a direct financial hit.”

India is among the world's largest consumers of urea, and a sustained domestic shortfall could affect fertiliser availability ahead of the upcoming kharif sowing season, analysts noted.

A projectile struck close to a bulk carrier off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, causing an explosion, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said early Sunday.

The attack occurred about 15 nautical miles north of Sharjah in the UAE.

Saudi air defences early Sunday tracked the launch of three ballistic missiles towards capital Riyadh, intercepting one, while the other two fell in an uninhabited area, according to the Defence Ministry.

The ministry also said it downed six drones headed toward the kingdom's eastern region, one of its least densely populated areas near Iran and home to major oil installations.

No casualties or damage were immediately reported.

The leaders of the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Denmark, Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Czechia, Romania, Bahrain, Lithuania, and Australia issue a joint statement on the Strait of Hormuz.

“We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces. We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict. We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks, and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping, and to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2817,” reads the statement.

Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Sunday that one of two Japanese nationals detained in Iran has been released and will be returning to Japan.

Motegi, speaking on a Fuji Television talk show, said the person had been detained since last year and was released on Wednesday.

He said another Japanese national who was arrested earlier this year is still in custody.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has named the person detained in Iran in January as a journalist at Japan's public broadcaster NHK.

Motegi did not identify either of the people detained and said the released Japanese national was detained in 2025.

The Foreign Ministry said earlier this month the detainees were safe and in good health, but gave no further details such as whether the two cases were related.

The Kerala government has approached the Centre seeking the authenticity of reports regarding the death of a man from the state in the war-hit region of Israel.

When contacted, the NORKA officials told PTI on Saturday that they received the information from a collective of Keralites working in Israel and therefore approached the Centre to confirm it.

NORKA is a state-run agency that oversees matters related to non-resident Keralites.

According to local media reports, the deceased man was a Thiruvananthapuram native and his cause of death was yet to be ascertained.

A member of a WhatsApp group of Keralites working in Israel, told PTI that they got the information about the death on Wednesday and they are also trying to collect further details.

Iran’s attack this week on Qatar’s natural gas export facility threatens to disrupt not just world energy markets but also global technology supply chains because the helium it produces is crucial for a range of advanced industries.

The gas that makes party balloons float is a byproduct of natural gas production, and a key input in chipmaking, space rockets and medical imaging.

Qatar supplies a third of the world’s helium, according to the US Geological Survey, and had to halt production shortly after the war erupted three weeks ago. After repeated Iranian drone attacks on Ras Laffan, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant, state-owned QatarGas reported “extensive” damage that will take years to repair and cut annual helium exports by 14 per cent.