Iran’s retaliation cripples US base in Saudi Arabia; Trump mulls ground invasion

Iranian retaliatory strikes have caused far more damage to the US military aircrafts and personnel at Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan Airbase than what was earlier estimated. It has now emerged that the US military's powerful E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System was destroyed in that retaliatory strike. Meanwhile, the IRGC has warned Donald Trump of consequences in the event of a ground invasion. Rifat Jawaid says that Iran's ability to target US bases in the Gulf region shows its military capabilities haven't been degraded as claimed by Trump.


Meanwhile Israel advances further into Southern Lebanon while attacking Lebanon from occupied Syria as well.

The Houthis in Yemen are now also firing on Israel and threatening trade in the Gulf of Aden / Red Sea

EUNAVFOR ASPIDES recommendations for seafarers are available on the Maritime Security Center Indian Ocean (MSCIO) webpage. (https://t.co/8SyKfa4a8Y).

The requests for support can preferably be sent to postmaster@mscio.eu (24/7) or made on the website (https://t.co/uYtcSAzxTO).

— EUNAVFOR ASPIDES (@EUNAVFORASPIDES) March 28, 2026

US-Israeli attacks hit Iran water facility, universities

US and Israeli strikes have hit several Iranian cities in the past few hours, including Haftgel in the southwestern Khuzestan province.

That is the most significant strike of the day because it targeted civilian infrastructure – a water facility with a capacity of 10,000 cubic metres (10 million litres or 2.6 million gallons). We have seen attacks on civilian property during this war, but this water facility is vital, and this attack is something that the Iranian leadership will talk about a lot.

Iran operates on the principle of retaliation in kind, and whenever strikes like this happen, we see the Iranian military doing the same across the region, and this is something that is very dangerous for the people of the region.

There’s been a lot of bombardment in Tehran over the past 24 hours, too. Several places were hit, but we are not clear about what has been targeted. But we know that overnight, two universities were hit by the Israeli and American warplanes, and the IRGC is now threatening to retaliate in kind. They issued a strong statement, saying they are going to target US linked universities across the region.

There were also attacks in Tabriz, in Shiraz, and also in Hormozgan, where schoolgirls were killed in the city of Minab on the first day of the war. Drones were active in that area, and there are reports of several strikes. So there is no reduction in the amount of targets, and the air bombardment is going on 24 hours a day.

As war rages, Iranian politicians push for exit from nuclear weapons treaty

Iranian politicians are pushing to exit the country from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as the US and Israel ramp up their attacks to hit civilian nuclear sites, steel factories and a university.

It would be meaningless for Iran to remain a signatory to the international treaty, as it “has had no benefit for us”, said Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the national security commission of parliament, in a Friday night post on X.

Malek Shariati, a representative from Tehran, said that a priority piece of legislation has been uploaded to an online parliamentary portal and will be reviewed soon. Politicians have not held any sessions since the start of the war on February 28.

According to Shariati, the legislation will withdraw Iran from the NPT, revoke a law that adopted nuclear restrictions linked with a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and “support a new international treaty with aligned countries [including Shanghai Cooperation Organization/BRICS] on developing peaceful nuclear technologies”.

Hardliners have previously demanded an NPT exit and a nuclear bomb in response to outside pressure.

$300 million for an E-3 Sentry.

Glad my taxes finally made it to the front lines, briefly. Incredible how fast that investment matured into dust, I guess my taxes just respawned as debris haha

To be fair, the machine was already to be replaced by the E7 Wedgetail and it's build by Boeing so like 100-150m of the costs for the lost machine went already back to the State through other ways like different taxes. When you lose such a machine the loss isn't as bad as it sounds financially but it's obviously also nothing to be happy about

Regardless of the tax math. Multi million dollar plane lost to a flying lawnmower.

The goal of the war is now to reopen the Straight of Hormuz, which was open before the war started. We're being lead by imbeciles.

It's still open to countries not supporting the war against Iran. And Iran now wants to tax ships going through like the English channel.

The goal of the war is now to take US control of the Straight of Hormuz. Plus Trump wants Iran's oil.

Setback for Trump as Marco Rubio contradicts on talks with Iranian ‘regime’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said that his country was busy holding diplomatic talks with the old regime of Iran. This came immediately after Donald Trump said that his country was holding talks with the new Iranian regime. Elsewhere, Iran trolled Trump by organising a guided tour of foreign journalists into the Strait of Hormuz. Rifat Jawaid analyses the day's developments as the Iran conflict completes one month.

Meanwhile three Indonesian peacekeepers have been killed in southern Lebanon as Israel continues its invasion, the death toll across Lebanon has risen to 1,247 people.

Over $100bn lost to oil, gas prices in first month of war, environmental group says

350.org says its analysis has found that rising oil and gas prices have cost consumers and businesses around the world as much as $111bn in the first month of the war on Iran.

The environmental group said that oil giants, such as Chevron, Shell and Exxon Mobil, are “poised to rake in billions of dollars in windfall profits” from the crisis and called on governments to impose taxes on these profits and use the resulting revenue to help address rising prices.

The calculated cost does not yet include the “wider knock-on effects, such as rising fertiliser and food costs”, 350.org noted. “As a result, the true economic damage is likely significantly higher than the losses from oil and gas prices alone.”

In Asia, the group noted that “Philippine lawmakers have recently proposed a windfall tax to curb profiteering by oil companies, while India has reintroduced a windfall tax on oil exports”, and Indonesia’s president has called for the country to build 100GW of solar power to “build energy independence”.

It added that “investing in renewables is the most effective way to stabilise prices, strengthen energy security, and shield economies from future crises”.


I guess that's a silver lining, more investment in renewables. Although there's also lifting off restrictions on coal and firing coal plants back up.

Meanwhile billionaires get richer from oil/gas and arms sales so they won't be stopping the war.

The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies.

Their intentions are clear.

What they've gotten wrong is that they're not dealing with defenseless Palestinian civilians. Our Powerful Armed Forces will severely punish aggressors. pic.twitter.com/wh2FZUldR7

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 31, 2026

Iran threatens to target US tech companies, urges evacuations

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has threatened to target US tech companies operating in the region, urging employees and people living nearby to evacuate immediately.

“Since the main element in designing and tracking terrorist targets are American and ICT and AI companies … from now on, [these] main institutions will be our legitimate targets,” it said in a statement relayed by Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

The IRGC said more than 15 companies will be targeted, including Boeing, Tesla, Meta, Google and Apple, from 8pm local time tomorrow if more Iranians leaders are killed in “targeted assassinations”.

Attacks during the past two nights have struck near @WHO’s office in the Iranian capital, Tehran, shattering windows.

Fortunately all WHO #Iran office colleagues are accounted for and none were injured.

Strikes impacting the operations and damaging the premises of WHO and other… pic.twitter.com/qs4t3C4Lng

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 31, 2026

Middle East conflict could cost region $194bn: UNDP

The UN Development Programme has published a stark warning about the economic cost of the ongoing war.

The report models the potential impact of the military escalation across the region. It describes what it calls a localised conflict becoming a “systemic regional shock”.

This isn't just about replacing the workforce. It's also about replacing the taxable income to pay for the care of their aging population. Robots are not going to address that issue.