Iran sets giant oil tanker ablaze off Dubai

Tehran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Tuesday, despite a threat by US President Donald Trump that they will obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.    
Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged.
The attack was the latest on merchant vessels in the strait, a vital waterway, since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February.
LSEG Data showed the vessel was heading to Qingdao in China, and was carrying 1.2 million barrels of Saudi crude oil and 800,000 barrels of Kuwaiti crude, according to monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.
The Al-Salmi may not have been the intended target. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted a container ship in the Gulf over its ties with Israel. But they appeared to be referring to the Singapore-flagged Haiphong Express, which was anchored next to the Al-Salmi, according to shipping data.    
Crude oil prices briefly spiked again after the attack on the tanker, which can carry around 2 million barrels of oil worth more than $200 million at current prices.
The failure to secure a peace deal has prompted the European Union's energy chief to warn member states to prepare for a "prolonged disruption" to energy markets.
Higher oil and fuel prices have also started to weigh on US household finances and are a political headache for Trump and his Republican Party before November midterm elections.
The US national average retail price of gasoline crossed $4 a gallon for the first time in over three years on Monday, data from price-tracking service GasBuddy showed. Tightening global supplies have pushed benchmark Brent crude up 56% this month, the largest rise on record, to above $113 per barrel. 
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that they would target leading US technology firms like Apple, Google and Meta if more Iranian leaders were killed in "targeted assassinations".  
"These companies, starting from 8:00pm (1630 GMT) Tehran time on Wednesday, April 1, should expect the destruction of their relevant units in exchange for every assassination in Iran," the Guards said in a statement listing the names of 18 companies it alleged were complicit in the "targeted assassination" of officials. "We advise the employees of these institutions to immediately leave their workplaces to preserve their lives," it added.
Iranian universities and scientific research centers have come under a series of attacks in recent days, raising concerns that academic institutions are becoming a new frontline in the widening war.
Iran’s Ministry of Science said at least 21 universities have been damaged in strikes since the war began, and academics themselves have been targeted, in what Tehran claims is an attempt to weaken the country’s scientific and cultural foundations.
Analysts say the targeting of universities, and Iran’s threats of retaliation against academic institutions abroad, point to a widening conflict and potentially diverging objectives among the parties involved.
The war has continued to spread, with Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen entering the war by firing at Israel, and Turkey reporting on Monday that a ballistic missile launched from Iran had entered Turkish airspace before being shot down.
The war has also revived conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, while Iran, which has the highest casualty toll in the war, has fired at targets in Gulf Arab states, where the US has military bases.
Iran's military spokesman said targets in its latest attacks included "hideouts" of US military personnel in five bases in the region and in Israel.
Blasts echoed through Dubai on Tuesday, and Saudi Arabia's civil defence said falling debris caused limited damage after a drone was intercepted in Kharj province.
Explosions were heard in Tehran and residents in the eastern Pirouzi district reported power outages, Iran's Tasnim news agency said.
A strike on a Shi'ite Muslim congregation hall in the northwestern Iranian city of Zanjan killed three people, a provincial official told Iranian media.
Israel's military said four of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, where three United Nations peacekeepers from Indonesia have been killed in two separate incidents.
Meanwhile, thousands of soldiers from the US Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, as President Donald Trump weighs his next steps in the war against Iran.
The paratroopers, based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, add to the thousands of additional sailors, Marines and Special Operations forces sent to the region. Over the weekend, about 2,500 Marines arrived in the Middle East.
The additional army soldiers include elements of the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters, some logistics and other support, and one brigade combat team.
No decision has been made to send troops into Iran, but they will build up capacity for potential future operations in the region, one of the sources said.
China and Pakistan called on Tuesday for an immediate end to the war in the Middle East, and for peace talks as soon as possible, as they agreed to boost their cooperation on Iran.
The two countries outlined a joint initiative "for restoring peace and stability in the Gulf and Middle East region", after a visit from senior Pakistani officials to Beijing.
Both countries have sought to mediate in the Middle East to prevent the conflict from escalating, with Islamabad saying it is ready to host "meaningful talks" between the United States and Iran.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and agreed to "strengthen strategic communication and coordination on the Iran situation and ... make new efforts towards advocating for peace", Beijing said.
France did not allow Israel to use its air space to transport American weapons to be used in the war against Iran, a Western diplomat and two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
The sources said the refusal, which happened at the weekend, was the first time France had done this since the start of the conflict in Iran.   
Italy recently denied authorisation for some US aircraft headed to the Middle East on a combat mission to land at its Sigonella base, a defence ministry source and Italian media said.
Under the terms of agreements with the United States, some Italian bases can be used by US military aircraft, but only for logistical purposes, which was denied in this case on the grounds that there was not enough time to get parliament's approval.

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