Main Points
- The US and Israel are continuing to strike at targets in Iran
- The US said three service members have been killed in action and five “seriously wounded”
- US president Donald Trump says the US military campaign could last weeks
- Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon have been exchanging fire
- Global oil prices jumped when markets opened on Monday
- Irish citizens in Gulf region are urged to register with Department of Foreign Affairs
Key Reads
- Why is the US attacking Iran?
- The Irish Times view: dangerous, illegal and ill-conceived
- Khamenei is gone – but Iran’s system is built to endure
- Profile: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, 1939-2026
What is President Donald Trump’s endgame in Iran? Here our Washington correspondent Keith Duggan gives his assessment in our In the News podcast.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said the world must be prepared for the “fallout” of the war, Irish Times Europe correspondent Jack Power reports from Brussels.
Speaking at a brief press conference this morning, Von der Leyen said Iran had to stop in its “indiscriminate” missile strikes across the Middle East.
“In the last hours, we have witnessed numerous attacks, including a drone attack targeting the British air base in Cyprus,” she said.
The German politician, who leads the EU’s executive body, said she condemned in the “strongest terms”, the “indiscriminate” attacks by Iran and its proxies on other countries in the Gulf region, which followed military strikes of the US and Israel.
The situation remained volatile, but there was “renewed hope for the oppressed people of Iran” to be able to “determine their own future,” the commission president said.
Oil and gas prices surged and global stocks fell on Monday as the widening conflict in the Middle East disrupted energy supplies from the region and threatened to hit the global economy.
In the first trading session since the US and Israel launched air strikes against Iran on Saturday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, soared as much as 13 per cent. European gas prices jumped 24 per cent.
Gold rose and global stocks fell, with the Stoxx Europe 600, Europe’s benchmark index, down 1.8 per cent, led by declines in airlines and hotel groups.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has issued updated advice to Irish citizens in the Middle East. The advice is here.
Physicist Dr Patricia Lewis has said there is no peaceful reason why Iran would want to enrich uranium up to 60 per cent.
The process of enrichment of uranium is necessary to create the energy needed for nuclear fuel or a nuclear bomb.
Through the process pure uranium U238 is partially converted into an isotope U235. You only need to enrich it between 3 and 5 per cent for nuclear power, but a threshold of 60 per cent is worrying, she told RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with David McCullagh Show.
She estimated that Iran has up to 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 per cent, enough to make 10 bombs.
The last time that Iran had a purely peaceful nuclear programme was in 2003, she added.
Dublin Airport estimates that between 5,000 and 6,000 passengers are stranded by the unrest in the Middle East at present.
Twenty-three flights involving Dublin Airport were cancelled over the weekend.
All flights between the Middle East and Dublin Airport have been cancelled on Monday morning. There are between 12 and 14 flights a day on average to and from Dublin to the Middle East.
“You can expect more disruption over the next 48 hours too,” Dublin Airport spokesman Graeme McQueen. He advised passengers to check in with their airlines.
The attacks by Iran on Cyprus comes at a time when the country holds the EU presidency.
An Iranian drone struck RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus around midnight on Sunday morning. Damage was minimal and there were no casualties.
Nevertheless, it is evidence of the spread of the conflict beyond the Middle East.
RAF Akrotiri may be the subject of further Iranian attacks because of the decision by the British government to allow the US use its base on the island.
A meeting of European Affairs Ministers which was due to be held on Tuesday in Cyprus has been cancelled.
The Minister for European Affairs Thomas Byrne was due to attend the meeting.
What happens if Iran has more missiles and drones than interceptors to stop them?
This report in the Wall Street Journal suggests the United States, Israel and its allies in the Middle East are engaged in a race against time.
Can they destroy Iran’s missile-launching capability before their own stock of interceptors runs out?
Iran has huge stockpiles of drones and cheaper missiles. The vast majority are intercepted, but what if they keep coming?
The cost of interception for its enemies is much greater than the cost of launch for Iran.
Well-known political scientist Prof Robert Pape said in this blog post that the US-Israeli decapitation strategy has not worked.
He writes: “Iran is not a palace dictatorship resting on a handful of men. It is a state of roughly 92 million people, with governing institutions embedded across society.
“Security services and affiliated forces number in the hundreds of thousands to more than a million, depending on how one counts formal and paramilitary components. Roughly one in eight Iranians works for the state or in state-linked institutions.
“The regime’s authority is threaded through provincial administrations, economic networks, and local security structures. Removing several dozen senior leaders – even highly placed ones – touches only a small fraction of that governing apparatus. It does not dismantle the structure; it activates it.”
The conflict has spread to Lebanon with Israel and Hizbullah exchanging fire.
Israel has used the opportunity presented by the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran to hit targets in Lebanon used by Hizbullah.
Hizbullah, a Shia militia, is one of Iran’s many proxies in the region.
The Lebanese health ministry says at least 31 people have been killed.
Hizbullah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut was targeted.
In the south of the country, Israel has told people in more than 50 Lebanese villages to evacuate. Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Eyal Zamir said the “offensive campaign” is likely to last several days.
Hundreds more flights cancelled in worst travel chaos since Covid
Hundreds more flights were cancelled today, extending the turmoil in global air travel caused by the US-Israel war on Iran, with hundreds of thousands of passengers already stranded.
Leading airline stocks came under pressure after days of disruption, with Donald Trump indicating that the US military action could last another four weeks.
Major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai – the world’s busiest international hub – closed for a third consecutive day amid the most acute aviation shock since the Covid-19 pandemic paralysed the industry.
Dublin Airport has warned that further disruption is possible over the coming days and has advised passengers to contact their airline.
A number of flights between Dubai and Dublin were cancelled on Sunday.
Death toll rises as strikes continue
Waves of Israeli and US air strikes hit Iran on Sunday, a day after the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, writes Mark Weiss.
Israelis spent the day running to protected spaces as Iran responded with missile barrages, and sirens sounded every few hours across the country. Iran also targeted pro-American Gulf Arab states with missile and drone attacks.
Sunday’s attacks on Iran focused on headquarters and compounds of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij paramilitary force, the bodies primarily responsible for the recent brutal suppression of anti-regime protesters. A video image was released of a drone attack on a Basij motorcycle unit on the streets of Tehran.
Iran fires missiles at Israel and Gulf cities
Loud explosions were heard across the Gulf cities of Dubai, Doha and Manama as well as in Jerusalem this morning as Tehran pressed into a third day of strikes against Israel and Gulf neighbours in response to the US-Israeli attacks.
Agence France-Presse reported several loud blasts being heard in the Qatari and Bahraini capitals, as well as in the United Arab Emirates’ most populous city.
The Israeli air force said on X a short while ago that missiles had been launched from Iran towards Israel and defence systems were operating to intercept them.
The post also said it had directed the public via mobile phones in relevant areas to go to “protected spaces” and stay until further notice. – Guardian
