Starmer resists US warship demands — as it happened

Iran has continued its attacks across the Middle East overnight, as explosions were heard in Gulf capitals and a drone attack hit an oil field in the United Arab Emirates.

Operations at Shah gas field remained suspended on Tuesday following the drone strike, while a fresh attack caused a fire in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone. The attack on one of the world’s biggest sour gas fields, located about 100 miles from Abu Dhabi, adds to disruptions to the country’s energy sector.

Multiple explosions were heard in Dubai and Doha, the capitals of UAE and Qatar, overnight into Tuesday.

In Iraq, the US embassy in Baghdad was targeted once again by a drone and rocket strike, while the death toll from an attack on a house said to be hosting Iranian advisors rose to four.

Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire throughout the night, and Lebanese state media said Israel carried out dawn airstrikes on three Beirut neighbourhoods, hitting a residential building.

Explosions have been heard in Doha and Dubai, AFP journalists have said.

Little was immediately known about the situation in the Qatari capital, however, a correspondent in Dubai said they heard three explosions echo across the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

The blasts in Dubai followed a mobile phone alert to residents to “immediately seek a safe place” over “potential missile threats”.

Lebanese state media says Israel has carried out dawn airstrikes on three Beirut neighbourhoods, hitting a residential building.

“A series of raids and artillery shelling targeted southern towns at dawn,” Lebanon’s national news agency reports.

“Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes targeting the Kafaat and Haret Hreik areas. In another raid, the aircraft struck a residential apartment on the upper floors of a building located at the end of Venice Street in the Doha Aramoun area.”

Israel said it had begun launching a “wide-scale wave of strikes” in the Iranian capital Tehran, as well as strikes against Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

“The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] has begun a wide-scale wave of strikes against Iranian terror regime infrastructure across Tehran,” the military posted on Telegram.

“Additionally, the IDF has begun an additional wave of strikes on Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Beirut.”

The US has damaged or destroyed 100 or more Iranian ships so far, its military said.

Central Command, known as Centcom for short, said in a statement that there have been more than 6,500 combat flights and about 7,000 targets struck during Operation Epic Fury.

Storage bunkers and military support infrastructure have also been hit.

Attacks on Baghdad have killed two people after a house was hit by missiles, while the US embassy in the Iraqi capital was also targeted by a wave of drones and rockets.

Two sources from Iran-backed factions told AFP that the pair died when a strike hit a house hosting Iranian advisers in the al-Jadiriyah neighbourhood.

Iraqi security sources told AFP that it was “the most intense assault since the attacks began”.

Last week the US told its citizens to leave the country after “repeated attacks” carried out by Iran-aligned militias on American citizens and related targets.

Members of Iran’s parliament have visited Kharg Island, the critical oil hub that President Trump said the US had targeted on Friday by destroying the island’s military infrastructure.

While the president said he had “chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island” he threatened to do so if Iran continued to “interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz”.

On Monday Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported: “Following the enemy attack on Kharg and Trump’s threat to destroy oil facilities, members of the energy commission of the parliament visited Kharg Island and inspected various service sectors of the island.”

The US State Department has urged its diplomats to engage with foreign governments “at the highest appropriate level”, so that they move “expeditiously to diminish the capabilities of Iran” due to an “elevated risk of attack” on their respective countries.

“Iran has unleashed its proxy network to wreak havoc and to reduce tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to inflict economic pain globally,” a department memo seen by NBC News said. “Iran also has demonstrated the capability and intent to sponsor terrorist attacks in the United States and other parts of the world, targeting US, Israeli, and Iranian opposition targets.”

President Trump is also pleading with foreign governments to help secure the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, something which various allies have already rejected.

The United Arab Emirates has enacted a full closure of its airspace as a temporary and “exceptional precautionary measure”, its state news agency reported.

UAE’s defence ministry said earlier on Tuesday it was responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran.

Shortly before the ministry’s announcement, the Israeli military said missiles fired from Iran were heading towards the country and urged people to head to shelters.

US intelligence has suggested that while the Iranian regime has been weakened, it is more hardline than before the war began and is likely to remain in place for now, according to reports.

The intelligence assessments predict the regime may even be emboldened after surviving the war so far and standing up to the US and Israel, sources told The Washington Post.

One European official told the newspaper the likeliest postwar scenario was a “rump IRGC regime” that will retain some nuclear and missile capability as well as the support of regional proxies, though the regime will be “degraded enough that we’re in a better place than we were”.

Iran is believed to be shipping oil through the Strait of Hormuz at nearly the same level as before the outbreak of the war.

Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, told CNBC on Monday: “The Iranian ships have been getting out [the Strait] already, and we’ve let that happen to supply the rest of the world. We’ve seen Indian ships go out now … we believe some Chinese ships have gone out.”

Iran is managing to export about one million barrels per day through the Strait, data gathered by the analytics firms Kpler and TankerTrackers show, compared to its average exports of 1.69 million barrels per day last year.

This suggests the Trump administration may have miscalculated if it had judged Tehran would shy away from shutting the waterway to avoid reducing its own oil revenues. This may also help explain why Iran has been cautious in deploying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, preferring instead to attack selected tankers with land missiles or gunboats, for instance.

The UK must help the US in the “noble cause” of policing the Strait of Hormuz, a former Labour defence secretary has said.

Lord Hutton of Furness told Times Radio: “I do think that we should do what we can to come to their aid to keep the straits open.

“I think that’s a noble cause and I think it would be legal under international law to do that.”

The Labour peer, who served as defence secretary between 2008 and 2009, added that Iran had “no legal right” to attack shipping.

However, he said that the “useful” assistance the UK could provide was likely to be limited to minesweepers and drones.

President Trump wants to recruit his Nato allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But the mission has been complicated by European rancour over his recent threats to seize Greenland and his belittling of the alliance’s contributions to the war in Afghanistan (George Grylls writes).

In an interview in January, Trump said Nato sent “some troops” to Afghanistan but they “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”.

The only time Article 5 has been triggered in the alliance’s history was after the 9/11 attacks in New York. A third of allied deaths during the conflict came from non-US countries.

Read in full: Trump v Nato: from tariffs to Ukraine, how will the US respond?

The supreme leader of Iran is “healthy and in charge” despite having yet to make a public appearance, a deputy foreign minister has insisted.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, speaking in his office in Tehran, told Sky News that Mojtaba Khamenei had survived the airstrike that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and many Iranian senior leaders.

“He’s healthy, he’s in charge, and he’s doing whatever is supposed to be done by him,” Khatibzadeh said.

Read in full: Mojtaba Khamenei is alive and well, insists minister

Sir Keir Starmer never offered to send British warships to the Middle East, UK government officials have told The Times.

Earlier on Monday, President Trump told reporters at the Oval Office that he had rejected the prime minister’s offer to send two British aircraft carriers to the Middle East.

“[Starmer] said: ‘We’re going to send two aircraft carriers.’ I said ‘I don’t want them any more,” he claimed.

“Trump’s version of events is being disputed in the government — officials say that Starmer never offered to send an aircraft carrier and insist that he was referring to consulting European partners and other allies rather than his advisers in No 10,” The Times’s political editor, Steven Swinford, wrote.

Read in full: Keir Starmer stiffens sinews and stands firm against Trump tirade

President Trump said he was seeking to delay a meeting with President Xi of China that is scheduled for the end of this month.

“We’ve requested that we delay it a month or so,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

On Sunday, Trump told the Financial Times he might postpone the meeting if China did not help to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. It is scheduled to take place in Beijing from March 31 to April 2.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, confirmed that the meeting may be postponed, telling Fox News: “The president’s utmost responsibility right now as commander-in-chief is to ensure the continued success of Operation Epic Fury, as he’s doing 24/7 here at the White House and here at home. So we’ll look forward to announcing those dates very soon.”

A drone sparked a fire on Monday at a luxury hotel frequented by foreign diplomats in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone shortly before air defences foiled a rocket attack at the US embassy.

The attacks came after the powerful Tehran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group announced that its senior security commander Abu Ali al-Askari had been killed.

Witnesses saw a fire break out on the roof of the hotel inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to diplomatic missions, including the US embassy, and government institutions.

Iraq’s interior ministry said initially that “a projectile fell on the roof of the al-Rasheed Hotel”, before clarifying that it was a drone. It did not specify whether the building itself was the target.

“The incident caused no casualties or material damage,” it added.

What was until recently a poultry farm, high up in the hills overlooking the Lebanese border, is today a staging post for Israel’s latest invasion of its northern neighbour (Tom Ball writes from the Hula Valley, Israel).

Rows of Merkava tanks and armoured bulldozers line the sloping fields. A howitzer’s report booms across the Hula Valley, as soldiers make their final preparations inside the barns that have become their temporary shelters.

Successive generations of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) servicemen and women have passed through these borderlands — in 1978, 1982, 2006 and in 2024. On Monday the IDF announced the start of the 2026 campaign, saying it had launched a “limited and targeted ground operation” in Lebanon in response to rocket fire from Hezbollah in the days after the start of the war with Iran.

“I didn’t think I would be back here so soon,” said David, 40, a reservist who took part in the seven-week ground campaign in 2024, also intended to stop the Iran-backed Shia militia from launching missiles into northern Israel.

Read in full: IDF prepares for Lebanon offensive: ‘We don’t know how this ends’

A former aide to Rishi Sunak has said that the Iran conflict has “shone a light” on the UK’s military “incompetence”.

Jack Sellers, a special adviser to the former prime minister between 2022 and 2024, told Times Radio: “Politically — not getting involved [in the war on Iran] — I think he’s handling that well. He’s on the right side of the argument in terms of where the public are, where his party are, where the rest of the world are.

“But the politics and popularity of it all has been overshadowed by that point that William Hague makes that this war shines a light on how incompetent our defence is, which is a bit of a worry,” he added.

In a column for The Times, Hague said that the conflict had exposed “the threadbare condition of our defences” and that “our inability to protect Cyprus and other allies” had been “humiliating”.

Britain faces a “significant shortfall of supply” in oil and gas within the next two months that would force ministers to “ration” supplies as long as the war in the Middle East continues, industry experts have warned.

The UK consumes approximately 1.4 million barrels of oil every day, of which only about half is produced domestically in the North Sea.

With a fifth of the world’s oil and gas stocks affected by the war in the Middle East, senior figures in the sector have warned that the UK will not be immune from a global supply shortage if the conflict continues.

Read in full: Fuel rationing looming unless Hormuz supply resumes, experts warn

Iran’s foreign minister has denied a report that claimed a direct communication channel had been reopened in recent days between him and Steve Witkoff, the US envoy.

A source told Axios that Abbas Araghchi was the one attempting to engage with Washington, but that the Trump administration was “not talking” to Iran.

Araghchi said his last contact with Witkoff had been “prior to his employer’s decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran”, the foreign minister posted on X, referring to President Trump.

“Any claim to the contrary appears geared solely to mislead oil traders and the public,” he added.

The number of American troops wounded in the war against Iran has risen to about 200, the US military said on Monday, as the conflict entered its third week.

Reuters first reported last week that as many as 150 US troops had been wounded in the conflict, highlighting the danger from Iranian retaliatory strikes.

In a statement, the US military’s Central Command said the vast majority suffered minor injuries and 180 troops had already returned to duty.

In addition to the wounded, 13 US troops have been killed since Iran launched retaliatory strikes against US military bases following the start of the conflict on February 28.

Iranian attacks have also struck diplomatic missions as well as hotels and airports, and damaged energy infrastructure in Arab Gulf states.

The United States has carried out strikes against more than 7,000 targets in Iran.

When Donald Trump demanded of Sir Keir Starmer that the UK should help secure the Strait of Hormuz, several thoughts must have run through the prime minister’s mind (William Hague writes).

This is the president, he surely thought, who only a few days earlier said the US didn’t need help when “we’ve already won”; who went to war without consultation with Nato allies; and who now suggests the future of that alliance depends on their willingness to rescue him from a mess for which he had no plan.

No doubt biting his tongue on Sunday’s call rather than mention these truths, Starmer will have been wondering whether, even now, there is any viable plan in existence that will reliably secure for giant oil tankers the navigation of a narrow strait under hostile fire. This will require a large force of destroyers and frigates to defend themselves and the tankers along a long coastline against missiles, drones, mines and small boats packed with explosives. Sailors should only be sent into that situation if they have the necessary equipment and clear objectives.

But the thought that will have been uppermost in the PM’s mind, and too embarrassing to mention to the president, is that there is very little Britain can send.

Read in full: Fortifying defence can be Keir Starmer’s great legacy

President Trump also said he had rejected Sir Keir Starmer’s offer to send two British aircraft carriers to the Middle East.

“After we obliterated them [Iran], destroyed their military, the whole thing … and it became a much safer zone, he [Starmer] said: ‘We’re going to send two aircraft carriers.’

“I said ‘I don’t want them any more. I don’t want want them after we win, I want them before we start.

“I don’t need your aircraft carriers after we’ve already won.’”

President Trump has called the UK the “Rolls-Royce” of allies and again questioned the prime minster’s reluctance to send Royal Navy minesweepers to the Middle East.

“I said it would be really helpful if you would send over a couple of ships, and if you have some minesweepers, which they do, it would be very helpful,” the US president said of Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, after remarking earlier that he was “not happy with the UK”.

“The prime minister is a nice man. He’s a very nice guy. He said: ‘Well I’d like to ask my team’. I said, ‘You don’t have to worry about a team. If you’re the prime minister, you can make a decision’,” he said. “So it’s very disappointing.”

Trump added: “We spend trillions and trillions of dollars on Nato to defend other countries … we’re going to have to start thinking more wisely in this country.”

Western allies have warned that “devastating humanitarian consequences” would follow an Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon.

The leaders of the UK, Canada, France, Germany and Italy have issued a joint statement calling for talks to de-escalate the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

They said: “We are gravely concerned by the escalating violence in Lebanon and call for meaningful engagement by Israeli and Lebanese representatives to negotiate a sustainable political solution.”

The statement condemned “Hezbollah’s decision to join Iran in hostilities” including “the targeting of civilians”.

The leaders added: “A significant Israeli ground offensive would have devastating humanitarian consequences and could lead to a protracted conflict. It must be averted. The humanitarian situation in Lebanon, including ongoing mass displacement, is already deeply alarming.”

A direct communications channel between the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has been reactivated in recent days, a news site has reported.

The Axios article cited a US official and a source with knowledge of the matter as saying the two sides had had the first known direct communication since the war started more than two weeks ago.

The US official told Axios it was Araghchi who was attempting to engage, but that the Trump administration was “not talking” to Iran, the site reported.

An energy subsidy scheme available to all would spark panic in the market, a leading energy expert has said.

Andy Mayer, an energy analyst at the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, told Times Radio that the government had been right to opt for a more targeted approach than that of the Conservative government in 2022.

He said that “markets already have low confidence in the government to pay down its debts” and that this more “cautious” approach was safer.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, confirmed on Monday that over £50 million would be offered to low-income families who heat their homes with oil to help them cope with surging prices.

That is far below the cost to the taxpayer of the last government’s energy price guarantee, which was launched in October 2022.

Aides are thought to be wary of “repeating the mistakes” of that guarantee, which ended up costing taxpayers about £40 billion.

Iran’s new supreme leader is “healthy and in charge” of the country despite having not yet made a public appearance, a deputy foreign minister has insisted.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, speaking in his office in Tehran, told Sky News that Mojtaba Khamenei had survived the air strike that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and many Iranian senior leaders.

“He’s healthy, he’s in charge, and he’s doing whatever is supposed to be done by him,” he said.

Khatibzadeh said Khamenei, 56, had not been seen “because the war is happening… and as soon as his office decides to do that, they will do that”. But he insisted that Iran was willing to fight as long as needed and the country was not currently focused on a diplomatic solution.

Asked about the potential of US troops invading Iran, he warned that they would be aware of facing a similar fate to those deployed in America’s long war in Vietnam.

“They understand those that dragged them into this war can drag them also into a quagmire,” he said.

Sir Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor, has said that the UK may have to increase defence spending to “8 or 10 per cent” of GDP because of the deepening crisis in the Middle East.

The Conservative MP also told Andrew Marr, the LBC presenter, that Starmer should have backed President Trump from the outset over the use of British bases.

“We’re now having an argument in the UK, in a very British sort of way, about whether we should increase defence spending from 2.5 per cent of GDP to 3 per cent,” he said.

“If Russia prevails in Ukraine, because America needs all its Patriot missile systems in the Middle East, because it stops sharing intelligence, we’ll be having a discussion about whether we need to be spending 8 or 10 per cent of GDP on defence.”

President Trump may try to build a second “coalition of the willing” to help police the Strait of Hormuz, a European security analyst has said.

Ed Arnold, a senior research fellow at the defence think tank Royal United Services Institute, also told Times Radio that European nations were “more reliant” on the strait than the US was.

Trump is unlikely to get an agreement from the EU or Nato, so may turn to individual member states, Arnold said.

“You won’t get an agreement at an EU level but it would be a second coalition of the willing to help Trump,” he said.

“Trump does not like large multinational organisations … what he is prepared to do is play member states off each other, using the threat of sanctions and tariffs and do that.”

A Labour minister has said that Trump must “answer for his actions”, moments after the US president launched another scathing attack on the British government.

Dame Diana Johnson, minister of state at the Department for Work and Pensions, told Times Radio: “The president has to answer for his own actions and the steps that he’s taken. President Trump will always set out his position very forcefully.”

Trump earlier told reporters that he was “not happy” with the UK for refusing to engage with offensive actions against the Islamic Republic.

Setting out the government’s position, Johnson said that “Iran has been for a number of years a rogue state”.

“But that’s very different from accepting that the decision of the president of the United States was the correct one at the time. And obviously, he has to justify his action and explain the legal basis for the action he took.”

The King met the Canadian prime minister today, who had just come from a meeting at No 10 with Sir Keir Starmer.

Mark Carney discussed the situations in the Middle East and Ukraine with his British counterpart this morning, the Canadian prime minister’s office said.

The office said that both prime ministers “condemned the Iranian regime’s missile and drone attacks, including on civilian and energy infrastructure, and expressed deep concern over the toll on civilians, the risk of further regional escalation, and the broader global economic consequences of the conflict, including rising energy prices”.

Carney was later photographed shaking hands with the King, who thanked the former governor of the Bank of England for Canada’s “invaluable” support for the “coalition of the willing” against Russia.

A common argument in the discussion about the US and Israeli military operation in the Middle East is that Vladimir Putin is the main economic beneficiary of this war (Mikhail Khodorkovsky writes). The logic is simple: he will be able to sell more oil at higher prices and direct the proceeds to the war against Ukraine.

There is a degree of truth in this argument. However, it greatly exaggerates the economic impact of the war while obscuring a far more important consequence of it — Putin’s return to global politics as a global player. This may prove more significant than any fluctuations in oil prices.

• Read in full: Iran war’s big winner is Vladimir Putin — if it ends soon

Over three quarters of Britons believe the US-Iran war will hurt the UK economy, polling suggests.

YouGov said on Monday that 77 per cent of those surveyed believed the impact on Britain’s finances would be “very negative” or “fairly negative”.

More than half said it would make British residents less safe (55 per cent) and two thirds (67 per cent) said it would destabilise the Middle East further.

Of those surveyed, 68 per cent said the war would hurt America’s reputation internationally, and only 15 per cent said it would help “pro-western factions” in Iran.

The UK has “more jets” in the Middle East that at any time in the past 15 years, the Ministry of Defence has said.

A post on X from the official Ministry of Defence account read: “British pilots have now completed more than 550 flying hours on defensive operations protecting British people, bases and partners in the region. The UK now has more jets in the region than at any period in the past 15 years.

“Last night, UK F-35 and Typhoon aircraft, supported by Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft, have continued to conduct defensive air patrols over Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain and the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Scottish households could receive just £35 in support under the newly announced £53 million support package, a charity has said.

About 130,000 homes in Scotland use heating oil, the price of which has soared since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The Poverty Alliance is part of a chorus of voices warning Labour that the emergency fund will not do enough to help struggling households.

It told PA, the news agency, that off-grid households, which were given £200 to pay for heating during the 2023 energy crisis, could now receive just over £35 per household.

Citizens Advice Scotland said that households, particularly those in island and rural communities, were “desperately worried” about the price rise.

The Scottish National Party described the UK government’s support as a “drop in the ocean”.

European Union foreign ministers have shown “no appetite” to expand an EU naval mission in the Middle East to the Strait of Hormuz for the time being, Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s policy chief, said on Monday.

The union’s Aspides mission — named after the Greek word for “shields” — was established in 2024 to protect ships from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebel group in the Red Sea.

“There was, in our discussions, a clear wish to strengthen this operation, but for the time being, there was no appetite in changing the mandate of the operation,” Kallas told reporters after a meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

The mission has an Italian and a Greek ship under its direct command and can also call upon a French ship and another Italian vessel for support.

“The discussion was that it should be strengthened, because it doesn’t have too many naval assets. It should have more,” Kallas said.

“While the Strait of Hormuz is at the centre stage, the Red Sea also remains critical.”

President Trump needs to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to spare the world economy from a 1970s-style energy crisis.

Iran has retaliated against US and Israeli airstrikes by effectively closing the 21-mile-wide waterway, throttling the world’s supply of oil and natural gas.

Last month there were about 150 container ships passing through the strait every day. Now, Iranian drone and missile attacks have reduced that figure to under ten.

So what are the military options at Trump’s disposal to reopen the strait? Can he lift the Iranian blockade?

• Read in full: What can Trump do to get the Strait of Hormuz reopened?

In the hills outside Pittsburgh, a certain type of Pennsylvanian is watching the war in Iran with mounting excitement, aware that rising oil and natural gas prices mean only one thing.

“Money!” said an indiscreet landowner last week, parking his car next to the field he has leased to a fracking company. “I want those prices to keep going up.” The rumble of drilling came from behind a tarpaulin fence.

President Trump’s war in Iran is hurting American motorists and endangering the Republicans’ midterm chances. But the crisis also presents an opportunity for the United States, the largest producer of oil and natural gas, to tighten its grip on the world’s energy supply.

• Read in full: Drill, baby, drill! How Appalachia is set to profit from war with Iran

A former British commander believes Trump’s call for allies to help police the Strait of Hormuz is an attempt to deflect responsibility for a mounting global energy crisis.

General Sir Richard Barrons, former commander of Joint Forces Command, told Times Radio: “I think what President Trump has realised is that this problem has arisen, that Iran has decided to do what is no surprise to anybody: to close the Strait of Hormuz.

“I think part of asking the rest of us to play a role in dealing with it is in part to distribute responsibility for this really difficult place that we are [in] and remove it as an American-only problem,” he added.

Sir Keir Starmer has said Britain will not be dragged into the “wider war”, and has not committed to sending British warships to the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump has admitted that the US does not know whether Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is “dead or not”.

Mojtaba, 56, was elevated on March 9 to the role after his father’s assassination, but has yet to be seen or heard in public.

His first official address came in the form of a statement read out on state TV by a woman last week and he has not been seen in public.

Various reports have emerged to explain his absence, including claims that he may have sustained injuries to his face and legs in the airstrike that killed his father on the opening day of the war.

“We don’t know… if he’s dead or not,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“A lot of people are saying that he’s badly disfigured. They’re saying that he lost his leg — one leg — and he’s, you know, been hurt very badly. Other people are saying he’s dead.

“Nobody’s saying he’s 100 per cent healthy. You know he hasn’t spoken.”

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, spoke with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, this afternoon about the conflict in the Middle East, a foreign office minister has said.

Stephen Doughty told the House of Commons: “The foreign secretary was in Riyadh in recent days showing support for our partners across the region who face continuing strikes.

“She discussed the impact of Iran’s actions with GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council] foreign ministers and the importance of maintaining energy security and supply. And, as we speak, she is on a call with secretary of state Rubio on this very crisis.”

Doughty had earlier said that Cooper would provide a “wider update” in the Commons on Tuesday about “the UK’s approach to the situation in the Middle East”, including the escalating conflict in Lebanon and the UK’s consular response.

Trump said that he had spoken to President Macron of France and rated his response “8 out of 10”.

“I have spoken to him. On a scale of 0-10, I’d say he has been an eight. Not perfect, but it’s France.”

Trump said he had spoken to the French president on Sunday.

President Trump said the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, would list those countries that had agreed to help protect the Strait of Hormuz.

“Some are really enthusiastic,” he said, again refusing to name the nations that might get involved.

“Some are fairly local that are doing it.”

He later added: “We have other nations coming in.”

Trump has repeated his criticisms of the UK and Sir Keir Starmer for refusing to get involved in the war on Iran because the US had “protected” the country for 40 years.

“I was surprised with the UK, because the UK is our oldest ally and we spend a lot of money in Nato,” he said.

“I was not happy with the UK. I think they will be involved, maybe they should be … we have been protecting them for 40 years.”

Friedrich Merz, the chancellor of Germany, has said the Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon was a mistake that would “further exacerbate the already highly tense humanitarian situation” in the country.

“We urgently call on our Israeli friends: Do not take this path — it would be an error,” Merz said after the Israeli military announced what it described as “limited ground operations” in Lebanon.

In further criticism of countries who are refusing to get involved in the war against Iran, the US president added: “Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t.

“Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me.”

Throughout Monday, countries have ruled out getting involved, including several in Europe and Asia.

Daily oil exports from the Gulf have dropped by at least 60 per cent in the week to March 15 compared with February, according to shipping data and Reuters calculations.

The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, normally used to transport about a fifth of the world’s oil supply, has forced exporters to cancel shipments and shut production at oilfields, creating the world’s biggest ever supply disruption. Crude oil prices have surged to the highest in four years and those of some fuels to record highs.

Crude, condensate and refined fuels exports from eight Middle Eastern countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates — in the week to March 15 averaged 9.71 million barrels per day, data from Kpler showed, down 61 per cent from 25.13 million bpd in February.

President Trump also criticised unnamed countries for refusing to help. He said he had known that when the US needed them they “wouldn’t be there for us”.

“They should be in here, very happily helping us,” he added.

“For 40 years, we’re protecting you, and you don’t want to get involved.”

Trump has also again repeated his request for other countries to help police the Strait of Hormuz.

“We want them to come and help us with Strait. We have it in very good shape,” he said at a meeting in the American capital. “We strongly encourage the other nations to get involved with us.”

He said the US had received positive answers from several countries, but didn’t name them.

However, he mentioned several countries who were reliant on the strait for their energy needs, including Japan, China and South Korea.

Donald Trump has said the US has struck 7,000 targets since the start of the war, and Iran has been “obliterated”. He was speaking in Washington.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened to target US companies across the region, calling on employees to evacuate the sites.

“Employees of American companies … are requested to leave these areas immediately. These areas will soon be targeted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” they said in on their official Sepah News website.

It was not immediately clear which companies would be at risk but last week the Tasnim news agency published a list of potential targets on Telegram that included the offices of tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia in Gulf countries.

More than 200 Iranian children have been killed in bombings during the war, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has claimed.

In a post on X he blamed the US and Israel for the death toll, but also neighbouring countries that “permit attacks on Iran”.

“Hundreds of Iranian civilians have been killed in Israel-US bombings, including over 200 children,” Araghchi wrote.

“Reports claim that some neighbouring states which host US forces and permit attacks on Iran are also actively encouraging this slaughter. Stances should be promptly clarified.”

It was unclear where Araghchi was getting his figures from. The last time there was a death toll announced, a week ago today, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said at least 1,230 people had been killed across Iran.

Long queues formed at petrol stations across the Laotian capital, Vientiane, on Monday as fuel shortages deepened, with the ripples of the Middle East conflict reverberating across the landlocked country.

Laos is dependent on Thailand for fuel supplies, which initially announced it was suspending exports to conserve its holdings, but has assured its neighbour that fuel is on its way.

More than 40 per cent of the 2,538 filling stations in Laos were closed last week, according to the most recent government data.

Escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz will not “resolve the problem” of stalled global energy exports, an energy markets specialist said.

Richard Meade, editor in chief of Lloyd’s List, told Times Radio: “Normally, you are speaking about 20 per cent of global energy exports coming through this very small passage. If you were doing that on a convoy basis with naval escorts, they would only realistically be able to do convoys of between five to ten commercial ships at one point.”

He added: “It’s too narrow to do both ways at the same time. Realistically, you’re looking at a best-case scenario of between eight to 10 per cent of normal flows if there is all of the convoy sort of assets provided that we would need, and that’s not a guarantee.”

A second man has been released without charge after four men were arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran on locations and individuals linked to the Jewish community in London.

The Metropolitan Police said that the 52-year-old man, who was arrested in Watford, had been released on Sunday.

Of the remaining three, a 55-year-old man who was arrested in Barnet, north London, has also been released without charge while two other suspects, aged 22 and 40, remain in custody.

The group were arrested on March 6 under the National Security Act.

Another six people, men aged between 20 and 49, were arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, with one further arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

All six have been released on bail to dates in May and June pending further inquiries.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, has restated President Trump’s request for US allies to do more to ensure ships can travel safely through Strait of Hormuz.

“These other countries are benefiting greatly from the United States’ military taking out the threat of Iran. The president is absolutely right to call on these countries to do more,” she told reporters in the US capital.

Further strategic oil stocks could be released if necessary to limit the fallout of the virtual blockage of supplies through the Strait of Hormuz owing to the war on Iran, a leading energy expert has said.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said: “In terms of government stocks and industry stocks held under government obligation, if you combine them, there will be still over 1.4 billion barrels remaining, which means we can do more later as and if needed.”

Israel’s ambassador to the UN said the closing of the Strait of Hormuz “is a problem for the entire world”.

Danny Danon said: “Closing the strait is not a problem for the US or for Israel. It’s a problem for the entire world.”

“That’s why I expect other countries to realise they cannot hide. If they will hide from terrorists, they will come to the shores of Europe and to the shores of other nations.”

Danon also called on Lebanon to do more in tackling the threat of Hezbollah.

“Our message to the Lebanese government is simple: step up, step in,” he told a press conference in New York. “Lebanon must restrain Hezbollah now, or we will.”

Modern Iraq was forged by America, with wars in 1991 and 2003. The competing factions that have emerged dominant in the country since are torn between preserving a fragile peace in the face of America’s latest war — and pushing for more.

Kurds and Iraqi Shia gained most from the fall of Saddam Hussein, who oppressed them both. Now they fear that the chaos engulfing the region will set back their gains and sow economic disaster. “We aren’t happy if anyone tries to use us,” said Sirwan Barzani, the so-called “Black Tiger” of the Kurdish region of Iraq. “We want to be the balance between all our neighbours.”

Still, the Iranians are foes whose loyal Shia militias in Iraq have regularly attacked the Kurds and who are now taking a beating. Many Kurds are also tempted to cheer on the bombing to bring down the regime.

• Read in full: Unwanted war is straining loyalties for Iraqi Kurds

Iran will carry out “terrorist attacks” in an attempt to pressure the US and its allies, a former UK national security adviser has warned.

Sir Mark Sedwill told Times Radio that Iran was not fighting “a conventional war” against the Americans and the Israelis because they were completely outmatched.

“What they’re trying to do is to use this asymmetric action to impose some pressure on the United States and allies through the oil market and through energy prices,” he added.

“There will be terrorist attacks in the future in order to try to put pressure on and to fight what they regard as a war of resistance.”

Europe should keep an open mind on helping to ensure the Strait of Hormuz stays open, even if the continent did not support the US-Israeli decision to go to war with Iran, Denmark’s foreign minister has said.

Lars Lokke Rasmussen said: “We must face the world as it is, not as we want it to be.

“Even if we don’t like what’s going on, I think it’s wise to keep an open mind on whether Europe … in some way can contribute, but with a view towards de-escalation,” he said.

“Denmark is a sea-faring nation and we have in every way an interest in ensuring free navigation,” Rasmussen added.

Spain will not take part in any military mission in the Strait of Hormuz because it considers the US-Israeli war on Iran to be illegal, Madrid’s defence and foreign affairs minister said.

Margarita Robles rejected a demand by President Trump for military support to secure the waterway, and his threats of a “very bad future” for Nato allies failing to do so.

“Spain will never accept any stop-gap measures because the objective must be for the war to end, and for it to end now,” Robles said.

The European Union’s position should be that the war must end regardless of economic considerations, José Manuel Albares, its foreign minister, added.

“We mustn’t do anything that would add even more tension or cause the situation to escalate further,” he said.

President Trump has said he will hold a press conference later today, prior to a scheduled Kennedy Centre board meeting but did not give further details.

A White House official later confirmed the event was scheduled to take place at 4.45pm GMT.

Tehran was among a number of cities in fresh Israeli strikes on Iran today.

Explosions hit the centre of the Iranian capital, AFP reported, and caused widespread damage.

Pictures showed the devastation, including a man carrying a frightened dog as emergency workers cleared the site of a strike on a residential building.

Israel’s military said it had launched a broad wave of strikes on the Iranian cities, also including Shiraz and Tabriz.

British expats fleeing the war in the Middle East have called on the government to urgently clarify whether they will face large tax bills on their return.

Accountants advising some of the 160,000 British citizens who have registered their presence in the region have warned that they could face an increased tax bill if their stay pushes them over 183 days spent in the UK during this financial year, which ends in April.

With only three weeks remaining in the financial year, many individuals may already be close to this limit, prompting fears that their unexpected return could place their income generated abroad into the British tax net.

• Read in full: Expats fleeing Dubai fear increased UK tax bills

President Trump’s proposed meeting with President Xi is not at risk but could be delayed as he remains focused on the Iran war, the White House said.

Trump is due to travel to China from March 31 to April 2 for a highly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies.

Karoline Leavitt told Fox News: “I don’t think the meeting is in jeopardy, but it’s quite possible the meeting could be delayed.”

Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday he might postpone the meeting if China did not help to unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

Leavitt added: “The president’s utmost responsibility right now as commander-in-chief is to ensure the continued success of Operation Epic Fury, as he’s doing 24/7 here at the White House and here at home. So we’ll look forward to announcing those dates very soon.”

The government should not concede to President Trump’s demand to send warships to the Middle East until it comes up with its own plan, Kemi Badenoch has said.

The Tory leader said: “We have believed in freedom of navigation as a country for centuries, even this government has had targeted strikes at the Houthis in the Strait of Hormuz.

“But what is the plan? We need to see the plan. It is not clear the prime minister has been involved in the planning process. All of our allies seem to be worried about how slow he is.”

She added: “I’m worried that he’s not deep enough in conversations with the US. But before we start sending ships out, we need to know what the plan is.”

From the wilds of west Wales to the Buckinghamshire commuter belt, people who use oil to heat their homes are watching in horror as the war in Iran sends prices sky high, with shortages reported and delivery companies cancelling orders.

“People should know that this situation isn’t just affecting those who live in remote areas, or older properties,” says Sara Thornton, 51, a television presenter who lives in The Lee, a village between Amersham and Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, with her husband, Jack Izzard, 50, a publicist.

“We’re commuters into the centre of London on the Tube. When we moved here 13 years ago we were absolutely astounded that you could be at the end of the Tube line and not have gas in your homes. Even the new houses that are being built, they are not on gas. There are about 300 homes altogether locally all reliant on oil.”

• Read in full: Cost of Iran war hits British homeowners as oil prices soar

Lebanese people displaced by fighting with Hezbollah will not be allowed to return home until the north of Israel was secure, Israel’s defence minister has said.

Israel Katz told military personnel: “Hundreds of thousands of Shia residents of southern Lebanon who have evacuated and are evacuating their homes from southern Lebanon and Beirut will not return to their homes south of the Litani area until the safety of residents in the north is guaranteed.”

The Pope has urged journalists to highlight the suffering caused by war, cautioning against news reports that risk sliding into propaganda by glorifying conflicts or serving as “a megaphone” to amplify the voices of those in power.

In a meeting with Italy’s TG2 television news programme, the Pope made a direct appeal for reporters “to show the face of war and tell it through the eyes of the victims, so as not to turn it into a video game”.

He added: “In the dramatic circumstances of war, such as those we are experiencing, information must guard against the risk of turning into propaganda.”

Journalists must work “in verifying the news so as not to become a megaphone of power”, he said. On Sunday, he called for an immediate ceasefire to what he called the “atrocious violence” of the conflict in Iran, in some of his strongest remarks to date.

US Central Command has shared video of what is claimed were attacks against military assets in Iran.

A post on social media shows US missile attacks on a naval storage facility in the Strait of Hormuz, a Tehran drone production facility and an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps depot, as well as the attack late last week on Kharg Island.

The Pentagon footage showed facilities before the attacks then largely destroyed afterwards. Admiral Brad Cooper said: “For 16 days we have delivered overwhelming firepower deep into Iran.”

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has said the UK should consider all options to keep the Strait of Hormuz open but warned against taking part in offensive operations.

When asked if Sir Keir Starmer should send the Royal Navy into the strait, he said that “mobilising assets” in the region could prolong the conflict.

However, he added: “The UK has to constantly keep under review the actions it takes in order to protect its citizens and protect our economy so all options need to be on the table. But it’s right that the UK is not part of any offensive action.”

Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, told CNBC that the US was “fine” with some Iranian, Indian and Chinese ships getting through the Strait of Hormuz for now.

He added that any American action to mitigate higher prices would depend on duration of the war.

More details on the non-Iranian tanker which has passed through the Strait of Hormuz have emerged.

The vessel is a 237 metre-long Pakistani-flagged oil tanker and was likely loaded, the global ship tracker Marine Traffic said.

It entered Iranian waters on Sunday and “is currently sailing in the Gulf of Oman at around 9.6 knots, having successfully passed through the Strait with AIS [Automatic Identification System] active,” said MarineTraffic in a post. “The transit follows weeks of significantly reduced traffic through the strategic waterway.”

Bloomberg data indicated it was last moored at the Emirati oil hub of Das Island.

Thousands of British travellers have been affected by the latest shutdown of Dubai’s main airport after a drone strike on Monday morning.

Many Emirates flights already in the air were diverted, while others waiting to take-off were cancelled. Five flights from UK airports returned to their points of origin.

These included a flight from Edinburgh, which had made it as far as Egyptian airspace before it turned back. Passengers on board a flight from London Stansted nearly made it to Dubai, but were diverted to Vienna, Austria.

The suspension of flights also affected thousands of people hoping to finally return to the UK after being stranded in the Middle East, or other parts of the world where UK flights connect in the region, since the start of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.

All seven Emirates flights from Dubai to London Heathrow on Monday were cancelled.

Sir Keir Starmer is seeking to straddle the tightrope of avoiding antagonising President Trump, while so far declining to meet the US president’s demands (Aubrey Allegretti writes).

The prime minister made clear Britain would not be dragged into the “wider war” by joining with the Israel and the US in launching offensive strikes Iran.

Despite Trump’s public call for countries to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, Starmer did not commit to doing so.

Instead, he reverted to pushing for de-escalation as a means to end the restrictions on oil, gas and fertiliser shipping. Talk of “discussions” about a “viable” solution suggested Starmer would not sign up to Trump’s plan in haste.

However, unity between the UK and US will be vital to ensure any negotiated agreement to end the fighting is adhered to.

Ministers need to manage expectations when intervening in energy costs, a former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.

Paul Johnson told Times Radio: “The thing that worries me is not so much can they find a few tens of millions, as I say a very small amount for this group of people, but what expectations does this set if other forms of power become more expensive?

“If gas prices start to rise, if electricity becomes significantly more expensive, people will say, ‘You helped the people with oil, but what about the 99 per cent of us, or whatever it is, who don’t use heating oil, who use other forms of energy? Are you going to bail us out?’

“That then becomes staggeringly expensive,” the economist warned.

Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran was ready to take the Middle East war “as far as necessary”.

Abbas Araghchi said: “By now they [US and Israel] have learnt a good lesson and understood what kind of nation they are dealing with, one that does not hesitate to defend itself and is ready to continue the war wherever it may lead, and take it as far as necessary.”

Israel claimed it had detailed plans for a further three weeks of war against Iran.

In a briefing on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, the Israeli military spokesman, said there were detailed operational plans for the war with Iran in place for the next three weeks, along with additional plans extending further ahead.

The military framed its objectives as limited to weakening Iran’s capacity to threaten Israel by striking ballistic missile infrastructure, nuclear facilities and the security apparatus.

“We want to make sure that they are as weak as possible, this regime, and that we degrade all their capabilities, all parts and all wings of their security establishment,” Shoshani said.

President Macron has “no desire” to join a military operation to open the Strait of Hormuz, French commentators have said.

However, it is thought Macron does not want to risk President Trump’s wrath by rejecting his demand out of hand.

Pierre Haski, a political commentator on France Inter, said Paris had failed to comment publicly on Trump’s demand, which had caused “embarrassment” in the Elysée.

“Paris, like the other European [capitals], was neither informed of nor associated with the launch of the war against Iran and has no desire to be… co-opted into it,” said Haski.

Macron said last week that France wanted to establish “a purely defensive mission” to escort tankers and cargo ships through the strait “as soon as possible”, but repeatedly said he did not want to be drawn into the war.

The conflict in Iran is an “abject lesson” in the danger of relying on fossil fuels, the UN’s climate chief will warn.

By bombarding ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian forces have disrupted a fifth of the world’s seaborne trade in oil and gas, causing the price of oil to rise to about $100 a barrel.

In remarks to European policymakers this afternoon, Simon Stiell, the UN climate change chief, will warn: “Fossil fuel dependency is ripping away national security and sovereignty, and replacing it with subservience and rising costs.

“But renewables turn the tables. Sunlight doesn’t depend on narrow and vulnerable shipping straits. Wind blows without massive taxpayer-funded naval escorts.”

“Some responses to the fossil fuel crisis — incredibly — argue for doubling-down on the cause of the problem and slowing the shift to renewable energy. Even though it is clearly cheaper, safer, and faster to market. This is completely delusional.”

A non-Iranian oil tanker transited the Strait of Hormuz with its automatic transponder system activated, despite major disruption to shipping, the tracking app Marine Traffic has said.

“The Aframax tanker Karachi, carrying Abu Dhabi’s Das crude, has become the first non-Iranian cargo to transit the chokepoint while broadcasting its AIS signal, suggesting that select shipments may be receiving negotiated safe passage,” Marine Traffic said in a statement.

Iran’s will not allow ships from any country it deems hostile to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran’s foreign ministry has warned.

“The armed forces are controlling the transit, and no country will be able to use the Strait of Hormuz to strike against Iran,” said Esmail Baghaei, a foreign ministry spokesman.

Greece has become the latest Nato country to rule itself out from policing the Strait of Hormuz.

Pavlos Marinakis, a government spokesman, said Athens would not engage in any military operations in the Strait, which has become a chokepoint for tankers since the launch of the war on Iran by the US and Israel.

Sir Keir Starmer said there needed to be a negotiated settlement to end the war in Iran, saying it would only get harder the longer the conflict drags on.

“I’m clear in my mind, the longer it goes on the more difficult it becomes,” he said.

“I want to see an end to the war. The more dangerous the situation becomes and the worse it becomes for the cost of living here.”

Starmer will not lift Labour’s ban on new oil and gas drilling licences being issued, given the rising cost of oil and gas.

The prime minister said that “our North Sea oil doesn’t give us control over that, because we sell on to the international market”.

He added that the government was even more determined to go “further and faster in relation to renewables” to make the UK “more secure and more independent”.

Starmer has not ruled out that better-off households would need to bear the brunt of energy price rises come the autumn.

The Liz Truss government installed a £40 billion energy price cap, which protected all households in 2022, when prices surged in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine.

Asked if help would be more targeted in a future support package, Starmer said: “We’re not ruling anything out out but it’s very difficult to say at this juncture what the position will be in July — when the current energy price cap runs out — or in September.”

He added: “My instinct is always to help working people in a situation like this.”

Sir Keir Starmer has concluded his statement by criticising other politicians who have called for the UK to heed President Trump’s call to attack Iran directly.

He said: “If we are to send servicemen and women into harm’s way, the least they deserve is to know that they do so on a legal basis and on a proper thought through plan.”

He added that others would have “rushed the UK headlong into this war… without a plan to get us out”.

“That is not leading, it’s following,” he said. “Time will show that we have the right approach.”

Sir Keir Starmer announced that the government would give a “legal direction” to energy companies to pass on “every penny of the savings that we delivered at last year’s budget” to consumers.

He also said that petrol stations would be forced to publish their live prices, to make savings easier for drivers.

About £53 million would be provided in extra support for “those households that are most exposed” to rising heating oil prices, the prime minister added.

The prime minister has said he is working with European leaders to come up with a “collective plan” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

While highlighting that the US operation had “massively weakened” the military capability of Iran’s “abhorrent” regime, Sir Keir Starmer said the key question was: “What comes next?”

After the fighting, there would need to be a negotiated agreement, he added.

He cautioned that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz was “pushing up prices here at home” because of the lack of supply of oil, gas and fertiliser.

Starmer said he was working on a “viable collective plan” with European leaders to “restore freedom of navigation”.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he would work to end the war in the Middle East as quickly as possible.

The longer it goes on “the worse it is for the cost of living back home”, he said.

The prime minister said his first priority was protecting “our people” in the region — trapped Britons and military personnel stationed there.

However, despite pressure from President Trump, Starmer added: “We will not be drawn into the wider war.”

Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince, and Mohammed bin Zayed, the president of the UAE, have discussed Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the Gulf and expressed solidarity and sympathy in their second call since a public row in late December.

The pair discussed “the continued and blatant Iranian attacks targeting countries in the region”, according to a statement published by Emirati news agency WAM.

“Both sides stressed the need for the immediate cessation of military escalation … underscoring the importance of prioritising serious dialogue and diplomatic means,” it added.

Meanwhile, India has not had any conversation with the US about helping ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry said.

Diesel prices have risen by an average of 18p per litre in the UK since the start of the war in the Middle East, according to the RAC.

This represents a 13 per cent increase, meaning diesel is at its most expensive level since November 2023.

Petrol prices have also risen by 7 per cent since the start of the US-Israeli campaign on February 28.

Simon Williams, the RAC head of policy, said the average cost of filling up a 55-litre family car with diesel was now £88, compared to £78 for petrol.

The Iran conflict will trigger the biggest spike in food prices since the invasion of Ukraine, the president of the National Farmers’ Union has claimed.

His warning comes as ministers will promise for the first time to hold food production at present levels, as part of a government blueprint for land use this week.

Tom Bradshaw told The Times that while food inflation was unlikely to surpass the 19.1 per cent rise in the year to March 2023, the conflict had triggered an “inflationary wave” that would probably peak in the autumn.

He also said that profiteering by fuel and fertiliser suppliers may also be worsening inflation.

• Read in full: Food prices will be forced up by Iran conflict, farmers warn

Germany said it does not see a role for Nato to address the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Johann Wadephul, the foreign minister, said: “I don’t see that Nato has made any decision in this direction or could assume responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz. If that were the case, then the Nato bodies would address it accordingly.”

President Trump has increased pressure on European allies to help protect the Strait, warning that Nato faced a “very bad” future if its members fail to come to Washington’s aid.

Stefan Kornelius, the spokesman for Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said: “Nato is an alliance for the defence of territory”, and “the mandate to deploy Nato is lacking” in the current situation.

He added that the German government had “taken note of Trump’s Nato remarks” and “co-ordinated” with allies over the weekend.

Beijing is in talks with Washington over an expected visit by President Trump, who has pressured allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trade is set to take centre stage in the potential talks between President Xi and Trump expected at the end of the month.

However, Trump suggested overnight he could delay the meeting if Beijing did not assist in reopening the Strait.

The waterway, critical to oil transportation, has been effectively closed by Iran in retaliation over the war.

Trump’s warning to Nato countries to help protect the Strait of Hormuz comes little more than a week after he told Britain he did not need its aircraft carriers and accused Sir Keir Starmer of seeking to “join wars after we’ve already won”.

The UK has placed two aircraft carriers on advanced readiness for deployment to the Middle East.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 7: “The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East. That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember.

“We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

The British government has authorised £5 million in emergency funding for humanitarian efforts in Lebanon amid the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, said she was “gravely concerned” about the war in Lebanon and strongly condemned Hezbollah for “ongoing attacks against Israel” and “drawing the people of Lebanon into a conflict they do not want”.

The funding will go to the Lebanese Red Cross, the UN Lebanon Humanitarian Fund and the World Food Programme, and will help provide food, water, shelter, sanitation and hygiene.

Oil loading operations have been suspended at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah after a drone attack caused a fire in the emirate’s petroleum industrial zone.

Fujairah, located on the Gulf of Oman just outside the Strait of Hormuz, was a critical exit point for about a million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude — equivalent to roughly 1 per cent of global demand.

Civil defence teams are currently working to control the blaze, the Fujairah government media office said, adding that no casualties were reported.

The suspension marks the second major disruption at the vital bunkering hub in recent days. Operations at Fujairah had resumed on Sunday following a separate drone strike over the weekend.

Iran has warned that logistics and service centres enabling the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to remain operational will be considered targets by Tehran.

Ebrahim Zolfaqari, the spokesman for the unified command of Iranian armed forces, Khatam-al Anbiya, told the Fars news agency, that the centres would be targeted because the “aircraft carrier Gerald Ford in the Red Sea is a threat to Iran”.

The Israeli military claimed it destroyed a plane used by Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport overnight.

It said the aircraft was used by senior Iranian officials and military figures to travel domestically and internationally and co-ordinate with allied countries.

The prime minister is expected to criticise Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage over their approach to the Iran crisis at a Downing Street press conference this morning.

Sir Keir Starmer will say: “Moments like this also tell you about leadership … Now, there are others who would have made a different decision two weeks ago.

“They would have rushed the UK headlong into this war without the full picture of what they were sending our forces into and without a plan to get us out. That’s not leading, it’s following. My leadership is about standing firm for the British interest. No matter the pressure.

“I believe time will show that we have the right approach. Right on the economy and the cost of living. Right on defence and energy, and right on this war, in the best interests of the British people.”

The captain of the Iranian women’s football team has left her safe house in Australia to return home, amid fears the players’ families have been threatened by the regime.

Zahra Ghanbari is the fifth member of the squad to change her mind after accepting an asylum deal a week ago, the Australian government said.

Just two of the seven members who accepted the offer of humanitarian visas — the defender and former captain Atefeh Ramezanizadeh, 33, and the midfielder Fatemeh Pasandideh, 21 — remain in Australia.

The team were offered the asylum deal after the players were branded “traitors” for refusing to sing the Iranian national anthem at their first match of the Asian Women’s Cup.

Britain could be weeks away from rationing oil if the blockade of the Straits of Hormuz continues.

Nick Butler, the former head of strategy at BP and a former adviser to Gordon Brown, said the ministers should be preparing for a “significant shortfall of supply over the next two months”.

He said this could involve “a form of rationing”, adding: “I think we learnt from the tanker drivers dispute in 2000 that oil and gas supplies are absolutely crucial to the running of the economy and you can’t bring on new supplies quickly.”

He told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “In the short-term, we have to look at what supply we have and look at the crucial sectors, the health service, food supply, hospitals, those are key elements that must be protected. And beyond that, it is then for the government to decide how to ration what is left if we get to that situation.”

Pat McFadden has played down Trump’s warning to Nato allies if they fail to contribute to his military effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

The UK appears unlikely to agree to the president’s call to contribute warships to protect shipping passing through the waterway from Iranian attacks.

“There’s a lot of rhetoric, always, in this presidency,” McFadden told Times Radio. “Underneath that, there is a good and close relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. I’m confident that will continue. We speak to one another all the time.

“But that doesn’t mean that we will always have to support every intervention and every action that the United States chooses to take.”

Trump is a “transactional” president and his demands for support in the Middle East in return for US support in Ukraine “sums him up”, the UK’s work and pensions secretary has said.

Pat McFadden told Sky News: “It’s a very transactional presidency, and our job is to navigate this, to always remember that the friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom runs very deep. It’s a good relationship. It’s enduring, and I think it will outlast all the personalities involved.”

The US president was pessimistic that allies would heed his pleas for help over the Strait of Hormuz. “We have a thing called Nato,” he said. “We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us … But we helped them. Now we’ll see if they help us.”

European Union member states will discuss what can be done to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, its foreign policy chief said.

Kaja Kallas said before an EU foreign affairs meeting in Brussels today: “It is in our interest to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and that’s why we are also discussing what we can do in this regard from the European side.”

A Palestinian civilian was killed on the outskirts of the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, when a missile hit their car on Monday, authorities said.

“Authorities in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi responded to an incident in the al-Bahia area involving a missile strike on a civilian vehicle, which resulted in the death of one Palestinian national,” the Abu Dhabi media office said in a statement.

Oil has risen in early trading in Asia after President Trump pressured Nato nations to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude is trading up 1.6 per cent to $104.89 a barrel after rising above $106 a barrel late on Sunday. Asian equity markets were a fraction lower, with the dollar and gold trading flat.

The oil price rose 11 per cent last week during a rollercoaster week, which saw the benchmark hit $119.50 a barrel and as low as $82 a barrel. It is up 60 per cent in the year to date.

Australia said it would not send naval ships to assist in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Catherine King, a cabinet minister, told ABC: “We know how incredibly important that is, but that’s not something that we’ve been asked or that we’re contributing to.”

Australia is a key Indo-Pacific security ally to the US that also relies heavily on fuels made with Middle Eastern crude.

Israeli forces killed 16 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including a pregnant woman, health officials said.

An Israeli airstrike killed a senior police official and eight other officers when it hit their vehicle near az-Zawayda, a town in central Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry. At least 14 other people were injured.

Earlier on Sunday, health officials said an Israeli airstrike had killed a pregnant woman, her husband and their son in the area of Nuseirat.

The Israeli military said it had carried out a strike in Gaza in response to Hamas militants firing on Israeli troops.

A Palestinian father, mother, and two of their children were killed as they drove in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health authorities said. The Israeli military said the incident was under review.

Japan said it was not ordering maritime security operations, after President Trump called for other countries to send warships to help protect the Strait of Hormuz.

Shinjiro Koizumi, the defence minister, told parliament on Monday: “In the current Iran situation, we are not at the moment considering issuing a maritime security operation.”

Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese prime minister, said she had not received a request from Trump after the US president called for reinforcements on Saturday.

“The question is what Japan should do on our own initiative and what’s possible within our legal framework, rather than what’s requested by the United States,” she said. “We have asked various sections of various ministries to discuss this.”

Any maritime security operation would be “extremely difficult legally”, she added.

An expanding assault on Hezbollah by Israeli forces has forced Lebanese to flee once again as Israel seeks to eliminate the last vestiges of Iran’s old ally.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had begun what it described as “limited ground operations” against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

“In recent days, IDF troops from the 91st division have begun limited and targeted ground operations against key Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon, aimed at enhancing the forward defence area,” the military said in a statement.

Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have already forced 830,000 people to flee.

An Iranian drone targeted a fuel depot in Dubai’s airport on Monday morning, sending smoke billowing over the city as airlines cancelled flights.

Emirates Airlines, the UAE’s flagship carrier, suspended its flights, but later said it would operate “a limited schedule”.

The explosion hurled debris into a terminal as passengers waited for their flights, according to footage shared online.

The Dubai media office said there were no injuries and civil defence teams had the fire “under control”.

Dubai’s civil aviation authority later announced the “gradual resumption of some flights”.

The airport, one of the world’s busiest hubs, has been targeted repeatedly by Iran since it’s war with Israel and the US broke out late last month.

President Trump warned that Nato would face a “very bad” future if US allies did not help with the Strait of Hormuz.

“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday.

“We have a thing called Nato,” Trump said. “We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine … but we helped them. Now we’ll see if they help us because I’ve long said that we’ll be there for them but they won’t be there for us. I’m not sure that they’d be there.

“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato,” he added.

Trump warned he could also delay a summit with President Xi set for later this month after he pressed Beijing to help clear the vital waterway, arguing that, unlike the US, China were heavily dependent on oil from the Gulf.

On Saturday, Trump said he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK would “send ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat”. He later said the US was in talks with seven countries about unblocking the strait.