March 31, 2026 (Net): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the war on Iran had achieved more than half its aims, without putting a timeline on when it would end.
“It’s definitely beyond the halfway point. But I don’t want to put a schedule on it,” Netanyahu told the conservative US broadcaster Newsmax on Monday.
Two UN personnel killed
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said two personnel were killed on Monday in a blast in the country’s south, after another peacekeeper was killed a day earlier.
Two other blue helmets were injured in the explosion, one severely, the force said, adding it had launched an investigation.
Drone attack on US embassy in Baghdad
One civilian was wounded late Monday in Iraq’s capital Baghdad after shrapnel from an intercepted drone attack targeting the US embassy fell into their neighbourhood, a police source said.
The attack follows a rocket strike the previous evening that targeted an Iraqi military base inside the Baghdad airport complex, which also houses a support centre for the US embassy.
Iran approves Hormuz toll plan
Iranian state media reported that a parliamentary commission had approved plans to impose tolls on ves-sels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway vital to oil and gas shipments that has been effectively closed due to the Middle East war.
Citing a member of the parliament’s security commission, state TV said the plan involved, among other things, “financial arrangements and rial toll systems” and “implementing the sovereign role of Iran”, as well as cooperation with Oman on the other side of the strait.
G7 ministers pledge action
G7 economy and finance ministers said they stood ready to take “all necessary measures” to ensure the stability of the energy market, roiled by the war.
NATO intercepts missile
NATO forces intercepted a new missile fired from Iran towards Turkey — the fourth since the start of the Middle East war.
None of the four projectiles managed to hit Turkish soil, according to the authorities.
Sisi asks Trump to help stop war
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to help end the war.
“I say to President Trump: no one will be able to stop the war in our region, in the Gulf… Please, help us to stop the war, you are capable of it,” Sisi said in Cairo.
US ‘hopeful’ in private Iran talks
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced hope for working with elements within Iran’s government, saying the United States privately had received positive messages.
Rubio said there were internal “fractures” inside the Islamic republic and that the United States hopes figures with “power to deliver” take charge.
Israel strikes Iran university
Israel’s military said it had struck the Imam Hossein University in Tehran run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, claiming the institution was used for advanced weapons research.
Trump threatens Iran oil hub
Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s oil export hub of Kharg Island, oil wells and power plants if it does not agree soon to a deal to end the war.
The US president wrote on his Truth Social network that while the United States is in “serious discus-sions” with “a more reasonable regime” in Tehran, if an agreement was not forthcoming Washington would set about “completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”.
Israel kills 3 Hezbollah members
An Israeli airstrike on a residential building near Beirut’s southern suburbs killed at least three Hezbollah members, a security source told AFP.
The strike “targeted an office used by Hezbollah, killing three members and seriously wounding three others”, while the Israeli army, for its part, announced it had “begun striking Hezbollah terrorist infra-structures in Beirut”.
