Middle East crisis live: Trump seeks to delay summit with China’s Xi amid Iran war; US embassy in Baghdad reportedly targeted in air attack | US-Israel war on Iran
Trump seeks to delay China trip because of Iran war
Donald Trump has said his trip to China this month to meet with the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, could be delayed by “a month or so”.
But a key Trump administration official insisted the move was not to press Beijing to help unblock the strait of Hormuz.
Trump said:
We’re speaking to China. I would love to, but because of the war, I want to be here.
We have requested that we delay it a month or so, and I’m looking forward to meeting with him. We’ve got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here. So it could be that we delay it a little bit, not much.
Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, earlier cast doubt on the trip but insisted this was not to pressure Beijing to help unblock the strait of Hormuz, telling CNBC:
We will see whether the visit takes place as scheduled. But what I do want to parse, and there’s a false narrative out there that if the meetings are delayed, it wouldn’t be delayed because the president’s demanded that China police the straits of Hormuz.
Key events
Naval escorts through strait of Hormuz no guarantee of safety, says maritime chief
The head of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has said that naval escorts through the strait of Hormuz will not “100% guarantee” the safety of ships attempting to transit the waterway, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Military assistance was “not a long-term or sustainable solution” to opening up the strait, Arsenio Dominguez told the newspaper.
We are collateral damage of a conflict when the root causes have nothing to do with shipping.
Dominguez said the IMO also had serious concerns about ships stuck in the Persian Gulf running out of food and supplies for their crews.
Reuters reports that the IMO council will meet for an extraordinary session at its London headquarters on Wednesday and Thursday to address the impacts on shipping and seafarers as a result of the continuing Middle East crisis.
Dominguez called for ship managers “not to sail and not to put seafarers at risk and not to put the vessels at risk”, the report said.
Israel urges evacuation of south Lebanon village ahead of attack
The Israeli military has issued an urgent warning to residents in a southern Lebanese village to evacuate as the army is about to attack what it calls military infrastructure linked to Hezbollah.
The Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces, Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X particularly addressing residents of Arab al-Jal village that residents should move at least 300 metres from a building it marked on a map.
He said the building was used by the Iran-backed militant group and that the army would attack in the “near timeframe”.
Remaining in the area of the specified buildings exposes you to danger
#عاجل ‼️ إنذار عاجل إلى سكان لبنان وتحديدًا في قرية عرب الجل
🔸سيهاجم جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني القريب بنى تحتية عسكرية تابعة لحزب الله الإرهابي
🔸نحث سكان المبنى المحدد بالأحمر في الخريطة المرفقة والمباني المجاورة له: أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من مبنى يستخدمه حزب الله الإرهابي فمن… pic.twitter.com/JSss59XQA1— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) March 17, 2026
Australia hikes interest rates amid inflation fears from Iran war
The Reserve Bank of Australia has increased interest rates amid the energy shock worldwide.
The hike takes the central bank’s cash rate target from 3.85% to 4.1%, back to where it was in February 2025, wiping out the relief offered by two cuts last year.
The broadening Middle East conflict has triggered fears of fuel shortages and is adding to price pressures around the world, forcing global central banks to prepare for higher interest rates, report Luca Ittimani and Patrick Commins.
Australia’s Reserve Bank (RBA) had been the only one expected to hike so soon, with central banks in the US, UK, European Union, Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Sweden all expected to leave rates on hold this week.
In a statement accompanying the decision, the RBA board said:
Developments in the Middle East remain highly uncertain, but under a wide range of possible scenarios could add to global and domestic inflation.
Operations at the United Arab Emirates’ Shah gas field remained suspended on Tuesday after a drone attack, while a fresh attack caused a fire in the Fujairah oil industry zone.
No injuries were reported in either incident, the local media offices said.
Separately, an unknown projectile struck a tanker 23 nautical miles (43km) east of Fujairah, causing minor structural damage, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports that Monday’s attack on the Shah field – located about 180km south-west of Abu Dhabi and one of the world’s largest sour gas fields – adds to disruptions to the UAE’s energy sector.
The country’s daily oil output is down by more than half since the Iran war conflict broke out, with the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz forcing state oil giant Adnoc to implement widespread production shut-ins, two sources told Reuters.
Oil loading operations at the UAE’s port of Fujairah, a key export terminal, were suspended twice in recent days after separate drone attack incidents, although some loading has since resumed, sources said.
Qatar intercepts missile attack as debris sparks fire
Qatar says it has intercepted a missile attack while the resulting falling debris caused a fire but there were no reported injuries.
The word came in social media posts from the ministries of defence and the interior.
Civil defence was dealing with the minor fire in an industrial area, the interior ministry said.
Qatar is among several Gulf states that Iran has targeted with drones and missiles in recent days in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks.
Following from the previous post, the attacks in Iraq came shortly after the powerful Tehran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group announced that its senior security commander Abu Ali al-Askari had been killed.
It did not provide details on the circumstances of his death. Iraq’s interior ministry initially said that a “projectile” fell on the roof of the luxury al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad’s heavily fortified green zone, before clarifying that it was a drone, AFP is reporting.
The ministry did not specify whether the building itself was the target. “The incident caused no casualties or material damage,” it said.
A street leading to the hotel – which hosts diplomatic missions including the US embassy – was blocked by a large security deployment, with firefighters and ambulances present, according to an AFP correspondent.
Witnesses saw a fire break out on the roof of the hotel.
Shortly after the hotel incident, a loud blast was heard in Baghdad, as air defences were seen intercepting an attack over the US embassy. A security official said “air defences thwarted an attack with four rockets” on the embassy.
The Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who is head of the armed forces, denounced the attacks – including a strike on a southern oil field – calling them threats to his country’s “security and stability”.
US embassy targeted as four reportedly killed in Baghdad house linked to Iran
More now on Iraq: the reported drone and rocket attack targeting the US embassy in Baghdad early on Tuesday came as a strike killed four people at a house reportedly hosting Iranian advisers, security officials said, pulling Iraq deeper into the Middle East war.
The strikes came hours after air defences thwarted a rocket attack at the embassy and a drone caused a fire at a luxury hotel frequented by foreign diplomats in Baghdad’s fortified green zone, Agence France-Presse reported.
Iraq was drawn into the Middle East war after having long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, with strikes targeting Iran-backed groups that have claimed daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and across the region.
Meanwhile, a strike on a house in Baghdad killed four people early on Tuesday, with initial reports suggesting that two of the dead were “Iranian advisers” to Tehran-backed groups, a security source told AFP.
Another source from an Iran-backed faction confirmed that four people were killed in the strike on a house hosting Iranian advisors in al-Jadiriyah neighbourhood.
The United Arab Emirates’ air defences are currently responding to incoming missile and drone attacks from Iran, the Gulf state’s ministry of defence has just said.
It posted on social media that sounds being heard there are from air defences intercepting ballistic missiles and fighter jets intercepting drones and loitering munitions.
Trump seeks to delay China trip because of Iran war
Donald Trump has said his trip to China this month to meet with the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, could be delayed by “a month or so”.
But a key Trump administration official insisted the move was not to press Beijing to help unblock the strait of Hormuz.
Trump said:
We’re speaking to China. I would love to, but because of the war, I want to be here.
We have requested that we delay it a month or so, and I’m looking forward to meeting with him. We’ve got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here. So it could be that we delay it a little bit, not much.
Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, earlier cast doubt on the trip but insisted this was not to pressure Beijing to help unblock the strait of Hormuz, telling CNBC:
We will see whether the visit takes place as scheduled. But what I do want to parse, and there’s a false narrative out there that if the meetings are delayed, it wouldn’t be delayed because the president’s demanded that China police the straits of Hormuz.
Welcome summary
Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and the repercussions for the region, the world and the global economy.
Here are the latest developments:
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A wave of drone and rocket attacks targeted the US embassy in Baghdad early on Tuesday, Iraqi security sources said. They described it as the most intense assault since the attacks began, with at least five drones used, Reuters reported. It quoted a witness as saying a powerful explosion was heard in the Iraqi capital.
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Air traffic operations in the United Arab Emirates have returned to normal after the temporary closure of its airspace earlier on Tuesday, the Gulf state’s aviation authority has said, quoted by the state news agency. The UAE’s ministry of defence said earlier that the country’s defences were responding to incoming missiles and drones from Iran.
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Donald Trump said he will “soon” announce countries that have agreed to help the US reopen the strait of Hormuz, as he criticised his many allies – including Nato and the UK – that have so far declined to get involved. He said South Korea, Japan and China should be helping the US, also warning that Nato faced a “very bad” future if it didn’t help and saying he was “not happy” with the UK.
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Allies responded by saying “this is not Nato war”, with the EU insisting it has “no appetite” to expand its naval mission to the strait of Hormuz. German chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier said this war “is not a matter for Nato”, while Nato said “allies have already stepped up to provide additional security in the Mediterranean”. UK prime minister Keir Starmer had earlier resisted Trump’s call to send warships to the strait, saying the UK “will not be drawn into a wider war” but was working with allies on a plan to reopen the strait.
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Trump also said the war would be “wrapped up” soon, and that it wouldn’t be this week but “it won’t be long”.
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US vice-president JD Vance deflected and attacked the media when asked if he supported Trump’s war on Iran, given his prior criticisms of open-ended US foreign interventionism. It followed US media reports that he had privately expressed scepticism and counselled Trump against striking Iran. Vance accused the media of trying to “drive a wedge” between him and his president, and repeated Trump’s claim that Tehran was close to developing a nuclear weapon. “I trust President Trump to get the job done,” he said.
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Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi denied recent contact with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and said their last contact was before the US-Israel attack on Iran. Araghchi wrote on X: “My last contact with Mr. Witkoff was prior to his employer’s decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran. Any claim to the contrary appears geared solely to mislead oil traders and the public.” It followed an Axios report that a direct communications channel between Witkoff and Araghchi had been reactivated in recent days, with Araghchi attempting to engage with Witkoff about ending the war.
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The leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Canada and Italy expressed “grave concern” after Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon. They called for meaningful engagement by Israeli and Lebanese representatives to negotiate a sustainable political solution. A significant Israeli ground offensive would have devastating humanitarian consequences, they warned in a joint statement, adding that it could lead to a protracted conflict with “devastating humanitarian consequences”.
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Earlier on Monday, the Israeli Defence Forces said its troops had begun what it described as “limited and targeted” ground operations against Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon, and told hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians they could not return to their homes.
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It came as the latest reports indicate that Israeli strikes have killed at least 850 people in Lebanon, including at least 107 children, and left more than a million displaced.
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Operations at the UAE’s Shah gas and oil field were suspended after a fire that broke out due to a drone attack. Abu Dhabi authorities said on Monday night that the fire had been brought under control.
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Qatar said it intercepted a second wave of missiles from Iran after an attack earlier on Monday.
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