Iran war live: Trump delays attacks on Iranian energy sector by 10 days

The UN Security Council has scheduled a closed consultation on Iran at 10am New York time [14:00GMT] on Friday.

According to the Associated Press news agency, Russia asked for the meeting on US-Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure in the country, two UN diplomats said.

The US, which currently holds the rotating Security Council presidency, scheduled the meeting.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has responded to Donald Trump’s claim that Australia’s response to his request for help to secure the Strait of Hormuz had been “not great”.

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Oil prices have fallen as US President Donald Trump pushed back a deadline for US attacks on Iran’s energy facilities.

The gains on Friday only partially pared the previous day’s price surge amid growing anxiety that the conflict will last far longer than first thought.

Brent crude was down 1.5 percent at 02:30 GMT on Friday, selling at $93.07 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 1.8 percent, at $106.12.

Brent is up almost 50 percent in price since the war on Iran began, while WTI has risen about 40 percent.

Japan’s government plans to temporarily lift restrictions on coal-fired power plants, as it seeks to ease an energy strain caused by the war in the Middle East.

Takahide Soeda, an official from the Japanese Industry Ministry, confirmed the accuracy of the reports to the AFP news agency.

He stated that the plan would be formally presented during an expert panel meeting scheduled to begin at 11am local time (02:00 GMT) on Friday.

In the last couple of hours, the alarm sounded here in Kuwait, and earlier we heard explosions.

The Kuwaiti National Guard said they intercepted two drones.

What we’ve learned here in the Gulf is that even when these interceptions occur, they can be dangerous and sometimes quite deadly.

In the UAE on Thursday, authorities there said that debris from an interception killed two people and injured three others in Abu Dhabi.

We’ve also seen attacks across the Gulf, as we’ve seen for nearly a month now on a daily basis.

Saudi Arabia said that it intercepted drones in the eastern area, and alarms were sounded in Bahrain as well.

So, a month into this war, these attacks keep on coming.

As the war on Iran dominates headlines, residents in Friendly, Maryland, describe relying less on television for news and increasingly on social media feeds shaped by algorithms.

Many voiced scepticism, taking reports on the war with a grain of salt and seeking out opposing views, while some say they have largely tuned out entirely.

Al Jazeera’s Richard Gaisford reports from Maryland.

The five demands that Iran has, and is not about to compromise on, include sovereignty, future sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for the destruction that has been visited on Iranian cities and the killing of Iranian people, and so on.

Most importantly, the Iranians are demanding a gesture at the beginning. If there are going to be negotiations, then the Israelis and the Americans have to stop the bombardment of Iranian cities and also have to stop the assassinations.

If they don’t see that happening, if they don’t see a lull in the air bombardment and a stop to the assassinations, then they are reading into that, that the whole initiative by the American side is not serious.

The Reuters news agency reports that Vietnam’s Finance Ministry has ⁠suspended an environmental protection tax and special consumption ‌tax on fuels to stabilise the domestic market amid rising oil and gas prices due to the war on Iran.

The removal of ⁠the taxes on ⁠petrol, diesel and jet ⁠fuel will be ⁠effective ⁠until April 15, the ministry ‌said in a statement.

Nine cities at least have been bombarded throughout the day, and the heaviest bombardment was on Tehran.

That’s something that has continued throughout the day. We’ve heard blasts, and we saw some of that during the night, of aircraft bombarding Tehran.

That comes as President Trump has extended the deadline for 10 more days.

Iranians here are looking at this situation and they see it as very much contradictory messages being sent to them. One of them talks about peace and one is action, a message in action of heavy bombardments.

They are listening more and watching more and paying more attention to the strikes than to words.

Of course, we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. There is nothing that is being shared with the general public regarding negotiations.

We hear the Americans saying that the negotiations are going well.

Here in Iran, we are hearing only officials talking about what Iran is doing on the ground and the little trust they have in the American side, and those 15 points (US peace deal) being not really favourable to the Iranians.

The Israeli military says its latest wave of attacks targeted the “heart” of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

The Lebanese group has said it launched several attacks since midnight local time (21:00 GMT, Thursday) on Israeli soldiers who have crossed the border into Lebanese territory.

Here are some of the recent attacks reported by Hezbollah:

• A number of rocket attacks on Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the town of Qantara in the Marjayoun district, including soldiers gathered near the cemetery and the town square.
• A guided missile attack on Israeli soldiers advancing near the town of Beit Lif in the Bint Jbeil district.

Trump has said that media companies should face “treason” charges for “fake news” on the Iran war, while his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief, Brendan Carr, has told broadcasters to fall in line with the US administration or risk losing their licence.

Al Jazeera’s Alex Baird reports.

All through Thursday and now into the early hours of Friday morning, there have been fairly intensive exchanges.

Also, alerts in northern Israeli towns are being reported at a number of locations along the border with Lebanon and into Lebanon itself, as Israeli forces continue their push north and fight with Hezbollah groups.

Israeli authorities reckon that by Thursday evening, a total of 100 rockets had been fired during the day from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, with dozens more rockets being fired inside Lebanon itself at groups of Israeli troops moving forward.

On Thursday evening, they confirmed the latest death of an Israeli soldier and the wounding of two others in a tank crew that was hit by an antitank missile.

Of the rockets that were fired into northern Israel on Thursday, there was a strike in the northern town of Nahariyya, which resulted in the death of an Israeli man and also the injury of 14 other people.