Iran Financial News

Investing.com-- Oil prices rose sharply in Asian trade on Friday after U.S.-led forces launched airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen, ramping up concerns over more disruptions to Middle East supplies.

Yemen over recent attacks on Red Sea shipping were «necessary and proportionate», UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. «Despite the repeated warnings from the international community, the Houthis have continued to carry out attacks in the Red Sea,» Sunak said in a statement. «We have therefore taken limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence, alongside the United States… to degrade Houthi military capabilities and protect global shipping,» he said. Sunak's statement followed comments by US President Joe Biden about the strikes carried out against the Houthis, who control wide areas of Yemen. Biden described the joint strikes as «defensive» and warned of further measures if the Iran-backed rebels kept attacking Red Sea shipping. He said Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands had also provided non-operational support. The Houthis have stepped up attacks in recent weeks on shipping in the Red Sea, a vital waterway through which 12 percent of world trade flows. Houthi television channel Al-Massirah said the air strikes hit the capital Sanaa as well as the cities of Hodeida and Saada. US and British forces this week shot down 18 drones and three missiles fired by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea in what Washington called a «complex Iranian-designed» attack. UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said on social media platform X that four Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets had taken part in Friday's strikes against Houthi targets alongside US forces. Sunak described the Houthis' actions as «irresponsible» and «destabilising» and said their attacks were «driving up commodity prices». «This cannot stand.

Houthi rebels over their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea pulled the world's focus Friday back on the yearslong war raging in the Arab world's poorest nation, even as shipping across the wider Mideast remains threatened. As the bombing lit the predawn sky over multiple sites held by the Iranian-backed rebels, Saudi Arabia quickly sought to distance itself from the attacks as it seeks to maintain a delicate detente with Iran and a cease-fire in the Yemen war from which it hopes to finally withdraw. Meanwhile, the U.S.

Indian commandos hunting pirates after an attack in the Arabian Sea illustrates New Delhi's «significant» expansion of a muscular maritime force reflecting global ambitions, analysts say. The commandos, deployed this month from an Indian-built warship after an attempted hijacking of a merchant bulk carrier, are part of a major increase of naval forces in seas where rival neighbour China has already long expanded its reach. «It's significant given the geopolitical context» and the aggressive «use of naval assets», said Uday Bhaskar, head of the New Delhi-based Society for Policy Studies think tank. In recent years Beijing has negotiated infrastructure deals with countries around the Indian Ocean as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, including Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Djibouti, where it opened its first overseas military base in 2017, raising concerns among Indian officials. Now Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expected to be re-elected later this year, is looking to raise the global heft of India, the world's fifth-largest economy, which last year displaced China as the most populous country.

Asian shares were cautious on Friday as the escalating conflict in the Red Sea region sent oil prices surging, while slightly higher-than-expected U.S. inflation data did not dent investors' views on early and aggressive rate cuts in the U.S. and Europe.

By Sudarshan Varadhan

Houthi movement in Yemen, four U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday, the first strikes against the Iran-backed group since it started targeting international shipping in the Red Sea late last year. A Houthi official confirmed «raids» across the country, including in the capital Sanaa along with the cities of Saada and Dhamar as well as in Hodeidah governate, calling them «American-Zionist-British aggression.»

Houthi rebels in Yemen amid growing crisis in oil-rich West Asia, thereby escalating a conflict in response to a string of attacks that have disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Notably, the spill over from the war between Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel and Hamas fighters in Gaza had been flagged repeatedly by US when Tel Aviv began a relentless airstrike campaign in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

Iran’s navy has seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman that once was at the center of a major crisis between Tehran and Washington, a seizure that further escalates tensions in the Mideast waterways

Around this time a year ago, about 85% of economists and market analysts, including me, expected that the US and global economy would suffer a recession. Falling but still-sticky inflation suggested that monetary policy would grow tighter before rapidly easing once the recession hit; stock markets would fall, and bond yields would remain high. Instead, the opposite mostly happened.

Recent days in northern Europe have been marked by an onslaught of winter with negative temperatures, leading to a rise in natural gas consumption.

Donald Trump has said that he has already settled on his running mate for the US Presidential Election 2024 if he gets the Republican nomination. But he has refused to name the person. In a televised town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, he said, «Well, I can’t tell you that. I mean, I know who it’s going to be.» Talking to Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, he claimed that he has received numerous calls from people eager to work in his potential new administration.

Dubai: An oil tanker once at the center of a crisis between Iran and the United States was boarded in the Gulf of Oman by “unauthorized" men in military uniforms early on Thursday morning, an advisory group run by the British military and a private security firm warned. Details remained unclear in what was apparently the latest seizure of a vessel in the tense Middle East waterways.

Revanth Reddy hosted representatives of 13 countries for dinner at Qutub Shahi Tombs in Hyderabad on Wednesday evening. «Representatives of America, Iran, Turkey, UAE, UK, Japan, Thailand, Germany, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, France and Finland attended the event,» read a press note issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

U.S. consumers looking to get a tax credit on an electric vehicle purchase will have fewer models to choose from under new rules that limit the countries where automakers can buy battery parts and minerals

The year just beginning could be a watershed, with turning points in politics, economics and culture, provided common sense and moral clarity prevail both here and abroad.

Averaged across last year, temperatures worldwide were 1.48C, higher than they were in the second half of the 19th century, the European Union climate monitor announced Tuesday. That is warmer by a sizable margin than 2016, the previous hottest year. To climate scientists, it comes as no surprise that unabated emissions of greenhouse gases caused global warming to reach new highs.

Pope Francis called Monday for a universal ban on what he called the “despicable” practice of surrogate motherhood, as he included the “commercialization” of pregnancy in an annual speech listing threats to global peace and human dignity.

Iranian crypto exchange Bit24.cash users reportedly suffered a significant data breach exposing sensitive data of nearly 230K citizens. However, the exchange dismissed the allegation as “wholly untrue.”

In the last week alone, an Israeli airstrike has killed a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, Hezbollah struck a sensitive Israeli base with rockets and Israel killed a senior Hamas militant with an airstrike in Beirut

Sri Lanka's navy said Monday it was joining a US-led maritime taskforce to protect international shipping against attacks by Yemen's Huthi rebels. «We will be joining 'Operation Prosperity Guardian' led by the US Navy,» naval spokesman Gayan Wickramasuriya said, with the deployment of a patrol vessel crewed by more than 100 people. Huthi fighters have launched more than 100 drone and missile attacks on targets in Israel and the Red Sea, disrupting traffic in the key shipping route that carries up to 12 percent of global trade. The Iran-backed Huthis say they are targeting Israel and Israeli-linked vessels to push for a stop to the offensive in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been battling Hamas militants since October 7. Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that Huthi attacks had raised freight costs and were impacting exports of garments and tea. The South Asian island nation is emerging from its worst economic crisis in 2022, when months of street protests led to the ouster of then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The country defaulted on its $46 billion external debt and is now being supported by a $2.9 billion four-year bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund. Wickramasuriya said the move would add no additional cost as the vessel was already patrolling Sri Lanka's vast maritime boundary. The US-led maritime force announced late last month includes Britain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and other nations. Last month neighbouring India deployed several warships in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden after a string of shipping attacks, including a drone strike near India's coast that the United States blamed on Iran.