16/03/2026

MONDAY | MAR 16, 2026

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Trump warns of more strikes on Kharg Island

RUSSIA TOLD TO HALT FORCED CONSCRIPTION NAIROBI: Kenya’s foreign minister took off to Moscow yesterday in a bid to put a stop to the Russian army’s forced conscription of Kenyan citizens to fight in Ukraine. Musalia Mudavadi is set to meet several members of the Russian government, including his Kremlin counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Mudavadi will try to secure the repatriation of Kenyans stranded in Russia after being lured to the country with promises of well-paid civilian work, only to be press ganged into fighting for the Russian army in Ukraine. The east African country’s intelligence services estimate that more than 1,000 Kenyans have died as a result, according to a report seen by AFP. BRITAIN SAYS VITAL TO ‘DE-ESCALATE’ WAR LONDON: A British Cabinet minister yesterday said it was essential to calm the situation in the Middle East after US President Donald Trump demanded that other nations help protect world oil supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The “plan now has to be to de escalate the conflict”, Energy Security Minister Ed Miliband told the BBC. A spokesperson for the Defence Ministry said late on Saturday: “As we’ve said previously, we are discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region.” – AFP 20 IRANIANS HELD OVER LINKS TO ISRAEL DUBAI: Iranian authorities have arrested at least 20 people in the country’s northwest on suspicion of cooperating with Israel. The arrests took place during raids on networks linked to Israel in the West Azerbaijan province, the Fars news agency said, quoting provincial prosecutor Hossein Majidi. “Twenty people were arrested and detained” after they were found to be “sending details of military, law enforcement and security locations to the Zionist enemy”, it said. Authorities have carried out sweeping raids across Iran, arresting in recent days hundreds of people suspected of cooperating with Israel and the United States. – AFP TEL AVIV: Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including two children, during a raid in the occupied West Bank yesterday. A mother and father, ages 35 and 37, were shot dead in the West Bank village of Tammun, along with two of their children ages five and seven while two other children in the household sustained injuries. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. The Health Ministry said one Palestinian was killed in an attack by settlers on Saturday night. Israeli settlers in the West Bank are taking advantage of curbs on movement to attack Palestinians, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances reaching victims quickly, rights groups and medics say. – Reuters KAZAKHSTAN VOTES ON CONSTITUTION REFORMS ALMATY: Kazakhs cast ballots yesterday in a constitutional referendum that authorities brand as democratising though several proposed amendments appear to strengthen presidential powers in Central Asia’s richest country. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the proposals are essentially “creating a new system of state governance” that would “allow for the redistribution of power” and “strengthen checks”. However, several proposals indicate the opposite: the president would be able to appoint top officials such as the heads of the central bank, the intelligence services and the constitutional court. – AFP FOUR PALESTINIANS KILLED IN WEST BANK

BR I E F S

o President wants allies to secure oil chokepoint

Smoke rises from the direction of an energy installation in the Gulf emirate of Fujairah onSaturday. – AFPPIC

PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump threatened further strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub and urged allies to deploy warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, an artery for energy supplies, as Tehran vowed to intensify its response. With the US-Israeli war on Iran in its third week, Trump said strikes had “demolished” much of the island and warned of more, telling NBC News on Saturday, “We may hit it a few more times just for fun.” The remarks marked a sharp escalation from Trump, who had previously said the US was targeting only military sites on Kharg, and dealt a blow to diplomatic efforts. His administration has brushed aside attempts by Middle Eastern allies to open talks, three sources told Reuters. The war showed no sign of ending, and the strain on oil markets, with Iran essentially shutting down the vital Strait of Hormuz, looked set to linger. Trump said Tehran appeared ready to make a deal to end the conflict but that “the terms aren’t good enough yet”. Tehran’s capacity to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway for a fifth of the world’s oil, has vaulted from a long standing danger to an urgent flashpoint, confronting the US and its allies with a crisis that could upend the global economy.

Saudi Arabia intercepted and destroyed 10 drones in Riyadh and the east, its Defence Ministry said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had no connection to the attack, Fars news agency reported. Oil-loading operations have resumed at the ship-refuelling hub of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, after a drone attack and fire on Saturday, a Fujairah-based industry source said. On Saturday, Washington warned US citizens to leave Iraq. The war that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched on Feb 28 has killed more than 2,000 people. – Reuters

“Countries that receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help,” Trump wrote in a post on Saturday. “The US will also coordinate with those countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well.” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said yesterday they had carried out missile and drone strikes on targets in Israel and three US bases in the region, calling the attacks the first round of retaliation for workers killed in Iran’s industrial areas. The Israeli military said it was intercepting incoming launches.

Four killed in Lebanon strikes BEIRUT: Strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least four people, Lebanese media and the government said yesterday, as Israel said it was pressing its campaign against Hezbollah. Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. – AFPPIC

Israeli airstrikes have killed 826 people in Lebanon since the start of the latest war, which began on March 2 with Hezbollah firing missiles at Israel. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has proposed negotiations with Israel, but has yet to receive a response. A Lebanese official told AFP on Saturday that the country was preparing to form a delegation to negotiate with Israel but that there was no agenda, timing or location yet. French President Emmanuel Macron has said the Lebanese government was ready to engage in “direct talks” with Israel and he offered to host negotiations in Paris, warning that “everything must be done to prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos”. – AFP

Nearby residents rushed into the street, some carrying belongings. To the southeast of Sidon, in the village of Al Qatrani, three people were killed in an overnight Israeli strike, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military said in a statement yesterday it continued to strike infrastructure used by Hezbollah and hit “several Hezbollah launch sites” in Al-Qatrani, where it said the armed group was preparing to fire off missiles. It also said it destroyed “command centres” belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Force in Beirut. Hezbollah said yesterday it was targeting several Israeli troop positions in villages close to the border.

Israel is fighting a second front in the war in the Middle East in southern Lebanon, against Hezbollah, alongside the air campaign against Iran it launched with the United States more than two weeks ago. National News Agency said Israel struck “an apartment in a residential building” in a northern district of the coastal city of Sidon, killing one person and causing a fire. An AFP journalist at the scene saw damage to the third storey of an apartment building as the Lebanese army cordoned off the area and rescue teams worked to extinguish the blaze.