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The United States has issued a temporary 30-day waiver allowing Indian refiners to receive Russian crude already stranded at sea. This move, Washington says, is meant to stabilize global energy supplies disrupted by the widening Iran war but it has also drawing political criticism inside India over the language and implications of the decision. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the waiver was designed to ensure that oil continues flowing into global markets at a time when maritime disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and wider regional instability have tightened energy supply chains.  Petroleum Minister Puri appears prominently in Epstein Emails. File Photo: MEA He said the measure authorizes transactions involving Russian crude already loaded on vessels and headed toward India, while stressing it was deliberately short-term and would not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government. Washington also indicated it expects India to increase purchases of...

The widening war between the United States, Israel and Iran has continued to expand across multiple theatres on Friday, with Sri Lanka taking control of an Iranian naval vessel near its waters after the sinking of another warship, Israel launching new strikes across Iran and Lebanon, and Iran retaliating with missile and drone attacks targeting several Gulf states that host U.S. forces.  File Photo: Global Times The developments show that the conflict, now stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, has evolved into a broader regional confrontation involving naval incidents, cross-border airstrikes, leadership upheaval in Tehran and growing international evacuation efforts as governments scramble to move citizens out of the region. Sri Lanka on Friday began transferring more than 200 sailors from an Iranian naval vessel anchored outside its territorial waters after the ship sought assistance following the sinking of another Iranian warship by a U.S. submarine earlier thi...

The World Health Organization on Thursday warned that the widening war between the United States, Israel and Iran is rapidly turning into a major humanitarian crisis across the Middle East, with more than 1,000 people killed, over 100,000 displaced and the conflict now affecting at least sixteen countries across the region and beyond. Image Via: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization has already verified multiple attacks on health infrastructure as the war intensifies. According to WHO monitoring, at least thirteen strikes have hit healthcare facilities inside Iran, while one attack has been recorded in Lebanon amid the expanding Israel–Hezbollah fighting along the border. “Escalating conflict across Iran and the Middle East has killed over 1,000 people, displaced over 100,000 more and affected 16 countries,” Tedros said in a statement, warning that damage to hospitals and medical systems is now emergin...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman The U.S.–Israel war on Iran entered a sixth day with the conflict widening across three key theatres at once : intensifying strikes in and around Iran and Lebanon , expanding maritime risk from the Strait of Hormuz to the Indian Ocean , and triggering sharper political fractures inside Western capitals and across the Global South as governments debate whether this is a limited campaign or the opening stage of a longer regional remap. RAF F-35B Lightnings and Typhoons, supported by Voyager refuelling aircraft are in Middle East; Via: UKdefUS India shifts from calibrated caution to formal state signalling A major India-centric development was New Delhi’s first formal condolence move following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening phase of the war. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, while Foreign Se...

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for an immediate halt to escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and warned against the war spreading into Lebanon, saying both sides must step back from military escalation as the wider Iran conflict destabilises the region. Image Via: Visegrad24 Macron said he held discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump and Lebanese leaders before presenting a plan aimed at stopping the cross-border fighting that has intensified along Israel’s northern frontier. He said the objective was to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into a wider regional war linked to the ongoing U.S.–Israeli campaign against Iran. “For Lebanon, we must act,” Macron wrote in a statement. “Everything must be done to prevent this country close to France from being dragged into war once again.” Macron said Hezbollah must immediately stop firing rockets and missiles into Israel, while Israel must avoid launching a gr...

The widening war between the United States, Israel and Iran has begun disrupting critical maritime trade routes and triggering fresh military and humanitarian crises across the Middle East, with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz collapsing, new strikes hitting Gulf energy infrastructure, and fighting intensifying along Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Shipping and logistics data released Thursday indicated that vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital maritime chokepoints, has nearly halted as the conflict escalates.  Representational Image:  US  Central Command The disruption has effectively blocked access to major container ports across the Gulf, including hubs in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. The shutdown could rapidly affect food supplies across the Arabian Peninsula , where more than 50 million people depend heavily on imported agricultural goods and where over 90 percent ...

An Indian Air Force Su-30MKI fighter aircraft has been reported overdue after taking off from Jorhat in Assam , with its last communication recorded at 7:42 pm , according to an official statement posted by the force. File Photo: IAF The aircraft lost contact shortly after departure and further details about its status and crew are still being verified. A Search and Rescue (SAR) operation has been launched to locate the jet, the IAF said.  The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a twin-engine multirole fighter that forms a key part of India’s combat fleet and is produced under licence in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.  Authorities said additional information will be released once more details about the aircraft’s last known position and the ongoing search operation are confirmed. UPDATE (1) at  1:15 am;  Friday, 6 March 2026: The Indian Air Force said that t he Su-30MKI which was on a training mission, crashed in the area of Karbi Anglong , Assam, approx 60 km from Jorhat...

The Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi on March 5 advised Indian nationals in the United Arab Emirates to remain vigilant and avoid unnecessary travel as the widening war involving the United States, Israel and Iran continues to disrupt regional airspace and civilian movement across the Gulf. In an official advisory issued from Abu Dhabi , the embassy urged Indians in the UAE to remain calm, follow safety guidelines issued by Emirati authorities and monitor official updates.  File Photo: IndiainUAE The advisory said that because of the exceptional circumstances created by the conflict, regular scheduled flight operations remain suspended or heavily restricted in parts of the region. However, the embassy said Indian and UAE airlines have begun limited non-scheduled flights to multiple destinations in India, coordinated with UAE authorities and subject to operational and safety approvals. Stranded Indian nationals have been asked to contact airlines directly to access these flights. The ...

India has issued its first formal condolence over the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar holding a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visiting the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi to sign the condolence book on behalf of the Government of India.  Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri visited the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran; Via: MEA India Jaishankar confirmed the call, while visuals from the embassy showed Misri interacting with the Iranian envoy and recording India’s message of condolence. This marks New Delhi’s first official, government-level gesture since Khamenei was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Tehran. The condolence step landed amid India’s widening diplomatic engagement across West Asia as the conflict escalates and risks spreading further into the Gulf and the wider region where India has major people-and-supply-cha...