Summary : In case you’re just catching up, here’s today’s most significant developments.

 

8m ago

07.59 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/mar/22/middle-east-crisis-live-iran-war-trump-ultimatum-major-attack-strait-of-hormuz-open-israel-hit-tehran-retaliation

 

Summary

In case you’re just catching up, here’s today’s most significant developments:

 

President Donald Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran does not fully reopen the strait of Hormuz within 48 hours – threatening a new escalation, just a day after the president spoke of “winding down” the war.

 

Trump’s warning triggered a response from Iran’s military that it will target all US “energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure” if its own facilities are attacked.

 

More than 100 people were wounded on Saturday when Iranian missiles struck the cities of Arad and Dimona in southern Israel. Officials said 84 wounded were taken to hospitals in Arad, including 10 in serious condition, according to Agence France-Presse, while 30 people were wounded in Dimona. The Israeli Air Force is investigating its failure to prevent the attacks.

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had received no indication of damage to the Negev nuclear research centre, which is near to Dimona.

 

Several blasts could be heard from Jerusalem on Sunday, after the Israeli military warned of incoming Iranian missiles. It also announced in a brief statement that it was conducting strikes in Tehran.

 

Iranian attacks on Gulf nations continued on Sunday morning, with Saudi Arabia’s ministry of defence saying it had detected three missiles launched towards Riyadh. One of the missiles was intercepted, while two fell in an uninhabited area, it said.

 

A drone attack also targeted a military base near Baghdad International Airport on Sunday, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

 

Sri Lanka raised fuel prices by 25%, the second increase in two weeks, as the economic shockwaves triggered by the war and the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz continued to ripple across the world.

 

Japan said it could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the strait if a ceasefire is reachedthe foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, said on Sunday. Iran has been accused of laying mines in the waterway.

 

The death toll has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 16 in Israel and 13 US military members, and a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region, according to Associated Press. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.