International from Thursday, March 19th, 2026

Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles after 20 days of US-Israeli air attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference on Thursday.

The US objectives in its war against Iran have not changed since strikes started on February 28, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday, and he accused the media of stirring up concerns that the country risked being locked in an open-ended conflict with shifting priorities.

US President Donald Trump greeted Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warmly at the White House on Thursday and said he believed Japan was "really stepping up to the plate" on Iran.

Oman has strongly condemned Iranian attacks targeting energy facilities in the UAE and Qatar, as well as strikes on Saudi Arabia.

The Iran war has made bottled water in India 11 per cent more expensive after prices of plastic bottles and caps surged, a change that has also erased the benefit of a lower water tax rate Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a few months ago.

Israel reopened the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Thursday after nearly three weeks to allow some wounded Palestinians to leave for treatment, after Gaza medics said Israeli strikes had killed four people in the enclave.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation says one of the operational units at the Mina Al Ahmadi refinery was hit on Thursday by a drone, resulting in a "limited" fire.

US President Donald Trump said an angry Israel "violently lashed out" and attacked Iran's major gas field, a significant escalation in the US-Israeli war, but ruled out further such attacks by Israel unless Iran retaliated further.

QatarEnergy announced that several liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City were subjected to missile attacks early Thursday morning, causing fires and further serious damage, in addition to the previous attack on Ras Laffan Industrial City on Wednesday, which severely damaged a gas-to-liquids conversion plant.

Saudi Arabia reserves the right to act militarily against Iran and any trust with Tehran has been shattered, the Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Fahran said early on Thursday, after Riyadh was targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles.

Kuwait's Ministry of Interior says the State Security Service has foiled a terrorist plot targeting key installations in the country.