US orders government employees and families out of Oman
The US State Department has ordered non-emergency government employees and the family members of government employees to leave Oman.
The order on Saturday (US time) cited safety risks as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues.
The Australian government’s Smart Traveller site still lists Oman as “reconsider your need to travel” rather than “do not travel”. It last raised the level of advice for Oman on March 1.
The Australian government advice says retaliatory strikes are occurring across the Middle East region following military strikes on Iran, and Australians in and around Duqm and within a 100km radius of Salalah should shelter in place if it is not safe to leave.
With Reuters
The swashbuckling Korean businessman capitalising on the Persian Gulf shipping crisis
As the war in Iran wreaks chaos across global energy markets, one enigmatic Korean tycoon has seen his earnings soar.
For months, Ga-Hyun Chung has been buying up vast quantities of oil tankers — a bet of unprecedented scale that shook the global shipping market even before the conflict started. Now he’s reaping huge rewards after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drove chartering rates to never-before-seen highs.
In the weeks before the war, Chung’s Sinokor group had moved at least six empty supertankers into the Persian Gulf, where they sat idle waiting for cargoes. Now, with exports through the strait choked off and regional storage fast filling up, Sinokor is hiring ships out at eye-popping rates of $US500,000 ($716,111) a day to hold oil, brokers said — almost 10 times the level of last year.
Even in an industry known for its swashbuckling risk-takers, Chung stands out. His move to buy up a significant share of the global tanker fleet in recent months shocked old hands of the shipping market. Now, the deeply private scion of a Korean shipping family, who’s known for his militaristic approach and his love of challenging subordinates and business partners to arm-wrestling contests, is poised to emerge as one of the big winners of the turmoil in the oil trade from the Iran war.
“They’ve had a major impact,” said Halvor Ellefsen, a London-based director at Fearnleys Shipbrokers UK Ltd. “They’ve controlled a big part of the fleet, sharpened competition, and ultimately sometimes have been able to name their price,” he said.
Bloomberg
War in Middle East a hit to economic growth, but recession not expected: Chalmers
Treasurer Jim Chalmers also spoke about the broader economic consequences of the war in the Middle East in his Sky News interview.
Inflation outlook
Host Andrew Clennell pointed to a National Australia Bank prediction that inflation would hit 5 per cent next quarter.
Chalmers said it depended on the severity of the price shock coming out of the Middle East and also its duration, but government modelling for inflation was more like mid to high fours.
We’ve run a couple of scenarios which make it clear on some realistic assumptions about global oil prices and how that would potentially flow through to inflation and for how long.
If we were putting pencils down on those forecasts today, we’d have inflation peaking somewhere between the mid to high fours, which isn’t far off some of those private forecasts that you’re referencing in your question.
Possibility of recession
“That’s not something that we’re anticipating or expecting,” Chalmers said.
Australia has ‘more than enough fuel’: Treasurer
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is clearly doing the media rounds today.
We reported earlier on his appearance on Channel Seven’s Sunrise this morning.
He has covered similar ground in an interview on Sky News Sunday Agenda, but made two additional points in response to questions from host Andrew Clennell.
On the possibility of running out of petrol, Chalmers said:
UK may send drones to Middle East
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer may send thousands of interceptor drones to the Middle East, The Telegraph London reports.
Military officials are examining whether the “Octopus” interceptor anti-drone drone system – which is manufactured in the UK for Ukraine to use against Russia – can also be used to bolster British defences against Iran’s Shahed drones, the report said.
Reuters
Iran urges civilians to evacuate ports in Arab Gulf states
Iran has urged people to evacuate the Middle East’s busiest port and two others in the United Arab Emirates, openly threatening a neighbouring country’s non-US assets for the first time as its war with the United States and Israel entered a third week.
Tehran said the US had used “ports, docks and hideouts” in the UAE to launch strikes on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran’s oil exports, without providing evidence. It urged people to leave areas where it said US forces were sheltering.
Hours later, there was no sign of an attack on Dubai’s Jebel Ali port — the Middle East’s busiest — or the Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi. But debris from an intercepted Iranian drone hitting an oil facility sparked a fire at the third port, in Fujairah.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told MS NOW that the US attacked Kharg Island and Abu Musa Island from two locations in the UAE, Ras Al-Khaimah and a place “very close to Dubai,” calling that dangerous and saying Iran “will try to be careful not to attack any populated area” there.
Treasurer addresses petrol price gouging concerns
Also on Sunrise, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was questioned about alleged price gouging by petrol companies under the pretext of the war in the Middle East.
Chalmers said on Wednesday the government instigated a crackdown and gave the consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the power to issue on-the-spot fines.
“We dialled up the surveillance, we doubled the penalties, and also we got the ACCC working closely with the industry,” Chalmers said.
“Now, the ACCC released a petrol report on Friday and it did show some evidence of retail prices rising faster than wholesale prices. That’s obviously an unacceptable development and so the ACCC has hauled in the suppliers and the retailers to meet with some of these automotive groups on Tuesday, as I understand it.”
Chalmers ‘worried’ about the Iranian soccer players returning home
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has spoken about the safety of the Iranian women’s soccer players who have decided to head home.
On Channel Seven’s Sunrise program, Chalmers said:
I am worried about them. I can only imagine the pressure that they feel and how difficult these sorts of decisions would be for them. I don’t have all of the details of the decision that they’ve taken.
I’m not going to guess at those decisions. But for our part as the government, the job was always to provide the opportunity for them to stay if they wanted to.
We can’t and haven’t sought to compel an outcome for obvious reasons, and I’m proud that we’ve provided that opportunity.
I’m pleased that there are still a number of these Iranian women who will be staying, as I understand it, but obviously a number of them have taken a difficult decision in the last day or two and I hope they’re okay.
Trump says US may hit Kharg Island again ‘just for fun’
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday (Australian time) that the United States may carry out more strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub.
Trump told NBC News that the US strikes had “totally demolished” most of Kharg Island, but “we may hit it a few more times, just for fun.”
Trump said Tehran appeared ready to make a deal to end the conflict, but “the terms aren’t good enough yet.”
Reuters
Hamas urges Iran to halt attacks on Gulf states, BBC reports
Iran-sponsored Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has reportedly called on its key ally to stop attacking Gulf states.
The BBC reports that Hamas urged its “brothers in Iran to avoid targeting neighbouring countries”, saying in a statement that all regional nations should co-operate “to preserve the bonds of brotherhood”.
Hamas, which runs Gaza, also affirmed Tehran’s right to defend itself against attacks by the US and Israel.
The Hamas leadership usually posts on Telegram, but this masthead has been unable to independently verify the statement.
Iran has said the US strikes on Kharg island were via United Arab Emirates territory, but the UAE has denied this.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
