Drone strike hits fuel tank near Dubai airport as fire breaks out at major UAE oil terminal: Live updates

An Emirates plane prepares to land as smoke rises near Dubai airport

Here are the latest events in the Iran war as the conflict enters its third week:

• Dubai airport halted flights after a drone struck a fuel tank nearby in latest incident to disrupt travel at one of the world’s busiest hubs
• Oil loading operations have been suspended at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah after a drone attack
• The Israeli military said it has begun what it described as ‘limited ground’ against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon
• Oil prices rose further, with Brent North Sea Crude up three percent to $106.50 per barrel in Monday trading
• Sir Keir Starmer said the UK will not be drawn into a wider war as he knocks back a request from the US to deploy British warships
• Saudi Arabia intercepts more than 60 drones since midnight
• Donald Trump said the United States was in discussions with Iran but that Tehran was not ready for a deal to end the war
• The US President said NATO faces a ‘very bad’ future if US allies fail to help open the Strait of Hormuz
• But European leaders have pushed back against Trump’s appeal to send warships to Strait of Hormuz

Dubai International Airport was temporarily closed this morning after Iranian drones blew up a fuel tank nearby.

No injuries were reported and the fire was brought under control by Dubai Civil Defence teams.

There have been 95 flight cancellations today at the airport, with a further 75 delayed following the strikes, according to Flight Aware. The airport is one of the busiest travel hubs in the world serving more than 95 million passengers last year.

Airport bosses have urged travellers to use their official support channels in the wake of the disruptions.

Flights have gradually resumed this morning.

The UAE airline Emirates said it expected to operate a ‘limited schedule’ after 10:00 am Dubai time (0600 GMT) and that some flights had been cancelled.

It had earlier told passengers not to come to the airport and said it was working with authorities ‘to assess the situation and support the safe resumption of operations when possible’.

Iran has warned Romania it would respond to the country if the US is allowed to use bases on its territory to attack Tehran.

A high-ranking Iranian official was asked about Romania’s permission for the US to use its Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base near Constanta after three KC-135 tanker aircraft arrived in Bucharest on Sunday.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said: ‘If Romania makes its bases available to the United States, it would amount to participation in military aggression against Iran.’

Romanian defence minister Radu Miruță said that the KC-135 planes carried no weapons or explosives on board and that Parliament had limited their number.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has said some ;neighbouring states’ hosting US forces and allowing attacks on Iran were also ‘actively encouraging’ the killing of Iranians.

He said hundreds of Iranian civilians, including more than 200 children, had been killed in Israel–US strikes.

‘Stances should be promptly clarified,’ he added in a post on X.

It comes after The New York Times reports Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, known as MBS, is speaking regularly with Donald Trump and is urging him to continue attacking Iran harshly.

According to the report, MBS has conveyed advice to the US President ‘to “cut off the head of the snake,’ said to have been previously given by Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah.

Ireland will not be getting involved in securing the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s premier has indicated.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, DC, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said there was a ‘conversation going on within NATO’ but added that Ireland was not a member of that alliance.

Asked about US President Donald Trump’s request for countries to assist in securing the strait, Mr Martin said: ‘We’re not a military power. We don’t have that offensive military capacity in any shape or form, so obviously that’s not something that’s on our agenda.’

He said Ireland wanted a peaceful resolution, adding: ‘There is obviously huge concern about the economic implications globally, energy price increases and so on.

‘But that works both ways and I think Iran is recklessly attacking all the Gulf states, for example, and all the citizens and European citizens and Irish citizens within the Gulf who are under threat from those kind of reckless attacks.’

by Mark Duell

Thousands of Brits fleeing the Middle East war including those living in Dubai are urging the UK Government to confirm whether they will face large tax bills.

Some of the 160,000 British nationals registered in the region could face a higher tax bill if they have returned to the UK since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began.

Experts warn the unexpected move could take them over 183 days spent in the UK during the current financial year, which ends in just three weeks’ time on April 5.

With some Brits having been close to the limit before the outbreak of war, their return could mean their income generated abroad becomes taxable in the UK.

Thousands of Brits have moved to the United Arab Emirates in recent years to make the most of its largely tax-free regime and enjoy a more luxurious lifestyle.

Donald Trump said he will hold a ‘news conference’ today as the war he ordered against Iran continues for a third week.

Trump frequently takes questions from reporters so it was not immediately clear if the latest event had a specific topic.

‘News Conference today,’ Trump announced on his Truth Social Platform, adding it would take place just before a meeting at the White House on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Trump, who has come under criticism for mixed messaging on the goals of the Iran war, has indicated he may delay a planned summit in China as he scrambles to try and get other countries to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Wall Street stocks opened higher today as oil prices eased.

Around 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7 percent to 46,890.68.

The broad-based S&P 500 Index went up one percent to 6,697.71, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 1.2 percent to 22,378.72.

International benchmark Brent North Sea crude was down 1.4 percent – after rising about three percent earlier in the day – and the main US contract West Texas Intermediate dropped four percent.

‘When you get a bit of a reprieve in the energy price, it’s not surprising to see a bounce in equity markets,’ Art Hogan, from B. Riley Wealth Management, told AFP.

But he added that the day has just started and that other news could emerge.

Emergency workers at the site of a strike on a residential building in Tehran

Massive explosions were heard in Beirut as Israel launched new attacks on the Lebanese capital before dawn, saying it was striking infrastructure related to the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia group.

The Israeli army has issued evacuation orders for many neighbourhoods in Beirut as well as southern Lebanon.

To date, more than 800,000 people have been displaced by Israel’s campaign in Lebanon.

In southern Lebanon, seven people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to authorities and news reports.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two of them were paramedics responding to an earlier strike.

At least 850 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli strikes so far.

Not long after Israel’s military announced it had launched new strikes on Tehran, targeting infrastructure, explosions were heard in the Iranian capital and outlying areas.

Donald Trump has told a White House reporter oil prices will ‘drop like a rock’ when the Iran war is over, adding ‘I don’t believe it will be long’.

The US President said the conflict is a ‘very small price to pay’ following years of terror from the regime, PBS News Hour journalist Liz Landers said.

Trump also declined to say whether he sees American troops on the ground in Iran as he didn’t want to discuss strategy with the media.

by Adam Pogrund

Iran has mocked Donald Trump for ‘turning to other countries’ to help secure the Strait of Hormuz after European leaders rejected calls to send ships to the strategic passage.

The Iranian regime has forced shut the strait, a vital passageway through which around 20 per of the world’s oil flows every day, causing an enormous spike in oil prices and sparking fears of a global economic crisis.

The US President asked allies to join a mission to safeguard shipping in the Gulf but Keir Starmer told Donald Trump on Sunday night he wasn’t ready to agree to US demands to ‘send ships’ to protect oil tankers from Iranian attacks.

France, Germany, Italy and Greece have also said they won’t take part in efforts to reopen the channel.

In his first statement since becoming supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to continue using the ‘lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz’ because it is where ‘the enemy is highly vulnerable’.

And Iran’s Foreign ​Minister Abbas Araghchi derided Trump for asking for help to reopen it while demanding Iran surrenders.

Qatar Airlines will resume flights to Ireland on Friday, Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs has said.

Helen McEntee made the announcement on the social media site X on Monday.

She said: Pleased to announce that we have been informed by Qatar Airlines that it will resume flights from Doha to Dublin on Friday, 20 March 2026. There will be four direct flights weekly from that date.”

Travel to and from the Middle East has been severely disrupted since war broke out in the region on February 28.

There were no flights between Ireland and the region for several days after the conflict started, with the first commercial flight from Dubai landing in Dublin on March 4.