🇮🇷❌🇫🇷 Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on X/Twitter:

Macron has not uttered one word of condemnation of the Israel-US war on Iran. He did not condemn Israel when it blew up fuel storage in Tehran, exposing millions to toxins. His current "concern" didn't follow Israel's attack on our gas facilities. It follows our retaliation. Sad!

🔗 Abbas Araghchi

🇫🇮⚔️🇮🇷 Europe could offer to help Trump on Iran — if he backs Ukraine, Finland’s Stubb suggests

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb says he can see real potential in offering Trump what he wants: European military support to secure the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil shipping route that Iran has effectively blockaded in response to American and Israeli bombing.

Europe’s condition for providing such assistance? That the U.S. president delivers all the help Ukraine needs to reach an acceptable peace deal with Russia.

Officials — including Stubb — fear the longer Trump’s war against Iran continues, the more it could constrain Ukraine’s fight against invading Russian forces. Soaring global energy prices — and Washington's decision to loosen sanctions on Russia’s oil industry — will significantly boost Vladimir Putin’s income from Russian fossil fuel sales.

📝: The idea proposed by the Finnish president is inherently unfeasible. With the U.S. exhausting its stockpile of interceptor rockets and cruise missiles, it won't have anything to help Ukraine with and every previous peace deal attempt fell apart when the Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, with the entirety of the EU behind him, refused to make any territorial concessions.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-help-donald-trump-iran-war-ukraine-finland-alexander-stubb/

🇪🇺 European gas prices surge 30% after Qatar said the world’s largest LNG export plant was damaged in an Iranian attack

Still TTF futures are far from the record highs of 2022 but the longer Qatar LNG remains offline, the higher prices will go

🔗 Stephen Stapczynski

🇮🇱⚔️🇮🇷 Satellite images show the aftermath of the Israeli attacks on the Shahran Oil Depot near Tehran on March 8th which caused massive plums of toxic smoke carrying hydrocarbons and other toxic chemicals into the atmosphere which later fell down as acid rain and soot on the Iranian capital and the surrounding area, poisoning 14 million people.

The winds later carried this toxic smog to the northeast into Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and much of Central Asia.

No countries condemned Israel for this attack.

🔗 Soar (@SoarAtlas)

💻 The Iran War is putting the semiconductor industry on high alert:

The shutdown of Qatar's Ras Laffan facility, the world's largest LNG export plant, has knocked out ~33% of global helium supply, as helium is a byproduct of natural gas processing.

With the facility offline, the global market is losing ~5.2 million cubic meters per month, while there is almost no spare capacity as helium must reach end users within ~45 days before it evaporates.

As a result, Helium spot prices have risen over +100% since the Iran War began.

Notably, in 2025, Qatar produced 63 million cubic meters of helium, making it the 2nd-largest producer in the world after the US.

If the disruption lasts 60 to 90 days, prices could surge another +50%, potentially exceeding $2,000 per thousand cubic feet, according to AKAP Energy.

Helium is essential for semiconductor manufacturing, MRI machines, fiber optics, and space exploration, with no viable substitutes, meaning higher helium prices will directly raise the cost of making every chip in the world.

Chipmakers hold ~6 months of inventory, but Samsung and SK Hynix are already scrambling to find alternative sources, with 64% of South Korean helium imports coming from Qatar alone.

The Iran War is sending shockwaves well beyond the energy market.

🔗 Global Markets Investor

🇮🇷⚔️🇰🇼 Kuwait was hit by two Iranian kamikaze drone targeting its oil refineries.

First, a drone struck the al-Ahmadi port refinery, one of the largest in the Middle East, with a production capacity of about 730,000 barrels per day.

A second attack then sparked a fire at the nearby Abdullah port refinery, which produces around 454,000 barrels per day.

🔗 Egypt's Intel Observer (@EGYOSINT)

🇮🇱⚔️🇮🇷🇮🇶🇮🇶🇱🇧 Israeli Defense Minister Katz announced that Israel is changing the tactic and is going for an assassination on every Iranian official:

“Significant surprises are expected today across all fronts that will escalate the war to a new level.

We have authorized the IDF to eliminate any Iranian official once a “targeting circle” has been closed on them, without the need for additional approval.”

📝: Israel has not engaged in genuine diplomacy since returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982

With US “cover”, its been shielded from the consequences of over-aggression

Thus Israel knows only offense, escalation. The “ceasefire” is a tool to slow the enemy as Israel regroups for more attacks

🔗 Megatron (@Megatron_ron)

🇮🇷🛢 On March 17, Iran exported over 4mm barrels of oil, double the pre-war average.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸⛽️ JD Vance's way to save face in front of the American public that has to deal with rising gas and food prices is to say that the rest of the world has it worse than they do.

🔗 Europa.com (@europa)

🛢 WTI and Brent Crude prices are starting to show a significant divergence

While the price of WTI Crude went back under 100$, the price of Brent Crude has continued to increase, reaching nearly 115$.

Murban Crude meanwhile is nearly at 129$/barrel

@CIG_telegram

🇱🇧⚔️🇮🇱 Hezbollah destroyed 6 Israeli Merkava Tanks in the battle for the village of Taybeh, South Lebanon.

Israeli sources admitted a "security incident" in Lebanon and later described the battle as reminding them of the battle of Wadi Saluki in the 2006 Lebanon War when 24 tanks of the 401st Brigade of the IDF were ambushed and several destroyed by Kornet ATGMs.

The village of Taybeh is merely 2km from the Israel-Lebanon border and its been 8 days since the IDF began ground operations against Hezbollah.

🔗 BonzerBarry