The United Nations Security Council is to vote on a Bahraini resolution to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, diplomats said on Friday, but veto-wielding China made clear its opposition to authorizing any use of force.
Two diplomats said the meeting of the Council's 15 members and the vote were set for Saturday morning, rather than Friday as earlier planned. Friday is a UN holiday.
A total of 244 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Bahrain have returned to the Philippines on Good Friday amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said.
In a social media post, the OWWA said the repatriates arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 in Pasay City aboard Gulf Air Flight GF154.
The massive fuel price hikes due to the Middle East conflict are expected to continue next week.
Based on Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) trading in the past four days (March 30 to April 2), an oil industry source said that the retail diesel prices could increase by P17 to P19 per liter.
These projections could push the price of regular diesel to as much as P165 and premium diesel past P170 a liter.
Gasoline prices, on the other hand, are expected to increase by P3 to P5 per liter, potentially bringing the prices of its super premium, premium, and regular varieties to about P120, P117, and P110 per liter, respectively.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday the tallest bridge in Iran had been destroyed, hours after threatening to bomb the country "back to the Stone Ages."
Ghodratollah Seif, the deputy governor of Alborz province, where the B1 bridge is located, said the strike had killed eight people and wounded 95 others,according to state TV and Fars news agency.
Due to reporting restrictions, AFP is not able to access the sites of strikes nor to independently verify tolls in Iran.
WASHINGTON - Dozens of international law experts in the U.S. have signed an open letter saying that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes, after President Donald Trump reiterated his threats this week to strike Iran's power and desalination plants.
Trump, who has previously offered shifting timelines and objectives for the war, said in a televised speech on Wednesday that the war could escalate if Iran did not give in to Washington's terms, with strikes on its energy and oil infrastructure possible.
Over 100 international law experts in the U.S., including from schools like Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of California, said in the letter released on Thursday that the conduct of U.S. forces and statements by senior U.S. officials "raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes."
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Thursday there was no end in sight to a war that had already displaced a million people over the last month, as families fleeing Israeli strikes said they were exhausted by repeated rounds of conflict.
Lebanon is entering the second month of conflict between Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah and Israel, which has pledged to occupy swathes of southern Lebanon as part of a "security zone" to protect its own northern residents.
"Lebanon has become a victim of a war - one whose outcomes and end date no one can predict," Salam told reporters on Thursday after a meeting of his cabinet.
Austria has denied the United States use of its airspace for military operations against Iran due to Austria's neutrality, the country's defense ministry said on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the ministry confirmed a report from Austrian news agency APA that the U.S. had made "several" flyover requests to Austria, without specifying how many.
Individual cases were reviewed in consultation with the Austrian foreign ministry, the report said.
LONDON/PARIS - About 40 countries are discussing joint action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to stop Iran holding "the global economy hostage," Britain said on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said securing the waterway was for others to resolve.
British foreign minister Yvette Cooper said Iran's "recklessness" in blockading the waterway was "hitting our global economic security" as she chaired the virtual meeting, which included France, Germany, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and India.
"We have seen Iran hijack an international shipping route to hold the global economy hostage," Cooper said in opening remarks broadcast to the media before the rest of the meeting took place behind closed doors.
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