US-Iran war updates: Donald Trump declares ‘nothing left to target’ as ships hit in Strait of Hormuz

Resource Minister Madeline King has said she cannot guarantee that Australia won’t run out of fuel, even after a record amount of oil reserves was approved for release.

“I don’t want to predict that it won’t get harder if this conflict goes along and I really hope it ends very, very soon. Without peace, we have no prosperity,” the Brand MP told Radio National on Thursday.

“There’s no doubt there are disruptions. We’re witnessing a conflict we haven’t seen for some time, and it’s closer to home than the conflict we saw in 2022 (Russia-Ukraine).”

Ms King welcomed the IEA’s announcement to release 400 million barrels of oil in an attempt to tackle oil prices, however said Energy Minister Chris Bowen was best positioned to speak on the release.

“It’s a really important announcement from the IEA, which seeks to have members coordinate the release of the reserves of fuel into their respective systems. And we are looking at this,” she said.

“My understanding is the IEA has published that decision, and then each member looks at it. But I would have to leave that further detail to Minister Bowen. As you can imagine, it doesn’t come directly to me, it would go to the Minister for Energy of this country.”

Dennis Richardson says he felt “surplus to requirements” and that what he was being paid “wasn’t consistent” with the work he was doing after his examination of intelligence agency failings ahead of the Bondi shooting was rolled into the royal commission.

The former ASIO and Defence boss quit the royal commission on Wednesday, with commissioner Virginia Bell thanking him for the work done to date and promising a report on intelligence and security agencies would still be released by the end of April.

Mr Richardson said on Thursday morning that “a royal commission works in a particular way” and that he would have had more flexibility had his line of inquiry been kept separate from the legal process.

“(As) soon as it became folded into the royal commission, particular legal frameworks were put around it. So the interim report that will now be done by the royal commission will be a very different document to the one that I would have done when I was doing the review prior to the royal commission being announced,” he told Radio National.

“That is simply one of those things. It will still be a valuable document. The royal commission will go on to have hearings, and I’m sure the royal commission will, at the end of the day, do a highly professional job.”

Welcome to our coverage of the rapidly escalating conflict across the Middle East.

Here are the key developments so far:

• The US air campaign in Iran has entered its 12th day, with more than 5500 targets struck and no sign of the conflict ending.

• Iran has expanded its retaliation, attacking commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, including a Thai cargo ship that was set ablaze.

• Drones targeting Dubai International Airport have further raised fears that the conflict is spreading across the region.

• Global energy markets are under pressure as tensions threaten major oil supply routes through the Gulf.

• In response, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has agreed to release the largest emergency oil reserves in its history to stabilise global fuel prices.

We’ll continue bringing you the latest developments as they unfold.

Four people have been injured after two drones fell near Dubai International Airport overnight, authorities said.

Passengers inside the terminal were reportedly told to stay away from the aircraft’s glass windows following the strike.

According to the Government of Dubai Media Office, one Indian national suffered “moderate injuries”, while two Ghanaian nationals and one Bangladeshi national sustained minor injuries.

Despite the incident, air traffic at Dubai International Airport continued to operate as normal.

The International Energy Agency has agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil, the largest such move in its history, to try to rein in crude prices, which have soared due to supply shocks from the US-Israeli war with Iran.

The IEA said the release had been backed unanimously by 32 member countries, including Australia, in the sixth such move it has made since its creation in the 1970s.

It is aimed at preventing a further rise in oil prices on fears that Iranian attacks will continue to block Middle East oil exports from reaching markets.

“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said.

Hezbollah says it has fired “dozens of rockets” toward northern Israel in a new operation following an Israeli strike in central Beirut — the second attack in the Lebanese capital since the country was drawn into the wider Middle East conflict.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the strike hit an apartment in the densely populated Aisha Bakkar neighbourhood, with footage capturing a fireball erupting from a residential building, as Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon said Israeli forces would continue operating in Lebanon “as long (as) there will be a threat against us”.

US President Donald Trump says there is “practically nothing left” to target in Iran as fighting continues across the region and ships are struck in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Little this and that ... Any time I want it to end, it will end,” Mr Trump told Axios in a telephone interview, suggesting the conflict could end soon despite continued strikes.

The comments came as attacks on merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz pushed global energy markets into crisis mode, with three ships reportedly hit in the key shipping lane.

In response to the disruption, the International Energy Agency agreed to release a record 400 million barrels from strategic oil reserves in an attempt to stabilise global supplies.

The decision, which has been backed by 32 countries including the United States, marks the largest coordinated release of emergency oil reserves in history as governments attempt to contain the economic fallout from the conflict.