US-Israel-Iran war LIVE updates: Tehran has indicated it will not back down in the face of US President Donald Trump’s warning of possible attacks on its electricity infrastructure within 48 hours. In parallel, oil markets in Asia remained volatile, reversing early gains to leave Brent down 0.3% at $111.82 a barrel, though still up 55% on the month, while US crude fell 0.2% to $98.01.
Can Iran’s Power Grid Be Shut Down?
Iran’s power grid would be extremely difficult to knock out. With around 130 thermal plants generating more than 95% of their electricity with a combined capacity of 78,000MW, no strike would be decisive – destroying even the massive Damavand facility would remove only 3.7% of the total capacity.
Iran’s military warns ‘Strait of Hormuz’ will be completely closed if U attacks power plants: See top five updates
- Asian markets fell on Monday (March 23) and the dollar strengthened as Washington and Tehran traded increasingly aggressive warnings while Israel signaled weeks of continued military operations that sent oil prices tumbling.
- Tehran announced on Sunday that it would target the energy and water infrastructure of neighboring Gulf states if President Trump followed through on his threat to attack Iran’s energy grid within two days. Iran has warned that the strategic Strait of Hormuz will be “completely closed” if the US follows through on threats to target its power plants, escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf.
- Trump has vowed to “wipe out” Iran’s energy infrastructure and threatened Iran to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
- In early trade, Australia’s share market fell 1.7% and New Zealand’s fell 1.1%, while Japan’s Nikkei futures fell to 50,850, well below Friday’s cash close of 53,372.
- U.S. futures also eased, with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and Nasdaq futures losing 0.2%, as traders weighed potential spillovers from the conflict into global energy markets.
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