U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday (March 23, 2026) the U.S. has had good and productive conversations with Iran and he will order the military to postpone any military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that it had received messages through “friendly countries” about a request from the United States for talks, but denied any such negotiations had taken place since the start of the war.
The head of the International Energy Agency said that the global economy faces a “major, major threat” because of the Iran war. “No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction,” Fatih Birol told Australia’s National Press Club in Canberra. He said the crisis in West Asia has had a worse combined impact than the two oil shocks of the 1970s and the effect on gas markets of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Israel also gave the clearest signs yet it intends a ground campaign into Lebanon, destroying a key bridge as it vows to crush Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim movement backed by Iran.
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