Natanz Nuclear Facility: US & Israel Attack – No Leak Reported

Iran reports attack on Atomanlage Natans

Update, 10:30 a.m.: According to Iranian information, Israel and the USA have attacked the important nuclear facility in Natan in the center of the country. The facility, located around 250 kilometers south of Tehran, was the target of US-Israeli air strikes on Saturday morning, the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency said, according to a news agency report Tasnim. “No release of radioactive material has been reported” in the area.

Update, 9:20 a.m.: The US government has loaned 45.2 million barrels of crude oil from the strategic reserve to energy companies to curb high oil prices. Companies receiving oil include BP, Shell, Marathon Petroleum and Vitol, the Energy Department said. ⁠The amount is the first tranche and represents 52 percent of the release of up to 86 million barrels announced by the government last week.

Iran News: USA suspends sanctions against Iranian oil for 30 days to curb prices

Update, 7:50 a.m.: The ⁠US government has suspended sanctions for 30 days on the purchase of Iranian oil at sea to curb the rise in global prices. According to US Treasury Secretary Scott ‌Bessent auf According to Energy Minister Chris Wright, the deliveries could reach Asia within three or four days. The measure applies until April 19th.

Regions such as Cuba, North Korea and Crimea are excluded. As the largest buyer of Iranian oil, China is likely to be the main beneficiary. Bessent explained that Iran would, however, have difficulty accessing the revenue. Washington will maintain maximum pressure on the country.

Iran News: Tehran attacks military base

Update, March 21, 6:45 a.m.: According to US media reports, Iran has attacked a military base shared by Britain and the US in the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. The Islamic Republic attacked the base on the island of Diego Garcia with ballistic missiles on Friday morning (local time). Wall Street Journal and the transmitter CNN citing senior US officials reported. Iran fired two medium-range missiles at the base, but neither hit the facility. There was initially no official confirmation from the British or US governments.

Goals im Iran war

Update, 10:59 p.m.: According to its own statements, the USA is close to achieving its military goals in the ongoing Iran war. At least that’s what US President Donald Trump said. The use could therefore soon be scaled back, he wrote on the Trutz Social platform. Among the current goals he was aiming for were the complete destruction of Iran’s missile capacities, the arms industry and Tehran’s navy and air force. In the future, control of the Strait of Hormuz should be taken over by those nations that use it – “it will be an easy military operation for them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He did not say who these states were.

Dispute in the Iran War: Merz wants to thaw the ice age with Trump in a phone call

Update, 10:38 p.m: After saying no to German weapons aid in the Iran war, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) wants to smooth things over in the dispute with Donald Trump. The US President is currently “not in good terms with me,” the Chancellor admitted at a campaign event in Bad Dürkheim (Rhineland-Palatinate). But like that Spiegel reported that Merz wants to speak to Trump on the phone this weekend. Shortly before, Trump had insulted the Europeans as “cowards” because they had not responded to his request for help in removing the Hormuz blockade.

Iran-News: Trump refuses Truce ab

Update, 9:45 p.m: Peace in the Iran war is still not in sight: US President Trump rejects a ceasefire with the mullahs’ regime, according to the news agency Reuters at the White House said. “You don’t make a ceasefire if you destroy the other side,” he said. He expressed confidence that Israel would also end the war if the US did so.

Update, 8:58 p.m: Losses in the Iran War are rising. But the US Army does not have to complain about any new deaths. So far, 232 US soldiers have been injured in the operation in the Middle East, a spokesman for US Central Command told the news agency AP with. That’s 30 more than the previous count of around 200 on Monday. According to the US military, 207 of the 232 injured are already back on duty. The number of seriously injured remained unchanged at 10. Since the start of the war in Iran, 13 US soldiers have been killed.

Iran-News: Trump supposedly more Marines have relocated

Update, 7:48 p.m.: Is Donald Trump planning to use ground troops in the Iran war? According to consistent media reports, the USA has deployed additional Marine Corps response forces to the Middle East. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that between 2,200 and 2,500 Marines would be deployed from the state of California. The broadcaster CNN reported thousands of Marines and Marines being deployed to the Middle East. Both media outlets cited anonymous US officials.

According to information from the US media Axios Trump is considering occupying the Iranian oil island of Kharg. This role could fall to the Marines in a ground operation, it said. Trump wants to put pressure on the Islamic Republic to reopen the blocked Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic. A White House spokeswoman commented Axios-Report to the news agency AFP saying, “The United States military may take Kharg Island at any time if the President gives the order.”

Iran war weighs on the German stock market and economy

Update, 7:10 p.m.: In view of the war in Iran, the German stock market is likely to remain under pressure in the new week. “Concerns on the capital markets about the effects of the war are increasing,” wrote Ulrich Kater, chief economist at Dekabank. The trigger is that there is no evidence of progress in normalizing raw material deliveries from the Persian Gulf. At the end of the week, the Dax lost a good two percent to 22,380.19 points. This is the level at the end of April 2025.

“The longer the situation drags on, the more all economic participants feel the consequences in their everyday lives, and the more likely there will be macroeconomic consequences, such as a dampening of the already not buoyant economic activity in the European economies,” Kater continued. The first economic indicators have recently turned into the red.

Update, 5:50 p.m.: Because of the Iran war, NATO withdrew its mission from Iraq. The NATO Mission Iraq (NMI) has “safely relocated all of its personnel from the Middle East to Europe,” NATO High Command for Allied Forces in Europe (Shape) said on Friday. The mission will now be continued from the operational headquarters in Naples. The Federal Ministry of Defense confirmed that Bundeswehr personnel had also been withdrawn from Baghdad.

“The German soldiers who were deployed in Baghdad as part of NMI returned safely to Germany yesterday,” said the Federal Ministry of Defense. Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) emphasized that the relocation of NATO personnel had taken place “with the significant participation of the Bundeswehr”. Accordingly, “personnel and material were flown out of Baghdad under very risky conditions” using several A400M transport aircraft.

No arms exports to the USA: Switzerland stops exports because of the Iran war

Update, 5:19 p.m.: Switzerland has decided to stop exporting weapons to the USA due to the Iran war. “The export of war materials to countries involved in the international armed conflict with Iran cannot be authorized during the duration of the conflict,” the government said.

However, permits that have already been issued and ongoing exports will not be withdrawn. The government continued that these would be checked regularly “with a view to compatibility with neutrality”. For years, no final exports of war material have been approved to either Israel or Iran.

USA and Israel alone in the Iran war: Trump rages about NATO on Truth Social

Update, 4:23 p.m.: US President Donald Trump criticizes NATO allies as “cowards” because of their stance in the Iran war. On Friday, he made comments on his social media platform Truth Social, emphasizing that NATO without the United States would be a “paper tiger.”

Trump continued: “They didn’t want to get involved in the fight to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Now that that fight has been WON militarily – and with little danger to them – they complain about the high oil prices they have to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz (…).” He added: “COWARDS, and we won’t forget it!”

Update, 4:04 p.m.: A bullet struck near the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday. Israeli television showed smoke rising near the city walls. Journalists from the AFP news agency had previously heard loud explosions over Jerusalem. Israel warned of missiles from Iran.

Israeli media images showed a crater on a street that appeared to be near the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City, AFP reported. Israeli police said they were conducting searches to locate the impact sites of ammunition or intercepted bullets in the Jerusalem area.

Iran threatens to launch global attacks Tourism destinations

Update, 3:14 p.m.: General Abolfasl Shekarchi’s warning on Iranian state television was aimed at political and military opponents. According to the news agency Tasnimwhich is close to the Revolutionary Guards, he explained that those responsible, commanders, pilots and soldiers were being monitored. Travel destinations, resorts and tourist centers around the world will no longer be safe for these people in the future. The spokesman attributed the new threat to the killing of officials, leaders and commanders of the Iranian armed forces.

First report: General Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran’s top military spokesman, announced in a statement on Iranian state television that the Iran war would be expanded worldwide. How Iran Intl Quoting the military spokesman, Shekarchi said: “According to the information we have, from now on leisure and tourism destinations around the world will no longer be safe for you.”