Japan stocks slide as trading opens after Trump’s Iran ultimatum

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will chair an emergency meeting on Monday to assess the economic impact of the war in Iran, the government said.

Officials said the so-called COBRA emergency meeting would focus on the crisis’s impact on families and businesses, energy security and the resilience of industry and supply chains, as well as the broader international response.

Britain is watching the crisis with particular concern. Its heavy reliance on imported natural gas, persistent inflation and strained public finances have already pushed government bonds into a sharper decline than those of many international peers.

Chair of the European Parliament’s Iran delegation has warned that President Donald Trump’s threat to target Iran's power plants risks dragging the region into wider chaos.

“Trump’s ultimatum won’t deter or defeat IRGC — they are ready to drag everyone into the abyss,” German MEP Hannah Neumann wrote on X.

“Hitting civilian infrastructure in Iran, especially nuclear sites, risks disaster and punishes only those fighting for a Free Iran,” she added. “This is not strategy, this is madness.”

Oil prices rose on Sunday after Iran threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely in response to President Donald Trump’s ultimatum demanding the restoration of oil traffic through the strategic waterway.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, climbed 1.69% to about $114.09 a barrel, while US crude rose 2% to $100.29.

Analysts say markets are increasingly pricing in the risk of prolonged disruption to energy flows through the strait, a route that normally carries about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

Goldman Sachs said Friday that elevated prices could persist through 2027.

The exchange of threats marks a sharp escalation in the three-week-old war and raises the prospect of tit-for-tat strikes on civilian infrastructure across the region.

“If Iran’s fuel and energy infrastructure is attacked by the enemy, all energy infrastructure, as well as information technology and water desalination facilities belonging to the United States and the regime in the region will be targeted,” Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said, according to state media.

Much of the region depends heavily on energy-intensive desalination plants for drinking water, including systems that supply all potable water in Bahrain and Qatar and the majority of water used in the United Arab Emirates.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf warned on X that attacks on Iranian power plants could lead to the “irreversible destruction” of energy facilities across the Middle East.

Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi struck a softer tone, saying that Tehran had not yet moved to choke off global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Strait of Hormuz is not closed,” he wrote on X. "hips hesitate because insurers fear the war of choice you initiated—not Iran."

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also warned that the Strait of Hormuz — the route through which roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes — would remain shut until Iranian power plants damaged in the conflict are rebuilt.

The escalating rhetoric comes as fighting between Iran and Israel continued overnight.

Dozens were reported injured in Iranian missile strikes on the southern towns of Arad and Dimona on Sunday night.

The rising threats have prompted diplomatic intervention.

In a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, France’s President Emmanuel Macron urged all sides to halt attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure and called on Iran to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

“It is more essential than ever that all parties agree to establish a moratorium on energy and civilian infrastructure,” Macron said in a post on X.

More than 2,000 people have been killed since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, a conflict that has rattled global markets, pushed up fuel prices and raised fears of a broader regional war.

Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser has cancelled his planned appearance at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, choosing to remain in Saudi Arabia as tensions linked to the Iran conflict continue to escalate, an industry source told Reuters.

Nasser, who has led the world’s largest oil exporter for more than a decade, is typically one of the headline speakers at the conference, one of the energy industry’s biggest annual gatherings.

CERAWeek, organised by S&P Global and opening on Monday, brings together top executives, government officials and policymakers from around the world to discuss the outlook for global energy markets.

Nasser’s withdrawal underscores the pressure facing energy producers in the region as the Iran crisis deepens.