Tehran on Sunday vowed to kill Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the U.S.-Israel war on Iran continued to threaten oil supplies in the Gulf.

“IRGC vows to pursue and kill ‘child-killer’ Netanyahu if he is still alive,” Iran’s IRNA news agency said in a post on X, referring to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Israel in return targeted key members of Iran’s leadership over the weekend.

The Israel Defense Forces said they had “eliminated” two senior Iranian intelligence officials of the “Khatam al-Anbiya” Emergency Command.

Late on Saturday, the IDF said in a post on X that it had struck the primary research center of the Iranian Space Agency and an aerial defense system production factory.

Iran continued to retaliate against targets around the region. Israeli emergency services reported a “recent missile barrage” fired at central Israel, but said there were no known injuries.

Meanwhile, oil-loading operations in the United Arab Emirates’ port of Fujairah resumed on Sunday according to media reports, after being interrupted a day earlier due to a fire caused by falling debris from an intercepted drone.

A spokesperson for Abu Dhabi’s state oil giant, ADNOC, which operates in Fujairah, directed CNBC to the Fujairah Media Office, which did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

The ongoing war has effectively choked off energy supplies moving through the narrow Strait of Hormuz which separates Iran and the UAE.

On Friday, Brent crude oil futures closed above $100 per barrel for the second straight day, and the global oil benchmark has surged more than 40% since the war in Iran began.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he directed the U.S. Central Command to carry out a bombing raid, hitting military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island for the first time. Trump threatened further strikes on Iran’s oil export hub, even as he repeatedly urged allies to deploy warships to help the U.S. secure the Strait of Hormuz.

Kharg Island has been thrust into the global spotlight because it is regarded as one of Iran’s most sensitive economic targets. The terminal accounts for around 90% of the country’s crude exports and has a loading capacity of roughly 7 million barrels per day.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took to social media to say his country is “ready to form a committee with the countries of the region to investigate the targets that were attacked. Our attacks only target American bases and interests in the region.”

In a Telegram post Sunday, Araghchi said: “We have not targeted any civilian or residential areas in the countries of the region so far,” and added, “Occupying Kharg Island would be a bigger mistake than attacking it.”

The impact of the war is now also affecting major events in the Gulf region. Formula 1 said it has canceled the upcoming Grand Prix races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia scheduled for April.

“While alternatives were considered, no substitutions will be made in April,” Formula 1 said in a post on X.

The prospect of a U.S. move to seize Kharg Island, a strategically vital hub often referred to as Iran’s “oil lifeline,” is considered extremely high risk, both from a geopolitical and economic standpoint.

The five-mile-long coral island, which is located about 15 miles off the coast of mainland Iran in the waters of the northern Persian Gulf, has been left untouched through nearly two weeks of U.S. and Israeli-led strikes against Iran.

The Trump administration has discussed seizing the island, according to an Axios report on March 7, citing four unnamed sources with knowledge of the discussions.

White House officials have previously said they expect oil prices to fall dramatically once Operation Epic Fury comes to an end, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the president “wisely” keeps all options on the table.

Kharg Island has been thrust into the global spotlight because it is regarded as one of Iran’s most sensitive economic targets. The terminal accounts for around 90% of the country’s crude exports and has a loading capacity of roughly 7 million barrels per day.

Analysts say that any attempt to attack or seize it would require a ground troop operation, which the U.S. appears reluctant to undertake. An attack would also likely prompt a sustained increase to already soaring oil prices.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously refused to rule out deploying American ground forces in Iran but said the U.S. won’t get bogged down in the country.

Francis Galgano, an associate professor and military geography and environmental security specialist at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, said the location of Kharg Island is important because it sits in deep water that enables the approach of oil supertankers.

“I will put on my war hat … if the objective is to win the war (quickly), you destroy or capture Kharg immediately,” Galgano told CNBC by email, adding that any such attempt would create maximum leverage over Tehran.

Nonetheless, taking the small island would be no mean feat, Galgano said. “It would involve moving a considerable number of ground combat troops into the region … I estimate about 5,000 to take and hold the island.”

He added: “All of this of course affects global oil markets, but they are already being affected.”

Oil prices have been extremely volatile since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has retaliated by targeting ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, with several incidents reported in recent days.

The narrow waterway is a key maritime corridor that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas typically passes through it.

International benchmark Brent crude futures with May delivery traded off by 1% at $99.45 per barrel on Friday, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures with April delivery were last seen 2% lower at $93.81.

If Kharg Island were disabled, analysts at JPMorgan said the loss of Iran’s storage buffer and the scarcity of viable export alternatives would “rapidly trigger upstream shut-ins across major southwest fields.”

“With production near 3.3 mbd and exports around 1.5 mbd, as much as half of national output could be at risk if the hub remains offline, and the previously assumed 20‑day buffer would vanish from day one,” they said in a note published Sunday.

Iran’s enormous scale and mountainous topography mean the U.S. mobilizing any conventional ground forces in the region would require hundreds of thousands of troops, according to Alex Plitsas, a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank.

“Any use of ground forces would likely be limited to special operations forces for specific missions,” Plitsas said Wednesday in a note, without referring specifically to Iran’s Kharg Island.

— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

The surge in fuel prices since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran nearly two weeks ago is already driving up airfare. Consumers’ appetite for travel this year will dictate just how much.

Cathay Pacific on Thursday said it would roughly double fuel surcharges on tickets starting March 18.

Earlier this week, Australia’s Qantas said it is raising fares to help cover its costs, Scandinavian Airlines said the “unusually rapid and substantial increase” in fuel prompted it to raise prices, and Air New Zealand pulled its financial outlook “until fuel markets and operating conditions stabilise,” adding that it has made “initial fare adjustments.”

“If the conflict leads to continued elevated jet fuel costs, the airline may need to take further pricing action and adjust its network and schedule as required,” Air New Zealand said.

U.S. airline CEOs and other executives will update investors on Tuesday at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference in Washington, D.C.

Analysts expect an earnings hit at least in the first quarter if not the first half of the year, though the impact will depend on how long higher fuel prices last.

“We think a hit to 1Q EPS appears almost certain at this point,” UBS airline analysts Atul Maheswari and Thomas Wadewitz wrote in a note last week.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said last week on the sidelines of an event at Harvard University that higher fares were likely on the way because of the surge in fuel prices.

Kirby said travel demand is still strong, however. Two other senior airline executives at U.S. carriers, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to media, also said travel demand has held up. If those trends persist, it could give airlines more pricing power, but that will depend on the war’s duration.

“Airlines never met a higher fare they didn’t want,” said Scott Keyes, founder of flight deal company Going, previously known as Scott’s Cheap Flights.

So what should consumers do?

Keyes said travelers can’t lose by booking early, as long as they’re not buying restrictive basic economy tickets. That way, customers can try to exchange or cancel their tickets and buy cheaper ones if airfare ends up falling.

“If you book a $500 summer flight today, and two weeks from now the price drops to $350, you can call up the airline and get the $150 difference back as a credit. Heads you win; tails the airlines lose,” he said.

Jet fuel is airlines’ biggest cost after labor, accounting for about a fifth or more of expenses, depending on the airline.

United alone spent $11.4 billion last year on fuel, at an average price of $2.44 a gallon, according to a securities filing. U.S. jet fuel on Wednesday was going for $3.78 a gallon, according to Platts.

Jefferies airline analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said in a note Thursday that she expects “the most acute financial impact to airlines from surging oil prices to be in the next 30-90 days as airlines have been booking yields for close-in flights assuming a much lower fuel price and carriers cannot retroactively raise fares.”

She said Delta Air Lines and United, which produce most U.S. airline profits, are better positioned than other carriers because of their high-end demand. Risks to demand, particularly for more price-sensitive customers, include the recent jump in gasoline prices.

Most U.S. airlines no longer hedge fuel costs, or lock in prices using futures and other securities. Southwest Airlines was one of the last holdouts, and it quit last year. A spokesman for the Dallas-based airline told CNBC that Southwest currently has “no plans” to resume hedging.

Denmark’s energy minister urged citizens of the Scandinavian country to cut back on energy use and ditch cars as the price of oil continues to skyrocket amid the Middle East conflict.

Lars Aagaard, Denmark’s minister for climate, energy, and utilities, said Wednesday that the ongoing war between the U.S. and Iran has driven the country to lean on its oil reserves in light of “towering oil prices” with no end to the conflict in sight.

“What the Danes should please, please, please do is that if there is any energy consumption that you can do without, if it is not strictly necessary to drive the car, then don’t do it,” he said in an interview with local broadcaster DR, translated by Google.

If Denmark saves energy in the near future, there will be two positive effects that can be felt both by citizens and the government, he said.

“Firstly, it can be felt in the private wallet, and secondly, it can help stretch our reserves so that they last longer,” Aagaard said.

Similar warnings have been issued across countries worldwide. In the U.K., motoring groups such as the AA have called on drivers to cut “non-essential journeys,” and change their driving style to conserve fuel.

Vietnam’s Ministry for Industry and Trade encouraged businesses to adopt remote working arrangements and reduce travel and transport demand to ensure national energy security.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government implemented a temporary four-day workweek in certain executive branches to conserve energy and reduce fuel use.

Concerns over oil prices have remained elevated this week, as oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz ground to a halt due to the threat of Iranian attacks on vessels. A potential inflation spike could follow if the passage remains closed, and threatens to raise the cost of living, from petrol to groceries.

Oil prices jumped over 8% to more than $100 per barrel earlier on Thursday. The West Texas Intermediate was last up 4.6% to $91 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent was trading nearly 5% higher at $96.

To assuage these fears, the International Energy Agency on Wednesday agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil to address the supply disruption triggered by the Iran war.

The IEA, which represents 32 member countries across Europe, North America, and northeast Asia, said the reserves would be released over a specific time frame, depending on the needs of its member countries.

Meanwhile, the U.S announced that it would release 172 million barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, with shipments expected to begin next week and take roughly 120 days to complete.

Three more foreign ships were struck in the Persian Gulf overnight, authorities said, as attacks intensify on vessels sailing through or near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

The latest incidents come after three separate vessels sustained damage in Gulf waters on Wednesday and as Iran warns oil prices could climb to $200 a barrel.

A container ship was struck by an unknown projectile about 35 nautical miles north of Jebel Ali, a major port city near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center said on Thursday. The incident caused a small fire onboard, and all crew were reported to be safe.

Earlier, two foreign oil tankers were left ablaze in Iraqi waters after having been struck near the port Umm Qasr, near the city of Basra.

At least one person was killed in the attack, according to multiple media reports, citing Iraqi port officials, and 38 crew members were rescued from the ships. Iraq’s General Company for Ports was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC.

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has virtually ground to a halt since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has retaliated by targeting ships trying to pass through the strait, with several incidents reported in recent days.

The narrow waterway is a key maritime corridor that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas typically passes through it.

Attacks on commercial ships in the Gulf have ratcheted up fears of a prolonged economic shock.

“Get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security, which you have destabilised,” Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s military command, said Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Crude prices were sharply higher on Thursday morning, as traders closely monitored supply risks and appeared to shrug off the International Energy Agency’s push to release a record 400 million barrels of oil.

International benchmark Brent crude futures with May delivery traded 5.7% higher at $97.16 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures with April delivery rose 5.3% at $91.88.

The IEA on Wednesday did not set out a timeline for when the stocks would hit the market. It said that the reserves would be released over a time frame that is appropriate to the circumstances of each of its 32 member countries.

The International Energy Agency on Wednesday agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil to address the supply disruption triggered by the Iran war, the largest such action in the organization’s history.

The IEA did not set out a timeline for when the stocks would hit the market. It said that the reserves would be released over a timeframe that is appropriate to the circumstances of each of its 32 member countries.

“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 in a statement.

“Oil markets are global so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too,” Birol said. “Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA Members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together.”

Energy analysts warned ahead of the release that even the IEA’s maximum drawdown capability would likely not be able to offset the nearly 20 million barrels per day that typically transits through the Strait of Hormuz.

The waterway is a narrow maritime corridor off Iran’s coast that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas usually passes through it.

Oil prices have been extremely volatile since the outbreak of the Iran war on Feb. 28, with global benchmark Brent crude rallying to nearly $120 a barrel at the start of the week, before falling back below $90.

Earlier in the day, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the country intended to release oil stockpiles from its national reserves as early as next week, citing an “exceptionally high level of dependence” on the Middle East.

“Without waiting for an official decision on the release of international stockpiles in cooperation with the International Energy Agency (IEA), Japan has decided to take the lead in releasing its stockpiles as early as the 16th of this month in order to ease supply and demand in the international energy market,” Takaichi told reporters, according to public broadcaster NHK.

IEA members currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.

The global energy watchdog had previously released an estimated 182 million barrels of oil to support the energy market following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

A cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz has been struck by an unknown projectile, causing a fire onboard, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said in an update on Wednesday morning.

The strike forced the crew of the ship, which has not been identified, to evacuate, the UKMTO said. It urged vessels to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity while authorities continue to investigate.

The incident took place 11 nautical miles north of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz. The UKMTO said there is no report of any environmental impact.

Shipping traffic through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz has ground to a near standstill since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has retaliated by targeting ships trying to pass through the strait, with multiple incidents reported in recent days.

The waterway is a narrow maritime corridor that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas typically passes through it.

U.S. forces sank several Iranian ships on Tuesday, including 16 minelayers, near the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. Central Command. The update followed an earlier announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump that said if Iran had put any mines in the waterway, “we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!”

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

Just outside Ireland’s capital, Dublin, a data center has become the first in Europe to turn to an independent, so-called “islanded,” microgrid to keep its servers running.

Europe is looking to cash in on the AI boom while tackling power connection delays that have persisted for decades. The European Commission estimates the bloc needs at least 1.2 trillion euros ($1.39 trillion) in investments by 2040. In some cases, companies can’t wait for bottlenecks to be eased and are turning to their own sources of power.

The Dublin facility, operated by power supply solutions provider AVK and digital infrastructure developer Pure Data Centre Group, could mark the continent’s first step toward a privately powered ecosystem.

Microgrids are localized energy systems that can generate, store, and distribute power. The systems are already being widely used in the U.S., where a boom in data centers in red-hot areas like Texas and Virginia has seen an increasing need for off-grid power.

AVK and Pure DC say their Dublin installation is the first data center in Europe to be operated by a live microgrid.

“As these data centers get bigger and we see AI workloads and that data becoming more of a feature in our day-to-day lives, that only puts more stress on the grid. So we have to drive to a different solution,” AVK CEO Ben Pritchard told CNBC.

The systems are not without their challenges. Regulatory hurdles could slow deployment, and the long-term success of microgrids likely depends on whether their power sources are both reliable and sustainable.

Ireland is one of two European countries to have enforced a moratorium on new data center applications as the energy-intensive facilities put pressure on the nation’s grid. The facilities consumed a staggering 22% of the small country’s power in 2024.

Ireland’s national grid operator warned in late February that meeting power demand could be “challenging” as consumers use electricity in new ways. It identified data centers as a key driver of that demand growth.

But late last year, Irish authorities eased the moratorium, as the AI boom saw sentiment U-turn on their economic potential.

All new data centers connecting to the grid must now provide dispatchable power — electricity that can be turned on or off depending on the national grid’s needs — or have the capacity to store energy. They must also source at least 80% of annual demand from renewable electricity generated in Ireland, according to guidelines set by the country’s regulator CRU.

“The alternative in Ireland was to wait, literally wait for an unknown time to be able to get a grid connection, and still today you’re not able to get a grid connection. So creating a microgrid enabled us to move our project forward,” Pure DC President Dawn Childs told CNBC.

Childs, who was appointed a Dame in the U.K. for her services to engineering, added that the project is intended as both an immediate and a long-term solution. “If we have to stay as an islanded solution, we absolutely can … However, to get the most sustainable solution and to provide services back into the grid in Dublin, in the most constrained area of Ireland, it would be our desire to get a grid connection.”

The Dublin data center, which can run both cloud and AI workloads, has a total capacity of about 110 megawatts. Total projected investment in the site is about 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion).

The facility is currently powered by natural gas engines with the ability to switch to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). The site has also trialled biomethane as a power source.

If the Dublin data center does eventually secure a grid connection, it will be able to offer dispatchable power and provide up to 20 MW of battery storage, Childs said.

The global microgrid market was worth around $29 billion in 2025, with Europe’s market expected to grow by nearly 10% per year due to its aging infrastructure, according to estimates from Global Market Insights. While investments are made in modernizing the national grid, companies are expected to increasingly turn to more immediate solutions for power.

Microgrids are already being used to power industrial sites and plants in Europe, but there aren’t many instances of them powering data centers when compared to the U.S.

In addition to AVK, companies such as ABB and Siemens are racing to develop the technology, with Schneider Electric opening a microgrid testing lab in Massachusetts last year to test the systems in real-world conditions.

Siemens sees “potential opportunities” for implementing microgrids at data center locations and is currently in discussions with several customers, a company spokesperson told CNBC. The topic is particularly relevant for the U.S. market, but it is also having similar discussions in Europe, they said.

Siemens is also interested in the use of microgrids to support electric vehicle charging infrastructure and port decarbonization.

AVK, which is expected to reach at least a billion-dollar valuation by 2030, initially focused on standby and backup power generation before expanding to become a full power solutions provider.

According to the company’s CEO, discussions and plans for microgrids were underway in Europe, but the U.S. market quickly overtook the 27-nation bloc. “It’s just that the U.S. has such a high demand that we’ve seen the rollout a little bit quicker than we’ve seen here in Europe,” Pritchard told CNBC, adding that the company is now seeing a new type of investor who is specifically interested in microgrids and not necessarily the data center itself.

“They’re infrastructure funds who are looking to build, own and operate microgrids and supply power to the data centers,” Pritchard said. He expects this type of asset class to mature over the next three to five years.

One of the biggest challenges facing the market is how microgrids are deployed sustainably, as much of the discussion on the tech has revolved around the use of gas turbines or fuel cells, Diego Diaz Hernandez, a partner at McKinsey, told CNBC.

“Making these assets grid participants in theory and in practice are very different questions,” Diaz Hernandez said.

“Technically speaking, it’s very feasible to do so, and we’ve seen examples of that in the U.S. [where] grid operators are requiring 50 or even 100 hours of flexibility out of the entire year in order to ease the pressure on the grid. So they’re not asking for a lot, but actually having the regulation and policy in place to allow for that to happen is a big question.”

Ensuring the power supply is reliable, as well as overcoming regulation, will also be key, Hernandez said. He noted that in the U.S., around 30% of data centers are adopting microgrid or other behind-the-meter solutions, like fuel cells and gas turbines — power sources that don’t require a connection to the main grid. In Europe, the share was just 5–10% 18 months ago, but has since already risen to about 20%, he added.

Challenges aside, the burden on data centers to provide their own sources of power is clearly growing. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said data centers “need some PR help” amid concerns about their impact on electricity prices.