West Asia war LIVE: U.S. military launches new strikes on Iran as clashes escalate over shipping routes
United States forces carried out a fresh round of air strikes on Iranian territory, continuing an extended run of nightly strikes tied to the Strait of Hormuz confrontation
Strikes were reported in the port city of Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island along the strait, as well as in Lorestan province in western Iran; state media reported explosions and at least two people injured in Bandar Abbas
The strikes targeted military command centers, drone storage facilities, communication networks, coastal surveillance sites, and maritime capabilities, aimed at reducing Iran's ability to threaten commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz
The current exchanges follow a conditional ceasefire reached earlier in 2026 that broke down after renewed Iranian action against commercial shipping in the strait, restarting sustained strikes on Iranian territory
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Framework: NPT, IAEA Safeguards, and the JCPOA/UNSC Resolution 2231 Regime
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT, 1968) is the cornerstone multilateral treaty restricting the spread of nuclear weapons while permitting peaceful nuclear energy use, verified through International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards inspections. Iran's nuclear programme has been the recurring trigger for this conflict: the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany) capped Iran's enrichment activity in exchange for sanctions relief, and was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015). The US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018; renewed negotiations to restore nuclear curbs collapsed in early 2026, directly preceding the outbreak of hostilities.
Key Details
- UNSC Resolution 2231 provided a "snapback" mechanism allowing any JCPOA participant to unilaterally trigger reimposition of prior UN sanctions on Iran if it found non-compliance
- France, Germany, and the UK (the "E3") invoked snapback in August 2025, and UN sanctions on Iran were reimposed from September 27, 2025
- Resolution 2231's own "Termination Day" — the date the Security Council was to end its consideration of the Iranian nuclear file — was October 18, 2025; Russia and China have disputed the legal validity of the E3's snapback action after this date
- India is a signatory to the NPT's non-proliferation objectives in principle but has not signed the NPT itself, citing it as discriminatory between nuclear "haves" and "have-nots"; India instead maintains a No First Use doctrine and a credible minimum deterrent outside the treaty framework
The breakdown of talks to revive nuclear curbs on Iran in early 2026 is the proximate diplomatic failure that preceded the outbreak of US-Iran hostilities, making the NPT/IAEA/JCPOA architecture — and its collapse — the static backdrop against which the ongoing strikes must be read.
India's Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Energy Security Mechanism
Sustained conflict around the Strait of Hormuz directly tests India's institutional response to crude oil supply shocks. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a special purpose vehicle under the Oil Industry Development Board (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas), maintains underground rock-cavern crude storage to cushion India against short-term supply disruptions, independent of commercial refiner inventories.
Key Details
- ISPRL operates three underground storage caverns: Visakhapatnam (1.33 million tonnes), Mangalore (1.5 million tonnes), and Padur (2.5 million tonnes) — a combined capacity of 5.33 million tonnes
- This strategic reserve, based on historical consumption patterns, covers roughly 9-13 days of India's crude oil requirement
- India imports roughly 85-90% of its crude oil needs, making chokepoint disruptions a direct macroeconomic risk (inflation, current account, rupee) rather than only a diplomatic one
- Additional caverns are under development at Chandikhol (Odisha) and Padur to expand strategic storage capacity further
Continued strikes and Iranian interference with shipping around the Strait of Hormuz — the corridor carrying roughly a fifth of global oil supply — are precisely the scenario India's strategic reserve mechanism is designed to buffer against, even though the reserve's days-of-cover remain modest relative to prolonged disruption.
Evacuation of Indian Nationals from Conflict Zones
Prolonged escalation in a region hosting a large Indian expatriate population raises the standing question of evacuation. India has an established, repeatedly used institutional playbook for evacuating nationals from West Asian and other conflict zones, coordinated by the Ministry of External Affairs through Indian missions, chartered civil aircraft, Air India, and where required, the Indian Navy and Air Force.
Key Details
- Operation Raahat (2015) evacuated over 4,640 Indian citizens from Yemen, along with 960 foreign nationals from 41 countries, using Indian Navy ships from Aden and IAF/Air India flights from Sana'a
- Later large-scale evacuations followed the same institutional model: Operation Ganga (2022, Ukraine) and Operation Kaveri (2023, Sudan)
- Coordination typically involves the MEA's crisis management cell, mission-level registration of stranded nationals, and use of neighbouring-country airspace/ports as staging points
A prolonged US-Iran conflict in the Gulf region — home to a large Indian workforce — keeps this evacuation machinery on standby, illustrating a recurring institutional response pattern to West Asian instability independent of India's own diplomatic non-involvement in the conflict.
- The current round of strikes followed the breakdown of a conditional ceasefire reached earlier in 2026 between the US and Iran
- UNSC Resolution 2231 (2015) endorsed the JCPOA; its "Termination Day" was October 18, 2025, after which UN sanctions on Iran were reimposed via the E3-triggered snapback mechanism (effective September 27, 2025)
- India's ISPRL strategic crude reserve capacity: 5.33 million tonnes across Visakhapatnam, Mangalore, and Padur, covering an estimated 9-13 days of net crude imports
- India depends on imports for roughly 85-90% of its crude oil requirement
- Operation Raahat (2015) remains India's largest West Asian evacuation precedent, moving over 4,640 Indian nationals out of Yemen by sea and air