Oil prices have surged to their highest level in nearly two weeks amid escalation on multiple fronts of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose more than 3 percent on Monday morning to top $116 a barrel.

The latest climb took the global benchmark to its highest point since March 19, when it briefly touched $119 a barrel.

The surge came after Iran said it was prepared for a US ground invasion, with the speaker of the country’s parliament warning that Tehran was waiting for the arrival of US troops to “set them on fire” and “punish” their regional allies.

Tehran’s warning came as the conflict deepened over the weekend, with the Iranian-backed Houthis launching missiles at Israel for the first time in the war, and Israel expanding its invasion of southern Lebanon.

Asia’s main stock indexes fell sharply in morning trading, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI both down more than 4 percent as of 1:30 GMT.

Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the US-Israel war has disrupted about one-fifth of global oil and liquified natural gas (LNG) supplies, plunging the world into its biggest energy crisis in decades.

Oil prices have risen nearly 60 percent since the start of the war, driving up fuel prices worldwide and forcing numerous countries to adopt emergency measures to conserve energy.

Analysts have warned that oil prices are likely to keep rising unless maritime traffic returns to normal levels in the strait.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s energy infrastructure if Tehran does not relinquish its stranglehold on the waterway by a deadline of April 6.

Trump, who on Thursday extended his deadline by 10 days, has proposed a 15-point plan for ending the war with Iran and insisted that the two sides are making progress towards a deal in indirect talks being mediated by Pakistan.

Tehran has flatly rejected Trump’s plan and proposed its own terms for a ceasefire, including war reparations and recognition of Iran’s right to control the strait.

Greg Newman, CEO of Onyx Capital Group, which began as an oil derivatives trading house, said energy consumers were only beginning to feel the true fallout of the turmoil.

“Physical oil moves around the world in loading cycles, and Europe has taken around three weeks to really start feeling the effects of the oil shortage,” Newman told Al Jazeera.

“Brent is starting to reflect the reality, and we think it’s a steady rise from here towards $120 and beyond.”

Newman said the scale of the disruption had yet to be fully appreciated.

“No one in the market has ever seen the outages we are now suffering from – physical premiums are the highest ever. There is still a sense that the macro world is not taking this seriously enough, but it is worse than anything that has come before it,” he said.

“The reality will come out in the economic numbers over the coming months.”

While Iran has been allowing a growing number of transits by ships that are not aligned with the US or Israel, traffic remains a fraction of pre-war levels.

On Saturday, Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar announced that Tehran had agreed to allow 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels to pass the strait in what he described as a “meaningful step toward peace”.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said last week that Iran had granted an unspecified number of Malaysian vessels permission to clear the strait.

Seven non-Iranian vessels passed the strait on Thursday, up from five on Wednesday and four on Tuesday, according to maritime intelligence firm Windward.

Before the start of the war on February 28, the strait saw an average of 120 daily transits, according to Windward.

[Aljazeera]

An Iranian attack on a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait has killed one Indian worker and damaged a building at the site, according to Kuwaiti authorities, as regional tensions heighten amid the United States – Israeli war on Iran.

“A service building at a power and water desalination plant was attacked as part of the Iranian aggression against the State of Kuwait, resulting in the death of an Indian worker and significant material damage to the building,” Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity said in a statement on Monday.

Technical and emergency response teams were immediately sent to the site to deal with the aftermath of the attack and ensure the normal continuation of operations, it added.

There was no official comment from Iran, where state media quoted the Kuwaiti ministry as saying that there was extensive damage at the plant as a result of the attack.

Reporting from Kuwait City, Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina said Kuwait has been subjected to repeated attacks since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran more than a month ago.

“Just yesterday evening, the Defence Ministry said that 14 missiles and 12 drones were detected in Kuwaiti airspace, and several of those drones were targeting a military camp, where 10 servicemen were injured,” he said. “They have since been taken to the hospital and have received medical treatment.”

Regional escalations have continued to spike since the start of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, which have killed more than 2,000 people – including former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, several other top officials and at least 216 children, according to Iranian authorities – and destroyed critical infrastructure.

Iranian forces have hit back with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel and regional countries hosting US military assets, causing casualties and damage to infrastructure.

Iran has also effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas passes, in a move that has driven up energy ⁠prices and rattled financial markets.

Last week, US President Donald Trump said he would pause threatened attacks on Iranian energy plants for 10 days until April 6. Iran said it would respond with its own attacks on energy sites across the Gulf region if its facilities came under attack.

The war has exposed the vulnerability of critical water infrastructure in a region that is among the most water scarce in the world.

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