US-Iran war updates: Iranian women’s football player withdraws asylum claim amid reported threats

An Israeli military spokesman says it is planning for at least three more weeks of its campaign against Iran, while US Energy Secretary Chris Wright predicts the war will end within “the next few weeks”.

“We have thousands of targets ahead,” Israeli army spokesman Effie Defrin told US broadcaster CNN.

“We are ready, in coordination with our US allies, with plans through at least the Jewish holiday of Passover, about three weeks from now. And we have deeper plans for even three weeks beyond that,” he added.

Passover, a key date in the Jewish religious calendar, starts on the evening of April 1 when families gather to mark the liberation of Jews from Egyptian slavery thousands of years ago.

The Israeli military reports that the air force has carried out more than 400 waves of strikes since renewed hostilities began on February 28, targeting Iranian infrastructure in particular.

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More than 400 million barrels of oil from International Energy Agency emergency reserves will begin flowing soon, the agency says in its most detailed account of the rollout of the plan to combat a spike in crude prices since the start of the Iran war.

Stocks from Asia and Oceania countries will be available immediately and stocks from Europe and the Americas will be available at the end of March, the agency said on Sunday, four days after the agreement was announced.

Governments have committed to make available 271.7 million barrels of oil from government stocks, 116.6 million barrels from obligated industry stocks and 23.6 million barrels from other sources, the statement said.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has posted a video of himself getting a cup of coffee and chatting with his aide after rumours that he was dead or injured were aired by Iranian state media and spread online in Iran.

In the video, taken at a cafe in Jerusalem’s outskirts and posted on Mr Netanyahu’s Telegram and X accounts, his aide asks him about the rumours.

Mr Netanyahu responds with a pun on the word dead - which in Hebrew slang can be used to describe “being crazy about” someone or something, as he reaches for a cup of coffee.

Reuters verified the video’s location from file imagery of the cafe, which matched the interiors seen in the video.

The date was verified from multiple videos and photos of Mr Netanyahu’s visit posted by the cafe on Sunday.

The captain of Iran’s women’s national football team has reportedly become the latest player to reverse her decision to seek asylum in Australia.

According to Iranian state media, Zahra Ghanbari has withdrawn her earlier plan to remain in the country after being granted a humanitarian visa alongside several teammates last week.

Reports suggest Ghanbari is expected to travel to Malaysia before eventually returning to Iran.

Separate reports also claim her mother in Iran was questioned by the country’s Revolutionary Guard after Ghanbari and six other members of the national squad accepted asylum offers from the Australian government.

Tina Kordrostami, a councilor for the Australian city of Ryde, claimed the players were being “heavily intimidated” by Tehran, suggesting their families were being used as leverage to get them back home.

“I know families have even been detained. I know family members are missing,” Ms Kordrostami told Fox News’ “Fox Report With Jon Scott.”

The development comes after several other players also reconsidered their decisions over the weekend, with four leaving Australia after choosing to return home.