Day 2 of Trump’s war on Iran: Leadership transition, Gulf airports targeted, oil up $5

GULF COUNTRIES - In Brief 01 Mar 2026 by Justin Alexander
Firstly, my thoughts are with clients in the region who are sheltering in place, at a time when many are observing Ramadan. I’m sure everyone outside the region is also closely following the news, so I will just summarize some of the key developments with brief analysis. The assault on Iran Israel seems to be responsible for the bulk of strikes, reporting that it deployed 200 planes and made 1,200 strikes in the first 24 hours, repeating its June 2025 war with even greater intensity. The US, operating from Israel, Jordan and its aircraft carriers and other ships, as well as long-range B2 bombers from Missouri, seems to be focused on more high-value targets. The targeting focus initially has been on air defenses, missile batteries and the navy, with Trump saying 9 vessels had been destroyed. As well as Ayatollah Ali Khameni, who had been the supreme leader since 1989, dozens of leading military and civilian officials have been killed, many of them in the Israeli strike on a high-level meeting in Tehran at the start of the war. This includes the Minister of Defence (Aziz Nasirzadeh), the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (Abdolrahim Mousavi) and the Commander of the IRGC (Mohammad Pakpour). Also, Ali Shamkhani, the most prominent Arab in the regime, who was the nuclear negotiator in 2025 and was previously injured in last year’s Israeli strikes. Some of those reported killed had not been confirmed at the time of writing, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was president in 2005-13 but had been at odds with Khamenei for a decade and was reportedly under house arrest, making him a strange target. President Masoud Pezeshkian announced a temporary leadership council until a ne...

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