U.S. embassy in Riyadh hit by drones

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran is sending shockwaves across global energy markets, with Asia expected to face the maximum pain.

A prolonged closure of the Strait would likely lead to a further surge in oil prices, with some analysts seeing oil crossing $100 per barrel. Global benchmark Brent was last up 2.6% at around $80 per barrel —almost 10% higher since the conflict broke out.

About 20% of global liquefied natural gas exports that come from the Gulf are also at risk.

“In Asia, Thailand, India, Korea and the Philippines are the most vulnerable to higher oil prices, due to their high import dependence, while Malaysia would be a relative beneficiary since it is an energy exporter,” Nomura wrote in a note on Monday.

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— Lee Ying Shan

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions as the war with Iran escalates.

He added that the stockpiles “at the medium and upper medium grade” have never been higher or better. It was not immediately clear what weapon grades Trump was referring to.

‘Wars can be fought “forever,” and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!),” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

He added that “Much additional high grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries.”

Earlier, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar denied reports that their inventories of Patriot interceptor missiles were running low.

The two countries had requested assistance to counter aerial threats such as missiles and drones, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

“These assertions are unfounded and misrepresent the UAE’s high level of preparedness, technological sophistication, and operational readiness,” the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Qatar’s International Media Office also said it is “well-stocked” with Patriot interceptor missiles.

— Victor Loh

Amazon‘s cloud computing unit confirmed three of its data centers in the Middle East were damaged by drone strikes, taking the facilities offline.

The company posted in an update to its Amazon Web Services health dashboard that two facilities in the United Arab Emirates were “directly struck” by drones on Sunday, causing extensive damage. A site in Bahrain was damaged due to a drone strike that occurred nearby.

“These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage,” the company wrote.

AWS encouraged customers to consider migrating workloads to other regions as the situation in the region remains “unpredictable.” It also said expected a prolonged recovery “given the nature of the physical damage involved.”

— Annie Palmer

U.S. President Donald Trump told NewsNation that details of Washington’s response to the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, and for the deaths of American military personnel in the Iran conflict, would be revealed “soon,” according to a reporter from the outlet who shared excerpts of the interview on X on Monday.

Trump also said that boots on the ground won’t be necessary, according to the reporter’s post.

Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said earlier that the U.S. embassy had been hit by drones, causing a small fire and minor material damage.

— Vinay Dwivedi

The U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh was hit by two drones on Tuesday morning, according to the Middle Eastern country’s defense ministry.

The drone attack resulted in a “limited fire and minor material damage” to the building, according to the defense authority.

The U.S. Embassy to Saudi Arabia has issued a warning for people in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran to hide in the shelter and limited non-essential travel to any military installations in the region.

“We recommend American citizens in the Kingdom to shelter in place immediately,” the embassy said in a post on X.

— Anniek Bao