HONG KONG: Most Asian shares were lower in morning trade on Monday, extending slides in global markets, as the impasse in the Middle East drove oil prices more than two percent higher. Washington and Tehran agreed to a truce in April, but negotiations on ending the conflict have stalled and sporadic attacks in the region have continued. US President Donald Trump issued a fresh warning to Iran on Sunday, saying it had to move quickly towards a peace deal or &quot;there won&#39;t be anything left of them&quot;. The war has led to an effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of global oil exports pass in peacetime. The strait &quot;remains meaningfully closed now approaching eleven weeks after the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing concluded without a breakthrough on reopening the waterway&quot;, MUFG&#39;s Michael Wan said Monday. Tokyo shares lost 1.0% and Hong Kong was down 1.4%, while Shanghai was flat. Sydney, Bangkok, Taipei, Singapore and Wellington also fell, with Jakarta tumbling 2.7%. Seoul, which has renewed record highs in recent days thanks to the artificial intelligence stock boom, was trading up 1.2%. &quot;Global government yields rose sharply heading into the start of this week, as three forces collided: surging oil prices, fading hopes for a Strait of Hormuz resolution, and mounting fiscal concerns especially in the UK and US,&quot; Wan said. However, last week&#39;s talks on trade between China and the United States have offered &quot;a degree of relief for Asian markets&quot;, he added. &#39;Wave&#39; of AI demandData showed Monday that China&#39;s consumer spending in April grew at the slowest pace in more than three years a stark sign of the challenges Beijing faces to reignite domestic activity. In Tokyo, shares in memory chip maker Kioxia were not yet trading after a reported rush of buy orders following stellar quarterly results on Friday. Kioxia, the world&#39;s third-largest producer of NAND flash memory chips used as storage in AI data centers has seen its stock soar nearly 300% over the past year. The firm has forecast an eye-watering 1.3 trillion yen ($8.2 billion) in operating profit for April-June, saying it is &quot;riding the large wave of AI demand, which has led to record high revenue and profits&quot;. In South Korea, Samsung Electronics which has also profited massively from the AI memory chip boom resumed union talks in a bid to avoid a strike over bonus payments, due to start Thursday. Later Monday, traders will have their eye on a meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bank chiefs that kicks off in Paris, with bond selloffs in the spotlight, analysts said. Then all eyes will be on quarterly results from US chip titan Nvidia, set for Wednesday, which will be scrutinized as tech investors question whether huge spending on AI data centers is justified by potential returns. Key figures at around 0215 GMT&nbsp; West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.5% at $108.00 a barrel Brent North Sea Crude: UP 2.1% at $111.52 a barrel Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0% at 60,797.08 Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.4% at 25,593.23 Shanghai - Composite: FLAT at 4133.75 Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3311 from $1.3316 on Friday Euro/pound: UP at 87.27 pence from 87.25 pence Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1617 from $1.1620 Dollar/yen: UP at 158.92 yen from 158.78 yen New York - DOW: DOWN 1.1% at 49,526.17 points (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.7% at 10,195.37 (close)

Pedestrians walk past an electronic quotation board displaying the Nikkei Stock Average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in Tokyo on May 18, 2026. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP) Related content

Business

Asian markets fell as Middle East tensions pushed oil prices higher, with Strait of Hormuz disruption fears, weak China data, and upcoming US tech earnings weighing on sentiment.

Asian stocks sink, oil rises on US-Iran deadlock

BEIRUT: UN peacekeepers said they were fired upon &quot;likely by non-state armed groups&quot; in south Lebanon on Sunday, while a Hamas source said an Israeli strike killed an official from the Palestinian group. Israel said no direct talks were planned with Lebanon to end the latest war with militant group Hezbollah, which has been raging for two weeks. The statement came a day after a Lebanese official said Beirut was preparing a delegation to negotiate with Israel. Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes, with Israel launching air raids on the neighboring country and troop incursions into border areas. Lebanese authorities said the death toll in Israeli attacks rose to 850, while more than 830,000 people have registered as displaced, including some 130,000 staying in collective shelters. Driving rain on Sunday piled more misery on displaced people, hundreds of whom have been sleeping rough or in tents near central Beirut&#39;s seafront. Coffee shop owner Nader, 42, displaced from Beirut&#39;s southern suburbs, said he had rebuilt his home after the previous Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2024 and feared it had again been destroyed. &quot;Here we have nothing, and the situation is very bad with the heavy rains and wind -- it&#39;s very cold, lots of babies are sick, and we can&#39;t protect them,&quot; he told AFP. &#39;No&#39; talksThe United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its peacekeepers were fired upon three times on Sunday, &quot;likely by non-state armed groups&quot; in the country&#39;s south, two days after a different position was hit by fire that Lebanon&#39;s official National News Agency (NNA) had blamed on Israel. The NNA reported Israeli strikes on the country&#39;s south and east on Sunday, while Hezbollah claimed a series of attacks on sites in Israel and on Israeli troops in south Lebanon. The group also said its fighters fired an &quot;advanced missile&quot; at the Palmachim air base south of Tel Aviv. The NNA said Israel struck &quot;an apartment in a residential building&quot; in a northern district of the coastal city of Sidon, killing one person and causing a fire. An AFP correspondent saw damage to an apartment building as the army cordoned off the area while rescue teams fought a blaze and residents rushed into the street, some carrying belongings. The Hamas source, requesting anonymity, said official Wissam Taha was killed. Israel has repeatedly struck Hamas targets in Lebanon in recent years, including during previous hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that erupted over the Gaza war, and after a 2024 ceasefire. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has proposed direct negotiations with Israel, but Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday responded &quot;no&quot; when asked whether Israel was set to hold such talks. Maritime border deal&nbsp;Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen instead called for the cancellation of a US-brokered 2022 maritime border deal with Lebanon, adding that &quot;a vague promise&quot; of improved security for Israel under the deal &quot;was not fulfilled&quot;. A Lebanese official had told AFP on Saturday that the country was preparing to form a delegation to negotiate with Israel, but that there was no agenda, timing, or location yet decided for any talks. French President Emmanuel Macron has said the Lebanese government was ready to engage in &quot;direct talks&quot; with Israel, and he offered to host negotiations. Israel&#39;s military also renewed an evacuation warning for Beirut&#39;s southern suburbs, which it has repeatedly struck in the past fortnight. An AFP photographer in south Beirut saw empty streets covered with debris and buildings flattened, with smoke still rising in the area after strikes in previous days. Southeast of Sidon, Lebanon&#39;s health ministry said an overnight strike killed three people in the village of Al-Qatrani. While Israel&#39;s military said it hit &quot;several Hezbollah launch sites&quot; there. The Israeli army also said it had destroyed &quot;command centres&quot; belonging to Hezbollah&#39;s elite Radwan Force in Beirut.

An Israeli self-propelled howitzer artillery gun fires rounds towards southern Lebanon from a position in the upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border on March 15, 2026 (AFP)

Middle East

Israeli strikes and Hezbollah attacks continued across Lebanon, with a Hamas official killed in Sidon; Authorities reported 850 deaths and more than 830,000 displaced, as Israel rejected direct negotiations with Lebanon to end the fighting.

UN force in Lebanon says peacekeepers fired upon

BANGKOK: The head of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva warned on Thursday that the global economy is facing a new test of resilience due to escalating conflict in the Middle East.&nbsp; <span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">&quot;This week global resilience is tested yet again by the new conflict in the Middle East,&quot; Georgieva said during a livestream of the &quot;Asia in 2050&quot; conference in Bangkok. <span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">&quot;This conflict, if proven to be more prolonged, has obvious potential to affect global energy prices, market sentiment, growth and inflation, and place new demands on the shoulders of policymakers everywhere,&quot; she added.&nbsp;<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" id="isPasted">The United States and Israel began launching strikes against Iran on Saturday, killing its supreme leader and sparking a wave of retaliatory attacks across the Gulf.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The conflict in the resource-rich region has sent global oil prices soaring, and markets have been thrown into turmoil.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&quot;We are in a world of more frequent, more unexpected shocks and we have been warning our membership for quite some time that uncertainty is now the new normal,&quot; Georgieva said on Thursday.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&quot;We are potentially in a prolonged period of flux.&quot;<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Energy security was &quot;at stake&quot; for most of Asia, she told the conference in Thailand&#39;s capital, noting the markets have fluctuated &quot;like a roller coaster over the last couple of days&quot;.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&quot;So the sooner we see the end of calamity, the better for the whole world.&quot;

'This week global resilience is tested yet again by the new conflict in the Middle East,' Georgieva says during a livestream of the 'Asia in 2050' conference in Bangkok.

Global economic resilience 'tested yet again' by Mideast war: IMF chief

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has returned to the forefront of Middle East peace efforts&nbsp;after a US peace plan on ending the Israel-Hamas war cast him in a leading role in overseeing the post-war administration and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. It&rsquo;s familiar territory for Blair, who spent eight years working to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians as the international community&rsquo;s envoy to the Middle East.His decision to step down in 2015 was seen as a reflection of the dire state of Mideast peace efforts that devolved further under the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US proposal &mdash; which President Donald Trump and Netanyahu said they agreed on after talks at the White House on Monday &mdash; would put Gaza&rsquo;s territory and its more than 2 million people effectively under international control, deploying an international security force and installing a &ldquo;Board of Peace&rdquo; headed by Trump and Blair to oversee the administration and reconstruction. Hamas said Tuesday it would study the plan, both within the group and with other Palestinian factions, before responding.<h3 style="line-height: 2;"> </h3><h3 style="line-height: 2;">Legacy of the war in Iraq</h3>Blair has decades of experience in the Middle East. For some, that&rsquo;s his great strength &mdash; and for others, his huge weakness. As prime minister between 1997 and 2007, he took the United Kingdom into the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite strong public opposition. The subsequent conflict killed 179 British troops, some 4,500 American personnel, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. A public inquiry concluded in 2016 that Blair took the country to war based on flawed intelligence and &ldquo;before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted.&rdquo; But it did not say that the war was illegal, which could have opened the way for Blair to be prosecuted for war crimes. Blair has defended his decision to go to war, saying he did it in good faith, believing that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.<h3 style="line-height: 2;"> </h3><h3 style="line-height: 2;">Mideast diplomatic role</h3>After leaving office in 2007, Blair was appointed Middle East envoy by the &ldquo;Quartet&rdquo; &mdash; the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations &mdash; a post that began with great promise but struggled to deliver dramatic changes in its quest to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Blair&rsquo;s experience in British politics and name recognition offered hope that he had the charisma and connections that might bring progress. But his work became mired in skirmishes over issues such as the movement of Palestinian goods and people in the West Bank, and dealing with the difficulties of a Gaza Strip ruled by the militant Hamas group and blockaded by Israel and Egypt. &ldquo;Well, he was a colossal failure in the many years that he was the special envoy of the Quartet,&rdquo; said Nomi Bar-Yaacov, a Mideast expert at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t achieve much.&rdquo; Blair quit in 2015 with little to show in the way of progress toward a Palestinian state. That was long before the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel ignited the latest war and further poisoned hopes for peace and stability. Recently, Blair has been part of high-level planning talks with the US and others about the future of Gaza. In a statement, Blair said Trump&rsquo;s &ldquo;bold and intelligent&rdquo; plan offers &ldquo;the best chance&rdquo; of ending the Gaza war. He did not mention his own potential role.<h3 style="line-height: 2;"> </h3><h3 style="line-height: 2;">A contentious politician</h3>UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Trump&rsquo;s announcement of a peace plan was &ldquo;profoundly welcome&rdquo; and called &ldquo;on all sides to come together and to work with the US administration to finalize this agreement and bring it into reality.&rdquo; He didn&rsquo;t mention Blair&rsquo;s potential involvement. Blair remains a divisive figure in the Labour Party, praised by some for winning three consecutive elections but forever tarnished in the eyes of others because of the war.Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged that &ldquo;there&rsquo;ll be some people who look at Tony Blair and his legacy in Iraq and will raise eyebrows, to say the least, about whether he&rsquo;s the right man to be involved in this.&rdquo; But he noted that Blair played a key role in ending decades of violence in Northern Ireland with the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement &mdash; experience that could prove essential in the Middle East. Michael Stephens, an international security expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said that Blair being given a role in a transitional Gaza authority &ldquo;has rings of 2003 about it, so it feels uncomfortable. &ldquo;But if it brings a ceasefire, it may not be the worst option,&rdquo; he said. War-weary Palestinians from Gaza expressed little enthusiasm for Blair. &ldquo;Blair is rejected by the people,&rdquo; said Hussein Dhaher, a displaced man from Gaza&rsquo;s northern town of Beit Hanoun. &ldquo;This man has the blood of Iraqis on his hands. He only brings ruin and destruction.&rdquo; Umm Mohammed, a history teacher who shelters with her family in Gaza City, wondered why a Palestinian leader could not have been found instead of Blair. &ldquo;This man is hated in the region because of his role in destroying Iraq, and he won&rsquo;t bring anything good to us Palestinians,&rdquo; she said.

Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair walks through the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023

United Kingdom

Americas

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has returned to the forefront of Middle East peace efforts after a U.S. peace plan on ending the Israel-Hamas war cast him in a leading role in overseeing the post-war administration and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Articles tagged with "Middle east"

Asian stocks sink, oil rises on US-Iran deadlock

UN force in Lebanon says peacekeepers fired upon

Global economic resilience 'tested yet again' by Mideast war: IMF chief

Tony Blair joins Trump-chaired Board of Peace for Gaza plan