As it happened: Iranian clerics pick new supreme leader; Aussie shares shed nearly $90 billion; Stop panic-buying fuel, Aussies told

Thanks for following along with our live coverage of the war in the Middle East today. We're going to close off our blog for now.

For the latest news and updates on the conflict, be sure to stay tuned to 9news.com.au and nine.com.au.

French President Emmanuel Macron is travelling to Cyprus today, days after dispatching a warship to the eastern Mediterranean island nation, AP reports.

That's significant because an Iranian Shahed drone struck a British air base on its southern coast last week during the Iran war.

Macron ordered the French frigate Languedoc to waters off Cyprus to bolster the European Union member country's anti-drone and anti-missile defences.

The French president also decided to send ground-based anti-drone and anti-missile defences to the island, which sustained the first drone attack on European territory.

France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is also expected to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean in the coming days.

Trading has closed on the ASX for today, with the ASX200 finishing the day down 2.88 per cent – a $90 billion wipeout.

While better than the 4 per cent loss the index was sitting at around lunchtime, it's still the worst day for the local sharemarket in almost a year, since Donald Trump's so-called "liberation day" tariff announcements last April.

More strikes are being reported as Monday dawns across the Middle East.Israel launched a new wave of strikes on central Iran, its military said, CNN reports.

The Israeli military also said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the capital of Beirut.

Videos show a fire at Beirut's Ramada hotel and damage to an apartment at the hotel after an Israeli attack.

In Bahrain, at least 32 people were wounded, four seriously, when Iranian drone strikes hit the Sitra neighbourhood in the early hours.In the UAE, a CNN team in Abu Dhabi heard loud booms.

The country's defence ministry said the sounds were a result of its air defence systems intercepting "ballistic missiles as well as fighter jets intercepting drones and cruisers".

In Qatar, armed forces intercepted a missile attack, the Ministry of Defence said in a post on X.

A drone was shot down by Kuwait's National Guard "at one of the sites under its protection".

Surging oil prices triggered by the war with Iran are rippling across African economies, threatening higher fuel costs, rising inflation and renewed pressure on currencies across the continent.

Africa imports most of the petroleum products it consumes, leaving many economies highly vulnerable to supply disruptions tied to tensions in the Middle East, a region central to global oil flows, Associated Press says.

"Africa is a net importer of oil products, meaning it is heavily exposed to shocks like these," said Nick Hedley, an energy transition research analyst at Zero Carbon Analytics.

When global oil supplies tighten, Nedley said, prices rise while African currencies often weaken as investors move funds into safe-haven assets such as the US dollar.

That combination amplifies the impact of price spikes in import-dependent markets such as Kenya and Ghana.

A similar dynamic unfolded after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when rising crude prices and a weakening currency pushed transport fuel prices in South Africa up by more than 25 per cent within six months, Hedley said.

The Persian Gulf has a resource more precious than oil. Water.

And there are fears the recent targeting of desalination plants in the US and Israeli war with Iran could severely disrupt water supply across the desert countries.

Bahrain reported an Iranian drone had caused damage to its water desalination plant, a day after Iran accused the US of hitting one of its plants on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

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Independent petrol stations in regional Australia have been hit by a devastating fuel shortage after widespread panic buying triggered major oil companies to cut supply.

Transwest Fuels co-owner Sam Clifton said his bowsers around regional New South Wales and Queensland are running dry following an "unprecedented collapse in supply availability".

Clifton warned some regional independent chains like Transwest are either "completely out of fuel" or running out fast as national wholesalers ration fuel and funnel it into metro areas.

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Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been named as his successor, Iranian state television has announced.

The younger Khamenei had long been considered a contender, even before an Israeli strike killed his father at the start of the war, and despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.

A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Khamenei has not been seen publicly since Saturday, when the Israeli airstrike targeting the supreme leader's offices killed his 86-year-old father.

Also killed were the younger Khamenei's wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country's theocracy.

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For more on what's happening in Saudi Arabia, after the nation's Defence Ministry said it intercepted a drone attacking the country's massive Shaybah oil field earlier today, the kingdom issued some sharper warnings to Iran that it would be the "biggest loser" if it continued to attack Arab states.

It dismissed comments by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday that Iran had halted its attacks on Gulf Arab states.

"The kingdom affirms that the Iranian side has not implemented this statement in practice, neither during the Iranian president's speech nor afterwards," Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Iran has continued its aggression based on flimsy pretexts devoid of any factual basis."