Gold hits near two-month high
Gold rose for a fourth straight session to a near two-month high on Monday, as intensified clashes between Israel and Iran over the weekend stoked fears of a broader regional conflict, pushing investors towards safe-haven assets.
Spot gold gained 0.3 per cent to $3,442.09 an ounce, as of 0246 GMT, after hitting its highest level since April 22 earlier in the session.
US gold futures advanced 0.3 per cent to $3,461.90.
'It's the joint political risk premium that's rising due to the Iran-Israel conflict at this point that is boosted safe-haven demand for gold,' said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst, Asia Pacific at OANDA.
'We have a clear break above $3,400 right now and the short term uptrend is intact. We are seeing resistance level at $3,500 and with the possibility of breaking new high above the $3,500 level.'
Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on Sunday, killing and wounding civilians and raising concerns of a broader regional conflict, with both militaries urging civilians on the opposing side to take precautions against further strikes.
US President Donald Trump said he hopes Israel and Iran can broker a deal but said sometimes countries have to fight it out first.
Gold often considered a safe-haven asset during times of geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
Investors this week will look forward to host of central bank monetary policy decisions, with the spotlight on the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
Reuters
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Al Etihad
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UAE stock markets rebound
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Middle East Eye
36 minutes ago
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Israel's attack on Iran brings the West closer to its day of reckoning
Israel is no longer hiding its crimes. In Gaza, it wages open genocide - razing hospitals, schools, mosques and apartment blocks. More than 55,000 people have been killed. A total siege chokes the demolished territory. Having walked for miles through ruins, exhausted and starving, civilians rush aid trucks for a chance at survival, only to be shot down. Some return with sacks of flour, others with the bloodied corpses of loved ones - gunned down, shelled, as they scrambled for a few grains. And Gaza is just one front. In Lebanon, Israel strikes at will - bombing homes, assassinating across borders, occupying villages it never left. It holds the Syrian Golan Heights, expands deeper into southern Syria, and fires missiles at the edge of Damascus. Borders mean nothing. Laws mean less. Israel moves how it wants, kills whom it wants. 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Soldiers film themselves flattening apartment blocks and posing in the lingerie of the women they've displaced and killed. Families buried in concrete, children erased from classrooms - all in the name of 'security'. In Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, is stormed repeatedly. Israeli mobs march through the streets chanting: 'May your villages burn.' They celebrate the destruction of schools in Gaza. Genocide is no longer denied; it's declared. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of apartheid and war, stands before the cameras claiming to defend the 'free world'. Across the Arab world, people are watching - bitter, disgusted and enraged. Their leaders shake hands with war criminals. They normalise while Israel incinerates. The region has been paralysed, powerless. Until now. Because this time, someone stood up. Iran is not Gaza. It is a sovereign state of around 90 million people, stretching across 1.65 million square kilometres. Its terrain frustrates invasions, its depth absorbs attacks, and its missiles reach deep into Israel. It has been sanctioned, sabotaged, assassinated - and it still stands, still strikes back. For the first time since 1948, Israeli cities are under sustained fire. The illusion of immunity is gone. And Israel cannot claim victimhood - not when it holds the bombs, the nukes, the backing of every western power. Not when it has spent decades attacking others with impunity. Reopening old wounds Indeed, Iran's resistance has shattered illusions: the myth of Israel's invincibility, the silence of the region, the lie of western neutrality. Even those once hostile to Iran on sectarian or political grounds are now cheering - not because Iran is perfect, but because someone finally said: no more. And within Iran, something deeper has awakened. This war has torn open old wounds. Most know 1953, when the CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh after he nationalised Iran's oil. Operation Ajax toppled a democratically elected government and reinstated Mohammad Reza Shah, a western-aligned dictator. What followed was 25 years of repression, enforced by the Savak secret police, armed and trained by the West. By allowing Israel to bomb Iran, Trump is pushing Tehran to go nuclear Read More » But the wounds stretch back further. In the early 1890s, a revolt shook the empire after the shah handed a British company control of Iran's entire tobacco industry. Led by clerics like Ayatollah Shirazi, Iranians launched a nationwide boycott, and the concession was ultimately cancelled. The revolt weakened the Qajar dynasty and planted in Iran's collective memory a searing lesson: never again bow to foreign control. That memory still lives - in every chant, every protest, every funeral. Every missile launched today carries the weight of a century of betrayal and resistance. Now, it's raw again. A clip has gone viral: an unveiled Iranian woman, her voice breaking with fury, denounces the genocide in Gaza, the silence of the West, and the decades of degradation inflicted on her country. Then she shouts: 'We want a nuclear bomb.' This isn't about destruction. It's about dignity. It's about saying: we will not be broken again. This is not just a military conflict, but a historical reckoning - a psychological rupture. Iran isn't just retaliating. It's remembering. And the shift is spreading. Clinging to fantasy Pakistan, the only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons, has sounded the alarm. Its defence minister has warned that the region is on the brink, and Pakistan could be next. As Israel deepens its alliance with India, Islamabad sees what's coming. Turkey, too, is on alert. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned last year that Israel would 'set its sights' on his country if it was 'not stopped'. Then came a chilling retort from Netanyahu in the Knesset: 'The Ottoman Empire will not be revived anytime soon.' This is not a history lesson, but a warning. Turkey knows this is not about Iran alone; it is a campaign to reassert full-spectrum control over the region. Israel, high on western backing and unchecked power, now believes it can subjugate the entire Muslim world: bomb it, starve it, fragment it, humiliate it. Israel thought it could repeat the past: assassinate, bomb, claim victory. But now Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ashkelon are under fire But the region is waking up. This is a war on dignity, on the very idea that anyone in this region dares to stand tall. And still, the West clings to fantasy. The BBC interviews the shah's son, asking if Israeli strikes might help 'liberate' Iran. As if Iranians are waiting to be saved by the son of a dictator - a dictator they themselves overthrew. As if 'freedom' comes from missiles and monarchs. Israel thought it could repeat the past: assassinate, bomb, claim victory. But now Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ashkelon are under fire. The war has entered Israeli soil. The illusion of invulnerability is over. And Iran can endure. It has been preparing for this moment for decades. The dream that Israel could destroy it in days is gone. Tel Aviv has lit a fire it cannot contain. And the West? It stands behind Israel again - mask off. Arming it, shielding it, using it. Not for peace or justice, but for control. But this time, the region is awake. And the reckoning has begun. History is moving. And it may not move in the West's favour. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Israel's strike on Iran's TV station mirrors attacks on journalists in Gaza and Lebanon
Israel's direct strike on Iran's national TV station in Tehran is the latest in a pattern of deliberate attacks on journalists, echoing similar hits in Gaza and Lebanon. The strike hit the station's building during a live broadcast on Monday evening, packed with journalists and technicians at the time. Iranian state media reported casualties. The attack marks the latest in a series of similar strikes targeting media outlets and journalists in other war zones. In Gaza, more than 165 journalists have been killed by Israeli fire since the war broke out in October 2023, according to the International Federation of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). At least 10 media workers have been killed by the Israeli army and several others injured in Lebanon, too, official sources in the country say. Many of those were killed in daylight, in direct hits. No Israeli military officials have been held accountable. The International Court of Justice condemned what it described as 'a continuation of Israel's decades-long pattern of targeting journalists with impunity'. Monday's strike came after the Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened in a post on X to make the 'residents of Tehran pay the price' after Iran's missile attacks on Tel Aviv and Haifa. He then wrote that the TV station would 'disappear'. Minutes later, footage showed Iranian TV staff with bloodied hands pointing towards the burning building.
