Situation Reports

In a March 18 statement, QatarEnergy said the Ras Laffan Industrial City, which is the primary hub for Qatar's liquefied natural gas exports and liquefaction trains, suffered "extensive damage" in Iranian missile strikes that evening.

Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez posted on X on March 18 that she had replaced Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez with Maj. Gen. Gustavo Gonzalez, the commander of the presidential honor guard and a former intelligence chief.

A preliminary hearing began in Astana on a lawsuit filed by China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Co., or CNODC, seeking to overturn Kazakhstan's April 2025 order that redistributed tariff revenue on Russian crude transiting to China via Kazakhstan, Kursiv reported on March 17.

Pakistan's information minister announced on March 18 a pause on strikes in Afghanistan beginning midnight the same day and extending through midnight on March 23, AP reported on March 18.

The Republic of the Congo's President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, aged 82, has been reelected for a fifth term with 94.82 % of the March 15 vote, extending his nearly 42-year rule, according to provisional results announced on state television, Reuters reported on March 17.

The European Parliament's trade committee is set to vote on March 19 on legislation implementing key elements of the 2025 EU-U.S. trade framework agreement after lead negotiators agreed to move ahead with the process, Politico reported on March 17.

Iranian media said the United States and Israel attacked Iran's South Pars gas field and the Asaluyeh gas processing plant, marking the first attack on an upstream facility in the Iran war, Bloomberg reported on March 18.

In the coming days, the U.S. Treasury reportedly plans to issue additional licenses to specific companies to operate in Venezuela's oil sector, in an attempt to boost production and offset crude price increases stemming from the war in Iran, Bloomberg reported on March 17.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Australia on March 23-25 to meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, with both sides indicating the long-negotiated Australia-EU free trade agreement is in its "final stretch" and likely to be finalized during the visit, the Australian Financial Review reported on March 18.

Unnamed sources at Afghanistan's forensic medicine department in Kabul said overnight Pakistani airstrikes hit a drug rehabilitation center in the capital, killing more than 100 people, BBC reported on March 17.