BERLIN, March 31 (Reuters) – Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party has used surging energy prices to revive its longstanding call for Berlin to turn once more to Russia for ​cheap energy after scoring some of its best results in two state elections this month. German petrol prices have jumped by more than 15% since the U.S. ‌and Israel began their war on Iran a month ago, and the AfD’s argument won a ready hearing this month among voters in Baden-Wuerttemberg, a centre of the German car industry. AFD ​NOW GERMANY’S SECOND PARTY The Alternative for Germany consolidated its

TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) – Iran attacked and set ​ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Monday, as President Donald Trump warned the U.S. would obliterate Iran’s energy plants and oil wells if it does not open the Strait of ‌Hormuz. The strike on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi is the latest in a string of assaults on merchant vessels by missiles or explosive air and sea drones in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. The month-long conflict has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands, disrupting energy supplies and threatening to send the

TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, March 30 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump warned on Monday that Iran’s energy plants and ​oil wells would be obliterated if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran described U.S. peace proposals as “unrealistic” and fired waves of missiles at Israel. Israel’s military said two drones from Yemen ‌had also been intercepted on Monday, two days after the Iran-aligned Houthis entered the war by firing missiles at Israel, and that Lebanon’s Hezbollah had fired rockets at Israel. IRAN DEFIANT Tehran remained defiant in the month-old war, which began with U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28