Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the sixth day of the US-Israeli war with Iran. As US President Donald Trump refuses to rule out putting boots on the ground, Tehran has said that it is “confident” any American invasion would be a “big disaster” for the US.
- Iranian drones and missiles have targeted US military bases, airfields, and radar sites across the Gulf, including facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain, as the conflict spreads across the region.
- US Central Command is reportedly preparing for a months-long war, while Trump has boasted that the US has “an unlimited supply of weapons” to fight until Washington’s shifting objectives – which now involve Trump choosing Iran’s new leader – are achieved.
- Missiles and drones allegedly launched from Iran crashed near Nakhchivan airport in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded an apology from Tehran, while Iran's ambassador to Russia told RT that the incident may have been an Israeli provocation.
- The strike on an Iranian school that killed at least 160 pre-teen students and teachers on the first day of the US-Israeli attacks resembles a form of “human sacrifice” by an “Epstein cult," an Iranian diplomat has claimed.
- Araghchi has warned of “terrorist movements” along the Iraqi border and called for stronger security measures amid the escalating conflict. Al Jazeera has claimed that the Iranian forces have launched an operation targeting Kurdish groups in their semi-autonomous region in neighboring Iraq.
- The US-Israeli attack on Iran could spur nuclear proliferation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned. The Kremlin has previously said Russian President Vladimir Putin “is making every effort” to help de‑escalate the crisis.
- More than 1,200 people have been killed in Iran since the campaign began, including civilians, according to monitoring groups. At least 12 people have been killed in Israel by retaliatory Iranian strikes. Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon have also killed at least 72 people.
Follow our live coverage for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.
05 March 2026
A video posted on social media shows an impact in southern Beirut.
More strikes were reported in southern Lebanon. Local health officials said at least 105 people have been killed by Israeli strikes.
The “precision strike” on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, that killed at least 175 people was most likely carried out by the US, the visual investigation by the New York Times suggests.
According to the NYT, the attack on February 28 occurred at the same time the US was conducting strikes against a nearby naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The strike on the school was widely condemned by human rights groups and the UN.
In an interview with NBC News, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Russia and China are “supporting us politically and otherwise.” He said the history of military cooperation between Russia and Iran “is not a secret,” and that it will continue.
Asked whether Russia has been “actively helping” Iran during the current war with the US and Israel, Araghchi replied, “They have always helped us.” When pressed further, the diplomat said he would not provide details of Iran’s cooperation with other countries during the conflict.
Russia and Iran signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement in January 2025.
Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of Russia’s Council of the Federation, condemned the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials as “an utterly barbaric, criminal act.”
“It was completely unjustifiable,” Kosachev said. “At this difficult moment, we are unequivocally on the Iranian side,” he added.
Kosachev urged all sides to show restraint. He said that although Iran “had the right to retaliate,” its retaliatory strikes “do not always achieve their intended goals.”
Speaking about Iran on Thursday evening, President Donald Trump said the US “will ensure that whoever leads the country next, Iran will not threaten America or its neighbors.”
Trump reiterated that the US “had really no choice” but to attack Iran. “They were going to hit us if we didn’t hit them,” he said.
The US Central Command denied on X the “baseless” claims that an American fighter jet was shot down over Basra in southern Iraq on Thursday.
The Iranian military said it shot down several aircraft, but none of the claims were confirmed.
The US lost three F-15s during a friendly fire incident in Kuwait over the weekend. All of the pilots survived.
An image of the Khorramshahr ballistic missile was posted to the X account of Ali Khamenei. The caption reads, “The Khorramshahrs are on the way.”
Khamenei was killed during the first wave of US-Israeli strikes on Saturday.
Apparent cluster munitions were seen in the skies over Tel Aviv.
Other reports suggested it may have been debris from an intercepted projectile.
New impacts were reported in Israel and Ramallah in the West Bank.
China is in talks with Iran to allow crude oil and Qatari liquefied natural gas vessels safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz as the US-Israeli strikes intensify, Reuters has said citing three diplomatic sources.
Oman’s capital Muscat is emerging as a leading airport for repatriation flights from the Middle East, at a time when the airspace of Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE is closed, according to Flightradar24.
In a post on X on Thursday, it noted that 30 percent of all flights taking off or landing in Muscat were private jets.
A drone attack struck an oilfield operated by a US firm in Dohuk in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on Thursday, causing a fire, security sources has told Reuters.
Russia expresses its deepest condolences on tragic passing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his family, Russia’s Deputy FM Rudenko has said after meeting Iran’s envoy in Moscow.
Khamenei’s death is a "result of treacherous, cowardly blow inflicted during American/Israeli aggression," he added.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has warned the conflict could affect traffic through the Suez Canal, a major source of foreign currency for Egypt, as shipping companies reroute vessels away from the region.
“The current crisis might have some repercussions on prices,” he said, warning that traders accused of price gouging could face military courts.
Although Egypt has not been directly involved in the US and Israeli war on Iran, the conflict has disrupted trade routes and heightened economic pressures across the Middle East.
Oil prices were already at near multi-month highs on Thursday as attacks on tankers and the escalating conflict in the area disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.
British PM Starmer has defended the decision not to join US-Israeli attacks on Iran, saying the best solution to is “a negotiated settlement with Iran, where they give up their nuclear ambitions,” Anadolu reports.
The Guardian previously reported that the US cut the UK out of the official loop on the airstrikes. It came alongside Starmer’s decision to refuse permission for the US to use British military bases for the operation.
Since the beginning of the escalation, Trump has attacked Starmer for his refusal to let America use the military sites, calling the PM “no Churchill.”
The US State Department has suspended all operations at the US embassy in Kuwait, citing the “safety of Americans” in the country.
Iran killed six US troops in a missile attack on an American base in Kuwait on Sunday, and attacked at least three other US facilities in Kuwait with drones and missiles. On Thursday, a large explosion caused significant damage to an oil tanker 60 kilometers off the coast of Kuwait.
Iran is “an exporter of war” seeking to “drag as many countries into this war as possible,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Iran since the US and Israel began pounding the country with airstrikes on Saturday. Among the dead are over 160 schoolchildren killed in a strike on an elementary school in Minab. Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon have also killed at least 72 people.
At least 12 people in Israel and another 6 US military personnel have been killed by retaliatory Iranian strikes on Israel and US bases in the region.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed his gratitude to the “proud and honourable” Kurdish people who have “stood by Iran.”
In a post on X, he shared condolences to those who lost their loved ones in the US-Israeli strikes. He added, however, as “guardians of security,” Iran's armed forces “are duty-bound to decisively confront any separatist activities.”
Earlier, US President Donald Trump told Reuters that he supports Kurdish forces launching an offensive against Iran, as Iranian Kurdish militias and US officials have reportedly discussed potential future military operations. Later in the day, media reports suggested that the Iranian military launched strikes on some Kurdish territories. These reports, however, are unconfirmed.
Iran is “waiting” for an American ground invasion, and is “confident that we can confront them,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told NBC News.
“That would be a big disaster for them. We were ready for this war even more than the previous war,” he told anchor Tom Llamas. “We have prepared ourselves to confront any scenario, any eventuality, any possibility.”
US President Donald Trump has refused to rule out putting boots on the ground in Iran, despite concerns that a ground invasion would result in unacceptable American casualties.
Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, have affirmed their “support for the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Muslim Iranian people.”
“Regarding the military escalation and military action, our fingers are on the trigger at any moment that the developments require it,” Commander Abdulmalik Badreddine Al-Houthi said in a statement.
Moscow has been closely monitoring Iran's peaceful nuclear program through the IAEA, and Washington's claims that Tehran was enriching uranium are simply not true, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has told RT in the latest episode of Sanchez Effect.
She also drew parallels between the Minsk talks, which masked plans to militarize Ukraine, and the negotiations with Tehran. Moscow wanted to trust the US, she said, but it is actions that Russia believes, not words.
It is “not yet” the time for diplomacy with Iran, Israel’s envoy to the UN, Danny Danon, has said.
“We need to continue to hammer, to dismantle the capabilities, and then to use diplomacy,” he said at UN headquarters in New York.
After the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has rejected talks with either Washington or West Jerusalem.
NATO countries have increased their ballistic missile defense posture, the bloc's military headquarters said on Thursday, citing the “threat” from Iran.
The statement comes as Türkiye claimed NATO defense systems intercepted an Iranian missile. Iran’s Armed Forces have denied firing any missile towards Turkish territory.
RT’s Tehran bureau is still up and running, despite days of repeated US-Israeli strikes in the surrounding area. Here, bureau chief Hami Hamedi shows Iranian Government Information Council chief Elias Hazrat the extent of the damage.
A five-storey building next to our bureau was completely flattened, with fatalities reported.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has addressed reports suggesting that the US may be open to a limited ground invasion. He asserted that Iran is fully prepared to respond.
”The valiant sons of Imam Khomeini and Imam Khamenei are waiting for you, ready to disgrace those corrupt American officials by killing and capturing thousands,” he wrote in a post on X.
Ukraine has sent an unknown number of “Ukrainian specialists” to the Middle East at the request of the US, Vladimir Zelensky has announced on X. According to Zelensky, these specialists will help American forces counter the threat posed by Iranian ‘Shahed’ drones.
Zelensky has been attempting to insert Ukrainian anti-drone teams into the conflict since it started on Saturday.
Air defense systems have been seen firing in Dubai, amid reports of incoming Iranian drones. Unverified social media footage – recorded in defiance of a government ban – shows multiple interceptor missiles above the city.
Iran’s targets in the UAE have included an American air base in Abu Dhabi, a port in Dubai, and two Amazon data centers.
“People are loving what’s happening” in Iran, US President Donald Trump has told Politico. In a phone interview with the outlet, Trump claimed that the US has “unlimited supply of weapons” to keep waging war, that he will “work with the people and the regime” to choose a new leader in Iran, and that rising energy costs won’t harm Republicans’ chances in this year’s midterm elections.
Meanwhile, multiple media outlets have claimed that US forces in the Middle East are rapidly running out of munitions, while Tehran has said that it will not enter negotiations with Washington.
An Iranian missile has struck an oil refinery in Bahrain, sparking a fire at one of Bapco Energies’ units, Al Jazeera has reported.
Bahrain’s National Communication Center said the blaze has been fully contained.
Officials said there were no reported injuries and refinery operations were continuing, with an assessment of the damage underway.
The refinery is run by Bahrain’s Bapco state oil company and is located on the east coast of Sitra, south of the capital, Manama.
“Plan A for a clean rapid military victory failed,” Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, has told Trump.
“Your Plan B will be [an] even bigger failure,” he warned.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, has said Israel and the US must dismantle more of Iran’s capabilities before turning to diplomacy.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that Israeli strikes and threats of incursion in Lebanon are forcing more people to flee their homes.
“Yet again, spiraling violence across the region is forcing thousands to flee their homes in southern Lebanon,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, said. UNRWA has opened emergency shelters for those who are displaced, he added.
Sri Lanka has evacuated 208 crew members from an Iranian navy vessel a day after a US submarine struck and sank an Iranian frigate.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the country’s navy will also board and sail the second vessel to the northeastern port of Trincomalee for safekeeping amid fears that it could be a target for attack.
US President Donald Trump told Axios in an interview Thursday that he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader, just as he was in Venezuela.
He also noted that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei, is widely seen as the most likely successor, but said he would not accept that outcome.
“Khamenei’s son is a lightweight,” Trump said. “I have to be involved in the appointment.”
Iran did not target Nakhchivan in Azerbaijan, Tehran's envoy to Russia, Kazem Jalali, has said in an RT exclusive.
He called it a “provocation” by Israel and “psychological warfare.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev previously called the strike a “terrorist act,” blaming Tehran and demanding an apology.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has asked his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to intervene and stop Israel’s threatened mass bombing of Dahieyh, in the southern part of Beirut.
Earlier, Israel issued forced displacement orders for the entirety of the southern suburbs, home to hundreds of thousands of people.
A statement from the Lebanese presidency says Aoun also asked Macron “to work to stop the fighting as quickly as possible.”
Israeli army artillery and tanks are heading north, RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij has reported from Jerusalem.
Israel previously warned that Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, “will look like Khan Younis,” after the military instructed its tens of thousands of residents to leave immediately or risk being attacked.
The evacuation order caused panic among the Lebanese citizens.
Contracts for US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude have soared more than 5% to $78.88 per barrel in trading, the highest level since January last year, as attacks on tankers and the escalating conflict in the Middle East disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.
International benchmark Brent North Sea crude jumped 3.6% to $84.34 per barrel.
More than 3,600 civilian sites have been damaged in the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to figures released by the Iranian Red Crescent on X.
The head of the Iranian Red Crescent reportedly said 3,090 homes, 528 commercial centers, 13 medical facilities and nine Red Crescent facilities have been attacked so far.
The official said several major medical facilities had been damaged, including Khatam Hospital, Gandhi Hospital and several rehabilitation clinics.
Azerbaijan has closed part of its southern airspace near the Iranian border for 12 hours after reporting that Iranian drones had entered its airspace.
The move comes after Azerbaijan said drones coming from Iran had crossed the border and struck parts of the country’s Nakhchivan exclave, damaging infrastructure and injuring civilians.
Iran has denied responsibility for the incident.
US CENTCOM has released a video of the destruction of Iranian Air Force hangars.
The World Health Organization chief has said that it has verified 13 attacks on health infrastructure in Iran amid US-Israeli strikes, killing four health care workers and injuring 25 others.
“WHO has verified 13 attacks on health care in Iran and one in Lebanon,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference, without attributing blame.
Dr. Hanan Balkhy added at the same briefing that four ambulances in Iran were also affected and that hospitals and other health sites suffered minor damage due to strikes nearby. One of these hospitals in the capital Tehran was evacuated as a result.
Iran's ambassador to the UN Geneva alleged that ten facilities had been hit by military strikes in a letter to Tedros earlier this week.
Israel plans to attack ballistic missile sites in Iran, reportedly buried deep underground, two sources familiar with the country’s military campaign have told Reuters.
The joint air assault with the US against Iran is nearing the end of its first week after opening salvos killed the country's leader Ali Khamenei and set off a regional war which has seen Iranian attacks on Israel, the Gulf and Iraq, as well as Israeli strikes on Lebanon.
An RT team has visited the Azadi Stadium in Tehran, destroyed in US-Israeli strikes.
The number of casualties and amount of damage in the strikes is not yet known, according to RT sources.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Iran since the campaign began, including civilians, according to monitoring groups.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded an apology from Iran after a drone injured two people in its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan, saying those responsible must be held accountable.
In a post on the presidential website, Aliyev said he had convened a meeting over the incident, in which he said Nakhchivan International Airport, its terminal building, a school, and other areas were “subjected to cowardly fire.”
“The territory of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic was subjected to fire by the Iranian state with unmanned aerial vehicles. The targets of the fire were civilian objects.”
“The Azerbaijani state strongly condemns this ugly terrorist act, and those who committed it must be immediately held accountable,” the statement added.
Azerbaijan also summoned Iran’s ambassador to the Foreign Ministry in Baku following the incident, which Tehran denies it carried out.
Lebanese Minister of Information Paul Morcos cited Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in telling authorities to do “whatever is necessary” to prevent any military or security activity by IRGC members in the country ahead of deporting them.
Speaking after a cabinet session at the Grand Serail, Morcos said Salam also rejected accusations that the government is aligning itself with Israeli demands or implementing “Israeli decisions”.
RT Lebanon bureau chief Steve Sweeney went to the Baalbek-Beirut highway, where a car was struck by an Israeli drone around 9 AM this morning.
This strike came just hours after another two vehicles were struck in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on the airport highway, expanding the drone war between Hezbollah and Israel.
France has authorized the temporary presence of US aircraft at “certain bases” in the country, an official with the French joint defense staff has said.
”Considering the context, France demanded that the concerned resources must not participate in any way in operations conducted by the United States in Iran and strictly for the support of the defense of our partners in the region,” the official has told Al Jazeera.
The Israeli army has order Lebanese citizens of the southern communities of Burj al-Barajneh, Hadath, Harika and Shiya to evacuate their homes.
Iran's ambassador to Indonesia, Mohammad Boroujerdi, has said that Tehran has no intention of attacking Türkiye after reports that a missile had landed on Turkish territory.
Speaking to RT’s correspondent in Jakarta, the ambassador said Tehran believes some actors are trying to create tensions between Iran and its neighbors. He also described Türkiye as a friendly country.
“We did not attack them. We are not going to attack them. They are Iran’s friends,” he said.
Türkiye’s Ministry of National Defense said on Wednesday that a ballistic missile fired from Iran towards Turkish airspace after passing over Syria and Iraq had been destroyed by NATO air and missile defense systems over the eastern Mediterranean.
RT Lebanon bureau chief Steve Sweeney went to the Dar Al Amal Hospital in Baalbek, where people injured in recent Israeli strikes are receiving treatment.
One family member of a wounded child says several relatives had also been injured in the strikes, and one of her brothers remains missing following the attack. The family told reporters that the injured girl is eight years old, while her missing brother is around eleven.
Speaking outside the hospital, a family member said two children were taken to the hospital and that relatives are still searching for the missing boy. The family described the situation as extremely difficult, stressing that they are civilians with no connection to any political or military group.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health has reported that the death toll from early Monday until Wednesday evening has risen to 72, with 437 others injured.
Rashid Al-Mohanadi, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, has said Gulf states are “in shock” after being drawn into the conflict between Iran and the US and Israel. “This is not our war, but unfortunately we were dragged into this war,” he told RT.
Al-Mohanadi also warned of major global energy repercussions after Qatar halted LNG exports, saying Doha had issued a force majeure on shipments. “This is huge because Qatar is the biggest LNG exporter in the world,” he said, adding that gas prices in Europe had already surged. “The reverberations of this on the global energy market will be extremely significant.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has mocked NATO, accused Washington of starting a major war in the Middle East and sarcastically suggested US President Donald Trump should receive a Nobel Peace Prize, in a post on social media.
The death toll in Iran from US and Israeli strikes since Saturday has risen to 1,230, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi has responded to reports that drones struck Nakhchivan International Airport in Azerbaijan, saying Tehran does not target neighboring countries and that the incident must be investigated.
Speaking to AnewZ, Gharibabadi said Iran’s strikes are aimed only at countries hosting the military bases of its enemies.
Six Pakistani and Nepali nationals have been injured after debris from intercepted drones fell in an industrial zone in Abu Dhabi, the emirate’s government media office said on X.
The governor of Qasr-e Shirin in western Iran has denied reports circulating online about armed groups entering the country, calling the claims false. The official said no cases of infiltration or illegal movement by militant groups or bandits have been recorded in that section of the border.
He added that rumors on social media about anti-government elements crossing into Iran from the western border have no factual basis and appear aimed at creating public concern, according to Iranian media.
The comments come as CNN reported this week that the CIA is working on arming Kurdish forces hostile to the Iranian government to support the US-Israeli regime-change war against Tehran.
Brian McGinnis, a former US marine and Green Party Senate candidate who interrupted a congressional hearing to protest the war with Iran, has been arrested and hospitalized following a scuffle with police and Senator Tim Sheehy on Capitol Hill.
During the hearing, he shouted that Americans should not be sent to fight Israel’s wars. Authorities have charged McGinnis with multiple offenses, including assaulting police officers and resisting arrest. Video from the incident appears to show his right arm snapping during the struggle as officers attempted to remove him, while Capitol police said three officers were also injured in the altercation.
A crude oil tanker was damaged by a blast while anchored near Iraq’s Khor al-Zubair port, with the vessel’s hull likely breached, according to its operator, Sonangol Marine Services. The Bahamas-flagged tanker Sonangol Namibe was reportedly approached by an unidentified small boat, shortly before a loud explosion was heard.
The crew later reported that a ballast tank was taking on water, indicating a possible hull breach, though the ship remained stable and afloat. The cause of the explosion has not been specified.
Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands will send naval assets to Cyprus in the coming days to help protect the island, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said.
Spain’s Defense Ministry said it would deploy a frigate, while Greece and France have also pledged to send military assets following a drone attack earlier this week on the British RAF Akrotiri base on the island.
“Iran’s attack on Nakhchivan will not go unanswered,” Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry has said, warning that Baku is preparing an appropriate response after drones struck the exclave.
The incident occurred early on Thursday, when drones flying from the direction of Iran hit the Nakhchivan International Airport, damaging the terminal building, while another drone crashed near a school in a nearby village. Two civilians were injured in the attack, Azerbaijani officials said.
Video filmed by Ruptly shows the aftermath near the airport, with damage to the building and debris at the site.
George Galloway, leader of the Workers’ Party of Britain and a former UK MP, has dismissed US accusations that Iran was negotiating in bad faith, calling the claim “absurd.”
In an interview with RT, he noted that Washington had scheduled another round of talks in Vienna just days before hostilities began, and that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had been preparing for negotiations. “For the United States to condemn anyone for negotiating in bad faith is perfectly ridiculous,” Galloway said. He added that the rationale for the war keeps shifting, with officials citing democracy, human rights, or nuclear weapons. He called the latest claim – that Iran tried to assassinate US President Donald Trump – “the most ridiculous one of all.”
Earlier Trump claimed without evidence that Tehran was behind attempts on his life during the 2024 US presidential election campaign.
Qatar’s Defense Ministry has said its air defense systems are intercepting a missile attack, as multiple explosions were reportedly heard in the skies over Doha.
A video filmed by RT shows the aftermath of a strike on a site linked to the Al Qard Al Hassan financial network, in Baalbek, a city in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. The footage shows a heavily damaged building reduced to rubble, with collapsed concrete slabs and debris scattered across the site.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that one of the goals of the US and Israeli operation against Iran is to drive a wedge between Tehran and countries in the region.
“I have no doubt – and I want to return to this again – that one of the objectives was to create a split between the countries of the region, between the Persian Gulf states – Iran and its Arab neighbors,” Lavrov stated.
He added that “there had been a positive process of normalization in recent years” between Iran and its Arab neighbors.
The Israeli military has released a video purportedly showing an Israeli Air Force “Adir” (F-35i) fighter jet shooting down an Iranian Yak-130 aircraft over Tehran, claiming it marks the first time an F-35i has downed a crewed aircraft in air-to-air combat.
Azerbaijan has said that two drones struck Nakhchivan, with one hitting the local airport and the other falling near a school in the village of Shekerabad.
According to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, two civilians were injured and the terminal building was damaged. Baku condemned what it described as drone strikes launched from Iranian territory and demanded that Tehran “clarify the situation as soon as possible.”
Azerbaijan warned that it reserves the right to take “appropriate retaliatory measures,” and called on Iran to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Missiles and drones reportedly flying from the direction of Iran have fallen near the main airport in the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, which is located between the Islamic Republic and Armenia.
Footage published by Azerbaijan’s APA news agency appears to show the moment a drone crashed and exploded in the area.
Israel has intensified its strikes in Lebanon, which the IDF says are targeting Hezbollah positions, and six people have been killed in attacks on villages in the country’s south, the state-run National News Agency has reported. Two children and their parents died as a result of a strike on a village near Kfar Tebnit, while a separate attack in the Nabatieh area killed a village mayor and his wife, according to the report.
Italy plans to send air defense assistance to the Gulf countries amid Iranian strikes, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday, adding that Rome would join the United Kingdom, France and Germany in providing support.
Speaking to RTL 102.5 radio, Meloni said the aid would focus “specifically in the field of defense and in particular air defense,” adding the move was aimed at protecting tens of thousands of Italians living in the region and around 2,000 Italian troops deployed there.
“Even the leftist-liberal UK’s The Economist is now on board with a $100-a-barrel oil price,” Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian presidential envoy and head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, wrote on X, citing the magazine’s warning that brief disruptions could push Brent oil toward $100, while months of conflict could drive prices even higher.
Brent crude was trading around $83-84 per barrel on Thursday, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) hovered near $76-77, both rising several percent on the day as traders price in the risk of supply disruptions across the region and potential threats to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei has backed US Senator Bernie Sanders’ claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dominates American foreign policy, writing on X that the senator’s assessment was “sadly true.”
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told Israel to “keep going until the end – we’re with you” during talks late Wednesday evening with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, according to a statement from Israel’s Defense Ministry. He did not elaborate on what exactly that “end” might be.
Iran has not sent or received any messages from the US since the start of the conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi has said in an interview with MSNBC, dismissing speculation about back-channel contacts between the two sides.
Takht-Ravanchi said Tehran is focused solely on defending itself, adding that the war had been “imposed” on Iran and rejecting claims it could be ended quickly.
“They thought they could end the war in a few days, but they were gravely mistaken,” he said. The diplomat accused the US and Israel of targeting civilians, including school children, as well as hospitals and relief forces, and insisted Iran’s actions constitute “legitimate defense.”
RT journalist Ali Rida has evacuated along with local residents in Beirut as Israeli strikes intensified, reporting that “another evacuation order” had been issued and that “everyone is driving away from the area.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has insisted that his country didn’t push the United States into the war with Iran, saying in a CBS News interview that “Israel does not dictate to President Trump anything, and Israel does not drag America into a war, God forbid.”
Herzog claimed the decision for the US to join the strikes was made independently by Trump, calling it a result of Washington’s own “clear considerations and professional decision-making process.” He also stressed that Israel was not asking for American troops, adding: “I’m not calling on any boots on the ground. I’m not asking any American or anyone else.”
Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, offered differing explanations for the US entry into the Iran war, with Trump saying he acted because Tehran was preparing to strike first, while Rubio said Washington moved pre-emptively ahead of expected Iranian retaliation to Israeli action.
“Two main narratives have emerged among people in Tehran during the first six days of the war,” Hami Hamedi, RT’s Iran bureau chief, said, explaining that some residents are demanding stronger retaliation against the United States and Israel, including continued missile strikes, while a larger group appears exhausted by the conflict and wants it to end so life can return to normal. Despite these differences, he said both sides share one position – they strongly oppose “the disintegration of Iran” and reject any form of separatism.
RT crew captures the aftermath of a strike on an Iranian intelligence building near Hemmat Highway in Tehran, filmed on the way to the Broujerdi residential complex. Smoke and damage are visible at the site.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has condemned the US and Israel for failing to consult Ottawa before the bombing of Iran.
He said the current conflict reflects “the failure of the international order,” stressing that “the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the UN or consulting with allies, including Canada.”