Iran maintains a “powerful” military and will fight the US and Israel “until complete victory,” the spokesman for the top Iranian military command, Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, has insisted.
US President Donald Trump earlier suggested that the Strait of Hormuz could be “open very soon” if diplomatic talks go well with Iran. Tehran, however, has dismissed reports of having any discussions with Washington, with high-ranking MP Yaghoub Rezazadeh calling the US leader’s claims “psychological warfare” and an act of desperation after realizing his inability to defeat Iran.
Following Trump’s promised reprieve, Brent oil prices plunged more than 13%, but soon rebounded to over $100 on Iran’s rejection.
In addition, a gas pressure regulation station in the Iranian city of Isfahan and a gas pipeline to the Khorramshahr power plant were both reportedly damaged on Monday – although it remains unclear whether the strikes came before or after Trump said he had called off US strikes targeting Iranian energy facilities for at least five days.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that while his “friend” Trump seeks to “leverage the massive achievements of the IDF and the US military” in potential talks, Israel is “continuing to strike” both Iran and Lebanon to keep up the pressure.
Trump upped the ante over the weekend, threatening strikes on Iranian energy facilities if Tehran did not lift its threat to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, to which Iran responded by publishing a list of power stations and energy facilities across the Gulf that it would target.
Here are the latest developments:
- Former IRGC commander Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr has been appointed the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, replacing Ali Larijani, who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on March 17.
- The IRGC responded to Trump’s claims of talks being underway between Washington and Tehran by saying that it is “negotiating with the vile, child-killing aggressors through impact-driven operations.”
- Lebanon has declared Iranian envoy Mohammad Reza Shibani persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country until Sunday over what Beirut called violations of diplomatic norms by Tehran.
Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.
24 March 2026
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Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 36%, its lowest level since he returned to office for a second presidential term, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The poll showed a drop from 40% in the previous week, amid rising fuel prices and growing disapproval of the war with Iran.
Support for American strikes on Iran also declined, with 35% approving and 61% disapproving, the poll found.
Public sentiment regarding the cost of living has deteriorated, with only 25% approving of Trump's handling of the issue. This disapproval comes as petrol and gasoline prices have increased following the US strikes on Iran, which have caused disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Pentagon is expected to send thousands of troops from the elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, two people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not specify the exact location where the troops would be deployed or when they were expected to arrive in the region.
The state of US-Iran talks is a “fluid situation,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt has said when asked about the possibility of the US participating in talks in Pakistan.
Earlier on Monday, Trump said that Washington would halt strikes against Iran for five days due to the supposed talks. Tehran, however, denied any negotiations have taken place.
”This is a fluid situation, and speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House,” Leavitt said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Ankara is trying to establish peace between Iran on the one hand, and the US and Israel on the other, saying the Turkish economy and the whole world have been severely impacted.
He also said the government is considering various measures to protect the economy from the war, which has engulfed the region and sent energy prices soaring.
Hezbollah has called the decision by Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry to expel the newly appointed Iranian ambassador a “sin,” and demanded the authorities “immediately reverse” the move.
The Foreign Ministry earlier gave the Iranian diplomat until Sunday to leave the country.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for peace talks as soon as possible in a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.
Wang added that “all hotspot issues should be resolved through dialogue and negotiation, not by using force.”
Araghchi, in turn, told Wang that “the Iranian side is committed to achieving a comprehensive end to the conflict, not just a temporary ceasefire,” and thanked China for its humanitarian assistance.
Seven have been killed in a US-Israeli strike on Tehran which destroyed a residential building, leaving people trapped under the rubble. RT’s Hami Hamedi reported from the scene that rescue efforts are underway and families are attempting to find their loved ones.
France has urged Israel to refrain from sending troops into southern Lebanon. Foreign Minister Jean Noel Barrot told AFP on Tuesday that such actions would have “major humanitarian consequences and would exacerbate the country’s already dire situation.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojataba Khamenei has not agreed to any negotiations with the US, an informed source in Iran has told RT, denying rumors being spread by Israeli media.
Israeli news outlet Ynet had previously claimed that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had secretly conveyed such a message to US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is pushing US President Donald Trump to continue the war against Iran, framing the conflict as a “historic opportunity” to remake the region, the New York Times claimed on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the conversations.
The Crown Prince reportedly argued that the US must pursue the destruction of Iran’s hardline government, stating that it poses a long-term threat to the Gulf and can only be eliminated by force.
Saudi officials have denied the conversation took place, claiming the kingdom has “always supported a peaceful resolution to this conflict.”
One Moroccan national was killed and five UAE military personnel were injured in an Iranian attack on Bahrain, the Emirati government announced on Tuesday.
“The Ministry of Defense mourns one of the civilian contractors in the UAE armed forces, a Moroccan national, who was martyred during a routine mission in the sisterly Kingdom of Bahrain,” the ministry wrote on X.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held a phone call with US President Donald Trump, stating they had a “useful exchange of views on the situation in West Asia [the Middle East]” and reiterating that India supporters de-escalation and restoration of peace.
“Ensuring that the Strait of Hormuz remains open, secure and accessible is essential for the whole world. We agreed to stay in touch regarding efforts towards peace and stability,” Modi wrote on X after the call, which was the first direct contact between the two leaders since the launch of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.
QatarEnergy declared a force majeure on some of its long-term LNG supply contracts on Tuesday, which will affect its customers in Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China. The company stated that its Ras Laffan facility sustained extensive damage after it came under attack earlier this month.
The company previously said the damage to the Ras Laffan Industrial City caused by missile strikes could take up to five years to repair, costing up to $20 billion a year in lost revenue.
The Philippines has declared a state of national energy emergency over the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the resulting “imminent danger posed upon the availability and stability of the country’s energy supply,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced on Tuesday.
In an executive order shared with the media, Marcos said the move would allow the government to take “co-ordinated measures” to address disruptions in the country’s economy, adding that a committee has been formed to ensure the availability of fuel, food, medicine, and other essential items.
The Philippines imports about 98% of its crude from the Gulf and the recent surge in the price of petrol and diesel has prompted multiple calls for Marcos to acknowledge the emergency.
The state of emergency is set to be in effect for one year unless extended or lifted by the government.
Pakistan is ready to host talks between the US and Iran, the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X amid Trump’s claims of ongoing negotiations with Tehran despite Iranian officials denying any contact with Washington.
“Pakistan welcomes and fully supports ongoing efforts to pursue dialogue to end the WAR in Middle East, in the interest of peace and stability in [the] region and beyond,” Sharif said, adding that “subject to concurrence by the US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honored to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict.”
Aerial footage published by Iranian broadcaster PressTV has captured numerous oil tankers being stuck outside the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.
There have been “no negotiations, discussions, or proposals for ending the war or establishing a ceasefire” with the US by the Iranian leadership, Yaghoub Rezazadeh, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament, has said.
Donald Trump’s claims of talks being underway between Washington and Tehran are just “psychological warfare,” to which the US president resorted because of “the failure and disappointment in the predictions he had made for victory” against Iran, Rezazadeh told the ISNA news agency.
Qatar has not yet made a decision to fire back at Iran in response to strikes on its territory, the country’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, has said.
“We reserve the right to retaliate in a manner that respects international law, but also is cognizant of the fact that we will live in this region indefinitely, and therefore we have to work together towards regional peace, not towards regional escalation,” he said.
According to al-Ansari, the Gulf state is currently taking “every possible precaution” to make sure that Iranian drone and missile attacks are repelled.
“The decision for retaliation is to be taken according to the situational assessment that is coming from our military and the decisions of our leaders,” he added.
Tehran intends to fight the US and Israel “until complete victory,” the spokesman for Iran’s top military command has insisted.
“Iran’s powerful armed forces are proud, victorious and steadfast in defending Iran’s integrity,” Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi of the Khatam-al Anbiya Central HQ said.
In an earlier statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded to Donald Trump's claims of talks being underway between Washington and Tehran by saying that it is “negotiating with the vile, child-killing aggressors through impact-driven operations.”
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry has said it is recalling its ambassador to Iran for consultations over what it called violations of diplomatic norms by Tehran.
The move follows a decision by Beirut to declare Iranian envoy to Lebanon Mohammad Reza Shibani persona non grata and expel him from the country.
The US Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany has become the main supply hub for the American military operation against Iran, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing German officials.
US drones carrying out strikes on Iranian targets are also being controlled by operators stationed at Ramstein, the outlet said.
The WSJ noted that despite many EU leaders publicly condemning the US-Israeli war on Iran, many of the countries on the continent are “quietly playing a crucial supporting role” for Washington in the conflict.
In recent weeks, US bombers, UAVs and ships have been refueled, armed and launched from bases in the UK, Germany, Portugal, Italy, France and Greece, it said.
Lebanon has declared Iranian envoy Mohammad Reza Shibani persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country until March 29, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi has announced, without explaining the reasons for the move.
RT correspondent Steve Sweeney and his cameraman, Ali Rida Sbeity, who were injured in an Israeli strike while reporting from southern Lebanon last week, have announced that “they are back in the field.”
Sweeney previously said IDF aircraft had fired a missile at their filming position near Al-Qasmiya Bridge, not far from a local military base.
According to the cameraman, the Israeli military “deliberately attacked” the RT crew despite them wearing vests displaying their press credentials.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr has been appointed as the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, local media have reported.
The former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander will replace Ali Larijani, who was assassinated in an Israel airstrike on March 17.
Russia “would perceive extremely negatively” the spread of the US-Israeli war on Iran to the Caspian Sea region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
The IDF announced strikes on Iranian Navy targets on the country’s northern coast for the first time last week. Reports in the Israeli media claimed that the attack on the Caspian port city of Bandar Anzali targeted ships delivering Russian weapons to Tehran.
Peskov declined to confirm that speculation, saying, “As for these specific reports, we have not seen them. I have no information on this matter.”
Senior US military officials are looking into the possibility of deploying airborne troops to capture Kharg Island, responsible for 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, the New York Times has reported, citing American defense sources.
The plan under consideration at the Pentagon is to send some 3,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne’s “Immediate Response Force,” said to be capable of deploying anywhere around the globe within 18 hours, to carry out the attack on the island, the paper said.
There is also a scenario in which the paratroopers take part in a joint operation with 2,500 troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is already on its way to the Middle East, to seize the oil hub, it added.
The sources described the discussions as prudent planning, stressing that no orders to carry out the attack on the Iranian oil hub have so far been given by the military leadership.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has denounced the US and Israeli war on Iran as “brutal aggression.”
Lavrov again called for an end to the hostilities, warning that the situation “is fraught with destabilization not only of the Persian Gulf region, which has already happened, and not only of the entire Middle East, which is ongoing, but also of global trade, energy security and international transport and business communications.”
The IDF claims to have targeted two IRGC intelligence command centers and an Iranian Intelligence Ministry command center in a wave of strikes on Monday. It adds that it also attacked weapons depots, air defense systems, and ballistic missile storages and launch sites.
Iranian intelligence claims to have arrested 30 “Zionist regime mercenaries” across the country, saying that 24 of them were providing Israel with coordinates for military, police, and security locations. The authorities also confiscated 11 Starlink terminals as well as firearms and cold weapons, the statement read.
US-Israeli strikes on the Iranian city of Tabriz in the north-western part of the country have killed six people, according to Tasnim News Agency; video footage shows destruction in a residential area.
At least six Kurdish fighters have been killed and 22 wounded in a rocket attack on their base, not far from Erbil in Iraq, Reuters has reported, citing local sources. The agency said it was not immediately clear who had carried out the strike.
The Iranian Embassy in South Africa appeared to mock Donald Trump’s suggestion that the Strait of Hormuz could be jointly controlled by him and the ayatollah, posting an image of a car with two steering wheels – one depicted in bright, clown-like colors.
US-Israeli strikes on Iran have so far killed 208 children, with the youngest being just three days old, Jafar Miadfar, head of Iran’s Emergency Medical Services, has said. He added that 1,536 people under 18 were also injured in the attacks.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was the first US official to suggest a full-scale attack on Iran, Trump has said.
”Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up, and you said let’s do it because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said at a Memphis Safe Task Force roundtable in Tennessee on Monday. Iran has denied that its nuclear program is aimed at developing an atomic bomb.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen has accused Trump of “lies and lies and lies” about the Iran war. He said Trump first misled voters by promising he would not pull the US into another Middle East conflict, but then justified the US-Israeli attacks by claiming that America “was facing an imminent threat from Iran” – even as US intelligence agencies said the opposite.
He then suggested that Trump lied by claiming that Tehran wanted to negotiate an end to the war, while in reality, Iran insisted that the hostilities should be ended by those who started them.
“And now Donald Trump says, well, he is talking to the Iranians about negotiat[ing] end of the war. But the Iranians said, no, they are not,” Van Hollen remarked, stressing that the US Congress must step up to make peace.
Footage circulating on social media shows destruction in Tel Aviv following an Iranian missile strike.
The Gulf States, which have suffered from Iranian attacks targeting their energy infrastructure, are edging towards joining the fight against Tehran, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing sources.
Saudi Arabia has agreed to let American forces use its King Fahd Air Base, with one source telling the paper that “it is only a matter of time before the kingdom enters the war.”
The UAE, meanwhile, is reportedly cracking down on Iranian institutions while intensifying political and economic pressure on Tehran.
At least six people have been lightly injured in central Tel Aviv by an Iranian strike, Israel’s national emergency service has said; local officials have stated that the missile carried some 100kg of explosives.
General Jim Mattis, a former US defense secretary in the Trump administration, has warned that should Washington end the Iran war now, it would basically cede control of the Strait of Hormuz to Tehran.
”Iran right now, if we declared victory, they would now say they own the strait,” Mattis said, as cited by Politico, adding that Tehran would seek to tax “every ship that goes through.”
He suggested that the US is “in a tough spot,” arguing that “neither side has the ability right now to move the other side off of where they’re at.”
Unidentified traders made more than $500 million in oil futures trades mere minutes before Trump announced “productive” talks with Iran, news that sent crude prices tumbling, according to the Financial Times.
“It’s hard to prove causality . . . but you have to wonder who would have been relatively aggressive at selling futures at that point, 15 minutes before Trump’s post,” an unnamed market strategist told the paper.
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned Israel against “occupation” of Lebanon, stressing that the country’s fight against threats to its security is “just.”
“No occupation, no form of colonization – not here, not in the West Bank, nor anywhere else – is able to ensure the security of anybody,” he said while speaking next to Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salame at the opening of an exhibition of the Institute of the Arab World in Paris.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said the Middle East conflict has led to a “critical energy situation,” warning that the hostilities are having a knock-on effect on gas and oil markets.
She stressed that the strain on the energy supply underscores the urgency of ending hostilities, adding that a negotiated solution is needed to stabilize markets.
Several Iranian missiles have reportedly penetrated the Israeli missile defenses, with the IDF requesting the public to stay away and not record the impact sites.
“Search and rescue forces are on their way to several sites in southern Israel where reports of impacts have been received. The public is requested to avoid gathering in these areas,” the Israeli military said.
The IDF has detected more missiles launched from Iran towards Israel, warning residents to seek shelter until further notice. Meanwhile videos circulating on social media show Israeli air defenses engaging projectiles over Tel Aviv earlier in the night.
The White House has refused to confirm or deny a Reuters report that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Vice President JD Vance were expected to travel to Islamabad, Pakistan, later this week to meet with Iranian officials.
“These are sensitive diplomatic discussions, and the United States will not negotiate through the press. This is a fluid situation, and speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News.
Brent oil futures rebounded to nearly $100 on Tuesday morning, after plunging more than 13% on Monday following Trump’s promise to postpone strikes on Iranian energy facilities until the end of the week.
The US Central Command has published new combat footage showing an F/A-18 Super Hornet taking off from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier “in support of Operation Epic Fury, as the aircraft carrier sails across regional seas.”
The IDF has again warned residents to seek shelter from incoming Iranian missiles.
The Israeli military has reportedly struck a gas station in Al-Rashidiya in southern Lebanon, with videos from the scene showing an inferno and a crater left in the aftermath of the bombing.
Kuwait's energy ministry has said that at least seven high-voltage power lines were damaged by debris from “air defense operations,” causing partial power outages in several areas of the country.
The Israeli Home Front Command has warned citizens to seek shelter, after the IDF said its air defenses were operating to intercept more missiles launched from Iran.
Saudi Arabia’s air defenses intercepted at least 20 drones over the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province, the country’s Defense Ministry said in a series of posts over the past several hours.
Pakistan has offered to host talks between Iran and the United States, a Foreign Office spokesperson told CNN, hours after Tehran denied reports that a diplomatic channel had been opened over the weekend.
“If both sides agree, Pakistan is always ready to host talks,” spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said, as contradictory statements from Iranian and US officials continued to emerge in the fourth week of the US-Israeli assault on Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry insisted there was “no dialogue” between Tehran and Washington, while President Donald Trump claimed that talks over the weekend had led to a provisional 15-point agreement.
Two Iranian energy infrastructure sites in Isfahan and Khorramshahr have allegedly come under attack, according to semi-official Fars News Agency.
“The Gas Authority building and the gas reduction station on Kaveh Street in Isfahan were struck, resulting in damage to parts of these facilities and surrounding homes. At the same time, reports emerged that the gas pipeline to the Khorramshahr power plant was targeted,” Fars wrote, without clarifying the exact timing of the attacks.
Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump announced that the US military would postpone strikes on Iranian power plants for five days, pending potential talks. Meanwhile, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue strikes on Iranian targets to keep up pressure on Tehran.
The Trump administration is allegedly considering Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf as a potential partner in negotiations, or even a future US-backed leader, Politico has reported, citing anonymous White House sources.
“He’s a hot option,” one administration official told the publication, noting that the White House is not yet ready to commit to any one person. “He’s one of the highest … But we got to test them, and we can’t rush into it.”
Ghalibaf flatly denied holding any talks with the US earlier in the day, but Politico sources dismissed his statements as internal posturing.
“We’re in the testing phase of really trying to figure out who can rise, who wants to rise, who tries to rise,” the source said. “And then as people rise, we’ll do a quick test, and if they’re radical, we’ll take them out.”
23 March 2026
An unnamed senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official allegedly told CBS News that Tehran has “received points from the US through mediators and they are being reviewed.”
However, Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said earlier in the day that “no negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”
“The Iranian people demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors. All Iranian officials stand firmly behind their supreme leader and people until this goal is achieved,” Ghalibaf added in a post on X.
The Israeli military has carried out multiple strikes on several neighborhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs, claiming it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but videos from the scene show large fires and plumes of smoke rising from the area.
The US Central Command has boasted that it struck more than 9,000 Iranian targets in over 9,000 combat flights conducted since the war with Iran began on February 28. The new infographic offered few specifics, but described the targets as over 140 Iranian naval vessels, as well as missile sites, drone and missile manufacturing facilities, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence sites.
The IDF has detected a new barrage of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel, warning citizens to seek shelter as air defense systems are “operating to intercept the threat.”
Israel should seize vast swathes of land in southern Lebanon as part of its ongoing campaign against Hezbollah militants, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has stated. The new border should be moved all the way to the Litani River, located nearly 40 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, he said on Israeli radio on Monday.
“I say here definitively... in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,” Smotrich said. The campaign “needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel’s borders,” he added.
Since renewing its military campaign against Hezbollah in early March, Israel has ordered all residents of southern Lebanon to leave the area south of the Litani. According to the Lebanese authorities, the Israeli strikes have killed over 880 people over the past two weeks, with more than 2,000 injured and over one million displaced.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has called his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss the situation in the Persian Gulf, which has “sharply deteriorated as a result of US and Israeli aggression,” the foreign ministry in Moscow said in a readout of the conversation.
The top Russian diplomat “underscored the categorical unacceptability of strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, including the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, noting that such actions pose serious risks to the safety of Russian personnel and carry the potential for severe environmental consequences across the region,” according to the statement.
The Russian side also stressed the urgent need to end hostilities immediately and transition toward a political and diplomatic resolution that “would take into account the legitimate interests of all parties involved, with particular emphasis on Iran,” it added.
Araghchi has in turn expressed his “gratitude to the Russian leadership for its substantial diplomatic and other forms of support extended to the Islamic Republic of Iran, including humanitarian assistance,” Moscow said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has touted the national unity and sacrifices of the armed forces, as thousands of Iranians poured into the streets in a show of support for the country’s government earlier on Monday, according to footage circulated by state media.
“I kiss the hands and arms of the brave members of the armed forces and the devoted defenders of our homeland,” Pezeshkian wrote on X. “The country’s bright future, and the safe and peaceful tomorrow of its children, are owed to the people’s resilience and steadfastness, and their sacred unity with those who protect Iran.”
Iranian air defense units intercepted and shot down a US unmanned aerial vehicle as it flew over the Persian Gulf coastline, Iran’s Southeastern Air Defense Headquarters said in a brief statement.
According to footage circulated by Iranian media, the intercepted drone was a Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS), a near-copy of Iran’s cheap and effective Shahed-136.
Iran will “use every capability to ensure security as necessary,” a spokesman for the Khatam Al Anbiya Central Headquarters, Brigadier General Ebrahim Zolfaghari, told state media.
Tehran “controls the Strait of Hormuz very intelligently and powerfully,” Zolfaghari said, warning that “extra-regional countries do not have the right to interfere.”
According to Fars news agency, Zolfaghari also said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has carried out “extensive attacks” in Iraq’s Erbil, targeted US forces at al-Dhafra airbase in the UAE and at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base, struck the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, and launched missiles at the Israeli cities of Ashkelon, Tel Aviv, Haifa and the Gush Dan area.
The IRGC reiterated that President Trump’s “deceitful” behavior will not make Iran “neglect the war front and the battle with the adversary,” asserting that the US and Israel “will continue to retreat.”
An Israeli air strike in Tyre, a city in southern Lebanon, targeted a civil defense ambulance, resulting in the death of one medic, according to Al Jazeera.
Four others are wounded.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 have displaced more than 1.16 million people, according to the country’s authorities. At least 1,039 people have since been killed.
UK destroyer has now arrived in the eastern Mediterranean and is ready to “begin operational integration into Cyprus’s defences”, according to the UK’s Defence Ministry.
Britain’s HMS Dragon departed from the UK on March 11 and is assigned the mission of defending a British airbase in Cyprus, which has recently been targeted by an Iranian-made drone.
”Royal Air Force Typhoons and F-35 jets continued their defensive missions overnight including over Cyprus, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain,” the ministry added.
Iran sees “no need” to lay mines in the Persian Gulf, a spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement published by IRIB state television.
”The armed forces ... are capable of ensuring the security of the Persian Gulf, and extra-regional countries have no right to intervene in this area,” he said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken with his counterparts in Oman, South Korea, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan.
He discussed recent US-Israeli attacks on provinces adjacent to the Caspian Sea with Azerbaijani minister and “warned of the security and environmental consequences”, according to IRNA news agency.
During the call with South Korean counterpart, Araghchi discussed the economic impacts of the Strait of Hormuz closure.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) claims it’s attacked more than 9,000 targets in Iran and damaged or destroyed 140 Iranian vessels since February 28.
Despite Trump’s comments that talks are underway with Iran to halt hostilities, CENTCOM said that attacks on the Islamic Republic continue.
Saeed Jalili, a former Iranian nuclear negotiator, has ridiculed Trump’s suggestion that the US president could “jointly control” the Strait of Hormuz with “the next Ayatollah.”
“This is the very definition of a retreat,” Jalini declared, concluding that “Iran’s power has brought the United States to the table of realities.” Jalini’s tweet included the hashtag “TACOTrump,” an acronym for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” commonly used by his political opponents in Washington.
Iran will not lay mines in the Persian Gulf, as it already “has taken initiative in the Persian Gulf region and the territorial waters of Oman, and skillfully and powerfully controls the Strait of Hormuz,” Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari has announced.
Zolfaghari said that Iran will continue to “use all available means to ensure security” in the region. Separately, an Iranian official told Al Jazeera that the idea of mining the strait remains on the table in Tehran.
Netanyhau just released a video statement, announcing that he has spoken to Trump about “an agreement” with Iran “that protects our vital interests.”
According to the Israeli PM, Trump “believes that there is a chance to leverage the massive achievements of the IDF and the US military in order to achieve the goals of the war through an agreement.”
Israel will “protect our vital interests in every situation,” and “is continuing to strike, in Iran and in Lebanon,” he added.
Türkiye, Pakistan, and Egypt have been shuttling messages between Washington and Tehran over the past two days, Axios has reported, citing an American source. The three countries’ foreign ministers have reportedly held separate talks with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on ending the war and “resolving all outstanding issues.” Tehran insists there is “no dialogue” with Washington, saying Trump’s claims are aimed at lowering energy prices and buying time for military plans.
Oil prices nosedived following Trump’s remarks on Monday, with Brent dropping from an intraday high of $113 a barrel to as low as $96 before rebounding to around $102.
Israel is aware that preparations are underway for direct talks between the US and Iran, Axios journalist Barak Ravid has reported, citing sources in the Israeli government. Shortly afterwards, Ravid added that US Vice President JD Vance spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a potential deal with Iran.
However, Trump’s claim that “contacts are progressing,” and that Washington and Tehran have reached agreement on certain points took the Israelis by surprise, he added. Iran still maintains that no discussions have taken place.
”Iranian people demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors,” Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on social media. “All Iranian officials stand firmly behind their supreme leader and people until this goal is achieved.”