The Pentagon has officially issued orders for approximately 2,000 elite troops from the army’s 82nd Airborne Division to deploy within “striking distance” of Iran, according to US officials cited by the Washington Post and the New York Times.
The contingent reportedly includes the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, the core part of the Immediate Response Force trained to deploy within 18 hours for missions including seizing airfields, reinforcing embassies, and enabling evacuations.
An additional 2,500 marines are scheduled to arrive later this week to reinforce any potential ground operation, which the media has long speculated could include seizing Iran’s main oil export hub on Kharg Island.
Tehran’s senior military adviser, Ali-Akbar Ahmadian, has previously dared American soldiers to just “come closer,” warning that Iranian armed forces have “trained in asymmetrical warfare” for decades.
In the meantime, US President Donald Trump is reportedly seeking an “offramp” from the war with a list of 15 peace proposals – while Tehran has rejected holding any backchannel talks with Washington.
Here are the latest developments:
- President Trump claimed the US has already “won” and ongoing diplomatic talks with Iran are the reason why he postponed military strikes on Iranian power plants for five days.
- Israel’s Channel 12 has reported that Trump’s 15-point proposal demands that Iran dismantle its nuclear and missile programs, abandon its regional proxy network, and open the Strait of Hormuz to unrestricted maritime passage. In exchange, Tehran would allegedly receive a full lifting of international sanctions, assistance with its civilian nuclear program, and the removal of the “snapback” sanction mechanism.
- “We negotiate with bombs,” US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said about the Pentagon's role in the alleged behind-the-scenes talks.
- Tehran has denied that talks with the US are taking place, with Iran’s parliamentary speaker saying such claims are “fake news” and are being “used to manipulate financial and oil markets.” Oil prices fell more than 5% on Wednesday morning.
Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.
25 March 2026
The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, has said he is “ready to move forward” with an additional release of oil reserves if necessary, as cited by AFP.
Brent oil prices are hovering at the $100 mark as of Wednesday morning.
US-Israeli strikes have damaged the home of renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, who won the Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for his drama ‘Taste of Cherry’, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei has said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has praised German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for calling the strikes on Iran “a breach of international law” and a “disastrous mistake” by the US.
“International law is dead in practice… Still, credit to President Steinmeier for condemning the violations against Iranians,” he wrote on X.
Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, has dismissed US statements and media reports of talks between Tehran and Washington. “Over more than 20 days of this aggression… there have been no negotiations with them,” he told Russia’s Channel 1.
He also suggested that US claims of ongoing talks are aimed at curbing the turmoil on the energy markets, stressing that Washington has no plans whatsoever to halt strikes.
Senate Republicans have once again blocked a Democratic effort to end the Iran war. The Senate voted 53 to 47 against the resolution demanding that Trump withdraw US forces unless Congress votes to approve the strikes.
French President Emmanuel Macron says he spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Massoud Pezeshkian, and that he reiterated his call to end to “the unacceptable attacks against the countries of the region,” urging Tehran to preserve energy and civilian infrastructure and restore navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I called on Iran to engage in good faith in negotiations, in order to open a path toward de-escalation, and to provide a framework that allows for addressing the expectations of the international community regarding Iran’s nuclear and ballistic program, as well as its regional destabilization activities.”
Six people have been killed and five wounded in Israeli strikes on the Lebanese town of Adloun and Mieh Mieh refugee camp, both near the city of Sidon, the local health authorities have said.
Tehran has urged Washington to stop trying to paint its “defeat” as an agreement, with a senior military official declaring that the US will find no peace in the region unless it accepts Tehran’s terms.
“The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could. Don’t dress up your defeat as an agreement. Your era of empty promises has come to an end. Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?,” said Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
“Stability comes through force. There will be no sign of your investments in the region, nor will you see the previous prices of energy and oil until you understand that stability in the region is guaranteed by the powerful hand of our armed forces,” Zolfaghari added, emphasizing that Iran will not return to the status quo ante on anyone’s terms but its own.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has sent a letter to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), explaining that it has restricted the passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz “belonging to or associated with the aggressors and those participating in their acts of aggression.”
“In the exercise of its inherent right of self-defence, the Islamic Republic of Iran has, in addition to targeting US military bases and facilities in the region, taken necessary and proportionate measures to prevent the aggressors and their supporters from exploiting the Strait of Hormuz to advance hostile operations against Iran,” says the letter obtained by the AI Monitor.
Iran emphasized that navigation continues for vessels not associated with the US or Israel, adding that such vessels “do not qualify for innocent or non-hostile passage.”
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq militias have released footage of FPV drone strikes on helicopters and radar systems at the US-run Camp Victory near Baghdad International Airport. The video was captured by another drone that flew over the seemingly abandoned military installation unimpeded. The pro-Iranian faction claimed earlier this week that US forces requested a ceasefire to pull out of the base.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has released footage of the 80th wave of its retaliatory strikes against US-Israeli targets in the region conducted overnight.
Iranian officials have told the countries trying to mediate peace negotiations with Washington that they “don’t want to be fooled again” after the US and Israel attacked Iran twice during past talks, Axios has reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of those discussions. Trump’s decision to deploy major troop reinforcements has only increased their suspicion.
The Pentagon has officially issued orders for approximately 2,000 elite troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to deploy to the Middle East, according to US officials cited by the Washington Post and the New York Times.
The contingent reportedly includes the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team and its commander, Maj. Gen. Brandon R. Tegtmeier, along with dozens of staff members. Many of the soldiers belong to the Immediate Response Force, a unit trained to deploy within 18 hours for missions including seizing airfields, reinforcing embassies, and enabling evacuations.
Officials said the paratroopers would be positioned within “striking distance” of Iran, but did not clarify the exact location. Potential missions could include seizing Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub in the northern Persian Gulf, where the US conducted a major bombing raid earlier this month. An additional 2,500 Marines are scheduled to arrive later this week to reinforce the potential ground operation.
The Kuwaiti army announced it is “responding to hostile missile and drone threats,” urging the public to follow safety instructions and noting that any explosions heard are the result of interceptions.
Earlier, a drone strike sparked a fire at a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, while the Kuwaiti National Guard said it had shot down five more drones in its areas of responsibility.
The US consulate in Erbil, in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, has reportedly been targeted in a drone attack. Al Jazeera reports that the compound’s counter rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) defense systems were activated to intercept the threats, and one of the drones hit a residential compound nearby.
Videos circulating online appear to show at least one interception and a high-rise on fire in the area.
The Iraqi government has authorized paramilitary groups, which are part of Iraq’s security apparatus, to respond to attacks, as the death toll from a suspected US strike on a Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) base in Anbar rose to 15. Participants of the emergency meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned the repeated strikes as a “blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” according to the official Iraq News Agency (INA).
Since the beginning of the US-Israeli war against Iran, American forces have been striking sites belonging to the PMF, while pro-Iranian armed groups have been targeting US diplomatic and military sites across the country.
Meanwhile, the Iran-aligned Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which operates under the PMF umbrella, claimed 23 operations targeting US sites over the past 24 hours.
A drone strike targeted a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fire at the facility, the country's Civil Aviation Authority has announced. According to spokesperson Abdullah al-Rajhi, the damage was limited to property, with no casualties reported, and firefighting teams are working to contain the blaze.
Oil prices fell more than 5% amid conflicting claims of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Washington and Tehran, and reports of a list of 15 demands President Trump allegedly conveyed to Iran.
International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading around $95 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate futures were down at $87.50 per barrel on Wednesday morning.
At least 290 American military personnel have been wounded in the ongoing war against Iran as of Tuesday, according to US Central Command’s spokesperson Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins. The spokesperson told the media that 255 of those injured have already returned to duty, while ten remain seriously wounded.
US officials previously said that only 13 American troops had been killed so far, dismissing Tehran’s claims of heavy casualties among American personnel.
The IDF has announced another wave of strikes against unspecified infrastructure targets across Tehran.
Israel’s Channel 12 has published what its sources claim to be 14 of the 15 demands and proposals the US allegedly conveyed to Iran:
Iran must dismantle its existing nuclear capabilities.
Iran must commit never to pursue nuclear weapons.
There will be no uranium enrichment on Iranian territory.
Iran must hand over its stockpile of some 450 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent to the International Atomic Energy Agency in the near future, in a timetable to be agreed.
The Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo nuclear facilities must be dismantled.
The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, must be granted full access, transparency and oversight inside Iran.
Iran must abandon its regional proxy “paradigm.”
Iran must cease the funding, direction and arming of its regional proxies.
The Strait of Hormuz must remain open and function as a free maritime corridor.
Iran’s missile program must be limited in both range and quantity, with specific thresholds to be determined at a later stage.
Any future use of missiles would be restricted to self-defense.
Iran would receive a full lifting of sanctions imposed by the international community.
The US would assist Iran in advancing its civilian nuclear program, including electricity generation at the Bushehr nuclear plant.
The so-called “snapback” mechanism, which allows for the automatic reimposition of sanctions if Iran fails to comply, would be removed.
24 March 2026
Iran is refusing to sit down for any negotiations with President Trump’s top envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, given that a previous round of talks with them resulted in surprise US-Israeli bombings, the Telegraph has reported, citing unnamed Gulf sources.
“They don’t want to work with Jared and Witkoff because they stabbed them in the back,” one source said, noting that the Iranians could consider Vice President J.D. Vance a “preferred” interlocutor.
Vance has been mostly silent on the US president’s ongoing Operation Epic Fury, and a second source told the Telegraph the Iranians believed that, unlike Witkoff and Kushner, he could stick to his word.
Washington reportedly sent Tehran a 15-point proposal to end the war, via intermediaries in Pakistan, in what the New York Times described as an attempt by President Trump to “find an offramp from the conflict” amid the widening global economic fallout.
Iran has consistently denied that any talks with the US are taking place, with Iran’s parliamentary speaker saying such claims are “fake news” and are being “used to manipulate financial and oil markets.”
The proposal allegedly addresses Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs, and the security of maritime routes. However, the NYT acknowledged that it was unclear whether Iran would accept the plan as a basis for negotiations, and whether Israel was on board with the proposal.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has claimed that the Pentagon has its own role in the alleged behind-the-scenes negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
“The air campaign that we’ve conducted, that Israel’s conducted alongside us, was one for the history books, truly,” Hegseth told reporters alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. “And it’s because we have a president of the United States that, when he sends his warfighters out to fight, he unties their hands to actually go out and close with and destroy the enemy as viciously as possible from moment one.”
And that’s why we see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs.
Tehran will defend its sovereignty from the US-Israeli attack “until all objectives are achieved and the enemy is made to regret its violent aggression,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in a phone call on Tuesday.
Iran has closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz only to enemy vessels, in accordance with international law, while allowing coordinated passage for other nations, Araghchi added. He also accused Washington of abusing its status as a permanent UN Security Council member.
“Iran’s serious expectation from Security Council members, especially China and Russia, is to take a firm stance in condemning US and Israeli aggression and prevent the continued misuse of the Council by the United States,” Araghchi told Wang.
China’s top diplomat has in turn condemned the US and Israeli attacks, denounced violations of Iran’s sovereignty, and stressed the need to end “bullying behavior” in international affairs, according to Press TV. He also offered condolences for the recent assassination of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
The Iranian armed forces have “trained in asymmetrical warfare” for more than two decades in anticipation of an inevitable US-Israeli attack, a senior aide to Leader of the Islamic Revolution in the Defense Council, Ali-Akbar Ahmadian, warned Washington amid rumors of a potential ground troop deployment.
“We have been waiting for the arrival of Americans to designated regions,” Ahmadian wrote on X earlier on Tuesday – daring the American soldiers to “come closer.”
The US Department of War is preparing to send an emergency response team of around 1,000 troops from the elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East “in the coming days,” a person with knowledge of the plans has told the Associated Press.
The force, trained to parachute into hostile territory to secure key airfields and other facilities, would allegedly include a battalion of the 1st Brigade Combat Team as well as Maj. Gen. Brandon Tegtmeier, the division’s commander, and division staff, according to the source.
President Trump has described the March 4 friendly fire incident in which the US lost three F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets as a “little mishap.”
“Kuwait, they had a little mishap. They shot down three planes with our missiles. They happened to be our planes,” Trump told journalists, suggesting that the jets were downed by the US-made Patriot missile defense system.
“The Kuwaitis made a mistake; they thought they were firing at the enemy… But the pilots made it. Can you imagine – the pilots saw what was coming, and they said ‘those are Patriots, we are not gonna escape Patriots.’ Pretty amazing that they got out,” he said.
While early reports initially suggested the use of ground-based systems like Patriot missiles, later analysis pointed to the possibility that a Kuwaiti F/A-18 pilot may have fired air-to-air missiles after misidentifying the US jets.
The IDF has detected another wave of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel and is warning residents to seek shelter until further notice.
At least seven people, including an infant, were injured in a missile strike on the Bnei Brak area east of Tel Aviv, according to Israel’s ambulance service Magen David Adom.
A US-Israeli strike hit the territory of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has said.
Fortunately, the attack “resulted in no human, financial, or technical damage,” it said. “Targeting peaceful nuclear facilities is a blatant violation of international rights and regulations and a serious threat to regional security.”
Pope Leo XIV has lamented that “hatred is increasing, and the violence is getting worse and worse.”
“I want to renew the appeal for a ceasefire, to work for peace, but not with weapons, rather through dialogue, truly seeking a solution for everyone,” he told journalists.
There are more than a million displaced people and many dead... I invite all the authorities to truly work through dialogue to resolve the problems.
Trump has said that Gulf allies have met his expectations amid the ongoing war with Iran, once again criticizing NATO countries as falling short.
“UAE has been hit so hard,” he added. At least eight people there were killed and 161 injured since the US and Israel started their war on Iran.
Trump also praised several Gulf partners individually, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait.
Trump has previously called NATO allies “cowards” for not assisting the US in securing the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping route for oil.
Trump has claimed Iran had given the US a gift “worth a tremendous amount of money” related to oil and gas. However, he didn’t specify what the gift was but said it was related to the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump has claimed Iran “agreed they will never have a nuclear weapons”.
“[Tehran] talking to us and they’re talking sense... It all starts with they cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said, adding: “I don’t want to say in advance, but they’ve agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon. They’ve agreed to that.”
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.
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.