Beirut1:57 a.m. March 28
Tel Aviv2:57 a.m. March 28
Tehran3:27 a.m. March 28
Iran War Live Updates: Rubio Says U.S. Can Achieve Its Goals Without Ground Troops
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the war would be over in a matter of weeks as he left a Group of 7 meeting in France. Tehran moved to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz.
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
- Reuters
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Associated Press
- David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
- David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
- Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the United States did not need ground troops to succeed in the war in Iran, which he said would end within weeks rather than months, even as Iran moved to assert its control over the critical Strait of Hormuz.
Mr. Rubio told reporters in Paris that the United States had not received a formal response from Iran to President Trump’s 15-point plan for ending the war. Mr. Trump has said that peace talks are underway and going well, but Iranian officials have said that contacts between the two countries have been minimal and mostly indirect, not yet amounting to real negotiations.
The war continued unabated on Friday, with strikes on industrial and nuclear sites in Iran. Iranian media reported attacks on two nuclear sites, a uranium processing plant and a nuclear research facility, and the Israeli military claimed responsibility for those strikes. Two steel plants and another industrial complex were also hit. Iran threatened to retaliate against industries in the region with American shareholders or ties to Israel.
In Yemen, the Houthi militia raised the possibility of opening another front in the war. The Houthis, close allies of Iran who control much of Yemen, announced that their “fingers are on the trigger for direct military intervention” if more countries joined the war against Iran or if the United States or Israel used the Red Sea for operations against Iran. During the war in Gaza, the Houthis attacked shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and launched munitions at Israel, in support of Hamas.
The Pentagon has moved battalions of ground troops to the Middle East recently, spurring speculation about pending operations against Iran, particularly to take control of islands in the Persian Gulf.
But Mr. Rubio, speaking after a meeting of Group of 7 foreign ministers, said, “We can achieve all our objectives without ground troops.”
Iran said on Friday that it had warned three ships not to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a day after Mr. Trump extended a U.S. deadline for Tehran to reopen the waterway. In retaliation for U.S. and Israeli bombing, Iran has effectively blockaded the strait, a vital conduit for a large part of the world’s oil and natural gas supply, rattling the global economy.
At the same time, Iran is moving to establish a system of charging tolls for ships to pass through the strait, which has usually operated as international waters. That is sure to anger nations that rely on that traffic, and Mr. Rubio called the move “illegal.” He reiterated Mr. Trump’s message urging other countries to send warships to help ward off Iranian attacks in the strait.
“If those countries are impacted by it, all we’ve said is, you guys need to do something about it,” he said.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Iran: Israel’s strikes on Friday, including hits on two major steel production complexes that are vital to the country’s economy, appeared to reflect a shift in Israeli targeting toward degrading Iran’s civilian infrastructure and economy. Read more ›
Food supply: The effects of the war on fertilizer supplies are worsening by the day, and price increases for farmers are threatening to lead to food insecurity in some parts of the world. Read more ›
Lebanon: In Lebanon, the Israeli military issued fresh evacuation warnings for Beirut’s densely populated southern outskirts, a Hezbollah stronghold, indicating that airstrikes were imminent. More than one million people have been displaced in Lebanon during Israel’s war on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia, and many have fled to the capital, Beirut, according to the country’s health ministry. Read more ›
Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency has reported that more than 1,492 civilians have been killed in Iran, out of more than 3,300 total deaths. More than 1,110 people in Lebanon have been killed, the health ministry there said on Thursday. More than 50 people have been killed in Gulf countries and at least 16 in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials said. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
After years of threatening to pull the United States from NATO, President Trump seems to have gone a step further today, suggesting that the alliance’s unwillingness to get involved in Iran means that Americans don’t have to honor the commitment to mutual self-defense.
“We have always been there for them,” Trump said of NATO, which includes the U.S., Canada and more than a dozen European nations. “But now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be. Do we? That sounds like a breaking story.”
President Trump, boasting about progress made in the war with Iran, suggested the United States was close to reaching its objectives.
“We have another 3,554 targets left,” Trump said of the Iran war. “And it will be done pretty quickly.”
Earlier this week, Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the U.S. Central Command, said the United States had struck more than 10,000 military targets in Iran since the start of the war. But Trump has been inconsistent in his comments on his objectives in the war and his timeline for its end.
Amid the Israeli-U.S. bombing campaign against Iran, strikes on Iran’s industrial infrastructure widened on Friday, with attacks on two major steel production complexes that are vital to the country’s economy, along with other industrial sites.
Iranian officials attributed the strikes to Israel. The Israeli military acknowledged bombing two nuclear facilities, but did not explicitly address the other sites. Israel and the United States have bombed Iranian nuclear sites before, both in the current month-old war and in a 12-day conflict last June.
But the other strikes on Friday appear to reflect a shift in Israeli targeting toward degrading Iran’s civilian infrastructure and economy; Israel announced this week that it would intensify attacks on infrastructure.
The Israeli military has noted that the industries struck are often “dual use,” with both civilian and military applications, or have ties to the government and armed forces. Last week it struck the Pars gas field that supplies most of the country’s domestically used natural gas, and on Wednesday it hit two sprawling industrial complexes, Alborz and Leah, near the city of Qazvin.
President Trump has threatened to bomb Iran’s electric power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened to shipping, but so far he has refrained.
The targets on Friday included the steel complexes in Isfahan and Khuzestan, a mine that was part of a cement factory in Firouz Abad, an industrial city in Kheirabad and a warehouse at Mashhad’s airport, according to Iranian media reports and official comments. The state news agency reported that airstrikes on the mine killed two workers and injured two others; Jalil Hassani, deputy governor of Fars province, told state media that the cement factory was purely civilian.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran threatened in a statement to retaliate with strikes on industrial facilities in Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, particularly those with American shareholders.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on social media that Israeli attacks undermined President Trump’s statement that the United States would refrain from targeting Iranian infrastructure for 10 days to allow for diplomatic negotiations. “Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes,” said Mr. Araghchi in his post.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that the attacks on the nuclear sites did not result in any radiation leaks or casualties.
But the attack on the Mobarakeh Steel Complex in Isfahan killed one person and injured 15, Mehdi Jamalinejad, the governor of Isfahan province, told Iranian media. He said two large electric power plants that supply the steel complex were also damaged.
A separate strike on the Khuzestan Steel Industries complex injured 16 workers, the deputy governor of Khuzestan province, Valiollah Heyati, told state television.
A senior Iranian official said the attacks on the steel mills delivered a major blow to the country’s economy, and would hamper recovery and reconstruction efforts once the war ends. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the steel plants produced material needed for construction of buildings and roads.
It was not immediately clear whether the two steel factories, owned by a combination of private shareholders and government institutions, had contracts with Iran’s armed forces. Both companies are under U.S. sanctions; the U.S. Treasury contends that Mobarakeh is part of a network supporting the Basij paramilitary force.
A former engineer at Isfahan Mobarakeh Steel Complex who asked not to be named said in a text message that entering the site daily, even for employees, required extreme security clearance and any vendor or contractor entering the complex had to be vetted and given a special entrance permit.
A businessman in Ahvaz, who is a vendor for the Khuzestan steel plant and visits the site frequently, said in an interview that the attacks were extremely disconcerting for the business community and contractors who work with various sectors that could be deemed as dual use. He said Iran’s steel industry produced a wide range of products, including steel plates for ship building.
In addition to the attacks on industrial sites, the United States and Israel continue to strike such major cities as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz, according to interviews and comments on social media by residents of these cities.
“Last night the attacks were extremely huge, the ground was shaking beneath us as if we are in an earthquake for several hours,” said Susan, a 56-year-old resident of Tehran, in a telephone interview. Like most people interviewed she asked her last name not be used, out of fear of retribution.
President Trump, speaking at a conference in Miami Beach run by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, opened with remarks about the war with Iran, saying, “tonight we’re closer than ever to the rise of the Middle East.”
He boasted about the strength of the American allies in the region, naming the United Arab Emirates and the Saudis, whom he called powerful. The Times reported this week that Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing Mr. Trump to keep up the war against Iran, even as senior officials in both governments warn that the United States could get stuck in an endless war.
Trump, talking about negotiations with Iran over letting ships pass through Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route, seems to have joked about it being renamed after him.
“They have to open it up,” he said, talking about Iran’s chokehold on the strait. “They have to open up the Strait of Trump — I mean Hormuz.”
Yemen’s Houthi rebels, close allies of Iran who control much of the country, on Friday threatened to intervene in the war under certain conditions, including if allies of the United States join in attacks on Iran or if the Red Sea were used by Israel and the United States to carry out operations. During the war in Gaza, the Houthis attacked shipping in the Red Sea, prompting retaliatory strikes from Israel and the United States.
Iranian officials are trolling President Trump while the United States and Israel wage war on their country, taking a page from his playbook and mocking him in the language of the extremely online, with jabs and memes.
“Hey Trump. You are fired!” said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, ending a video on Sunday that was otherwise in Persian with Mr. Trump’s old television catch phrase from The Apprentice.
“You are familiar with this sentence,” he told the president, before concluding with Mr. Trump’s now famous social media sign-off. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Iranian officials are not the only trolls — American and Israeli ones do it too. But the online sparring comes as much of Iran’s population of more than 90 million people weathers intensifying bombardment while under a nearly monthlong, state-imposed internet blackout.
And the messages, even when ostensibly directed at the Iranian people, show a surprisingly sophisticated familiarity with American culture, weaponized to taunt and mock Mr. Trump and his policies.
The Israelis, for their part, have run an intense multilingual messaging operation, including sending the Iranian people a flurry of bombardment notices, calls to take back their country and sinister jokes, which they mostly cannot see.
For Nowruz, the Persian new year, the Israeli foreign ministry’s Persian-language X account posted an image of a Wack-a-Mole game, with the face of Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, popping out of one of the holes. The caption: “A game for the Nowruz holidays.”
And the Trump administration is active on social media, posting videos that serve as war sizzle reels, claiming victory and decimation, which seem as much designed to rally its base as to incense Tehran.
Iran’s messaging, meanwhile, is “clearly not for an Iranian audience,” said Ben Ditto, who has spent a decade tracking online information warfare across conflicts. References to American products and cultural touchstones are deliberate. “They’re using the language that Westerners will understand because it’s for a Western audience,” he said.
Tehran Speaks Your Language
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a former Guards commander and the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, has been a key figure overseeing the war. He is also active on social media, fighting in the messaging battles.
As fluctuating oil prices drove record sums into oil-linked funds, and oil traders made hundreds of millions of dollars in suspiciously timed transactions, Mr. Ghalibaf responded.
On Monday, he refuted Mr. Trump’s assertion that Iran was talking about a truce, using one of the president’s favorite phrases for attacking the media, posting, “Fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S. and Israel are trapped.”
The following day, he pointed to rumors of market manipulation linked to Mr. Trump’s announcements, referring to a “jawboning campaign” to move “the paper oil market,” joking, “But let’s see if they can turn that into ‘actual fuel’ at the pump — or maybe even print gas molecules!”
When Energy Secretary Chris Wright mistakenly said the U.S. Navy had escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month, Mr. Ghalibaf joked, “Maybe on PlayStation!”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, joined the fray on Thursday, posting lines from the movie War Machine, a Netflix satire of American military hubris in Afghanistan, in which a general’s aide is instructed, “You’re not here to win. You’re here to clean up the mess. Get your PowerPoint presentation in order. Show us how all the graphs are suddenly pointing in the right direction.”
Iran’s Embassy in South Africa this week mocked Mr. Trump’s claims he will share control of the Strait of Hormuz with the supreme leader. Posting an image of a car with two steering wheels — one regular, the other with googly eyes reminiscent of a child’s toy — the embassy wrote, “The Strait of Hormuz will be controlled by me and the Ayatollah,” punctuated with smiling emojis.
“Justice the American Way”
The Trump administration famously embraces internet culture, and its war posts include a dizzying mix of American pop music, Hollywood movies, cartoons, games and military footage — blending fact and fiction, bombings and SpongeBob SquarePants, in an effort to convey power and generate excitement.
The posts have drawn tens of millions of views — and criticism from veterans, lawmakers and some whose work was used without their approval. The White House earlier this month posted a video with the message “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY” splicing superhero, action and war movies with actual visuals of attacks. It has drawn more than 68 million views on X.
The actor Ben Stiller, who co-wrote, directed and starred in Tropic Thunder, which mocks war films, protested its use in the video, saying, “War is not a movie.”
The administration speaks the language it knows and loves — not that of Iran. Unlike Iran’s officials, the American government has difficulty reaching most Iranians and little apparent interest in doing so, despite Mr. Trump’s occasional urging of Iranians to rise up against their government.
Noting the way Iran restricts its internet and Americans mass export their culture, selling the world on their country, James J.F. Forest, director of security studies at the University of Lowell at Massachusetts, said Iranians have something of an advantage. The United States is “an open book,” he said.
The stock slump accompanied another move higher for oil prices, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, rising above $112 per barrel, up roughly 55 percent since the war began. It’s a sign of investors dialing down risk ahead of the weekend, wary of further administration-induced volatility when trading resumes on Sunday night.
With a 1.7 percent drop on Friday, the S&P 500 stock index notched its worst week since the war began, its fifth straight week of losses. It is now set to record its worst monthly performance since March last year, when inflation worries preceded the sharp tariff-induced sell-off in April.
As President Trump publicly laments Europe’s refusal to join the Iran war, European defense officials are privately in advanced and detailed discussions to help secure the waters off Iran’s coast once the war ends, according to two senior European officials briefed on the talks.
Threat of Iranian attacks has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Persian Gulf, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas are shipped. European leaders have said that they are willing to help protect that shipping once the war ends, but according to the officials, the plans are more advanced than has been publicly revealed. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
The plans under discussion include:
Sending frigates to escort oil tankers and other merchant ships through the strait;
Shooting down Iranian drones and missiles, if necessary, with air-defense batteries aboard those escorts;
Mounting a show of force, a visible demonstration of military power, to assure skittish shipping companies and their insurers that they will be protected when sailing through the gulf and the strait.
France said on Thursday that 35 countries were involved in discussions over a coordinated mission. Britain’s defense ministry said this week it was working with allies and the commercial shipping industry on “a viable plan to safeguard international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Britain and France are leading the effort, according to Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary general. “Actively now, countries are working together,” Mr. Rutte said at the military alliance’s headquarters on Thursday. He said many details had not yet been decided, “given the fact that the war is ongoing.”
Mr. Rutte said the effort, which includes non-NATO countries like Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, was committed to “making sure that the sea lanes stay open.”
“And this is exactly also to the request of President Trump,” Mr. Rutte said.
So far, Mr. Trump has not sounded appeased. “NATO NATIONS HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP WITH THE LUNATIC NATION, NOW MILITARILY DECIMATED, OF IRAN,” he wrote on social media on Thursday.
Elon Musk participated in a phone call on Tuesday with President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, an unusual appearance by a private citizen on a call between two heads of state during a wartime crisis.
The inclusion of Mr. Musk, confirmed by two U.S. officials, suggests that the world’s richest man is back on better terms with the president. The two men had a falling out last summer following the billionaire’s departure from the government, where he had been tasked with slashing the work force. They appear to have smoothed things over in recent months.
The U.S. officials asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
It is unclear why Mr. Musk was on the call or whether he spoke. His companies have taken on significant investment from sovereign wealth funds in countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Mr. Musk has also long coveted a greater commercial presence in India. And SpaceX, his private rocket company, has been considering an initial public offering later this year, which could be thrown into turmoil if global economic conditions worsen.
The call, American and Indian officials have said, was about the escalating crisis in the Middle East, and in particular the Iranian military’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, which is critical for the shipping of oil and gas around the globe. The halt to most maritime traffic through the strait has led to surging energy prices worldwide and roiled markets. Some Asian nations are on the verge of having to ration fuel.
“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,” Mr. Modi wrote on social media on Tuesday.
Neither government mentioned the inclusion of Mr. Musk in the official readouts or interviews.
While he helped elect Mr. Trump and played a significant role in cutting the federal bureaucracy last year, Mr. Musk does not have a government position. In the first months of the administration, he had the title of “special government employee” while overseeing a group known as DOGE that tried to make deep cuts to federal operations and spending, which led to tensions between Mr. Musk and other senior Trump aides.
Mr. Musk did not return multiple requests for comment this week. The White House declined to comment on Mr. Musk’s inclusion.
“President Trump has a great relationship with Prime Minister Modi, and this was a productive conversation,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
It is relatively rare for the White House to include private citizens on calls between heads of state because sensitive matters involving national security are often discussed. As with many norms, Mr. Trump has chosen his own path on this matter: Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, has no official U.S. government role and yet has been tasked with negotiations in the Middle East, where Mr. Kushner has business interests, and on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
On X, the social media platform he owns, Mr. Musk has been relatively quiet on the war in Iran. Last week, in response to a post that questioned why so many countries relied on the Strait of Hormuz as part of their global supply chains, the billionaire wrote: “We got lazy.” A few days later he shared a meme, suggesting that issues with the strait would slow growth in the artificial intelligence industry and hamper general economic advancement.
Mr. Musk has looked to India as a potentially lucrative market for his automotive, space and artificial intelligence companies. Tesla, his electric automaker, had previously faced hurdles to selling vehicles in India because of tariffs on foreign manufacturers. Starlink, the satellite internet provider from Mr. Musk’s SpaceX, is awaiting final clearances to operate in the country and is still “pending regulatory approval,” according to a company website.
In an interview with Indian television, Mr. Trump’s ambassador to the country, Sergio Gor, described the conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi as “a very friendly phone call between two world leaders.”
Mr. Gor, in his former position as a White House official, was a key player in the chain of events that led to Mr. Musk’s exit from the Trump administration last summer. Mr. Musk steamed about him to friends privately and publicly called Mr. Gor a “snake.”
At the start of this year, Mr. Musk posted a photo of him dining with Mr. Trump and Melania Trump, the first lady, on Jan. 3 at the Palm Beach club owned by the president, Mar-a-Lago, and said they had a “lovely dinner.” He wrote: “2026 is going to be amazing!”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in a post on social media that Israel had struck two of Iran’s largest steel factories, along with a power plant and what he said were civilian nuclear power sites. Asserting the attacks were carried out in coordination with the United States, Araghchi said the strikes contradicted President Trump’s promise to postpone attacking the country’s power grid to allow for more diplomacy. He threatened that Iran would impose a “heavy price” for the Israeli attacks.
When the Tehran home of the late film director Abbas Kiarostami was damaged in a strike earlier this week, amid the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry was quick to use the incident to push Iran’s narrative about the war.
Was the home of Mr. Kiarostami, “part of the alleged ‘imminent threat’ to the United States?!” asked Esmail Baghaei, the spokesman, in a post on X on Wednesday. “The truth is that this American-Israeli WAR OF WHIMS is not merely against a State — it is against a deep-rooted culture, civilization, and identity.”
In his post, Mr. Baghaei praised the director’s work “Taste of Cherry,” the first Iranian film to win a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, as a “masterpiece.”
But Mr. Kiarostami’s son, Ahmad, who lives in California, was quick to fire back, saying in a reply to Mr. Baghaei on X that “Taste of Cherry” had been barred from screening in Iran for years, and he criticized the pressure authorities had put on his father.
Mr. Kiarostami, who died in 2016, once exchanged polite cheek kisses with the actress Catherine Deneuve, after receiving the 1997 Cannes Film Festival’s top prize. That earned him the ire of conservatives back home who accused him of violating Islamic precepts barring contact between unmarried men and women.
When he arrived back in Iran, “‘brothers’ were waiting for him at the airport to give him a lesson” as punishment, Ahmad Kiarostami said in his post.
In a phone interview on Friday, Mr. Kiarostami explained that although “Taste of Cherry” was never entirely banned in Iran, its domestic release was repeatedly delayed, and was eventually screened in only a small number of cinemas for a very short period of time.
Mr. Kiarostami recalled that after the furor over the cheek kiss, his father delayed returning to Iran for a few days, and told him that the agent who stamped his passport upon his return had thrown it to the ground in anger, saying, “You’ve disgraced us.”
In his post on X on Wednesday, Ahmad Kiarostami was clear about his opposition to the war in Iran, saying it was “destroying ordinary people’s houses and lives.” But, he added, “I’m also strongly against what has been done in our country for decades to get us here. Can I be both?”
He said the damage to his father’s home was limited to broken windows, and demanded that Iranian officials refrain from using his father’s name in promoting the government’s agenda.
“Keep him out of your rhetoric,” he wrote. “Hopefully that house will outlast those who have brought ruin to our homeland.”
Ahmad Kiarostami had earlier posted on his Instagram account descriptions of damage to both his parents’ homes, which are located in the Chizar neighborhood of north Tehran. “I don’t think I’m going to see that house ever in my lifetime again,” he told The New York Times, lamenting both the war and his view that the Iranian government was unlikely to fall.
Abbas Kiarostami was one of Iran’s most acclaimed directors. Of the restrictions that artists faced in Iran, he told The New York Times Magazine in 2007 that “it makes them more creative, because art is the one positive thing they can get out of their life in Iran.”
The magazine asked him why he had stayed in Iran despite the pressures he had faced.
“I like my house,” he replied. “The only place I sleep well is my own room in Iran.”
The Arak reactor has been a concern — and a target — for more than a decade. The worry is that Iran could reprocess plutonium left over in the reactor, and use it to produce a plutonium-fueled weapon. But the core of the reactor was removed in January 2016 under the Iran nuclear deal struck between Iran, the Obama administration and European nations. The agreement also committed Iran to redesigning the facility so that it could not make weapons-grade plutonium. It was bombed in June last year by Israel. On Friday, Iran said airstrikes had hit a heavy water facility in the same complex as the Arak reactor.
The Israeli military appears to have made fairly rapid advances into southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, though they are still operating a few miles from the Israeli border. Israeli forces advanced north past the coastal town of Naqoura on Friday, where U.N. peacekeepers are headquartered, toward the town of Bayada, according to a U.N. official, who requested anonymity to discuss military maneuvers. Hezbollah said in a statement on Friday that it had targeted an Israeli tank in Bayada, which lies around 5 miles from the Israeli border. Photos and videos seen by The New York Times show Israeli troops outside the U.N. base’s perimeter.
The Israeli military said it had struck a heavy water plant in Arak in central Iran, describing it as a key facility linked to potential plutonium production. Heavy water — a specialized form of water used as a reactor coolant — is used to run certain nuclear reactors that can produce plutonium, a key material for nuclear weapons. The Israeli military said the strike targeted reconstruction efforts at the site, which had been damaged in last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Iranian state media had reported earlier in the day that the plant, the Khondab Heavy Water Complex, had been hit.
Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, and 26 of his Democratic colleagues demanded on Friday that the Republican chairman of the panel hold a public hearing on the Iran war.
So far, Pentagon, State Department and intelligence officials have provided lawmakers only classified briefings, and legislators from both parties have complained about the paucity of information about costs, operations and munition shortages.
“We are deeply troubled by the lack of transparency from the Trump administration and the Department of Defense, and its failure to keep the Congress and the American people informed,” the Democrats wrote in a letter.
Democrats cannot force senior Trump administration officials to appear, though in both the House and Senate they have sought to compel public hearings since the war began. Republicans have said that classified briefings being held by senior administration officials have been adequate.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has put out a warning on state media that employees of industries in the Persian Gulf with American shareholders, as well as workers at industries allied with Israel, should leave their workplaces. The warning, issued on Friday evening, came after several airstrikes earlier in the day on Iranian industrial sites. The statement said Iranian forces were carrying out retaliatory strikes.
Iran’s Parliament is moving to formalize fees for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the portal to the Persian Gulf that is among the world’s most vital waterways, even as it has slowed traffic there nearly to a standstill.
Legislation before the Parliament would require vessels transiting the strait to pay tolls under a framework Iranian lawmakers described as asserting Tehran’s “sovereignty, control and oversight” over the passage, according to reports by Fars and Tasnim, two semiofficial news agencies affiliated with Iran’s security forces. Since the U.S.-Israeli attack on Feb. 28, some fees had been charged on an ad hoc basis under what appears to be an informal and selectively applied system.
The U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Friday called the toll plan “illegal.”
Since Israel and the United States began bombing Iran almost four weeks ago, Iran has effectively closed off the strait with a handful of attacks on ships and warnings that only those with its permission can pass. About one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas normally pass through the strait, so Iran’s threats and attacks on energy facilities around the Gulf have sent global fuel prices soaring, giving Tehran leverage in the conflict.
President Trump has threatened to strike Iran’s power plants if Tehran does not fully reopen the strait, and he has pressured other countries — so far unsuccessfully — to send warships to escort commercial vessels through the passage.
A report this week by Lloyd’s List Intelligence described what it called a “toll booth” already in effect, with vessels required to seek Iranian clearance to transit. The legislation is expected to be debated in the coming days, the Iranian news agencies said Thursday.
In a letter to the United Nations’ maritime organization, Iran said that “nonhostile” ships may pass safely through the strait. Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, added on Thursday that fees would be collected for safe passage, according to remarks published by Mehr, another semiofficial Iranian news agency.
The legal status of the strait is complex. At its narrowest point, less than 30 miles wide, it lies within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman, but under international law it is treated as an international waterway where ships are generally guaranteed passage.
Iran has signed but not ratified that framework and has disputed the extent of those rights.
Ship traffic through the strait remains at historically low levels amid the de facto blockade. It is estimated that nearly 3,000 vessels are waiting nearby to pass through the strait, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Typically, roughly 120 ships pass through it each day.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said Friday that it had turned back three container ships trying to enter what it described as a designated corridor, declaring that “the Strait of Hormuz is closed” and warning that any unauthorized traffic would face “severe action,” according to a statement carried by Fars.
The warning appeared to underscore the gap between Iran’s position and U.S. demands on ending the Middle East conflict, which will soon enter its fifth week. A day earlier, Mr. Trump again extended his deadline for Iran to fully reopen the strait.
Mr. Trump made the announcement minutes after the U.S. stock market ended one of its worst days this year. Oil prices rose and stocks fell on Friday morning, despite his decision to back away from the deadline to begin attacking Iran’s power grid.
Leily Nikounazar, Joe Rennison and Peter Eavis contributed reporting.
Marco Rubio, the American secretary of state, said Iran planned to set up a toll plan to control shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which he called “illegal.” He said he was encouraged by the response of European countries, who were discussing plans to reopen the strait.
Speaking to reporters as he left a Group of 7 meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted the United States was not asking European or other countries to take part in the military campaign against Iran. But he said those nations did have an incentive to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “If those countries are impacted by it, all we’ve said, is you guys need to do something about it,” Rubio said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States had not received any response from Iran on the Trump administration’s 15-point plan for a cease-fire. He said Iranian officials had not clarified who would take part in the negotiations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Paris, “We can achieve all our objectives without ground troops” in Iran. Rubio was leaving a meeting of Group of 7 foreign ministers, held outside Paris, where the war in Iran and its effects were important topics.
U.S. and Israeli strikes hit several industrial sites across Iran on Friday, including at least two nuclear-related facilities, one in Markazi Province and another in Yazd Province, according to Iranian state media. The claims could not be independently verified.
No injuries were reported at the Khondab Heavy Water Complex in Markazi, officials said. Also struck was the Ardakan yellowcake production facility in Yazd, where Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said initial assessments showed there had been no release of radioactive materials.
The Defense Department did not put forward a request for funding for the war in Iran during a meeting between Republicans on the House Budget Committee and officials at the Pentagon, a lawmaker said. Representative Jodey Arrington of Texas, the chairman of the panel, said in an interview on Friday that he expects to hear more details soon from the White House and to keep discussing supplemental funding for the war during the coming two-week congressional recess. Asked if he has an understanding of the day-to-day cost of the war, Arrington said: “I wish I did. I know it exists.”
The Israeli military has released fresh evacuation warnings for Beirut’s southern outskirts, indicating that airstrikes are imminent. The densely populated area, a Hezbollah stronghold, has largely been emptied in recent weeks, but many residents have been returning intermittently to check on their homes or collect belongings.
The roar of Israeli fighter jets can now be heard in the skies above the Lebanese capital, Beirut, putting residents on alert after days of relative calm. Farther south along the border, Israeli ground forces continue their invasion, though for now troops have only advanced a few miles into Lebanese territory. Israel’s defense minister said this week that Israel intends to “control” southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, an area larger than New York City and twice the size of Gaza. The area encompasses nearly 10 percent of Lebanon’s total land mass.
One of the biggest economic casualties of the U.S.-led war in Iran has been the global fertilizer supply.
Shipments of it have piled up on the wrong side of the Strait of Hormuz. In India, Algeria and Slovakia, fertilizer plants have shut down or slowed their output because of rising natural gas prices. China has restricted fertilizer exports. Australian wheat farmers are planting less, and corn and soy farmers in the United States are begging President Trump for relief.
Much of the concern about economic disruptions stemming from the Iran conflict has centered on the higher price of oil and natural gas. But the cascading effects of the conflict on fertilizer supplies are growing worse by the day, raising prices for farmers globally and threatening to lead to food insecurity in some parts of the world.
Most fertilizer is made using natural gas. So the energy-rich Middle East has become a key global producer of the commodity, second only to Russia. Nearly a third of the world’s fertilizer is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, and many other countries that produce their own fertilizer, like Egypt and Thailand, often do so using natural gas from the Middle East.
Deepika Thapliyal, a fertilizer specialist at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services, a market information provider, said that the disappearance of such a large portion of the world’s supply had led to a “very big jump” in fertilizer prices. That was leading to ramifications globally, she said, with major agricultural producers like India facing potential shortages.
The consequences have been far-reaching, impacting farmers in countries including the United States and Brazil that rely on imported fertilizer. Ms. Thapliyal said those farmers are likely to face higher prices and could be forced to pass those on to their customers. Adding to the pressure: Russia, another major fertilizer producer, was being hampered from stepping in because of drone strikes on its factories and ports from its own yearslong war with Ukraine.
“It’s inevitable that food prices will go up,” she said.
The World Trade Organization, in a report last week, also warned about the risks to the food supplies of many countries. Persian Gulf states could also face food shortages, given their high dependence on imports for products like rice, corn, soybeans and vegetable oil, the W.T.O. said.
In her opening remarks at a W.T.O. conference in Cameroon on Thursday, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the organization’s director-general, said that the conflict had “destabilized trade in energy, fertilizer and food” at a time when governments were already struggling with geopolitical and trade tensions as well as climate pressures.
“It is no secret that the world trading system is experiencing the worst disruptions in the past 80 years,” she said.
While Mr. Trump has suggested that the Iran conflict will come to a quick end, that seems highly unclear. On Thursday, Mr. Trump said that Iran had promised to let eight oil tankers pass through the Strait as a “show of sincerity,” and that two additional boats had been let through as well.
But the day before, Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a maritime information service, said in a briefing that there had been only a handful of transits in recent days, and most of the ships moving oil and gas were connected to a “shadow fleet” that helps move sanctioned oil.
The limited traffic that was flowing through the strait was sailing exclusively through a corridor controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, requiring special clearance codes and an Iranian escort service, Lloyd’s List said.
Windward, a maritime intelligence firm, said on Thursday that transit through the strait was expanding, but only within a controlled system with “selective access.”
The blockages in trade are also threatening supply shortages for other key industries that depend on the Middle East.
That includes aluminum, which is used by makers of cars, airplanes and many other products, and helium, which is needed to make semiconductors. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia all export aluminum, the production of which is energy-intensive, while Qatar is also a significant supplier of helium.
Analysts at Blue Yonder, a supply chain company, said that the disruptions in the region had led to delays in shipments of medications and medical supplies from India and of semiconductors and batteries from other parts of Asia, along with other goods. The higher price of oil and gas was also impacting shipping, aviation, agriculture and manufacturing, they said.
“We’re seeing a significant disruption in the flow of energy, chemical and other goods, higher freight and insurance costs, and spiraling delays across supply chains,” said Nathan Moffitt, a corporate vice president at Blue Yonder.
Suketu Gandhi, a partner at Kearney, a management consultancy, said that he also expected higher transport costs from the conflict to spill through into prices of goods. Rerouting vessels from the Middle East around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip had raised some shipping costs 30 percent to 70 percent in the near term, he said, while higher energy costs would also push up the price of commercial shipping contracts.
But of all the economic disruptions caused by the war, the effect on fertilizer could be the most economically far-reaching, given knock-on effects for the global food supply.
A research note published this week by Alpine Macro, an investment research firm, said that large parts of Asia were most exposed to the supply shortages, particularly India and Thailand. Europe was also vulnerable. In the United States, where farmers are entering the spring planting season, the disruptions are also pushing up prices. The price of urea rose by 50 percent in the first few weeks of the conflict, it said, and ammonia’s price rose by 20 percent. Both are common fertilizers.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that other major fertilizer exporters are unable to rapidly scale up their shipments to offset losses in the Middle East, in part because the conflict has also raised the price of natural gas, Alpine Macro said.
Global agriculture saw a similar shock four years ago, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted the flow of oil, gas and fertilizer. American and European sanctions on Russia and Belarus caused prices of both energy goods and fertilizers to spike, helping to push up global food costs.
But that conflict had a more immediate effect on food prices, because it also shut down agricultural production in Ukraine, a major source of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. Shuttered ports in the Black Sea were not able to carry Ukrainian wheat to markets in Africa and the Middle East, and many Ukrainian fields lay fallow.
So far, fertilizer prices have yet to climb back to the highs they hit in 2021 and 2022, but it remains to be seen how long the current disruptions last.
Many American farmers, who had already seen their margins squeezed by tariff shocks and labor shortages, have purchased fertilizer for the season, but those who haven’t may be hit with higher prices. The United States is a major fertilizer producer globally, but it still imports more fertilizer than it exports, including from Canada, Russia and Qatar.
In an effort to help alleviate the price increases, the Trump administration has lifted sanctions on fertilizer sales from Belarus and Venezuela. Farming groups have been pushing for more, including the revocation of duties on phosphate fertilizer from Morocco and Russia.
Mr. Trump, speaking to American farmers from the White House on Friday, said the administration would expand loan guarantees for farmers and reduce regulations that he said were raising costs for farms.
Chris Abbott, the chief executive of Pivot Bio, a Minnesota-based maker of agricultural products that increase nitrogen in soil, said his company was increasing its production to provide a domestic source of nitrogen.
He said that prices were already rising quickly at a time when overall farm commodity prices were lagging, putting the ratio of fertilizer to grain prices at a level not seen in generations.
“This is hitting at an already difficult time,” he said.
Alan Rappeport contributed reporting.
Iran moved to assert its control over the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that it had warned three container ships, including two that are owned by a Chinese company, not to go through the strait. The message, carried by Iran state media, included purported images of tracking data showing three ships being turned around. Two of the ships are owned by the Chinese company COSCO. Marine Traffic also shows that the two Chinese-owned ships, the CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean, had turned around.
Hundreds of transport workers in the Philippines went on strike for a second straight day on Friday to protest a surge in fuel prices, days after the country’s president declared a national energy emergency stemming from the war in the Middle East.
Protesters in Manila, the capital, said that diesel prices had doubled since the war started on Feb. 28 and demanded that the government of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. take action to reduce fuel prices, increase transport fares and raise wages.
The strike, which included drivers of popular passenger vehicles known as jeepneys, forced the government to deploy special buses to transport thousands of stranded residents. The government recently began handing out the equivalent of $84 each to tens of thousands of motorized tricycle and jeepney drivers around the capital.
The protests were smaller than some previous labor actions in the Philippines, suggesting that parts of the public recognize that the soaring fuel costs are largely the result of a war thousands of miles away. But striking workers said that the rising prices were painful.
Jaime Ricafrente, 72, a jeepney driver for four decades, said that he broke down in tears on Friday after his name was left off a list of drivers eligible for the government’s emergency subsidy.
“I felt hopeless, with no one to turn to,” he said.
Mr. Ricafrente said that he later received private aid after an appeal for help on the local radio, and that he would spend that money on milk for his grandchild, who lives with him and his wife.
On Friday, Mr. Marcos said that the government was seeking alternative sources of crude oil outside of the Middle East. A shipment of 700,000 barrels of Russian crude arrived on Thursday, and the Marcos administration said that it had enough to last through June.
But it wasn’t immediately clear how soon that would have an effect on fuel prices. Ruelle Roxas Jr., a 53-year-old driver and father of six, said that he might look for work at construction sites.
“I don’t have enough to pay for diesel, which has doubled in price,” he said.
The energy crisis has also roiled domestic politics. The left-leaning political group Bayan, which supported the transport workers’ strike, called for sustained demonstrations against the Marcos administration’s handling of the crisis. Raymond Palatino, the group’s secretary general, said that poorer Filipinos bore the heaviest burden.
“Most Filipinos are barely surviving due to soaring prices and the general cost-of-living crisis,” he said.
Ukraine has signed a defense cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, laying the groundwork for future contracts in which Ukrainian companies could help the kingdom with its air defenses.
“We have reached an important arrangement,” Mr. Zelensky said on social media, adding that Ukraine was ready for long-term cooperation and hoped to become a force in global defense contracting.
The signing took place before a meeting on Friday between Mr. Zelensky and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler. The leaders met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the escalating tensions in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.
For years, Ukraine has been refining methods for combating Iranian-designed Shahed drones, which Russia launches into the country by the thousands each month. After the United States and Israel began attacking Iran late last month, the Iranian armed forces retaliated by firing these drones at U.S. allies in the region, including Saudi Arabia.
To defend against the drones, Middle Eastern countries used costly interceptor missiles. But it became clear that even the most advanced and expensive air defense systems would struggle, over time, to counter large volumes of far cheaper drones.
The Iran conflict has given Ukraine an opportunity to showcase its battle-tested technology and present itself as a valuable partner as countries look to shore up their defenses. A number of Ukrainian companies are pursuing deals with Middle Eastern countries, particularly for interceptor drones.
That these drones can be remotely piloted has become a central selling point. Officials say that Ukrainian companies would not just sell the hardware but also provide software updates and skilled operators who would work from Ukraine.
Ukrainian military experts have been in Saudi Arabia for the past week consulting on air defense. Mr. Zelensky has said Ukraine would like to explore trades with Middle Eastern nations for advanced air-defense systems that the country needs itself.