Beirut/Tel Aviv6:56 p.m. March 26
Tehran8:26 p.m. March 26
Iran War Live Updates: Trump Delivers New Threats, Escalating Effort to Pressure Iran
Mr. Trump warned Iranian officials to consider his peace proposal “before it is too late.” He said he had not decided if he would extend his Friday deadline for Iran to fully open the Strait of Hormuz.
- Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
- Abbas Fakih/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Video obtained by Reuters
- Hussein Malla/Associated Press
- Zain Jaafar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press
President Trump on Thursday ratcheted up pressure on Tehran to accept a U.S. proposal to end the war, amid conflicting signals about the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough.
“They’ll tell you, ‘We’re not negotiating,’” Mr. Trump said at a meeting of his cabinet at the White House. “Of course, they’re negotiating. They’ve been obliterated.” Iran has publicly dismissed Mr. Trump’s plan and insisted that the fighting would end only on its terms, though some Iranian officials have privately signaled that they are open to negotiations.
Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for Mr. Trump, said at the cabinet meeting that he and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were trying to convince the Iranians “that this is the inflection point, with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction.”
Mr. Trump said that the Iranians still had a chance to abandon their nuclear ambitions, but that “in the meantime, we’ll just keep blowing them away, unimpeded, unstopped.”
Asked by a reporter whether he would consider taking over Iran’s oil, Mr. Trump replied, “I mean, I wouldn’t talk about it, but it’s an option.”
Israel said Thursday that it had killed an Iranian naval commander who played a pivotal role in shutting down a vital oil shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli military to attack as much of Iran’s arms industry as possible this week, according to two senior Israeli officials and two people briefed on the matter. The order reflected Israel’s concern that the war might end before it can achieve its aims.
Pakistan’s foreign minister confirmed on Thursday that his country has been facilitating back-channel communications between the United States and Iran, including relaying a 15-point U.S. proposal aimed at ending the war. But Pakistani officials did not say whether they would soon host any high-level foreign officials, appearing to play down the prospect of formal talks between the two sides after four weeks of war.
Mr. Netanyahu said on Thursday that the Israeli military had killed Alireza Tangsiri, the naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Iran did not immediately comment on the claim.
Mr. Trump has said that Iran is willing to negotiate because it is close to defeat. Still, the Pentagon this week ordered the deployment of about 2,000 more soldiers to the Middle East, and missile launches by Iran at Israel continued unabated on Thursday.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Hardening demands: Diplomats said that Mr. Trump’s 15-point peace plan calls for what would amount to a complete termination of Iran’s nuclear program and strict limits on its missile arsenal. Iran said in comments carried on state television Wednesday that Iran would not end its attacks unless the United States paid war reparations and recognized Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz.
New attacks: The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had struck targets in Isfahan, in central Iran, and had detected missiles launched from Iran toward Israel. Iran also launched strikes against U.S. allies and sites in the Persian Gulf. In Abu Dhabi, falling debris from a missile interception killed two people, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said.
Death tolls: Iran’s U.N. ambassador said that at least 1,348 civilians have been killed in the country since the war began — a toll that has not been updated since March 11. Almost 1,100 people in Lebanon have been killed, the authorities there said on Wednesday. At least 15 people were killed in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials said. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
Lebanon: The Israeli military said that one of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon. At least three Israeli soldiers have been killed in the area since fighting intensified between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia, in early March.
Israel’s war with Hezbollah has shown little sign of abating. More than 1,100 people have now been killed in the country since Israel’s conflict with the Iran-backed group erupted earlier this month, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. At least 121 children are among the dead, the ministry said.
Trump said he didn’t yet know whether he would extend a deadline he gave to Iran to fully open the Strait of Hormuz by Friday or the United States would “obliterate” power stations there. Trump said it would depend on what his negotiators, Witkoff and Kushner, reported.
“If it’s not going along, maybe not,” he said, adding that they “have a lot of time.” He added that a day “in Trump time” was “an eternity.”
President Trump said the “surprise” he’s been referring to regarding Iran was that the Iranians said they would let eight oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz as a show of sincerity ahead of talks. He said they were Pakistan-flagged boats. And two additional boats were let through, he added, so 10 boats passed.
Trump, asked about reports that the U.S. was considering a plan to divert munitions from Ukraine to the Middle East, did not answer definitively but said that “we do that all the time.” He said that the United States was still hoping to get the war in Ukraine “solved,” but noted that it was “thousands of miles away” and didn’t affect the United States.
He then expressed his ire at NATO allies, indicating that he could take the same posture they have in hesitating to get involved in his war against Iran. “That’s why, when I heard the head of Germany say ‘this is not our war,’ about Iran, I said, ‘Well, Ukraine’s not our war,’” he said.
President Trump said he was open to trying to suspend the federal gas tax in a bid to bring down sky-high costs at the pump stemming from the war with Iran. He said he “thought about it, I guess,” during the cabinet meeting, later adding it’s “something we have in our pocket if we think it’s necessary.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that he was confident that oil shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would start to increase and that the oil market was currently “well supplied.” Bessent predicted that after the war concludes, the world will have lower energy prices and less inflation because there will be “absolute security.”
Steve Witkoff, the White House special envoy who along with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, are attempting to negotiate a deal with Iran, said during the cabinet meeting that the duo was focused on convincing Iran “that this is the inflection point with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction.”
Witkoff said that they had “strong signs” that peace was a possibility, and that “Iran is looking for an off-ramp” following Trump’s threat this past weekend to “obliterate” their power plants within 48 hours. As the deadline neared, Trump pulled back the threat, and instead looked for his own off-ramp.
Even as President Trump claimed Iran’s military had been “obliterated,” missile launches by Iran at Israel continued unabated on Thursday. The Israeli military just said that it had identified missile launches from Iran, the eighth such announcement since midnight on Thursday. At least seven people were injured in central Israel on Thursday following missile barrages, according to the country’s emergency service.
The war on a second front — between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon — has also intensified on Thursday. One man was killed in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, according to emergency services, after a volley of rockets from Lebanon. The Israeli military later said that a third division would be deployed to southern Lebanon as part of what Israel has called a “limited” ground operation there.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at the cabinet meeting, echoed President Trump’s claims that Iran has been at war with the United States for 47 years and that “every president should have done this,” referring to the war.
But other presidents have sought to address Iran’s nuclear plans diplomatically, including former President Barack Obama. And the glaring omission worth noting is that this is President Trump’s second term, meaning he was among the presidents in recent years who chose not to go to war with Iran. In fact, he called off a military strike against Iran in 2019 after Iran shot down a U.S. drone in international airspace. As planes were in the air, and with minutes to spare, he pulled back, citing the possibility of Iranian casualties.
On Iran, Trump reiterated his talking points about U.S. military successes, particularly that the war was “ahead of schedule,” and his complaints about allies not joining the war effort. He also continued to assert that Iran was “defeated” and its military capabilities were “obliterated,” and he pushed back against reports that Iran was not interested in negotiating a cease-fire with the United States.
“They’ll tell you, ‘we’re not negotiating,’” he said. “Of course, they’re negotiating. They’ve been obliterated.” He added that Iranians still had a chance to abandon their nuclear ambitions, but “in the meantime, we’ll just keep blowing them away, unimpeded, unstopped.”
President Trump is hosting his second cabinet meeting of the year, and the first since the U.S. went to war in Iran. This morning, he posted a string of social media posts threatening Iran over negotiations, lashing out at NATO allies for not joining the war, pressuring congressional Republicans to “terminate” the filibuster, and blaming Democrats for the ongoing partial government shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security.
Israel’s assassination of an Iranian Navy commander, Alireza Tangsiri “makes the region safer,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, the leader of U.S. Central Command, in a statement Thursday. He said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy has attacked hundreds of vessels over the years and “harassed thousands of innocent merchant mariners.”
The head of NATO said on Thursday that Europe needed time to “come together” to make sure the Strait of Hormuz is open for all countries, comments that came amid mounting criticism in Europe that he supports the United States and Israel in a war on Iran that much of the rest of the alliance views as unlawful and unwarranted.
Briefing journalists at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Secretary General Mark Rutte noted that the alliance had long held that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs posed a threat not just to the Middle East but to Europe. He cited recent strikes against Turkey and a joint U.S.-British military base in the Indian Ocean as evidence of Iran’s threat to the trans-Atlantic alliance.
“And what the United States is doing now is degrading that capability, and yes, I applaud it,” Mr. Rutte said.
But he also said he had told President Trump that European leaders could not be expected to quickly assist in the Persian Gulf because they were not given advance notice of the Feb. 28 attack on Iran.
Mr. Trump has criticized Europe for not doing more to help protect commercial ships from Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. “We are very disappointed with NATO because NATO has done absolutely nothing,” he said later on Thursday, during a cabinet meeting in Washington.
Mr. Rutte said his response to such criticism was that “Europe needed time because the United States, for good reasons, was not able to inform allies of what was going to happen.” He added, “It means that it takes some time for Europe to come together, and that’s happening now.”
He said that more than 30 countries around the world, most of them NATO members, were now planning how “to make sure that the Strait of Hormuz, the sea lanes, are open.”
Mr. Rutte conceded that it was not clear when that might happen, given that most allies have refused to get involved in the strait on Iran’s southern border until a cease-fire is announced.
“Indeed, that begs the question, given the fact that the war is ongoing: What does it mean in terms of the ‘what’ question, the ‘when’ question and the ‘where’ question,” Mr. Rutte said.
He said the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, was leading the multinational effort “to make sure that those questions will be answered.”
Mr. Rutte also reiterated his support for Mr. Trump. “The United States, under this president, is doing stuff which is quite crucial for the alliance,” he said.
Critics of Mr. Rutte in Europe say that by supporting the war, he has gone beyond his remit as secretary general of the alliance to become a cheerleader for an unpopular American president and an unpopular conflict.
Two people were killed and three others were wounded in Abu Dhabi on Thursday when shrapnel from an intercepted missile rained down on a road on the city’s outskirts, officials in the United Arab Emirates said.
The Emirati authorities did not release the names of the two people who were killed but said that they were a Pakistani man and an Indian man. Their deaths underscored the rising civilian toll from the missiles and drones Iran has launched into several Arab countries since the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on Feb. 28.
The United Arab Emirates intercepted 15 ballistic missiles and 11 drones fired by Iran on Thursday, according to the country’s defense ministry.
Other countries in the Persian Gulf also said they had been attacked on Thursday, but none of them reported casualties. Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted at least 36 drones aimed at its oil-rich Eastern Province, a day after downing 34 drones and a ballistic missile. Kuwait said its air defenses brought down multiple drones, while civil defense teams in Bahrain extinguished a fire in the northern city of Muharraq that it said was caused by an airstrike.
In a joint statement issued late on Wednesday, six Arab nations condemned “blatant Iranian attacks” and strikes carried out by Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
“While we value our fraternal relations with the Republic of Iraq, we call on the Iraqi government to take the necessary measures to immediately halt the attacks launched by factions, militias, and armed groups from Iraqi territory toward neighboring countries,” the statement read.
The authorities in Kuwait also said on Wednesday that they had foiled a terror plot involving 10 of its citizens. The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry accused them of being linked to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, and said they “were planning to assassinate state figures and leaders and recruit individuals to carry out these missions.” Five of the 10 were arrested, but the other five, who were not in Kuwait, remained at large, the ministry said.
Surveillance footage shows what appears to be debris from an Iranian missile landing in a neighborhood in Kafr Qassem, Israel, on Thursday, and sending a vehicle flying into the air. About 30 seconds before impact, two people are seen hurrying away from the area. Five people in the city were treated for blast injuries, Israel’s emergency rescue service said.
The war in Iran will lead to a surge in inflation this year, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz pushes up prices for oil, gas and other commodities, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Thursday.
The inflation rate in the United States will average 4.2 percent this year, more than 1 percentage point higher than the group’s previous forecast, made late last year, the Paris-based organization said. Across the Group of 20 nations, inflation is forecast to average 4 percent this year, 1.2 percentage points higher than previously expected.
The global economy is projected to grow by 2.9 percent this year, an unchanged forecast, supported by spending on artificial intelligence.
“The resilience of the global economy is now being tested,” the O.E.C.D. said in a report. There is a “significant” risk to its projections if there are persistent disruptions to exports from the Middle East.
For the past month, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway off the southern coast of Iran, has plummeted because of attacks on ships. That, along with attacks on energy infrastructure across the Gulf region, has led to a sharp reduction in the supply of energy, as well as other goods such as fertilizers. That will push up the costs of food and other goods.
“Higher energy and fertilizer prices and the unpredictable nature of the evolving conflict in the Middle East will add to inflation and weigh on demand,” the O.E.C.D. said.
In the United States, growth momentum from the beginning of this year is expected to be offset by a slowdown in consumer spending. At the same time, the impact of higher energy prices will outweigh the effect from lower tariff rates on imports. The jump in inflation narrows the chances that the Federal Reserve will be able to cut interest rates this year.
Among the G20 countries, Britain is forecast to suffer the biggest hit to growth, in addition to a large increase in inflation.
The O.E.C.D. said central bankers needed to remain vigilant for signs that the energy shock could lead to a longer-term increase inflation, and lawmakers should respond to higher prices with “temporary and well-targeted measures” because of pressure on government budgets.
Pakistan has been facilitating back-channel communications between the United States and Iran, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday, including relaying a 15-point U.S. proposal aimed at ending the war. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared earlier this week that his country stood ready to mediate, but on Thursday, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, declined to comment on reports of an imminent summit or whether U.S. and Iranian envoys were expected to travel to the Pakistani capital.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that the United States has “reached out to us regarding their bases in Middle Eastern countries,” after Zelensky offered to share military expertise on anti-drone warfare. Zelenksy has previously said that Ukrainians had deployed to some countries in the Persian Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, to offer advice. In its war with Russia, Ukraine has sought cheaper, more easily produced solutions to defend against drone attacks.
“No matter how many Patriots, THAADs, or other air defense systems are in the Middle East, that alone is not enough for fully effective air defense,” he said in a post on X.
German lawmakers passed a law on Thursday limiting gas station owners from increasing their prices more than once a day. The measure, which was hastily added to existing legislation, is designed to discourage price gauging at German gas pumps while global oil prices rose globally because of the de-facto blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. Gas prices in Germany are among Europe’s highest, with an average of $8.50 a gallon.
At the Souk el Tayeb market in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, workers and volunteers cooked and packaged meals on Thursday for distribution to people displaced from their homes by the war.
President Trump appears to be attempting to increase pressure on Iranian officials to accept his administration’s proposal to end the war. “They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.
Alireza Tangsiri, the commander of the naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is the latest senior Iranian military figure targeted by Israel in its monthlong bombardment of Iran.
Mr. Tangsiri had been leading Iran’s successful effort to close the Strait of Hormuz to almost all shipping traffic, causing serious economic disruption worldwide and raising the cost of the Iran campaign for the United States, Israel’s partner in the war. Israel said it had killed Mr. Tangsiri in a strike on Thursday; Iran has not commented.
It was not immediately clear what effect Mr. Tangsiri’s death would have on Iran’s Strait of Hormuz strategy. Iran said earlier this week that it would allow “non-hostile” ship traffic through the narrow waterway.
Mr. Tangsiri oversaw the navy’s testing of drones and cruise missiles, according to the U.S. Treasury, which imposed sanctions on him in 2019 and again in 2023. He also chaired the board of a company that manufactured and tested drones for the navy, the Treasury said. Iran’s ability to control passage through the strait has been made possible, in part, by its use of attack drones.
The commander of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, said on Thursday that the killing of Mr. Tangsiri by Israel “makes the region safer.” He said the Revolutionary Guards’ navy had attacked hundreds of vessels over the years.
Mr. Tangsiri had become a vocal presence on social media in recent weeks. He used his account on X to give updates on ships that Iran had refused to allow through the strait; to threaten U.S.-linked oil facilities; and warn the United States not to attack Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub.
Mr. Tangsiri was chosen to head the Revolutionary Guards’ naval force by Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in 2018, and he was known for his aggressive statements asserting Iranian dominance over the Strait of Hormuz. Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in an airstrike at the outset of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran last month.
Helene Cooper contributed reporting.
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said the military killed Alireza Tangsiri, the Iranian commander of the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in a “precise and deadly” attack, according to a statement from Katz’s office.
Katz said Tangsiri was responsible for mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, a key oil route. Iran has shut down the strait to most international shipping, sending the price of oil soaring.
Alireza Tangsiri, the Iranian commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy who was targeted in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, had overseen the IRGC Navy’s testing of drones and cruise missiles, according to the U.S. Treasury, which sanctioned him in 2023 and 2019. In recent weeks, he had repeatedly posted on X about Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as other attacks carried out by the IRGC naval force.
Oil prices rose and stocks fell on Thursday as investors continued to parse conflicting signals on whether the war in the Middle East was nearing de-escalation.
The United States and Iran each insisted it had the upper hand in the conflict. The Trump administration has circulated a peace plan, but Iran dismissed its conditions and offered its own terms.
Oil rises.
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose roughly 4 percent to about $106 a barrel, after settling at $102.22 on Wednesday.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, climbed close to $94 a barrel, after finishing at $90.32 on Wednesday.
Investors and analysts are focused on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is a vital trading route for oil and natural gas that normally carries as much as one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. Shipping traffic exiting the Persian Gulf through the strait has been effectively halted since the war began on Feb. 28. More recently, attacks on energy infrastructure, by both Israel and Iran, have raised concerns about longer-lasting damage to the world’s oil and gas supply.
Price of Brent Crude Oil
Global stocks fall.
Stocks in Europe edged lower on Thursday as investors tried to determine the prospects of a cease-fire. The DAX in Germany, the FTSE 100 in Britain and the Stoxx 600, a broad European index, all dropped more than 1 percent.
Stocks in Asia were also broadly lower, with Japan falling about 0.25 percent, and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong falling 2 percent. The Kospi index in South Korea was the worst performer, falling 3.2 percent. On Wednesday, stocks rose across the region.
The S&P 500 started the trading day around 0.8 percent lower on Thursday, after rising 0.5 percent on Wednesday.
FTSE 100
Gasoline prices are flat.
U.S. gas prices ticked down less than a penny on Thursday to remain around a national average of $3.98 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. It was the first day the price did not increase since the war began, leaving the cost for drivers up 34 percent in that period.
Diesel prices have increased even more quickly, rising to $5.38, up 43 percent since the start of the war.
Republicans in Congress are growing more anxious about the Trump administration’s handling of the war in Iran as their questions about its objectives and cost, including whether ground troops will be needed, go unanswered.
Several G.O.P. lawmakers emerged on Wednesday from classified briefings with Pentagon officials on Capitol Hill complaining that they had not received crucial details about the way forward. Their frustration came nearly a month into a conflict in which Republicans have given President Trump broad latitude to wage war with no congressional input, and resisted calling administration officials to provide a public accounting of what they are doing.
Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who attended one of the briefings on Wednesday, said senior officials had failed to provide basic details about the scope and direction of the military campaign.
“We want to know more about what’s going on,” an uncharacteristically irritated Mr. Rogers told reporters. “We’re just not getting enough answers.”
Across the Capitol, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of his chamber’s Armed Services panel, suggested he was also frustrated about the lack of information.
“Let me put it this way,” Mr. Wicker said of his House counterpart, according to Politico. “I can see why he might have said that.”
The complaints came as the Pentagon prepared to deploy nearly 7,000 additional troops to the Middle East, including forces from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, moves intended to bolster operations tied to the war in Iran. They surfaced as lawmakers are also bracing for a potential $200 billion funding request from the Trump administration to pay for the conflict.
Other Republicans echoed those concerns, pointing to discrepancies between the administration’s public rationale and objectives for the war and the information that had been shared privately with them.
Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she left the briefing troubled by what she described as shifting explanations for the conflict and unclear military objectives.
“The justifications presented to the American public for the war in Iran were not the same military objectives we were briefed on today in the House Armed Services Committee,” Ms. Mace said in a social media post. “This gap is deeply troubling. The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people.”
In classified briefings for lawmakers in both chambers on Wednesday, Pentagon officials declined to outline when or how U.S. ground forces might be used in Iran, according to two people familiar with the sessions who spoke about them on the condition of anonymity. During the closed-door session with senators, according to another person familiar with it who requested anonymity to describe it in general terms, the Republican Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska complained about how limited the information was, including requests for details on the cost of the military campaign.
Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota, said that officials “don’t have an official number at this point,” for the cost of the operation. Asked about the Pentagon’s $200 billion funding request for the war, he told reporters that the administration was “obviously” working to “figure out how we’re going to get it done.”
To date, few Republicans have publicly joined Democrats in raising questions about the war, even as Democrats have tried repeatedly to demand testimony from top officials and force votes insisting that Congress authorize the use of force. But with the conflict dragging on, gas prices rising and more U.S. troops heading to the region, some in the G.O.P. have begun sounding alarms.
“We will not sacrifice American lives for the same failed foreign policies,” Ms. Mace said on Wednesday. “The war machine may be willing to give the lives of your sons and daughters for the price of oil, but we are not.”
At the White House, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, defended the administration’s approach, reiterating that it does not believe formal congressional authorization is required at this stage of the conflict.
She said notifications to Congress and classified briefings had been provided “out of courtesy and out of respect,” describing the current situation in the Middle East not as a war but as “major combat operations” against Iran.
Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.