The killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening phase of the US-Israeli war against Iran has generated a striking argument in strategic and theological circles alike: that the killing may have removed not merely a political leader but a normative brake on Iran’s possible march toward nuclear weapons. Reports indicate that Iranian decision-making has since hardened under intense military pressure and an increasingly securitised internal environment.
What gives Khamenei’s death a particular doctrinal significance is that he had, over more than two decades, publicly framed weapons of mass destruction—including nuclear and chemical weapons—as contrary to Islam. If that position represented a genuine religious constraint rather than mere diplomatic rhetoric, then his death may have removed more than a leader: it may have weakened the doctrinal restraint that helped keep Iran a threshold nuclear state.
What gives Khamenei’s death a particular doctrinal significance is that he had, over more than two decades, publicly framed weapons of mass destruction—including nuclear and chemical weapons—as contrary to Islam.
Islamic just war theory places moral constraints on indiscriminate violence, constraints that Khamenei appeared to project onto state policy. With that authority now gone, the central question is whether a moral tradition can discipline a state that increasingly experiences its insecurity as existential. Whether the next supreme leader can impose doctrinal restraint on a system drifting toward hard security logic.
The Islamic just war theory
The Islamic conception of war begins from a premise different from the caricatures often projected onto it. Classical Islamic thought does not treat war as an unbounded field of religious violence. Rather, it regulates warfare through a moral-legal framework derived from the Qur’an, the practice of the Prophet, and the juristic traditions that developed in subsequent centuries. The foundational Qur’anic injunction is taken from verse 2:190: “Fight in the way of God those who fight you, but do not transgress. Indeed, God does not love transgressors.” The verse both permits fighting and limits it: war is accepted as a political reality, but not treated as morally autonomous.
The Islamic conception of war begins from a premise different from the caricatures often projected onto it. Classical Islamic thought does not treat war as an unbounded field of religious violence.
The duality of permission and restraint thus runs through the Islamic just war tradition. War may be legitimate in cases of defence, resistance to aggression, or protection of the community. But even a just cause does not license unlimited means. Islamic jurists emphasised proportionality, legitimate authority, fidelity to agreements, and the protection of non-combatants—including women, children, the elderly, monks, and peasants— developing a norm of discrimination that restricted violence to active combatants.
It is from this perspective that nuclear weapons become especially difficult to reconcile with Islamic ethics. A weapon whose essence is mass, uncontrolled devastation, sits uneasily with any tradition that treats non-combatant immunity as morally central. In Islamic terms, the problem is not simply the scale of destruction, but the very structure of the act: the means themselves are transgressive.
The fatwa: Genuine constraint or strategic cover?
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s reputed opposition to chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War established an early precedent for this kind of doctrinal restraint. Iraq used chemical agents extensively, and Iran suffered enormously—some 20,000 Iranians were killed and over 100,000 severely injured. Yet the Islamic Republic did not respond in kind on a comparable scale. Whether that restraint was entirely theological or also strategic remains debated. Recent evidence suggests limited Iranian chemical weapons development during the war. Still, the episode reinforced the notion that certain weapons lay beyond the moral threshold that Iran’s clerical leadership was prepared to cross openly.
Khamenei extended this logic to the nuclear realm. He first issued an oral fatwa in October 2003 declaring nuclear weapons as forbidden (haram) in Islam, and repeated this position in an official statement at the emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in August 2005. Over subsequent years, Iranian officials repeatedly invoked his religious decree as evidence of the Islamic Republic’s peaceful nuclear intentions.
Khamenei extended this logic to the nuclear realm. He first issued an oral fatwa in October 2003 declaring nuclear weapons as forbidden (haram) in Islam, and repeated this position in an official statement at the emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in August 2005.
But the fatwa’s authenticity and legal weight have always been contested. Some have argued that no formal written fatwa was ever issued and that what Iran marketed as a religious ruling was, in origin, merely the closing paragraph of a message to a 2010 nuclear disarmament conference, later retroactively framed by Iranian diplomats as a fatwa. Others have documented that Khamenei’s pronouncements on nuclear weapons were inconsistent: at times he categorically forbade development, stockpiling, and use; at other times he appeared to permit development and stockpiling while forbidding use.
None of this entirely strips the fatwa of significance. In political systems where legitimacy is partly theological, a public prohibition articulated by the supreme jurist, even if ambiguous in its legal form, raises the political and doctrinal cost of reversal. As one scholar observes, such declarations make it costly for the Islamic Republic to overturn the publicly stated position even if they do not constitute binding juridical rulings in the formal sense.
Succession and the question of doctrinal inheritance
The critical question of whether Khamenei’s successor would inherit his political and moral authority looms large. On March 9, 2026, the Assembly of Experts named Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of Ali Khamenei as Iran’s third supreme leader. Whether he would inherit his father’s doctrinal commitments, especially on nuclear weapons, is far from clear. Not known as a jurist of comparable standing to his father, Mojtaba’s authority derives primarily from his revolutionary and security credentials rather than from the depth of his theological learning, a fact noted critically within Iran’s clerical establishment, which has historically resisted father-to-son succession as uncomfortably monarchical.
Khamenei’s nuclear prohibition carried weight because it came from the state’s highest religious authority. Mojtaba’s standing is far more contested, which means that any comparable prohibition would likely carry less doctrinal force—while any tacit relaxation would accelerate the erosion of the barrier his father maintained. The IRGC commanders who manoeuvred his appointment to power have long been among those pressing for a reassessment of Iran’s nuclear posture.
Islamic restraint vs strategic realism
This leads to the final and perhaps hardest question: would Iran, if acting as a pure realist state, pursue nuclear weapons regardless of the Islamic just war tradition? The realist answer is straightforward. States seek survival in an anarchic international system. When a state faces stronger adversaries, recurring coercion, and the credible prospect of regime-change violence, it has every incentive to pursue the ultimate deterrent. From this perspective, the logic of nuclear acquisition is not theological but strategic: a bomb would promise not battlefield utility but regime survival, deterrence, and insulation from future attack.
Khamenei’s nuclear prohibition carried weight because it came from the state’s highest religious authority. Mojtaba’s standing is far more contested, which means that any comparable prohibition would likely carry less doctrinal force—while any tacit relaxation would accelerate the erosion of the barrier his father maintained.
And yet Iran is not a pure realist state in the abstract. It is a political order where ideology, clerical authority, national security, and regime survival have long coexisted in uneasy combination. The more interesting possibility, therefore, is not that realism simply replaces theology, but that realism gradually colonises it. In that scenario, doctrine is not openly discarded; it is reinterpreted and subordinated to necessity, allowing the state to retain Islamic language while moving toward a posture that the older Khamenei publicly resisted.
The greater danger is that the Islamic Republic’s language of restraint may cease to anchor policy and instead begin to trail behind it. If so, Iran’s nuclear future will be decided not only in centrifuge halls or command bunkers, but in the struggle between theological limits and strategic fear.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
A MAJOR airline has slashed the price of fares by 50% for summer as the Middle East war tumbles demand for long-haul flights.
Etihad is now offering some of the lowest ever prices seen for long-haul flights from the UK for May and June as it kicks off a price war with Gulf airlines.
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Etihad has slashed the price of fares by 50% in hopes that the Middle East conflict will ease next monthCredit: Getty
Travellers can get return economy flights with the gulf airline from London to Sydney, via Abu Dhabi, from £688.
This is almost three times cheaper than flying to the Australian capital with British Airways (BA), via Singapore, on the same dates – which is £1,850 in economy.
The Foreign Office is currently advising against all but essential travel – which doesn’t include holidays – to the United Arab of Emirates amid the ongoing conflict.
But Etihad, which is the official airline of the UAE, appears to be gambling on hopes that the situation in the Middle East will have eased by next month.
An Etihad insider told The Times, which analysed the airline’s prices: “As soon as travel picks up, we want to be back to flying planes 100 per cent full in all cabins, as we were before the conflict. These prices will help.”
The airline is also offering market-leading fares to other popular destinations from the UK, including the Maldives, Tokyo and Bangkok.
Brits can get return economy flights to the Maldives with the airline in May and June from £581 – compared with £3,380 with British Airways.
Flights to Singapore are form £391, but are £980 with BA.
Emirates and Qatar Airways, the other main Gulf airlines, have not cut their prices.
Demand for long-haul flights has plunged since the war in Iran first broke out at the end of February, with flights cancelled and the Foreign Office issuing “do not travel” warnings for countries in the Middle East.
Countries in Europe including Spain have seen demand rise, as Brits look for alternative destinations to travel to.
The UK Foreign Office states: “FCDO advises against all but essential travel to United Arab Emirates.
“Your travel insurance could be invalidated if you travel against advice from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).”
A car drives past a sign reading ‘cars with even-numbered plates are not allowed to be driven for the day’ in Seoul, South Korea, 17 March 2026. The government invoked emergency measures against severe fine dust, implementing an alternate-day driving system for public agencies and limiting the operation of coal-fired power plants and high-emission state facilities. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
April 3 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s major business groups on Thursday pledged to support government efforts to stabilize energy supply, announcing voluntary measures to reduce consumption as risks grow from instability in the Middle East.
Six economic organizations – including the Korea Economic Association, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other industry groups – said in a joint statement they would take part in nationwide conservation efforts.
“We strongly agree with the government’s call to ensure stable energy supply and promote conservation in preparation for a prolonged Middle East conflict,” the groups said. “We will actively participate in efforts to overcome the crisis.”
The statement comes as the government raised its energy security alert level and introduced additional conservation measures, including expanded vehicle restrictions at public institutions.
Business leaders said ensuring stable energy supplies and improving efficiency have become more urgent than ever, pledging to expand private-sector efforts.
Proposed measures include broader use of flexible work arrangements, such as staggered commuting hours, to reduce traffic demand and energy consumption. Companies also plan to improve manufacturing efficiency and optimize facility operations to cut energy use.
Additional steps include turning off office lighting during lunch breaks and after work hours, as well as encouraging employees to use public transportation.
The groups emphasized that coordinated action among the government, businesses and the public will be essential to address the crisis.
“Voluntary participation is key to spreading a culture of energy conservation,” the statement said, adding that the private sector would play an active role in responding to the situation.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
A pair of the U.S. Air Force’s new EA-37B Compass Call electronic warfare jets have touched down at RAF Mildenhall in England, from where they could move forward and join America’s growing aerial armada in the Middle East.
Last night, open-source flight trackers began to track the progress of the two jets — tail numbers 19-1587 and 17-5579 — that were flying with the callsigns AXIS41 and AXIS43. Photos of the aircraft arriving at Mildenhall were provided to TWZ by g.lockaviation.
One of the two EA-37B Compass Call jets after landing at RAF Mildenhall yesterday evening. g.lockaviation
A pair of U.S. Air Force EA-37B Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft arrived today at RAF Mildenhall in the UK, likely in preparation for a deployment to the Middle East.
This could become the EA-37B’s first operational deployment, but we cannot say that for certain at this time. One of the EA-37Bs was in Europe earlier this year to introduce airmen to the platform, but it was not yet operational. You can read more about that here.
It is worth bearing in mind that, during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, a pair of E-8 Joint STARS surveillance aircraft were also deployed, but were operated by civilian crews. The same could be the case here, or at least mixed crews.
The 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, which operates the Compass Calls, declined to provide TWZ with a comment, deferring us to CENTCOM, which could not immediately comment.
g.lockaviation
The Air Force plans to acquire 10 EA-37Bs to replace its aging and steadily shrinking fleet of turboprop-powered EC-130H Compass Call planes, of which only four are still in service. Two are deployed to the Middle East for Operation Epic Fury. There have been some unconfirmed reports that these aircraft may have been damaged in the attack on Prince Sultan Air Base that saw an E-3 destroyed. Losing EC-130H capability in the region could have very well prompted an emergency deployment of EA-37Bs, even ahead of their planned entry into full operational availability. But we cannot confirm that is the case at this time.
Electromagnetic warfare, evolved
The new aircraft are designed to provide critical standoff jamming support against enemy communications systems, including hostile air defense systems.
At the same time, while air defenses are certainly part of the equation, simply keeping the Iranian military from communicating and (further) disrupting their already fractured command-and-control infrastructure is a highly significant capability to bring to bear.
The EA-37B also has an important intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) function, given its ability to spot, track, and geolocate various types of emitters.
This aircraft, which represents the cutting edge in U.S. electronic warfare capabilities, would be highly important for any ground operation, helping to protect troops put in harms way, should this come to pass.
We will have to wait and see if the EA-37Bs make the leap to the CENTCOM area of responsibility. If they do, it will be something of a baptism by fire for America’s new Compass Call.
A full deep-dive into the various capabilities of the EA-37B can be found in this interview with top executives from the two co-primes that are working on the electronic attack aircraft program.
UPDATES:
Our coverage for the day has concluded.
UPDATE: 5:38 PM EST –
CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins provided us with the latest casualty figures for Epic Fury.
There have been 348 troops wounded, six seriously and 315 have returned to duty. There have been 13 troops killed.
Trump told reporters at the White House that the U.S. military will soon depart from the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’ll be leaving very soon,” he proclaimed. “What happens [there] we’ll have nothing to do with.
Trump: “We’ll be leaving very soon… what happens in [Hormuz] we’ll have nothing to do with”
Other countries can “fend for themselves” if they want gas or oil from the Persian Gulf. pic.twitter.com/mZbaQNLCjA
CNN said top administration officials acknowledge that the U.S. cannot swiftly end the war within the Trump-imposed four to six week timeline and keep the Strait of Hormuz.
As the White House stares down Trump’s self-imposed four- to six-week deadline for ending the war, top administration officials have privately acknowledged that they can’t both achieve their military objectives swiftly and vow to reopen the strait within the same timeline,…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated the Trump administration’s rationale for going to war with Iran, stating “we were on the verge of having an Iran that had so many missiles and so many drones that nobody could do anything about their nuclear weapons program…”
From Day One, the mission was crystal clear: This was the final, best chance to wipe out Iran’s threat for good – so they can never have a nuclear weapon.@SecRubio breaks it down ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/eChlkRPzyb
It appears that USS Tulsa and USS Santa Barbara, a pair of U.S. Navy Independence class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) configured for minesweeping, remain in the Pacific.
According to open-source researcher MT Anderson, satellite imagery shows vessels moored alongside each other at Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore. As we have previously noted, ships remain thousands of miles away from their primary assigned operating area in the Middle East, where the conflict with Iran grinds on. That despite concerns that the Strait of Hormuz could be mined.
🇺🇸LCS WATCH: The Sembawang Sit-In Mar 30 imagery confirms 2x Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships remain moored alongside at Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore.
➡️The distinct trimaran hulls are clearly visible taking up pier space in this false-color capture. ➡️Given the… pic.twitter.com/HL4UjJ2qaX
Iran released new video of its Eagle 44 underground airbase showing it still has some aircraft. As TWZ editor-in-chief Tyler Rogoway notes in a post on X, low-resolution satellite imagery from March 16 shows relatively little damage at the site. However, things may have changed since then and the site may have been it. Regardless, it doesn’t matter if Eagle 44 only has jets, which wouldn’t last very long even if they got off the ground. However, if the facility were stuffed with missiles, that would be a concern. You can read more about Eagle 44 here.
He’s talking about the Eagle 44 installation. Low res imagery up to 16th doesn’t show signs of major destruction, but it really doesn’t matter at this point as far as the aircraft go. If it has missiles stuffed in there still then yes. More on Eagle 44: https://t.co/cA9hYI8RzXhttps://t.co/UX01AwvGUL
In a brief exchange during an interview with NBC News Tuesday afternoon, Trump hinted that Epic Fury might be drawing to a close.
“We’re doing great,” Trump told the network. “And it’s coming to an end.”
He offered no further details.
The U.K. is sending more troops and Sky Sabre air defense systems to the Middle East to defend against Iranian attacks. This will bring the total number of UK personnel in the Gulf and Cyprus to around 1,000, the BBC noted.
“On a trip to the Gulf nations, Defense Secretary John Healey said extra air defence teams and systems would be deployed to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait while the use of Typhoon jets in Qatar will be extended,” the outlet added. “My message to Gulf partners is: Britain’s best will help you defend your skies.”
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeerathat his country is exchanging messages with the U.S. either directly or through friends in the region.
But that doesn’t mean there are peace talks with Washington, Araghchi posited.
“I receive messages from [U.S. envoy Steve] Witkoff directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations,” he told the news outlet.
Araghchi added that Iran has no “faith that negotiations with the U.S. will yield any results. The Trust level is zero.”
Netanyahu said that as a result of constant Israeli attacks on Iran, “sooner or later, it will end up falling.”
The Israeli leader also said “we are working on transforming Israel into a super nation in the region and globally.”
The IRGC confirmed the killing of another Iranian leader, this time Jamshid Eshaghi, head of budget and financial affairs for the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff. He was killed in a missile strike in Tehran on an unspecified date, according to the IRGC.
Eshaghi played a key role in evading oil sanctions and financing the group’s missile projects, according to Ariel Oseran, senior Middle East correspondent for Israel’sI24 News in a post on X.
The IRGC confirms the elimination of Jamshid Eshaghi, head of budget and financial affairs for the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff, in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran, without specifying the date. Eshaghi played a key role in evading oil sanctions and financing the IRGC’s… pic.twitter.com/hs2npoQTt5
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) March 31, 2026
The State Department said it is “tracking reports of threats against locations where American citizens gather” in Saudi Arabia. ”We advise U.S. citizens that hotels and other gathering points including U.S. businesses and U.S. educational institutions may be potential targets.”
Saudi Arabia: We are tracking reports of threats against locations where American citizens gather. We advise U.S. citizens that hotels and other gathering points including U.S. businesses and U.S. educational institutions may be potential targets. On March 22, the Department of… pic.twitter.com/9Xm2oLzxzr
📍NORFOLK, Va. – The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), the flagship of the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group, departs Naval Station Norfolk to begin operations in support of its scheduled deployment, March 31, 2026. pic.twitter.com/ePDTv4IcPE
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at something on Tuesday that at one time was unthinkable – a military alliance with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations.
According to Israeli media, “Netanyahu told ministers at a cabinet meeting that new alliances are being formed with leaders of Arab countries who ‘are talking about fighting together on our side,’” The Times of Israel reported.
“In the past, I had secret conversations with Arab leaders,” Netanyahu reportedly said. “I told them, ‘As soon as Iran can, it will conquer you and overthrow your kingdoms.’ Back then, they didn’t really internalize things. Today they understand.”
BREAKING 🇮🇱🇦🇪🇸🇦: Israeli PM Netanyahu says talks underway to form alliance with Arab countries to fight alongside Israel. pic.twitter.com/BOmDeCr8H9
Lebanon has informed the United Nations in a letter that it has outlawed Hezbollah’s military wing. Beirut’s letter, dated a few weeks ago but made public today, also mentioned the Lebanese government’s March 2 decision to ban all military activity by the group.
Lebanon has informed the United Nations in a letter that it has outlawed Hezbollah’s military wing. Beirut’s letter, dated a few weeks ago but made public today, also mentioned the Lebanese government’s March 2 decision to ban all military activity by the group. pic.twitter.com/2npN5Fckpa
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) March 31, 2026
Hegseth not only validated Trump’s idea to move forward with plans to attack Iran, he also downplayed the inherent risks of the conflict spiraling out of control, according to CNN.
In the immediate lead-up to Iran war, Hegseth not only validated the Trump’s idea to move forward, he also downplayed the inherent risks of the conflict spiraling out of control, three sources tell me & @KristenhCNN.
Nobody in the room during that critical meeting emphasized…
Poland has no intention of shipping any Patriot batteries to the Middle East despite a request from the U.S. to do so, says Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
“Our Patriot batteries and their armament are used to protect Polish skies and NATO’s eastern flank,” he stated on X. “Nothing is changing in this regard, and we are not planning to relocate them anywhere! Our allies know full well and understand how important the tasks we have here are. Poland’s security is an absolute priority.”
Nasze baterie Patriot i ich uzbrojenie służą do ochrony polskiego nieba i wschodniej flanki NATO. Nic w tej kwestii się nie zmienia i nigdzie nie planujemy ich przemieszczać! Nasi sojusznicy dobrze wiedzą i rozumieją jak ważne mamy tu zadania. Bezpieczeństwo Polski jest…
— Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (@KosiniakKamysz) March 31, 2026
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has threatened to strike 18 U.S. technology and defense-related companies operating in the Middle East, Israel’s I24 News reported. The IRGC warned the action could begin as early as tomorrow night if Iran’s senior commanders are targeted.
“In a statement, the IRGC urged employees of the listed firms to evacuate immediately, and advised nearby residents to leave surrounding areas, describing the companies as ‘terrorist’ entities allegedly supporting US and Israeli operations against Iran,” the publication added.
The IRGC threatens to attack 18 U.S. tech companies’ sites in the Middle East, including Apple, Google and Tesla, in response to any future targeted eliminations of its senior commanders as of tomorrow night.
“We advise employees of these companies to leave their workplaces…
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) March 31, 2026
U.S. President Donald Trump said today that countries should be prepared to go to the Strait of Hormuz and “take” fuel themselves, urging them to show greater resolve. Writing on Truth Social, he argued that nations would need to “learn how to fight for yourselves,” adding that the United States would no longer step in to assist, particularly after what he described as their refusal to support efforts to topple Iran’s leadership.
Trump suggested that countries facing shortages could instead purchase jet fuel from the United States, where supplies are abundant. He added that Iran had effectively been “decimated” and concluded by telling nations to secure their own oil.
“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you…” – President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/aPYmL0qspa
NEWS 🧵: I called President Trump for some clarity on this post. He says the U.S. is not pulling assets in and around the Strait of Hormuz yet: “At some point I will, not quite yet, but countries have to come in and take care of it. Iran has been decimated, but they’re going to… pic.twitter.com/67BRdrOkRV
In a press conference today, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stressed that Operation Epic Fury would conclude “on our terms” and that the United States remains committed to shaping the outcome of the conflict according to its own objectives.
The next days of the Iran war will be “decisive,” Pentagon chief Hegseth said at his first news conference in nearly two weeks. He adds: “We have more and more options, and they have less… in only one month, we set the terms, the upcoming days will be decisive. Iran knows that, and there’s almost nothing they can militarily do about it.”
The war secretary reaffirmed that the option of some kind of ground campaign has not been ruled out. Hegseth said that “maybe negotiations will work,” but he was unwilling to commit one way or the other when asked about the potential for American boots on the ground.
Hegseth continued:
“You can’t fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do, to include boots on the ground. Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground, and guess what? There are. And so if we needed to, we could execute those options on behalf of the president of the United States and this department.”
“Or maybe we don’t have to use them at all. Maybe negotiations work, or maybe there’s a different approach. But the point is to be unpredictable in that you certainly do not let anybody know what you’re willing to do or not do.”
More here. Hegseth, speaking to concerns about the war in Iran from some of Trump’s political base:
“As far as President Trump and boots on the ground, I don’t understand why the base, which they have already, they understand wouldn’t have faith in his ability to execute on… https://t.co/7wBzUlntGI
Hegseth went on to argue that recent events have exposed the level of support the United States can expect from its allies, suggesting that their responses have fallen short. According to Hegseth, while the missiles in question do not threaten the United States directly but rather its allies, requests for assistance — or even basic overflight access — have often been met with hesitation or obstacles.
Hegseth also confirmed that he had briefly visited the U.S. Central Command region recently.
Press conference at Pentagon just began. Hegseth says he was in the Centcom region for half a day recently — something not previously disclosed.
He has a notably different tone in his opener today, sharing details about what he saw and gratefulness to the service members in the…
He concluded by warning that an alliance loses its meaning if member countries are unwilling to stand together when it matters most.
When it comes to overflight access, France has apparently joined Spain in denying U.S. military access to their airspace for taking part in attacks on Iran. In a statement, Trump slammed France for refusing to let U.S. military aircraft carrying military supplies operate in its airspace.
Trump:
The Country of France wouldn’t let planes headed to Israel, loaded up with military supplies, fly over French territory.
France has been VERY UNHELPFUL with respect to the “Butcher of Iran,” who has been successfully eliminated! The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!! pic.twitter.com/uu7hezFJUq
In other France-related news, Israel has apparently stopped defense exports to the European country, citing “hostile attitude,” sources told The Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, Italy confirmed that it denied permission for U.S. military aircraft to land at Sigonella Air Base in Sicily last week, before heading to the Middle East; this was due to Washington having not sought prior authorization from the government in Rome, Reutersreports. A source at the Italian defense ministry toldThe Guardian that “some US bombers” had been due to land at Sigonella en route to the Middle East. Otherwise, U.S. military aircraft continue to operate from Italian airbases as a matter of course, the defense ministry confirmed.
Italian MOD just released this:
Someone is trying to push the narrative that Italy has decided to suspend the use of its bases by U.S. assets.
That is simply false, because the bases are active, in use, and nothing has changed.
Gen. Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the U.S. military is delivering precision strikes against manufacturing nodes “deep within Iran.”
He says around 11,000 targets have been hit in the past 30 days. The U.S. military “continues to assert dominance over the Iranian Navy,” he added.
Caine added that more than 150 ships have been “taken out.”
An underground missile storage facility in Sofeh, in Isfahan province, appears to be among the hardened facilities targeted in recent strikes. Earlier accounts suggested that the target was an Iranian underground missile base, but that seems to be refuted by the geolocation of the imagery available.
Videos purporting to show the aftermath of the strikes include multiple secondary explosions, suggesting that bunker-busting munitions managed to penetrate the vaults and then detonate the missiles stored there. As we have described in the past, a key vulnerability of Iranian subterranean installations is the risk that even a single weapon penetrating their hardened exterior by any means could have absolutely catastrophic results.
Last night, President Trump published footage on his Truth Social account showing massive explosions and secondary detonations in Iran. Reports indicated that the strike took place in the Safeh–Havanirooz area, south Esfahan.@NASA Fire monitoring maps indeed detected active… https://t.co/69f3khsLiwpic.twitter.com/6ffTI0xZIk
Officials familiar with U.S. and Western intelligence assessments say the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has fractured the Iranian government, making it harder for the country to make decisions or coordinate large-scale retaliatory attacks, TheNew York Timesreports.
Since the conflict began four weeks ago, several dozen Iranian leaders and their deputies have been killed. Survivors face significant communication challenges and are unable to meet in person, fearing that their calls could be intercepted by the United States or Israel and lead to airstrikes.
Although Iran’s security and military agencies remain operational, the government’s capacity to develop new strategies or policies has been significantly weakened.
The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has fractured the Iranian government, complicating its ability to make decisions and coordinate larger retaliatory attacks.
Several dozen Iranian leaders and their deputies have been killed since the war began four weeks ago. Those who survive…
Iranian state media reported yesterday that a parliamentary committee has approved a plan to impose tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
According to a Telegram post by the FarsNews Agency, the strait would remain closed to vessels from the United States, Israel, and countries involved in sanctions against Iran. The report added that Iran would play a “sovereign” role in enforcing the new system.
The proposal, which has been backed by Iran’s parliament security committee, would still require agreement from other countries bordering the strait. Details on the level of the proposed tolls have not been disclosed.
Meanwhile, as you can read about in our previous coverage, President Trump warned that if no agreement is reached with Iran — including reopening the Strait of Hormuz shipping route — the U.S. military forces would destroy “all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).”
More information on the proposed toll arrangement emerged today, including the surprising suggestion that Oman is slated to help shape the legal framework. This was reported by Fars and later picked up by Bloomberg, but has yet to be independently verified. Oman has strong relations with the United States, including extensive security cooperation. Oman also plays a key role as a regional mediator, particularly between the United States and Iran.
A pair of container ships operated by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco have successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz and exited the Gulf, according to ship-tracking data.
The vessels, CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean, sailed near the Iranian-controlled island of Larak and are now heading toward Port Klang in Malaysia.
While Iran has largely restricted traffic through the key waterway, it appears to be permitting limited passage for ships from countries it considers “non-hostile,” including Thailand, China, Pakistan, and India.
Two COSCO Container Ships Make First Major Commercial Crossing of Strait of Hormuz Since War Began
After turning back on an initial attempt, the CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean sailed through the strategic waterway on Monday toward Malaysia, a rare transit for major… pic.twitter.com/kBwscFC7qU
Iran struck a fully laden crude oil tanker anchored in the port of Dubai, setting it on fire and damaging its hull in what marks the latest attack on commercial shipping in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict.
Authorities in Dubai said the drone strike on the Al Salmi tanker sparked a blaze that was brought under control early Tuesday, several hours after the incident was first reported. They later confirmed that no oil spill had occurred.
Dubai authorities confirm that response teams have successfully contained the incident involving the Kuwaiti oil tanker in Dubai waters, with no oil leakage and no injuries reported.
Iran is reportedly pushing the Houthis to prepare for a renewed campaign against Red Sea shipping, contingent upon any further escalation by the United States in the conflict with Iran. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing European officials familiar with the matter.
An Israeli military spokesperson has said the country is ready to continue its offensive against Iran for an extended period. According to Reuters, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters that Israel is prepared for “weeks” more of fighting in the conflict, which began on February 28 when joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. He emphasized that while the final decision rests with political leaders, “we are prepared to keep operating for weeks to come. We have the targets for that, the munitions for that, the manpower for that, and it’s up to the leadership to decide”.
His remarks follow comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the campaign was “definitely beyond the halfway point,” later clarifying that he was referring to progress in terms of “missions” rather than “not necessarily in terms of time.”
A photo released by the Israeli Air Force today shows an F-16D Barak armed with 2,000-pound-class Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), apparently heading out to attack infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in Beirut. IAF
In a televised interview, Netanyahu has claimed that Iran has tried to kill President Trump twice, although he did not provide a timeline for when these attempts were made or how. “They’re still trying to kill him,” the Israeli leader added.
The Israeli military claimed today that all of its critical and essential pre-war targets in Iran will have been destroyed by Wednesday.
This represents the complete elimination of the top two priority categories of pre-war targets and is part of the broader campaign in which the IDF has destroyed roughly 60 to 70 percent of all designated targets within the Islamic Republic.
The Israeli Air Force carried out over 230 strikes in Iran in the past day, the military says, publishing footage showing attacks on Iranian air defense systems in Tehran.
The IDF says other targets hit in the past day included primed ballistic missile launchers and weapon… pic.twitter.com/sLuUZFqYV8
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 31, 2026
“Critical” targets include those posing an immediate threat to Israel, such as ballistic missile facilities, as well as key sites central to the objectives of the campaign, including the few remaining nuclear-related installations.
The IDF announced that all of its critical and essential pre-war Iran targets, including ballistic missile industry targets and nuclear-related targets, will have been destroyed by Wednesday.
On the topic of nuclear-related targets, President Trump disclosed today that he considers that Iran’s nuclear facilities are buried so deeply that it would be difficult to raid them to secure their enriched uranium stockpiles.
“I don’t even think about it. I just know that, you know, that’s so deeply buried it’s gonna be very hard for anybody,” Trump told CBS News.
TWZ has previously explored the possibility of U.S. and/or Israeli authorities launching a special operations ground raid to extract or otherwise neutralize Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. While noting that it is far from easy to achieve this objective from the air alone, it is also true that Israel has demonstrated its ability and willingness to carry out complex raids on subterranean facilities in the past. Nevertheless, any such operation would still face immense risks and uncertainties.
Four Israeli soldiers have been killed during fighting in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Tuesday, as its forces continue to clash with the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
In a statement, the military identified three soldiers from the same battalion who “fell during combat,” while a separate statement said a fourth soldier, whose name has not yet been released, was also killed in the same incident, according to Agence France-Presse.
The military added that another soldier was seriously injured, while a reservist sustained moderate wounds.
All 3 soldiers, a team commander and 2 soldiers, from the Nahal Reconnaissance Battalion (934th), Nahal Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry has said it intercepted and destroyed 10 drones in recent hours, along with eight missiles targeting the Riyadh area and the country’s eastern region.
The United Arab Emirates says its air defenses engaged eight ballistic missiles, four cruise missiles, and 36 drones launched from Iran earlier today.
UAE air defences engaged 8 Ballistic missiles and 4 Cruise missiles and 36 UAV’s.
The UAE air defences on 31th March 2026 engaged 8 Ballistic missiles, 4 Cruise missiles and 36 UAV’s launched from Iran.
Furthermore, Kuwait reported that its air defences were responding to hostile missile and drone attacks. Neither country specified the origin of the projectiles.
Gulf partners of the United States, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are pressing President Trump to keep up military operations against Iran, asserting that Tehran has not been sufficiently weakened by the month‑long U.S.‑led bombing campaign, according to U.S., Gulf, and Israeli officials, APreports.
“Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership…” https://t.co/WRh4iTIwx5
A recent video released by U.S. Central Command includes footage of attacks on pickup trucks configured to launch drones, including Shahed-136 one-way attack drones.
🇮🇷🇺🇸 This is, to my knowledge, the first indication that Iran is launching Shahed-136 strike drones, among other designs, from pickup trucks (without the use of a rocket booster/RATO) during this war. This is a low-signature approach that is well-suited for use in surprise… https://t.co/R1AJdAoG4hpic.twitter.com/cGUoAOqE2b
NPR has reported that the Iranian strike on Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base last week damaged two U.S. Air Force E-3G Sentry AWACS aircraft. Previously, we had gotten confirmation that one aircraft was entirely destroyed. The extent of the damage to the other is unclear.
NPR now reports that Iranian strike on Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base damaged two U.S. E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has claimed that Ukrainian intelligence had information that a Russian spy satellite had photographed the base three times before the attack, with targeting data provided to Iran. While that may be true, commercially available satellite imagery over the same period also revealed the likely position of the E-3s at the base.
Comparative images in planet labs of Prince Sultan Air Base from two weeks ago (delayed) and days before tell you everything you need to know about how Iran could have targeted certain aircraft on that airfield even without real time intel.
A video circulating on social media appears to show an Iranian ballistic missile maneuvering to evade an Israeli interceptor. If verified, this would not be the first occasion that we have seen evidence of more advanced types of Iranian missiles still being fired at Israel and eluding air defenses. We have seen multiple occasions where Iranian maneuverable reentry vehicles (MaRVs) have been able to pierce interceptor barrages during the terminal stage.
At least some of the aircrews of the three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles that were shot down in a friendly-fire incident by Kuwaiti air defenses are still flying missions in Epic Fury, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has confirmed. “Admiral Cooper noted this morning that the three Air Force captains who were shot down by Kuwaiti friendly fire early in the fight never left the theater. All dropped bombs over Tehran last night.”
.@SECWAR “Admiral Cooper noted this morning that the three Air Force captains who were shot down by Kuwaiti friendly fire early in the fight never left the theater.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Fielding more hardened shelters to better protect U.S. forces at bases in the Middle East is now a top priority in the face of Iranian attacks, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. At the same time, this underscores questions about why more investments in physical hardening were not made in the region well before the current conflict. This is especially true given months of planning leading up to this and the clear threats that Iranian drones and missiles posed.
Hegseth talked about U.S. defensive posture in the Middle East at a press conference today at the Pentagon. The Secretary also announced that he had made a previously undisclosed visit to the region to meet with American service members.
Hegseth shakes hands with a US service member somewhere in the Middle East during his recent trip. US Military
“I’ll say, what I witnessed, where I went, was a completely locked-in discipline of bunker use and bunker improvement. So, from the beginning, as we stated very clearly, the first thing we did was set up a defense and make sure our defensive capabilities were maxed out before any of this even started,” Hegseth said. “That included fortifications, as much as possible, but it also included dispersement [sic]. If all of our people are in one place, you can imagine why that’s a big problem.”
“Alongside that dispersement [sic] is more and more bunkers. And I can tell you, talking to base commanders, talking to our allies in Israel, talking to others, rapidly fielding that and then improving those positions is a theater priority, no doubt, as are the air defenses and the layered air defenses,” he continued. “It’s not just Patriots and THAADs [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems]. It’s fighters and defensive CAPs [combat air patrols]. It’s other kinetic defeat systems. It’s electronic warfare. So the defense of our troops and our assets is max [sic].”
“I will say, on some of those other assets you talked about, air wings, airframes, there’s some things adversaries are doing to provide info and intel that they shouldn’t. We’re aware of it, and ultimately, we move things around,” he added. “One of the biggest principles you learn in the military is to not set patterns, predictable patterns, and so we’re – commanders are working hard to adjust in real time with those systems and make sure they’re in the right places and not easily targetable.”
Hegseth was responding to a two-part question about the status of efforts to establish additional bunkers at bases in the region and what other measures were being taken to better protect high-value assets, including aircraft like the E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). On March 27, an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia succeeded in destroying one of these prized AWACS jets, as well as damaging other aircraft and injuring several American service members, as you can read more about here.
Separately, on March 23, the U.S. Space Force had put out a contracting notice to identify “potential sources” of “prefabricated, transportable, hardened shelter systems” that could be delivered to Jordan within weeks or even days of a contract award. The U.S. military has a major presence in Jordan, particularly at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, which has been a key hub in the current campaign against Iran. Muwaffaq Salti has, in turn, also come under Iranian attack, with an AN/TPY-2 missile defense radar there having been notably targeted.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also put out another contracting notice regarding planned new hardened underground facilities at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on March 25, which TWZ was first to report. This is a longer-term project, with work not expected to start until 2028.
KC-135 tankers seen parked out in the open at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in 2021. USAF
In recent years, U.S. military officials have often pushed back on calls for more physical hardening, having questioned the cost-effectiveness and general utility of doing so. More emphasis has generally been put on expanding active defenses, such as surface-to-air missiles, as well as employing concepts of operations centered on dispersion of forces and camouflage, concealment, and deception. In addition to talking about the importance of bunkers, Hegseth hit these same general talking points himself just this morning.
The destruction of the E-3 at Prince Sultan Air Base raises additional questions about the limits of dispersal and other operating concepts, which the U.S. Air Force has codified under the banner of Agile Combat Employment (ACE). Satellite imagery makes clear that E-3s and other aircraft have continued to be parked out in the open at well-established points on the taxiways at the base in Saudi Arabia. More broadly speaking, American forces in the region continue to operate primarily from a small number of large bases, the locations of which are well known.
At the same time, while additional information from those sources would help refine Iranian targeting processes, it would not be necessary to launch attacks on key assets and facilities, especially larger ones, at locations like Prince Sultan or Muwaffaq Salti in Jordan. Iran has its own intelligence streams in the region that it could leverage, as well. We have seen numerous examples of very deliberate targeting on the part of Iranian forces, especially when it comes to prized air and missile defense radars and communications arrays, many of which are fixed in place, from the start of the current conflict.
And they VERY likely had recent intel from satellite imagery (China and Russia)
There are ways to provide targeting data beyond near real time satellite imagery. And even then, who knows how often they are moving them. It would be worth a BM and definitely worth a hopeful shot of a one-way attack drone.
An entire section on physical hardening from new counter-drone guidance the US military released in January. US Military
At the same time, the U.S. military is clearly still playing catch-up in this regard. These are issues that extend well beyond the Middle East and the current conflict with Iran, too. Though Iran’s drones and missiles clearly present real dangers, the scale and scope of those attacks pale in comparison to the volume and diversity of incoming threats U.S. forces would expect to face in a large-scale conflict in the Pacific against China.
It is true that you cannot protect everything from every threat, but physical hardening can help lessen the impacts. It also limits the overall options an enemy has for attacking a particular target and imposes additional costs to achieving the desired level of destruction. Paired with other tactics, it can drastically improve the survivability of a combat air force on the ground.
Hopefully there will FINALLY be a real wake up call here on hardened infrastructure for air bases. They (DoW leadership) have and are living in a fantasy land with this. It’s maddening. It’s easier to kill your most potent combat aircraft on the ground, where they sped the vast…
And this is at home and overseas. You can’t protect everything, not even close, but you can protect a portion of your fleet and plan around that capacity.
The current conflict with Iran has clearly put new emphasis on expanding the hardened infrastructure at air bases and other facilities in the Middle East, but it remains to be seen whether this latest wakeup call will be heard more broadly.
THE conflict in the Middle East has resulted in thousands of cancelled holidays and it’s set to continue.
loveholidays has now announced it won’t be selling any of its package holidays to the likes of Qatar and Dubai until June 2026.
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Dubai is a popular holiday spot for Brits – but holidays remain cancelled due to the Iran crisisCredit: Alamyloveholidays said flights with KLM between May 11-17 have been cancelledCredit: Alamy
loveholidays, which offers affordable breaks all over the globe, is not selling package holidays to the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar or Jordan that leave in March, April or May 2026.
It has also cancelled a number of holidays set to depart in May.
On its website, loveholidays said: “We’ve made the decision to cancel all holidays departing up to and including 10 May 2026 to countries currently on the FCDO ‘all but essential travel’ list (UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and Riyadh).
“This includes holidays with a connecting flight via one of these countries.”
It continued: “If you are due to travel or transit through these destinations after May 10, please rest assured that we will contact you directly if there is any impact to your holiday.”
In more detail, loveholidays said that flights operating with airline KLM to these destinations between May 11-17 have been cancelled, with refunds being processed.
It added that those flying with Qatar Airways between May 11 and June 15 have the option of cancelling their flights for a full refund.
Customers flying to or via Dubai, Doha, Amman or Bahrain on a British Airways flight between May 11-31 also have the option to cancel for a full refund.
A loveholidays spokesperson told Sun Travel: “We want to give customers with holidays to or transiting through the Middle East in the coming weeks as much certainty as possible and the flexibility to make alternative travel plans.
“Due to ongoing disruption affecting travel to the region, we have now cancelled and refunded all holidays to and transiting through the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Riyadh up to and including 10 May.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation closely with the FCDO and our airline partners, who are finalising their operational plans for the coming months.”
Spring holidays to and through the UAE with loveholidays have been cancelledCredit: Alamy
Meanwhile, On the Beach has cancelled holidays to the UAE that depart up to April 15 with breaks afterwards being monitored.
With up to 5,000 flights a month – working out to around 4,000 domestic and 800 international routes – this means it affects around 250 flights a month.
It’s set to last until the end of summer, meaning thousands of passengers will be affected.
Donald Trump touted the US-Israel war on Iran as “bold” and “historic,” telling a Saudi investment conference that the Middle East will soon be free from Iranian “nuclear blackmail.”
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday that the US has “clearly made a mistake” in attacking Iran, Anadolu reports.
“What I see is that the United States clearly made a mistake, thinking the Iranian regime would fall within a few days. It has not fallen. The Iranian regime is extremely strong,” Le Pen, head of the National Rally (RN), told France Inter radio.
She said Trump’s war goals are “erratic” and questioned the ultimate objective of the conflict, adding that “no one knows” what he seeks to achieve.
Le Pen underscored that the war has affected several Gulf countries and caused a heavy imbalance in energy supplies.
“Russia is Hungary’s energy supplier,” and “Ukraine hinders Russia’s oil supply to Hungary,” she added.
The National Rally leader described Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a “symbol of resistance” to the European Commission.
“It is perfectly natural that I come to support our allies during electoral situations,” she said, stressing that she does not interfere in Hungary’s internal affairs.
Regional escalation has continued to flare since the US and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, killing so far over 1,300 people, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, along with Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets, causing casualties and damage to infrastructure while disrupting global markets and aviation.
Home Affairs Department said decision to ban Iranian visitors amid the war on Iran was in Australia’s ‘national interest’.
Australia has temporarily banned visitors from Iran, claiming that the United States-Israeli war on the country has increased the risk that Iranian passport holders could refuse or be unable to fly home once their short-term visitor visas expire.
Australia’s Department of Home Affairs said on Wednesday that the restrictions on Iranian visitors would be for a period of six months, describing the move as in the “national interest amid rapidly changing global conditions”.
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“The conflict in Iran has increased the risk that some temporary visa holders may be unable or unlikely to depart Australia when their visas expire,” the Home Affairs Department said in a statement.
“This measure gives the Government time to assess the situation properly, while still allowing flexibility in limited cases,” it said.
The ban applies to Iranian citizens who are currently outside Australia – even if they have an Australian visitor visa for tourism or work.
Exceptions to the ban include Iranian citizens already in Australia, those currently in transit to Australia, spouses, de facto partners, or dependent children of Australian citizens, and those with permanent visas.
Exemptions will also be considered on a case-by-case basis, such as for the parents of Australian citizens, the department said.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said decisions on who can remain permanently in Australia should be made by the government and should not be the “random consequence of who booked a holiday”.
“There are many visitor visas which were issued before the conflict in Iran that may not have been issued if they were applied for now,” he said.
Burke added that the government is monitoring developments and “will adjust settings as required to ensure Australia’s migration system remains orderly, fair and sustainable”.
The Sydney-based Asylum Seekers Centre said in a post on social media that the ban on Iranian visitors was the result of a “shameful new law” rushed through Australia’s parliament that “threatens the very foundations of Australia’s onshore protection programme” for those seeking safety.
“For years, politicians have been stressing the importance of seeking safety through so-called legal routes,” the group said.
“Now, in the face of an international humanitarian crisis, the government is slamming the door shut and blocking a key pathway for people seeking safety today and in the future,” it said.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump called on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to give the Iranian women’s football team asylum in Australia amid fears that players may face repercussions at home for failing to sing their national anthem before a Women’s Asian Cup 2026 match in Queensland.
Albanese later told reporters that five team members had sought assistance and “were safely located” by Australian authorities.
In total, seven players and officials were granted asylum in Australia, though five team members later reversed their decision to stay in Australia and chose to return home.
The Iranian team had arrived in Australia to participate in the football tournament before the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran on February 28.
According to Australian government figures up to 2024, more than 90,000 Australian residents were born in Iran, and large diaspora communities are present in major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.
U.S. Army Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division arrive at Ali Al..Salem Air Base, Kuwait, in January 2020. It was reported Tuesday that the Pentagon was to send a contingent of paratroopers from the division to the Middle East. File Photo by Tech. Sgt. Daniel Martinez/U.S. Air Force/UPI
March 25 (UPI) — The Pentagon has ordered paratroopers to the Middle East, as President Donald Trump pursues a diplomatic solution to the war with Iran while declining to rule out the possibility of launching ground operations, according to reports.
The contingent of paratroops to be deployed are from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, out of Fort Bragg, N.C., and will include Maj. Gen. Brandon Tegtmeier, the division commander, The New York Times, CNN and CBS News reported, citing unidentified sources.
The soldiers are specifically members of the 82nd Division’s Immediate Response Force, The Times, CNN and The Washington Post reported. According to the U.S. Army, the Immediate Response Force is its only division capable of beginning an airborne assault operation anywhere in the world within 18 hours of receiving orders.
Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat from Colorado and a former paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, lambasted Trump over the announcement Tuesday night.
“These paratroopers, and the American people, deserve better,” he said in a statement. “We must protect our service members and stop spending billions of dollars a day fighting overseas wars of choice, especially as folks back home can’t afford gas, groceries or healthcare.”
The announcement comes as Iran’s claimed closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which flows about 20% of the world’s oil supplies, has seen energy prices surge and nations scrambling to mitigate the effects on their economies.
It was unclear exactly how many the paratroops would be deployed or where they would be sent, but their deployment could give Trump a rapid-response force in the region, while representing an escalation in the conflict.
Earlier this month, U.S. Central Command said it had struck more than 90 military targets on the Kharg Island, a key location in Iran’s ability to enforce its maritime blockade, including naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and other military sites.
Trump described the strike as “one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.”
“For reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil infrastructure on the Island,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”
Trump on Saturday had given Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to open the strait or the U.S. military would “obliterate” its power plants, to which Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, responded that if the American president makes good on his threat, critical and energy infrastructure and oil facilities would be “irreversibly destroyed.”
On Monday, Trump announced that he had extended the ultimatum five days after having what he called “very good and productive conversations” on a solution to the war with Iran.
Trump said Tuesday that negotiations with Iran were underway and that the Iranians “want to make a deal.”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
F-35Cs from the U.S. Marine Corps are the latest fighters poised to deploy to the Middle East region for Operation Epic Fury. The movement of these aircraft to RAF Lakenheath in England signals what is set to be the first land-based combat deployment for the F-35C, the carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter flown by both the Navy and Marine Corps.
Having left MCAS Miramar on March 10, the first 5 of 10 jets from VMFA-311 ‘Tomcats’ finally landed at RAF Lakenheath last night as they head for the F-35C’s first land-based combat deployment. 5 more due today before heading east (USMC stock photo) pic.twitter.com/FAhX8HXFNB
According to open sources, the first five of a planned 10 F-35Cs from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 311 (VMFA-311), the “Tomcats,” touched down at Lakenheath yesterday. They had been noted departing their home base of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, on March 10.
USMC VMFA-311 F-35C Land in UK FIRST EVER Arrival at RAF Lakenheath
Their final destination, in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility, is unknown, but they will join a significant force of combat aircraft already flying missions in the region. These include land-based U.S. Air Force F-35As and Marine Corps F-35Cs flying from the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Marine Corps F-35Bs are also now reported to be headed to the region aboard two amphibious assault ships, the USS Boxer and the USS Tripoli.
Three weeks of Operation Epic Fury.
The Joint Force owns the skies, but Tehran holds the Strait. Additional U.S. fighter aircraft and naval assets arrived in both theaters, and Marine expeditionary forces are en route.
Open-source satellite imagery captured over the Indian Ocean yesterday indicates that the USS Tripoli is now docked at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Previously, tracking sources had indicated that the Japan-based USS Tripoli was sailing through the South China Sea, moving fast to join U.S. forces amassed in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. You can read more about what capabilities the Tripoli and its Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) could bring to the campaign here.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the USS Tripoli, the amphibious landing dock USS New Orleans, and roughly 2,200 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit are expected to cross into the U.S. Central Command area on Friday — the day President Trump has set as the deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It would take another few days to get the ships in closer proximity to the Persian Gulf, where it’s speculated their island objectives are located, if indeed they are commanded to execute a landing operation at all. The F-35Cs now heading to the region would be a critical close air support capability for augmenting the MEU.
The further buildup of U.S. combat in the CENTCOM comes as Iran continues to launch waves of missiles at Israel. At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump says that Iran wants to make a deal to end the conflict.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed today that Iran launched a barrage of missiles toward its territory, triggering an air raid alert in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s biggest city seems to have been especially heavily hit, with extensive damage seen on at least one multi-story apartment building. The local fire and rescue service said they were searching for civilians trapped in a building in the city.
A 100-kg warhead was used on the Iranian missile that slammed into Tel Aviv early this morning. Significant damage was caused to a residential area. pic.twitter.com/ujkuJpxUVO
🚨Midday into the 25th day of war: Iran fired ~460 missiles towards Israel: of those that made it to Israel, some landed in open areas, and at least 42 penetrated and hit urban areas: 8 unitary warheads + 34 cluster warheads which released hundreds of bomblets that hit 180 locals https://t.co/QFGTNlbxmk
Official Iranian media channels published this video showing the launch of a Sejil ballistic missile, reportedly toward Israel. The Sejil is an advanced two-stage, solid-fuel missile, and one that has apparently been used only rarely in the conflict so far.
IRGC fighter sending off a Sejil missile.
Iran’s Sejil missile is a domestically built, solid-fuel, two-stage ballistic missile with a ~2,000 km range.
As well as bombarding Israel, Iranian officials were on the offensive today, pushing back on Trump’s claim that Washington and Tehran have had “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities.”
The Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, refuted the suggestion that any talks had taken place.
“No negotiations have been held with the U.S., and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S. and Israel are trapped,” he wrote on X.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf says no talks have taken place with the United States, according to a post on X. pic.twitter.com/TAkA4OCPpx
Meanwhile, the Iranian embassy in South Africa posted an image on X showing a child’s pink steering wheel placed on a car dashboard in front of the passenger seat, mocking Trump’s idea that he could control the Strait of Hormuz alongside Iran’s supreme leader.
Three senior Israeli officials, speaking to the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, reportedly consider it highly unlikely that Iran will agree to U.S. demands in any new round of negotiations.
Senior Israeli officials also told Reuters that they expected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene a meeting of security officials for talks on Trump’s proposal for a deal with Iran.
A Pakistani official has said that direct talks on ending the conflict may be held in Islamabad this week. The official said that the negotiations were likely to involve U.S. Vice President JD Vance, and Trump’s Middle East envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
According to a report from Al Arabiya, citing Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has secretly informed U.S. envoy Witkoff that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has approved talks and a potential deal.
#Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has secretly informed US envoy Steve Witkoff that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei approved talks and a potential deal, Al Arabiya reports citing Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.https://t.co/k0wJ2XpXuU
Pakistan has emerged as a key facilitator in brokering talks between Tehran and Washington.
Pakistan is making a push to mediate talks to end the US-Israeli war against Iran, with its powerful army chief holding calls with Trump to find a resolution to the fighting, people familiar with the matter said https://t.co/xLr5r7OzNC
The White House confirmed that Trump spoke with Asim Munir, the chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.
An unnamed European official also told Reuters that, while there had been no direct negotiations between the United States and Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, and various Gulf states were all relaying messages.
The Iranian Fars news agency reports that the foreign ministers of Iran and Egypt had a phone conversation, in which Iran’s Araghchi presented an update on the latest talks with regional and international actors aimed at reducing tensions in the region.
The Israeli military has continued to hit targets in Iran, with objectives in Tehran being struck for a second day in a row. Iranian news agency Nournewsreported that air defense systems were activated across the capital and that multiple explosions were heard.
The IDF today said that Israeli Air Force fighters had carried out extensive strikes in central Tehran. Targets in the Iranian capital included key command centers, including facilities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence arm and the Intelligence Ministry, the IDF said.
Overall, the IDF reports that it struck more than 50 other targets overnight, including ballistic missile storage facilities and launch sites.
⭕️ 3,000+ strikes across Iran since the start of Operation Roaring Lion
Yesterday, the IDF targeted IRGC command centers, weapons storage facilities, and aerial defense systems.
Overnight, an additional 50+ targets were struck, including ballistic missile storage and launch…
CBS News reports that U.S. officials have told them there are at least a dozen underwater mines in the vital Strait of Hormuz, according to current American intelligence assessments. The U.S. officials, speaking to CBS News under condition of anonymity, said the mines currently employed by Iran in the strait are the Iranian-manufactured Maham 3 and Maham 7 types.
Another U.S. official said the count was less than a dozen.
A useful primer on the main Iranian sea mines can be found below:
Another new arrival at RAF Lakenheath today was this U.S. Air Force AC-130J Ghostrider gunship. The aircraft arrived at the English base from Keflavik in Iceland.
Air Force Special Operations Command has 31 AC-130Js in inventory, which are the only AC-130 variants now in service. The Ghostrider’s armament package includes a 105mm howitzer, as well as a single-barreled 30mm GAU-23/A Bushmaster II automatic cannon. The gunships can also employ an array of precision-guided missiles and bombs via Common Launch Tubes (CLT) and underwing racks. You can learn more about how the Air Force AC-130s have evolved since the introduction of the original AC-130A version in the 1960s here and in The War Zone video below.
Can The AC-130 Gunship Stay Relevant?
2:20PM EST—
An interesting Iranian missile seems to have appeared in a recent targeting video released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The video is described as showing a recent airstrike on an Iranian ballistic missile launcher in western Iran, apparently primed for an attack on Israel. Based on the imagery, this has been identified as a likely Kheibar Shekan two-stage, solid-propellant, truck-launched medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) that Iran first unveiled in 2022. A third generation of the Fateh family of ballistic missiles, Iran claims it has a maximum range of 1,450 kilometers (900 miles).
2:10PM EST—
Former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has provided words of warning on what happens next in the conflict.
“Iran right now, if we declared victory, they would now say they own the strait,” Mattis said. “We’re in a tough spot, ladies and gentlemen. I can’t identify a lot of options.”
“Iran right now, if we declared victory, they would now say they own the strait. We’re in a tough spot, ladies and gentlemen, I can’t identify a lot of options.”
-General Mattis, retired four star Marine general and former SecDef for President Trump pic.twitter.com/kyPnqPCRKK
Among the warnings from Mattis was “a tax for every ship that goes through” the Strait of Hormuz, a prospect that now appears to be creeping closer.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Iran has started charging ships up to $2,000,000 for safe passage through the strait. The report describes:
Payments of as much as $2 million per voyage are being sought on an ad hoc basis, effectively creating an informal toll on the waterway, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive dealings. Some vessels have made the payment, though the mechanism wasn’t immediately clear — including the currency used — and it doesn’t appear to be systematic, the people said.
1:30PM EST—
In its latest update on the conflict in the Middle East, the U.K. Ministry of Defense confirms that it has deployed the British Army Stormer air defense system, which joins a growing counter-drone force in Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. Armed with the Starstreak High-Velocity Missile (HVM), the Stormer has been in use with the British Army since 1997, combining a tracked armored vehicle with eight ready-to-fire rounds, 12 reloads, and a roof-mounted targeting package including an infrared sensor.
1:20PM EST—
On his Truth Social platform, President Trump has reposted the offer of mediation from the Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
A large explosion north of Beirut today was caused by the interception of Iranian ballistic missiles, the official National News Agency in Lebanon reports. The explosion resulted in minor injuries, and there are reports, unconfirmed for now, that the target may have been a U.S. asset in the country. The incident in the Keserwan district appears to be the first time that Iranian projectiles have been intercepted over Lebanon since the conflict began.
Why Iran ballistic missile incident in #Lebanon is dangerous • A first • Target may have been US embassy • Drags Lebanon deeper into war • Deepens divide, anger at Hezbollah, discrimination against displaced • Helps Israel prolong war in South https://t.co/ENjE8zhOzE
More information is emerging about the apparent deployment of elements of the 82nd Airborne Division to the CENTCOM region. Fox News now reports that the commander of the 82nd Airborne, Maj. Gen. Brandon Tegtmeier and his command element have been ordered to deploy to the Middle East. There has already been plenty of speculation that the 82nd Airborne might be used in a possible offensive against Kharg Island.
Fox News has learned that the Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division Maj Gen Brandon Tegtmeier and his “command element,” members of his headquarters staff, have been ordered to deploy to the Middle East as the Pentagon and White House weigh whether to send the 82nd Airborne…
Reports state that British troops downed 14 drones in Iraq overnight, the highest total since the conflict began. These are often fired nearby by Iranian-backed militias, but Iraq has also come under long-range strikes from Iran itself.
🚨 UK troops downed 14 drones in Iraq last night, the busiest night since Iran war started – UK defence officials.
The drones were shot down by laser-guided Martlet missiles from Rapid Sentry launchers (originally procured in secret) and operated by RAF Regiment.
The drones were shot down by laser-guided Martlet missiles fired from Rapid Sentry launchers, which are operated by the Royal Air Force Regiment. You can see a video of the system here, in a non-operational context:
After multiple interceptions in skies of Iraq, Royal Air Force gives us 1st ever video detailing RAPID SENTRY. Born in 2022, it restored some ground to air missile capability to RAF Regiment for 1st time since the early 2000s but previous gov didn’t seek to advertise it at all. pic.twitter.com/yI92VSVMqc
Satellite imagery has emerged showing the aftermath of an Iranian drone strike on Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, earlier in the conflict. Reportedly, the strike destroyed an Italian Air Force MQ-9 in its hangar, and potentially also part of its ground control system. There have also been unverified claims of damage to one or more Italian Air Force Typhoon fighters that were stationed there. In his analysis, missile and drone expert Fabian Hinz argues that it seems likely that the facility was hit by a stray projectile, although deliberate targeting of the Italian contingent remains a possibility.
Satellite imagery released by Iran shows the strike on an Italian installation at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait that destroyed an MQ-9 Reaper in its hangar and, potentially, the satellite antenna associated with the system. (29.336° 47.5334°) 1/6 pic.twitter.com/UT52W7A7cr
For the first time in the current conflict, Israel’s defense minister has said that the IDF will occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, marking the first clear statement of intent to seize the territory, according to a report from Reuters.
At a meeting with the military chief of staff, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reportedly said that Israeli forces would “control the remaining bridges and the security zone up to the Litani,” a river that meets the Mediterranean.
Israel will occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River to create a “defensive buffer,” Israel Katz said, spelling out for the first time Israel’s intent to seize territory amounting to nearly a tenth of Lebanon. https://t.co/aRVupjf1O6
The Wall Street Journal and Jerusalem Post are both reporting this morning that Saudi Arabia has decided to open up additional military bases for the use of the U.S. military in its operations against Iran. Reportedly, the facilities include King Fahd Air Base in Taif, in western Saudi Arabia.
WSJ and Jerusalem Post this morning confirms @SeanPmathews exclusive that Saudi Arabia had unprecedentedly opened some of its military bases for the use of US military in attacks on Iran.
MEE reported that Saudi Arabia agreed to open King Fahd Air Base in Taif, in Western Saudi…
In other Saudi news, there are growing signs that the Kingdom might enter the conflict, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
WSJ: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is now eager to re-establish deterrence and is close to a decision to join the attacks, the people said. It is only a matter of time before the kingdom enters the war, one of the people said.
Seoul is eyeing a gap in the market for lower-cost air defense systems, it has been reported. South Korea has already made significant efforts to expand its customer base, with several significant arms deals secured in Europe. Now, Middle Eastern nations are reportedly showing interest in its homegrown surface-to-air missile, Cheongung, also known as M-SAM, as an alternative to the U.S.-made Patriot system. Such a need is being driven by stocks of Patriot interceptors running low, a huge backlog of orders, and a dire need for additional air defenses.
The conflict in Iran is pushing Middle Eastern countries toward South Korea’s lower-cost air defense systems, opening a new opportunity to expand its arms export footprint beyond Europe. https://t.co/tsGh7g8OeJ
The unverified video below is said to have been filmed in Kuwait and appears to show a U.S. Army M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher firing around a dozen missiles toward Iran. The HIMARS has been used to fire ATACMS, as well as Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) short-range ballistic missiles, during Operation Epic Fury. The conflict has seen the first combat use of PrSM, which brings a major boost in range over ATACMS.
Open-source intelligence sources indicate at least 35 C-17 transport flights to the Middle East since March 12, with more flights on the way. Interestingly, the starting point for six of these flights to Al Udeid in Qatar was Powdiz in Poland, which could indicate that the aircraft were transporting Ukrainian counter-drone specialists and associated equipment.
Bloombergreports that a Chinese-owned fuel tanker passed through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Iran recently, demonstrating that there are ways around the Tehran-imposed blockade on the channel. Bloomberg says the Bright Gold left the Gulf on Monday morning via a channel between the Iranian islands of Qeshm and Larak, signaling that it had Chinese ownership.
Two India-flagged gas carriers also used the route this week after New Delhi said it had discussed the safe passage of the ships with Tehran.
Indian Navy personnel with crew of one of the vessels that transited Hormuz & is headed to India. The Indian Navy is escorting the vessel in the Arabian sea. pic.twitter.com/YO2XzmJLg2
A video published by Iran’s Fars agency claims to show a damaged U.S. Army LUCAS one-way attack drone, a type that was heavily inspired by Iran’s own Shahed-136 drone. Iran says the interception brings the total number of drones downed to 131. You can read more about the value of the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) kamikaze drone, which made its combat debut in Epic Fury, here.
A video published by Iran’s Fars News Agency purports to show a damaged US army ‘LUCAS’ one-way attack system, a model similar to Iran’s Shahed drones.
The U.S. Air Force A-10C attack jet has been surviving in operational service somewhat against the odds, but these aircraft continue to target pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, as the footage below confirms. The video was reportedly taken in Mosul, northern Iraq.
US A-10 continues targeting the Iraqi Shia militias positions. Footage shows the fighters attacking a PMF base in Mosul, northern Iraq. pic.twitter.com/PDTaSjLBpo
Asian stock markets saw major declines on Monday as gold futures dropped 8% and crude oil prices continued to climb amid heightened uncertainty in the Middle East.
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As the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to choke global supply, benchmark US crude rose above $100 a barrel on Monday morning in Europe.
Brent crude, the international standard, went up to more than $113 a barrel. The price of Brent crude has zigzagged lately from about $70 per barrel before the war began to as high as $119.50.
European stock indexes opened with losses, with the FTSE in London losing 1.5%, the CAC-40 in Paris being down by 1.6%, and the DAX in Frankfurt dropping by 2% at the opening.
Earlier on Monday, the International Energy Agency warned that the global economy faces a “major, major threat” because of the Iran war and that at least 40 energy assets across nine countries were damaged.
Meanwhile, the de-escalation of the conflict is nowhere near in sight.
Trump warned over the weekend that the US would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it does not fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, prompting Tehran to say it would respond to any such strike with attacks on US and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets in the region.
“Trump’s ultimatum and Iran’s retaliatory warnings point to a widening conflict that keeps energy disruption and market volatility elevated, with no clear off-ramp in sight,” said Ng Jing Wen, analyst at Mizuho Bank in Singapore.
In Europe, the benchmark natural gas futures were trading above €60 per MWh at the market open.
This follows last week’s gains as escalating threats to Middle Eastern energy facilities heightened fears of deeper supply disruptions.
In Asia, stock markets were also significantly impacted by the uncertainty around the Middle East crisis, with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dropping 3.5%. In Taiwan, the Taiex shed 2.5%, South Korea’s Kospi dropped 6.5%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 3.8% and the Shanghai Composite declined 3.6%.
Higher oil prices, which also shook stock markets on Friday, dashed hopes for a possible upcoming cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, analysts said. Before the war, traders were betting that the Fed would cut rates at least twice this year. Central banks in Europe, Japan and the United Kingdom also recently held their interest rates steady.
The S&P 500 fell 1.5% Friday to close its fourth straight losing week, its longest such streak in a year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 443 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2%.
On Wall Street, roughly three out of every four stocks in the S&P 500 fell on Friday.
Stocks of smaller companies, which can feel the pinch of higher interest rates more than their bigger rivals, led the way lower. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks fell a market-leading 2.3%.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury finished last week with a jump to 4.38% Friday from 4.25% late Thursday and from just 3.97% before the war started.
The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Fed might do, rose to 3.88% from 3.79%.
In currency trading, the US dollar rose to 159.53 Japanese yen from 159.22 yen. The euro cost $1.1526, down from $1.1571.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The Pentagon is reportedly sending the Wasp class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and the rest of its Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), loaded with elements of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). This comes as the Trump administration is reported to be increasingly considering seizing or blockading Iran’s highly strategic Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf as part of a new phase of Operation Epic Fury.
It has now been widely reported that what is described as an “accelerated” deployment of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 11th MEU from the West Coast will be in support of Operation Epic Fury.
#BREAKING#EXCLUSIVE The US military has accelerated the deployment of thousands of Marines and sailors to help reinforce US troops in the Middle East amid the war against Iran.
Four officials tell Newsmax the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the embarked 11th Marine…
The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group also includes two other amphibious warfare ships, theSan Antonio class USS Portland and the Whidbey Island class USS Comstock. The 11th MEU has roughly 2,500 personnel, in total, and includes air and ground components.
This follows reports last week that the America class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and its ARG, carrying elements of the 31st MEU, had also begun moving from the Pacific toward the Middle to support ongoing operations against Iran.
Axios reported today that the Trump administration could be leaning toward establishing a blockade around Iran’s Kharg Island, through which it exports much of its oil, or occupying it, citing unnamed officials. The central goal of doing this would be to step up pressure on the regime in Tehran to, in turn, force it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic through that waterway has come to a virtual halt, which is causing massive reverberations across global energy markets.
“[Trump] wants Hormuz open. If he has to take Kharg Island to make it happen, that’s going to happen. If he decides to have a coastal invasion, that’s going to happen,” one official said, according to Axios. “But that decision hasn’t been made.”
The U.S. military carried out extensive strikes on Kharg Island this past weekend. A deployment of U.S. ground troops there would be a major escalation that could have significant ramifications, including domestically.
Last night, U.S. forces executed a large-scale precision strike on Kharg Island, Iran. The strike destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites. U.S. forces successfully struck more than 90 Iranian military targets on Kharg… pic.twitter.com/2X1glD4Flt
“We’ve always had boots on the ground in conflicts under every president, including Trump. I know this is a fixation in the media, and I get the politics, but the president is going to do what’s right,” a second official, who also said no decision has yet been made, said, per Axios.
A senior official told Axios: “We’ve always had boots on the ground in conflicts under every president, including Trump. I know this is a fixation in the media, and I get the politics. But the president is going to do what’s right.” https://t.co/6dbDy9zCHr
Just yesterday, TWZ spoke with Joseph Votel, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, with a particular focus on the tumultuous Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. You can read that interview here.
In the meantime, publicly available flight-tracking data indicates that the U.S. Navy is using MQ-4C Triton intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones to monitor Kharg Island as part of their patrols of the northern Persian Gulf.
A US Navy MQ-4C Triton UAV just completed a reconnaissance mission of the northern Persian Gulf and Kharg Island.
Trump has warned that he might consider targeting oil facilities on the island if Iran or other countries “do anything to interfere” with the safe passage of ships through the strait.
Destroying or damaging oil infrastructure on Kharg could have unintended side effects, however. On the one hand, it would further push up global oil prices. The complex nature of infrastructure might take years to repair, which would compound this. In the long term, there is also the question of whether oil infrastructure here should be preserved for the benefit of a potential new Iranian government.
Any successor to the current regime would lose out on vital oil income, potentially driving further internal strife.
There is also the possibility that seizing the island and cutting off the current Iranian government from its most vital source of revenue could be used as a catalyst to bring about its fall.
Then there is the huge question about the kind of military effort that would be required to seize Kharg. This would require a large-scale, sustained operation and would be brought with risk. The island is only 20 miles from the Iranian mainland, putting whatever U.S. force is there at extreme risk of bombardment of multiple types. Getting amphibious assault ships through the Strait and into the Gulf would be an issue, as well, and those ships would be heavily targeted during transit and especially once inside the Gulf. With this in mind, a longer-range aviation assault would be most likely.
A naval blockade of the island might be easier to achieve in the short term, but it would run the risk of Iranian attacks, likely involving uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), drones, and other asymmetric options, as well as anti-ship cruise missiles, the use of which has been limited up to this point, as you can read about here.
As already noted, additional U.S. forces are headed to the region in the form of the Tripoli ARG and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). While the deployment of the big-deck amphibious assault ship USS Tripolihad already been reported, we now know it is being supported by the amphibious transport docks USS San Diego (LPD-22) and USS New Orleans (LPD-18), thanks to publicly available ship-tracking data.
USS Tripoli (LHA 7) America-class amphibious assault ship westbound in the Singapore Strait – March 17, 2026 SRC: INST- sgshipspotting pic.twitter.com/iC4qBZUZML
What exactly the next phase of Operation Epic Fury will look like could be clearer as the Navy amphibious warfare ships and the thousands of Marines they are carrying get closer to the Middle East.
UPDATES
UPDATE: 6:16 PM EST –
There are some mixed messages coming out of Washington about the future of Epic Fury.
President Donald Trump said he is considering “winding down” the war on Iran. His comments, delivered on his Truth Social account, come even though two Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) are steaming toward the Middle East and the Pentagon has reportedly drawn up plans to put American troops into Iran with the president’s approval.
Trump added that the U.S. could end the war effort even with the Iranians still closing the Strait of Hormuz.
“We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran,” Trump proclaimed.
He stated that the U.S. has: “(1) Completely degrading Iranian Missile Capability, Launchers, and everything else pertaining to them. (2) Destroying Iran’s Defense Industrial Base. (3) Eliminating their Navy and Air Force, including Anti Aircraft Weaponry. (4) Never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability, and always being in a position where the U.S.A. can quickly and powerfully react to such a situation, should it take place. (5) Protecting, at the highest level, our Middle Eastern Allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others.”
The Strait, Trump added, “will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them.”
Since Day One of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump clearly outlined the U.S. Military’s objectives to end the threat of the Iranian terrorist regime.
The President and the Pentagon predicted it would take approximately 4-6 weeks to achieve this mission.
Our coverage has ended for the day. Stay tuned for more.
UPDATE: 5:15 PM EST –
Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who served as Defense Secretary and CENTCOM commander, weighed in on the war, saying he doesn’t believe regime change is likely.
Former General Jim Mattis says that it’s “very unlikely” that this Iranian regime falls right now.
“They’ve told the Iranian parents, don’t let your sons and daughters demonstrate because we will shoot them. We will go after them. So no, they’re not going to go away anywhere… pic.twitter.com/gq3RzIpPlZ
— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) March 20, 2026
Iranian state media warns Iran will target the UAE’s industrial port city of Ras Al-Khaimah if Iranian islands are again attacked from that nation, Arab News reported.
UPDATE: 4:20 PM EST –
Trump ruled out any ceasefire with Iran.
.@POTUS: “We can have dialogue, but I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side… we’re not looking to do that.” pic.twitter.com/g2Yjik41GS
He suggested that re-opening the Strait is “a simple military maneuver.”
.@POTUS on opening the Strait of Hormuz: “It’s a simple military maneuver, it’s relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense that you need ships, you need volume. NATO could help us but they so far haven’t had the courage to do so… it would be nice if the countries,… pic.twitter.com/KDOWOI3rgx
The president also declined to say if he will order troops into Iran.
REPORTER: Are you deploying additional troops to the region for deterrence or to optimize your operational capabilities?@POTUS: “I would say this, that if I told you the answer to that question, my military people wouldn’t be very happy — but we have a lot of troops, we have… pic.twitter.com/2jX7t4tgqq
CBS News is reporting that Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran. The network cited multiple sources briefed on the plans..
“Senior military commanders have submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option as President Trump weighs moves in the U.S.-Israel-led conflict with Iran, the sources said,” according to CBS. The news outlet’s sources do not specify how those troops would be used. Meanwhile, the Trump administration hasn’t committed to any such plan to put boots on the ground, which would greatly escalate the war.
CENTCOM provided us an update of the number of troops wounded so far in Epic Fury. To date there have been 232 wounded, up from about 200 on Monday. Of those troops, 207 returned to duty. The number of seriously wounded has held steady at 10. The Associated Press was the first to report these details.
The command also shared video of what it says was an attack on The Esfahan Khomeynishahr Drone Production Plant that produced Shahed one-way attack drones.
The Esfahan Khomeynishahr Drone Production Plant produced Shahed one-way attack drones that have been used by the Iranian regime to attack targets across the region. The photo dated March 3, 2026, shows the plant before U.S. strikes. The photo taken on March 12, 2026 shows the… pic.twitter.com/nXxYpv2eyw
New video shows another Iranian cluster munition exploding over Israel. There were no reports of injuries from the attack, which was the ninth so far this evening, according to Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel “Mannie” Fabian in a post on X.
One of the missiles launched by Iran at central Israel a short while ago carried a cluster bomb warhead, footage shows.
There are no reports of injuries in the attack, the ninth from Iran since midnight. pic.twitter.com/pH2IMCmSOq
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 20, 2026
NATO provided us a statement about pulling its forces out of Iraq as Iranian-backed militias have carried out several attacks there:
“‘I would like to thank the Republic of Iraq and all the Allies who assisted in the safe relocation of NATO personnel from Iraq,’ said Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe. “‘ would also like to thank the dedicated men and women of NATO Mission Iraq, who continued their mission throughout this period. They are true professionals.’
The last NATO Mission Iraq personnel departed the country on March 20.
NATO Mission Iraq will continue from Joint Force Command Naples. NMI is a non-combat advisory and capability-building mission to assist Iraq in building more sustainable, transparent, inclusive and effective security institutions and forces, so that they themselves are able to stabilise their country, fight terrorism, and prevent the return of ISIS/Daesh.”
Amidst the conflict in the Middle East, the NATO Mission in Iraq has relocated its personnel from the Middle East to Europe, per a release from NATO’s SHAPE page. pic.twitter.com/lSNZ4tH8Kh
Iraq declared a ”force majeure” on all oilfields developed by foreign oil companies, as attacks in the region have disrupted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz,” Al Arabiya reported on X. This is ”preventing most of the country’s crude exports from moving,” oil ministry sources told the outlet.
A force majeure is a contractual clause freeing parties from liability due to extraordinary, unavoidable events, like the war.
Iraq declares force majeure on all oilfields developed by foreign oil companies, as attacks in the region have disrupted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, preventing most of the country’s crude exports from moving, oil ministry sources say. pic.twitter.com/8mFHXiaRBP
The U.K. Defense Ministry offered its latest update on the war.
The Iranian space program, one of the most advanced in the Middle East, has suffered extensive damage from US and Israeli airstrikes,Bloomberg News reported. The attacks are “potentially driving Tehran to deepen cooperation with China and Russia,” the outlet posited.
The Iranian space program, one of the most advanced in the Middle East, has suffered extensive damage from US and Israeli airstrikes, potentially driving Tehran to deepen cooperation with China and Russia https://t.co/aApWOdfCao
Earlier in our story, we noted that the USS Boxer (ARG) was deploying to the Middle East. Images emerged on line of the Boxer, the Portland and the Comstock departing San Diego.
The USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 2,500 Marines from the 11th MEU are heading to the Middle East as the US builds up its amphibious assault capabilities in the region.
The USS Boxer, USS Portland, and USS Comstock departed San Diego over the past 48 hours. pic.twitter.com/SKWTleAbG7
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is once again touting a deal to provide drones to the U.S., an arrangement Trump has so far dismissed.
“I am very interested in signing this agreement with our close partner – the United States of America,” Zelensky stated on X. “So when President Trump is ready, I will definitely be ready. Our negotiating team will discuss this issue at the meeting in the United States.”
As early as a year ago, we proposed a Drone Deal to the United States of America, because it is our key partner.
The agreement is not only about interceptor drones. First and foremost, it includes naval drones and long-range drones that have been proven in the war. It also…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 20, 2026
Jerusalem’s Old City, home to some of the most sacred sites in Christianity, Islam and Judaism, was reportedly hit by missile shrapnel that fell near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The official Turkish Anadolu news outlet reported that missile fragments also fell in the Jewish Quarter near Jerusalem’s Old City, amid heightened tension and a security alert in the area.
Shrapnel landed in several locations across Jerusalem, with no immediate details available on the extent of the damage, Anadolu added, citing Israeli media.
Another video shows the moment a fragment from an Iranian ballistic missile struck Jerusalem’s Old City this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/qNvTXmRDr6
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 20, 2026
Shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd provided us with a statement on the current state of their maritime commerce.
“We are monitoring the situation very closely, but the situation in the Middle East remains very fluid. Based on our current risk assessment, we have suspended all transits through the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal as well as bookings from and to the Upper Gulf region. As a result, schedules and port calls may change at short notice, and some services will be adjusted. We have contingency plans in place, and the safety of our people on ground and ocean remains our top priority. Our teams are working closely together to find the best possible solutions for our customers’ shipments.”
A Greek-owned medium-sized cargo vessel, also known as a panamax, became the first bulk carrier to transit the Strait of Hormuz with its Automatic Identification System on since March 2, according to Lloyd’s List.
A Greece-owned panamax has become the first bulk carrier to transit the Strait of Hormuz with its Automatic Identification System turned on since March 2. pic.twitter.com/gfNjJsz517
Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the U.S. under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran, such as the precise coordinates of U.S. military assets in the Middle East, if Washington ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia, according to a report from Politico. The outlet cited two people familiar with the negotiations.
Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the US under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran – such as the precise coordinates of US military assets in the Middle East – if the US ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia.https://t.co/rpN0x8XqOZ
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Iranian media have both reported the death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson, Ali Mohammad Naeini. The Israeli military said in a post on X that he was killed in an overnight airstrike.
Just before his death, Naeini issued a statement insisting Iran was still able to produce missiles despite the attacks from Israel and the United States.
Naeini made the comment in response to a claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran could no longer build missiles. Referencing how Iranian schools consider a 20 as a perfect score, Naeini said: “Our missile industry score is 20 and there is no concern in this regard because we are producing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling.”
Naeini joins a growing list of high-profile Iranian regume figures who have been killed so far in the conflict, others including the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the security chief Ali Larijani, head of the paramilitary Basij force, Gholamreza Soleimani, and the intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib.
Tehran has accused the United Kingdom of “participation in aggression,” reflecting the fact that the country has permitted the U.S. Air Force to use its airbases as a launchpad for bombing missions over Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned his British counterpart, Yvette Cooper, and insisted on his country’s right to self-defence. “These actions will definitely be considered as participation in aggression and will be recorded in the history of relations between the two countries. At the same time, we reserve our inherent right to defend the country’s sovereignty and independence,” Araghchi said on his official Telegram channel.
⚡️🇺🇸🇬🇧🇮🇷 Footage of a US Air Force B-52H bomber returning to the UK following a reported strike mission linked to operations against Iran.
US B-52 and B-1 bombers have been deployed to RAF Fairford and are known to be conducting long-range strike missions. pic.twitter.com/m3sj39PHc3
U.S. Central Command says that it has destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile plant in Karaj, to the west of Tehran. The plant was used to “assemble ballistic missiles that threatened Americans, neighboring countries, and commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said.
Prior to Operation Epic Fury, the Iranian regime used the Karaj Surface-to-Surface Missile Plant to assemble ballistic missiles that threatened Americans, neighboring countries, and commercial shipping. The photo dated March 1, 2026, shows the plant prior to U.S. strikes. The… pic.twitter.com/QEs5toZQpX
Satellite imagery from Bandar Abbas suggests that airstrikes have targeted the naval base and port facilities once again. The imagery below shows fires burning at several different structures, although the level of overall damage is not entirely clear.
BDA Update: Bandar Abbas Southern Fleet HQ Mar 18 high-res imagery confirms another wave of strikes near the primary navy piers
➡️Impacts focused heavily on the infrastructure and support buildings just off the waterfront ➡️Active fires with at least 6 distinct structures… pic.twitter.com/KPFAMNacst
Other recent targets of U.S. airstrikes appear to include Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Satellite imagery shows cratering, but it unclear if the attacks collapsed the IRGC’s tunnel complex that is understood to be on the island. The underground complex is reportedly used to store small boats, missiles, and drones.
A U.S. strike hit the IRGC’s tunnel complex on Qeshm Island, causing visible surface damage (craters, hits on nearby facilities), but failed to destroy or penetrate the hardened underground tunnels, meaning key assets likely survived.
Israel conducted airstrikes on Tehran today, as Iranians marked Nowruz, the Persian New Year. In a statement on X, the Israel Defense Forces said: “The IDF has now begun a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran.”
Meanwhile, there are growing questions about the degree to which Israel and the United States are on the same page as regards the war against Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel acted alone in the bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field, one of the largest in the world. He also confirmed that Trump had asked Israel to stop any further such attacks. “President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks, and we’re holding out,” Netanyahu explained.
Iran is being “decimated” and no longer had the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, but a revolution in the country would require a “ground component,” Netanyahu added.
When asked whether he had dragged Trump into the conflict, Netanyahu responded: “Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?” Netanyahu told reporters, at a press conference. “He didn’t need any convincing,” he added. “I don’t think any two leaders have been as coordinated as President Trump and I. He’s the leader. I’m, you know, his ally.”
Israel, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates today all announced that their air defenses were responding to Iranian missile attacks. Elsewhere in the region, Bahrain’s interior ministry announced an air raid alert, while Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted a drone in the country’s east.
Kuwait’s state oil firm KPC reported that its Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery was hit by multiple drone attacks early on Friday, causing a fire in some units. No initial casualties were reported, according to the state news agency.
Early this morning, multiple Iranian attack drones hit Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery, setting several areas of the refinery complex ablaze and causing a partial shutdown. pic.twitter.com/9HwqC0fHZi
Iranian attacks on energy infrastructure have taken a toll on Qatar, too. Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar has been forced to reduce the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity by 17 percent, according to QatarEnergy, the state-run energy giant. The “extensive damage” could reportedly reduce its annual revenues by $20 billion and take “up to five years” to repair.
Footage shows a fire and the moment of impact of an Iranian ballistic missile in Ras Laffan Industrial City, home to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. pic.twitter.com/zIyGJ5p9ue
Iran has also launched strikes against energy infrastructure in Israel.
According to Israel’s energy ministry, an Iranian missile attack — reportedly using cluster warheads — hit oil refineries in the northern port city of Haifa but did not cause “significant damage.” Energy Minister Eli Cohen added that power was disrupted, but electricity was soon restored to most of those who were affected.
The video below purports to show debris from an intercepted Iranian ballistic missile landing on a car in central Israel.
According to the Fars news agency, the Iranian military has reportedly threatened American and Israeli military personnel and officials. In a post on Telegram, the agency quoted a senior spokesperson for Iran’s armed forces as saying: “We are keeping an eye on your cowardly officials and commanders, your wicked pilots and soldiers… From now on, based on the information we have from you, the world’s tourist attractions, resorts, and entertainment centers will not be safe for you either,” the spokesperson reportedly said.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is reportedly sending three California-based warships and roughly 2,500 Marines to the Middle East, the second significant deployment in a week.
The three warships are part of the San Diego-based USS Boxer amphibious ready group. The Marines are from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Pendleton. The deployments were reported Friday by the Associated Press, citing Pentagon sources.
A 2,500-strong Marine unit accompanied by the USS Tripoli warship launched from Japan on Saturday.
The major reinforcement comes as the war’s economic shock waves are felt throughout the globe, as Washington seeks to secure vital shipping lanes and deter further attacks on energy infrastructure around the Persian Gulf.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, front, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine arrive for a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington on Thursday.
(Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)
President Trump has continued pressing allies to join his proposed coalition to patrol the Iranian-controlled Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane through which about 20% of the world’s oil supply passes. So far, Europe, Japan, China and Australia have refused to heed the call.
Trump on Thursday said Iran “is close to demolished,” but that securing the Strait of Hormuz remained a struggle. He suggested the U.S. was working to secure the strait not for its own oil needs, but “just to be nice” to other countries that rely on oil from the region to a much larger degree than the U.S.
Marines perform a demonstration with helicopters and the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer Oct. 18, 2025, on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)
“They complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social.
Iran continued sweeping attacks on Mideast energy facilities, a retaliation to Israeli strikes on its Iran’s South Pars field, the world’s largest natural gas field Wednesday. The fallout has dragged the gulf states into the war amid the largest energy supply disruption in history.
Iranian Shahed drones hammered Kuwait’s largest oil refinery Friday. Similar attacks triggered fires at Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, bringing energy product screaming to a halt at the largest natural gas hub in the globe. Repairs are expected to take years.
Meanwhile, United Arab Emirates’ air defense systems were countering Iranian missiles overnight, and Saudi Arabia said it might respond with force if Iran continues to attack facilities in the kingdom.
An Israeli self-propelled howitzer artillery gun fires rounds toward southern Lebanon from a position in the upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border on Friday.
(Jalaa Marey / AFP via Getty Images)
Israel said Friday it had killed Esmail Ahmadi, a senior intelligence official in Iran’s Basij and deputy to its commander, in an airstrike. Officials described Ahmadi as “one of the most important pillars” of the Basij volunteer paramilitary force.
Even as Israel carries out daily decapitation airstrikes in Tehran and the U.S. deploys renewed forces to its front door, the Islamic Republic has not faltered.
Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior spokesperson for Iran’s armed forces, said American and Israeli officials could be targeted worldwide.
“From now on, based on the information we have, even recreational and tourist locations around the world will not be safe for you,” Shekarchi said.
Oil prices have surged past $100 a barrel and found a volatile new floor amid the chaos.
Financial markets have reacted with sustained losses. Wall Street has now posted its fourth consecutive week of declines, with investors increasingly pricing in the risk that higher energy costs could slow economic growth while reigniting inflation. Analysts warn that persistently elevated crude prices are likely to squeeze corporate margins and weigh on consumer spending in the United States and beyond.
The International Monetary Fund has cautioned that the conflict could push inflation higher, too. The Federal Reserve is now facing renewed uncertainty as they weigh whether to hold interest rates higher for longer in response to rising energy costs.
At a White House event on Friday, Trump maintained that the United States’ military operation is “going extremely well in Iran.”
“The difference between them and us is they had a navy two weeks ago and they have no navy anymore. It’s all at the bottom of the sea,” Trump said. “Fifty-eight ships were knocked down in two days and we have the greatest navy in the world. It is not even close.”
The president did not take questions from reporters in the room. But in unprompted remarks, he said the United States and Iran are not engaging in talks because their leaders “are all gone,” adding to the uncertainty about the war’s exit strategy.
“We are having a hard time, we want to talk to them and there is nobody to talk to,” he said. “We have nobody to talk to and you know what? We like it that way.”
Beirut, Lebanon and Gaza City, Palestine – Along Beirut’s downtown waterfront, Alaa is looking for somewhere to rest his head.
The Syrian refugee, originally from the occupied Golan Heights, is now homeless. He explained that he had already spent the day wandering around the Lebanese capital trying to find shelter.
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He used to live in Dahiyeh – the southern suburbs of Beirut that have been pummelled by Israeli attacks, which have now killed more than 1,000 across Lebanon.
Now, he’s just looking for somewhere he can be safe. And in that context, Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that began on Friday, is far from his mind.
When asked if he had any plans for Eid, he replied in the negative. Instead, his focus was on getting a tent.
“I got rejected from staying in a school, then I went to sleep on the corniche,” Alaa said. “Then people from the municipality told me to come here to downtown Beirut’s waterfront.”
Alaa wasn’t able to find a tent and is sleeping in the open air for now. But others in the area have, transforming a downtown more famous for its expensive restaurants and bars into a tent city for those displaced by the fighting. Across Lebanon, more than a million people have been displaced.
Lebanese are uncertain when this war will end, particularly as they have barely recovered from the conflict with Israel that ran between October 2023 and November 2024.
It makes celebrations difficult – a common theme across the countries affected by the current conflict.
In Iran, now in its third week of US-Israeli attacks – with no sign of an immediate end and an economic crisis that preceded the conflict, people are struggling to afford any of the items typically bought during the holiday season.
And it is potentially dangerous for people to shop at places like Tehran’s grand bazaar, which has been damaged by the bombing.
The religious element of Eid adds an extra sensitivity for antigovernment Iranians, some of whom now see any sign of religiosity as support for the Islamic Republic. The fact that Nowruz – the Persian New Year – falls on Friday this year means that some in the antigovernment camp will be focused on that celebration instead, and eschewing any events to mark Eid.
Struggling in Gaza
Many Palestinians in Gaza want to celebrate Eid, but the enclave’s economic crisis, brought on by Israel’s genocidal war, makes it difficult.
Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods into Gaza, which have increased since the war against Iran started, have driven up prices further, including the cost of children’s toys.
Khaled Deeb, a 62-year-old living in a partially destroyed home in Gaza City, had ventured into the central Remal market, curious to see how expensive fruit and vegetables had gotten in the run-up to Eid.
“From the outside, the Eid atmosphere looks lively and vibrant,” Khaled said, pointing to the crowded market. “But financially, things are extremely bad. People have all left their homes and are now living in tents and displacement. Everyone has lost everything during the war.”
Khaled says he can’t afford the fruit and vegetables, and will have to go without. Only “kings” could buy them, he said, not “poor and exhausted people” like him.
What makes it worse is his memory of what things were like before the war, when he owned a supermarket.
“During Eid, I would give my daughters and sisters gifts of more than 3,000 shekels ($950) when visiting them, not to mention preparing the house, buying Eid clothes for my children, and sweets and chocolates to welcome the holiday,” Khaled said. None of that is going to happen this Eid, even with a ceasefire in Gaza.
His sentiment was echoed by Shireen Shreim, a mother of three.
“Our joy in Eid is incomplete,” she said, as she wandered through the market. “We have come out of two years of war with immense hardship, only to face a life where even the most basic necessities are unavailable.”
And with Israel showing few signs that it is willing to stop violently attacking Palestinians, as well as other countries in the region, Shireen has no idea when Gaza will ever be rebuilt.
“I live in an apartment with completely hollowed-out walls,” she explained. “My husband and I put up tarps and wood, and we are continuing our lives. We are much better off than others.”
“Every time I return home, I feel sad,” she added. “As you can see, people are living in nylon and cloth tents in the streets, without any humane shelter. How will these people celebrate Eid?”
Back in Beirut, Karim Safieddine, a political researcher and organiser, is stoic. He said he would be celebrating Eid with his extended family, despite the difficult circumstances.
“Although we have been displaced by the war, we believe that consolidating these family bonds and creating a sense of communal solidarity is the first and foremost condition to survive this war,” Karim said.
“Without solidarity, we won’t be able to build a society, a country,” he said. “I think that’s a starting point for many people attempting to really create a sense of forward-looking vision for a country under bombs, without any form of toxic positivity, of course.”
WASHINGTON — In the escalating war in Iran, the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs would ordinarily be at the center of the geopolitical fray.
Typically led by a veteran diplomat, the bureau’s role would be to coordinate U.S. foreign policy across an 18-country region, much of which has become a chaotic battlefield scarred by drone and missile strikes as the U.S. and Israel remain locked in conflict with Iran.
The Trump administration for a time put Mora Namdar, a lawyer of Iranian descent with limited management experience, in charge before later moving her to a different post. One of her credentials was her contribution to Project 2025, a conservative think tank’s blueprint for the second Trump administration. Namdar’s last Senate-confirmed predecessor was a longtime Middle East expert who had been with the department since 1984 and had served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Now that bureau is also working with far fewer resources. The administration’s most recent budget proposed a 40% cut to the bureau, though Congress eventually enacted less dramatic cuts. The administration also eliminated the dedicated Iran office, merging it with the Iraq office.
Staff reductions and management choices hamper emergency response
These kinds of personnel and management choices — coupled with President Trump’s moves to shrink government and confine decision-making to a tight circle — are limiting the ability of the United States to handle a global emergency, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials, many of whom recently left government.
In divisions of the State Department that typically would handle the Iran response, numerous veteran diplomats with decades of collective experience were fired, retired or were reassigned — replaced by more junior officials or political appointees. The administration cut more than 80 staffers in Near Eastern Affairs, according to numbers compiled by a State Department employee who was terminated last year based on surveys of colleagues. (The department does not release official figures on Foreign Service officer staffing levels but did not dispute the number.)
The Trump administration has left the assistant secretary position in charge of Near Eastern Affairs vacant, along with key ambassadorships in the Middle East. Four of the five supervisors in the bureau have temporary titles.
The current and former officials, some of whom asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters during an active conflict, paint a portrait of an understaffed government workforce struggling to execute the president’s agenda. Those who remain tell colleagues that their analysis, recommendations and advice go unheeded.
The State Department vigorously disputed those assessments.
“As far as we can tell, AP’s entire ‘report’ on the evacuations does not include any conversations with people actually involved. Instead, it relies on ‘outside’ or ‘former official’ sources that have no idea what they are talking about. We walked AP through specific inaccuracy after specific inaccuracy — indeed how the whole premise was wrong,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
More than 3,800 State Dept. employees departed since Trump took office
The State Department saw a departure of more than 3,800 employees since President Trump took office through a combination of reductions in force, staffers taking the Fork in the Road deferred resignation plan and ordinary retirements. According to estimates by the American Foreign Service Association, the labor union that represents foreign service officers, senior foreign service ranks were disproportionately represented in the layoffs compared to their share of the overall workforce.
“He’s making choices without the larger expertise of the United States government that would flag issues of consequence,” said Max Stier, CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that studies federal workforce issues. “Sometimes government is slow-moving because there are a lot of different factors that need to be balanced against each other.”
For instance, the administration appears to have been caught off guard by what would happen once the U.S. struck Iran — something Trump himself acknowledged this week when he expressed surprise that Tehran retaliated with strikes on American allies in the region. “Nobody expected that. We were shocked. They fought back,” Trump told reporters this week.
Pigott said staffing reductions “are not having any negative impact on our ability to respond to this operation, our ability to plan, and our ability to execute in service to Americans.” He added that the department “rejects the premise that key decisions were made without meaningful input from experienced professionals.”
But Iranian retaliation on U.S. allies was predictable, according to former officials, as well as previous war games and conflict models run by both the U.S. military and private organizations. The National Security Council, which Trump has pared, typically would have presented the president with analysis from experts within the bureaucracy.
Instead, decisions are made by a small group of officials close to the president without the planning or coordination of the larger machinery of government, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as the president’s national security adviser.
“In the Trump Administration, decisions are made by President Trump and senior administration officials and not by no-name bureaucrat leakers who whine to the press about not being consulted about highly classified operations,” White House spokesperson Dylan Johnson said.
Advice from career officials often went unheeded
“In the time that I was there, there was no policy process to speak of,” said Chris Backemeyer, who served in Near Eastern Affairs as a deputy assistant secretary of state before resigning last year. Backemeyer was a major proponent of the Iran deal that Trump abandoned. He recently left government to run for Congress as a Democrat in Nebraska.
“They did not want to hear any advice from career people,” said Backemeyer.
Namdar was later moved to be the head of Consular Affairs, the part of the department responsible for providing assistance to American citizens overseas and issuing visas to foreign visitors.
When the U.S. made the decision to strike Iran, Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee offered embassy staff in Jerusalem the opportunity to evacuate — a sign that he knew strikes were coming. But some other embassies in the region did not make similar arrangements — leaving nonessential personnel and their families stranded in a war zone.
The department said it has been issuing travel warnings since January and was fully staffed to handle the crisis the moment the strikes were launched.
Evacuation planning was chaotic
Still, little planning appears to have gone into how to evacuate the Americans who were living, working, visiting or studying in many of the countries that became engulfed in the conflict — in part because the White House seems to have underestimated the possibility of the strikes expanding into a prolonged multi-country war, as evidenced by Trump’s own remarks.
After Iranian attacks on allies like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the State Department began calling for Americans to leave the region. But numerous former Consular Affairs staffers say such planning should have begun long before U.S. strikes started.
In a statement posted to social media, Namdar only told Americans to evacuate several days into the conflict, when airspace was largely closed and many commercial flights were unavailable.
“The messaging that went out to American citizens — after the U.S. struck Iran — was woefully late and, initially, confusing,” said Yael Lempert, who served as U.S. ambassador to Jordan until 2025. Lempert is one of five former ambassadors expected to speak about the department’s failures at an event Thursday at the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington.
Other poorly executed evacuations, such the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, have drawn criticism.
But this time they’re compounded by the loss of experienced people, officials say. Consular Affairs has lost more than 150 jobs in the Trump administration due to a combination of reductions in force, dismissals of probationary employees and retirements, according to a U.S. official who asked for anonymity — though other parts of the department were hit much harder.
The department notes that it has offered assistance to nearly 50,000 Americans impacted by the conflict, with more than 60 flights evacuating citizens from the region. In total, the department says more than 70,000 Americans have been able to return home since the outbreak of hostilities on Feb. 28.
“The loss of experienced personnel through these RIFs has clearly undermined the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ ability to fulfill its most important mission, to protect Americans abroad,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
Language skills at the department are also atrophying. Thirteen Arabic speakers and four Farsi speakers, all trained at taxpayer expense, were among employees let go, according to a draft letter being circulated by former foreign service officers.
It can cost $200,000 to train a foreign service officer in a language. The letter estimates that the total number of people fired by the State Department in the name of efficiency received more than $35 million in taxpayer-funded language training and more than $100 million in total training and other career development.
The State Department has set up two temporary task forces to deal with the crisis in the Middle East. One aims to bolster the capacities of Near East Affairs and another is aimed at helping Consular Affairs evacuate Americans.
A group of more than 250 Foreign Service officers were part of the administration’s reduction-in-force last year but still remain on the State Department’s payroll. Many have volunteered to return to the department to work on either a task force or do any other job that needs to be done with the outbreak of a global crisis.
“I haven’t been given any separation paperwork. I still have an active clearance. I could go back to the department tomorrow, either to backfill or staff a task force,” said one foreign service officer who asked for anonymity because they are still technically on the department’s payroll and are not authorized to speak to the press. “I will do the scutwork jobs.”
The department hasn’t responded to their offer but said in a statement that the task force is “fully staffed.”
The FCDO has issued numerous warnings and advice for British citizens planning to travel to, or already in, affected countries. The latest was issued earlier this afternoon and covers 31 countries
Israeli and US strikes on Iran over the past three weeks triggered a response that has grounded thousands of flights, killed more than 2,000 people and caused flight paths and ship routes to be shut down.
The FCDO has issued numerous warnings and advice for British citizens planning to travel to, or already in, affected countries. The latest was issued earlier this afternoon and covers 31 countries.
“Escalation in the Middle East has caused widespread travel disruption, including airspace closures, delayed and cancelled flights. Your travel plans may be affected, even if your destination is not in the Middle East,” the advice reads.
The FCDO advises that before travelling, UK passport holders:
check travel advice for any countries or territories you are transiting through
check for the latest updates from your airline or tour operator before travelling
review your travel insurance policy for coverage before you travel
monitor local and international media for the latest information and sign up for travel advice email alerts
Countries with updated advice
Singapore
Vietnam
Phillipinnes
Tuvalu
Laos
Thailand
Uzbekistan
New Zealand
Bangladesh
Australia
Indonesia
Brunei
Japan
Georgia
Tajikistan
Nepal
Maldives
Fiji
Malaysia
India
Papa New Guinea
Cambodia
South Korea
Samoa
Solomon
Tonga
Nauru
Vanutu
Marshall Islands
Kiribati
Sri Lanka
More than 1,300 people in Iran have been killed during the war. Israeli strikes against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon have displaced more than 1 million people — roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people have been killed. Israel says it has killed more than 500 Hezbollah militants.
In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. Four people were also killed in the occupied West Bank overnight by an Iranian missile strike, according to officials. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
Iran announced the execution of three men detained in January’s nationwide protests, the first such sentences known to have been carried out, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
Today, three weeks since the war began, Iran intensified its attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf.
The strikes, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, sent fuel prices soaring and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbors directly into the conflict. Tehran’s targeting of energy production further stressed global supplies already under pressure because of Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, Iran’s top leaders have been killed in airstrikes and the country’s military capabilities have been severely degraded. Still, Iran — now led by the son of the supreme leader killed in the war’s opening salvo — remains capable of missile and drone attacks rattling its Gulf Arab neighbors and a global economy dependent on the energy they produce.
South Korea and Japan are facing uncomfortable questions about their mutual defensive obligations as the United States seeks support from its allies in the war on Iran, now nearly three weeks in and escalating by the day.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump urged the United Kingdom, China, France, Japan, and South Korea to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, which has remained de facto closed since Washington launched its war with ally Israel on Tehran on March 28.
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The president backpedalled on his position on Tuesday – declaring on social media that “we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance – WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea” – but observers say US allies may not yet be out of the hot seat.
Trump is expected to raise the issue of warships when he meets with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Jack Barton.
“People do expect him to put pressure on Takaichi again to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz. It makes sense in a way because Japan is so dependent on energy supplies” from the Middle East, Barton said on Thursday from Seoul.
Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force is one of the largest and most advanced navies in the world, he said, which makes it an attractive target for the Trump Administration.
Although Japan and the US share a mutual defence, Tokyo’s pacifist constitution places restrictions on when it can deploy its Self-Defense Force. Legal scenarios include when it is attacked or facing a “survival-threatening” scenario, as well as acting in “collective self-defence” of its allies.
Takaichi told legislators this week that her government is considering what can legally be done to protect Japanese ships and interests, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK World, although deployment is still a hypothetical scenario.
Japan relies heavily on Middle Eastern oil imports, of which 70 percent pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Japanese media. Tokyo began releasing oil from its strategic reserve on Monday to make up for the shortfall.
Stephen Nagy, a professor at the International Christian University, Tokyo, told Al Jazeera it was not unexpected that the US – a treaty ally – would call on it for help, but Japan will need to consider what is expected.
“The question is if they are going to be on the front line of the attack from Iran or if they are going to provide some kind of supporting role, such as anti-mining activities, refuelling missions, maritime domain awareness,” he said.
“It’s not so much of a problem going there and being involved in the challenges associated with the Hormuz Strait; what is more important is what exactly they are going to do in that role. I think the Japanese are going to find a way to legally add value to the Trump administration, but don’t expect warships there fighting Iranian proxies,” he continued.
South Korea finds itself in a similar predicament as it is both a US treaty ally and a country that is heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil and gas exports.
Seoul last week took the extraordinary measure of imposing a price cap on domestic fuel prices for the first time since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, to keep prices from rising too quickly for consumers. Despite their concerns, legislators continue to urge caution from the government in deploying its navy or military assets to the Middle East, according to Al Jazeera’s Barton.
In-Bum Chun, a retired South Korean lieutenant general, told Al Jazeera that it is not immediately clear whether Seoul’s Mutual Defense Treaty with the US applies to the Strait of Hormuz.
Seoul must also weigh helping the US against maintaining a credible deterrence against North Korea. Recent media reports suggest that the US is considering moving some of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles from South Korea to the Middle East. The missiles were installed to deter North Korea, and their removal, along with naval assets, could make voters nervous.
“Seoul must also consider the persistent threat from North Korea and the fact that a South Korean warship is already deployed to the Middle East,” Chun told Al Jazeera. “At the same time, because about 70 percent of Korea’s oil imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, freedom of navigation is not an abstract principle but a core national interest. These competing realities must all be weighed before any final decision is reached.”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
In a follow-up to our recent story about a pair of U.S. Navy Independence class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) configured for minesweeping appearing in the Pacific, those vessels have now moved further east from Malaysia to Singapore. USS Tulsa and USS Santa Barbara remain thousands of miles away from their primary assigned operating area in the Middle East, where the conflict with Iran grinds on. The highly strategic Strait of Hormuz notably remains closed to normal maritime commerce due to Iranian attacks. Though the regime in Tehran does not yet appear to have employed naval mines to a large degree in the Strait, this remains a major threat that will factor into any plans to reopen the critical waterway.
As to why the Navy sent two of its three mine hunters in the Middle East not just out of the line of fire, but literally across the globe at a time when the U.S. and its allies could be facing the mining of one of the world’s most critical waterways remains a mystery.
U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) has confirmed to TWZ that USS Tulsa and USS Santa Barbara are in Singapore. Last year, the Navy sent Tulsa and Santa Barbara, as well as a third Independence class LCS, the USS Canberra, to Manama in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. Canberra‘s current location remains unclear. All three ships were explicitly sent to the Middle East to fill capability and capacity gaps left by the decommissioning of four Avenger class mine-hunters that had been deployed in the region for decades beforehand.
Local spotters had already caught the two LCSs arriving in Singapore earlier today. Authorities in Malaysia had previously confirmed that the LCSs had left the Port of Penang in that country on March 16. Singapore is a city-state that lies roughly 370 miles southeast of Penang.
USS Santa Barbara (LCS 32) and USS Tulsa (LCS 16) Independence-variant littoral combat ships coming into Singapore – March 18, 2026 SRC: INST- yplanesonly pic.twitter.com/SahGsKy6yW
USS Tulsa (LCS 16) Independence-variant littoral combat ship coming into Singapore – joining USS Santa Barbara there – March 18, 2026 SRC: FB- Military Aviation Photography Singapore pic.twitter.com/dElkABOeyD
“Tulsa and Santa Barbara are conducting scheduled maintenance and logistics stop in Singapore. The U.S. and Singapore navies have an excellent and longstanding defense relationship,” a NAVCENT spokesperson told TWZ. “A testament to this relationship is the agreement to allow littoral combat ships to operate primarily from Singapore as a logistics and maintenance hub, as well as supporting regular port visits and logistics stops for other U.S. ships.”
NAVCENT had given TWZ an almost identical statement when asked previously about the arrival of the LCSs in Malaysia:
“Tulsa and Santa Barbara are conducting brief logistical stops in Malaysia. U.S. forces routinely make port calls in Malaysia as part of our operations, reflecting the close and enduring military cooperation between the United States and Malaysia.”
“These stops allow for logistical arrangements such as replenishments,” Malaysian Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin separately told the New Strait Times newspaper yesterday. “Any foreign naval vessel must submit a request through its country to the Royal Malaysian Navy, which forwards it to the Foreign Ministry for approval.”
15 Mar – Two US Navy Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) that were assigned to mine-countermeasure (MSM) missions in the Persian Gulf are currently docked at Butterworth in Malaysia.
When Tulsa and Santa Barbara left the Middle East, to begin with, is unclear. There is no evidence of any U.S. warships having been in port in Bahrain since at least February 23, five days before joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began. Manama was almost immediately subjected to retaliatory attacks, making clear that sending American vessels elsewhere was, broadly speaking, a prudent security measure.
How long Tulsa and Santa Barbara will remain in Singapore, and where they might head to next, remains to be seen. As NAVCENT’s statement noted, Singapore’s Changi Naval Base has been a hub for forward-deployed LCSs in the Indo-Pacific region. U.S. naval vessels, in general, regularly make port calls there, including for maintenance.
A view from the USS Tulsa as it arrived for a visit to Changi Naval Base back in 2021. USN
As an aside, online ship tracking data indicates that the America class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and the San Antonio class amphibious warfare ship USS New Orleans are also now sailing through the same general area. The Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) is reportedly on its way to the Middle East, loaded with Marines, as you can read more about here.
⛴️🇺🇸|🇮🇩🇲🇾🇸🇬 USS Tripoli (LHA-7) and USS New Orleans (LPD-18) have been detected approaching the Singapore Strait.
Additionally, two Littoral Combat Ships USS Tulsa (LCS-16) and USS Santa Barbara (LCS-32), have been detected in the Strait of Malacca after departing Bahrain. pic.twitter.com/RSQlViD4qC
Regardless of where they might head next, Tulsa and Santa Barbara have now moved even further away from their assigned station in the Middle East. This, in turn, means that two of three mine countermeasures ships that are supposed to be forward-deployed in that region, at least, are currently in an entirely different part of the world. Whether any other LCS or other ships configured for the mine countermeasures mission have been deployed closer to the Middle East, or are now on their way, is unknown. There are only four other Avenger class ships still in Navy service, all of which are in Japan and have been slated for decommissioning in the coming years.
A stock picture of an Avenger class mine hunter seen here during an exercise. USN
Generally speaking, the Independence class LCS is a far more advanced ship, overall, than the Avenger class mine hunter. When suitably equipped, the LCSs also offer new standoff mine countermeasures capabilities, including uncrewed mine-sweeping drone boats and helicopter-borne systems. It should be noted that the Navy had originally planned for both Independence and Freedom class LCSs to be readily configured and reconfigured for different operational needs using an array of different mission packages, or ‘modules.’ The service now deploys LCSs in static configurations.
The USS Canberra, one of the three LCSs forward-deployed to the Middle East last year to take over mine-sweeping duties. Seen in the background is a heavy lift ship bringing the four decommissioned Avenger class mine hunters from Bahrain back to the United States. USN
Still, questions continue to be raised whether LCSs fitted out for the mine countermeasures role are adequate replacements for ships purpose-built for this mission set, as you can read about in much more detail in our past reporting. Mine-clearing operations are complex and slow-going affairs that carry significant risks even in optimal conditions in benign environments.
As noted, Iranian naval mines have yet to make a major appearance in the current conflict. U.S. officials have largely downplayed the mine threat, especially when compared to the active ongoing attacks Iran has been launching on commercial ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz using drones, missiles, and uncrewed boats.
That being said, “we defend all these countries and then, ‘do you have any minesweepers?’ And they say, ‘Well, would it be possible for us not to get involved?’” U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this week in response to a question from a reporter about the current conflict with Iran. This suggested that American officials had at least asked allies and partners about the possibility of them providing additional naval mine countermeasures capabilities to the region. If so, this is somewhat puzzling, coming as the Navy had sent the two LCSs to another hemisphere.
Trump:
We have 45,000 troops in Japan, 45,000 in South Korea, and 50,000 in Germany.
We defend all these countries, and then: “Do you have any minesweepers?”
Trump had previously appealed publicly for assistance, in general, in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but had been soundly rejected by a number of countries. The President then said yesterday that any help was no longer required.
“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’ [sic],” Trump then wrote just earlier today in a post on his Truth Social site. “That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”
Trump: “I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’ That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!! President DJT” pic.twitter.com/pwbF1lYELS
In an interview last Thursday with CNBC, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright had said the prospect of U.S. Navy warships escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz was still weeks away, at best. TWZ previously explored how risky such an operation would be, given Iran’s ability to turn the waterway into a super weapons engagement zone where mines would be just one of many concerns.
The fact that USS Tulsa and USS Santa Barbara have moved even further from the Middle East only underscores questions about what the U.S. government’s line of thinking might be now about how to get maritime commerce flowing again in and out of the Persian Gulf.
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — President Trump is set to pay his respects on Wednesday at a Delaware military base when the remains of six U.S. service members killed in the crash of a refueling aircraft are returned to their families.
It will be the second time since launching the war with Iran on Feb. 28 that the Republican president will attend the solemn military ritual known as a dignified transfer, which he once described as the “toughest thing” he has had to do as commander in chief.
All six crew members of a KC-135 Air Force refueling aircraft were killed last week in a plane crash over friendly territory in western Iraq while supporting operations against Iran. They were from Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Washington state.
“Every person on that aircraft carried a weight most Americans will never see, and they carried it with professionalism, courage, and a level of quiet excellence that deserves to be recognized,” retired Lt. Col Ernesto Nisperos, a friend of one of those killed, said in a text message Wednesday.
The crash brought the U.S. death toll in Operation Epic Fury to at least 13 service members. About 200 U.S. service members have been injured, including 10 severely, the Pentagon has said.
Trump last traveled to Dover Air Force Base on March 7 for the dignified transfer of six U.S. service members who were killed by a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait. He saluted as flag-draped transfer cases containing the remains of the fallen service members were carried from military aircraft to vehicles waiting to take them to the base’s mortuary facility to prepare them for their final resting place.
“It’s the bad part of war,” he told reporters afterward. Asked then if he worried about having to make multiple trips to the base for additional dignified transfers as the war continued, he said, “I’m sure. I hate to do it, but it’s a part of war, isn’t it?”
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said that the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace” over Iraq but that the loss of the aircraft during a combat mission was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.” The circumstances were under investigation. The other plane landed safely.
The crash killed three people assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida: Maj. John A. “Alex” Klinner, 33, who served in Birmingham, Ala.; Capt. Ariana Linse Savino, 31, of Covington, Wash.; and Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Ky.
Klinner, who left behind a wife, a 2-year-old son and 7-month-old twins, was known for his steady command and goofy nature, as well as a willingness to help others. Pruitt’s husband described her as a “radiant” woman who lit up the room. Savino was a friend, mentee and “source of positive energy” who was proud of her Puerto Rican heritage and inspired young Latinas, said Nisperos, who is serving as spokesman for her family.
“She had had this warmth that made you feel seen, a strength that showed up in everything she touched, and a spark — that spice — that made her unforgettable,” Nisperos said. “If you knew her, even for a moment, you knew you were in the presence of someone who was going to change the world.”
The three others were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio: Capt. Seth Koval, 38, a resident of Stoutsville, Ohio, who was from Mooresville, Ind.; Capt. Curtis Angst, 30, who lived in Columbus; and Master Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28, of Columbus.
Koval grew up dreaming of becoming a pilot, according to his wife, who described him as a loving, generous “fixer of all things.” Angst’s family said his life was defined by service, generosity and “a genuine love for people.” Simmons loved confiding in his 85-year-old grandmother and working out with her, Sen. Jon Husted said Tuesday, when he and Sen. Bernie Moreno honored the Ohio airmen on the Senate floor.
“To the mom and dad of these three young soldiers, I can’t even process what you’re going through. I can’t even imagine the emotions that you’re feeling,” Moreno said. “Just know that America is grateful beyond words for the sacrifice that your heroic young sons made.”
Superville writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
A group of at least five carrier-capable U.S. Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning and control planes arrived overnight in the Azores after crossing much of the Atlantic. The Azores is a common stopover point for U.S. military aircraft heading to the Middle East. The move is somewhat rare for the E-2 community, but it’s extremely logical, and likely highly urgent, considering what is going on in the Middle East.
In many respects, the E-2D is the most sensitive airborne ‘look-down’ radar platform in U.S. military service today. As far as we know, the only E-2Ds in the Middle East right now are supporting air wing operations of the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln. Rushing more of them to the Persian Gulf for land-based operations to help spot low-flying Iranian kamikaze drones wreaking havoc on Arab Gulf States would make total sense.
We have seen a similar request accepted by the Royal Australian Air Force, which is sending one of its highly capable E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft to the region for essentially the same purpose. Australia’s commitment is separate from current U.S.-Israeli operations. Both the E-2D and the E-7 aircraft can also spot low-flying cruise missiles, short-range ballistic missiles, and even maritime threats, making them ideal for the littoral operations against everything Iran is throwing at U.S. allies in the region. The Hawkeye and Wedgetail also offer additional battle management and networking capabilities, which U.S. forces engaged in operations against Iran are currently relying heavily on a strained fleet of aging E-3 Sentry jets to provide.
via @Azorean_Lion
Pictures above and below show E-2Ds at Lajes on the island of Terceira in the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago, last night. Online flight tracking data had also shown the Hawkeyes heading there. We can also see that the Hawkeyes are upgraded versions capable of being refueled in flight, via a probe prominently mounted above the cockpit. In line with this, a pair of U.S. Air Force KC-46 Pegasus tankers had been tracked accompanying the Navy aircraft to Lajes, as well.
via @Azorean_Lion
Previous tracking data shows the E-2Ds flew first from Norfolk, Virginia, to Bangor, Maine, last Friday. The Hawkeyes then departed Bangor yesterday, heading east across the Atlantic.
Markings visible in the pictures from Lajes show that at least some of the E-2Ds that touched down there are assigned to Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 121 (VAW-121) based at Naval Air Station Norfolk (NAS Norfolk). There had been indications earlier that the contingent included Hawkeyes from VAW-126, also based at NAS Norfolk, but this appears to be unconfirmed at this time. VAW-121 and VAW-126 are assigned to Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17) and CVW-1, respectively. CVW-17 was notably most recently attached to the supercarrier USS Nimitz, which had been scheduled to be put into mothballs in May, but is now slated to remain in service at least until March 2027.
VAW-121 and CVW-17 markings, at left and right, respectively, seen on some of the E-2Ds that arrived overnight at Lajes. via @Azorean_Lion
It remains to be seen where exactly the E-2Ds head to now, but, as noted, U.S. military aircraft regularly pass through the Azores while transiting to the Middle East. Lajes was heavily utilized during the massive build-up of American airpower ahead of the start of U.S.-Israeli strikes on February 28. The American component of this campaign has been dubbed Operation Epic Fury.
A deployment of E-2Ds could help provide much-needed additional eyes in the sky, as well as other capabilities, to help protect against Iranian retaliatory attacks, as well as support strikes on targets in and around Iran and/or any efforts to establish sea control in the region. In particular, the Hawkeyes are America’s best available tool for spotting low-flying, low-signature targets, such as kamikaze drones and cruise missiles, as well as small targets at sea like explosive-laden drone boats. The E-2D is also well-suited to performing these missions in littoral areas like the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Strait of Hormuz in between. Hawkeyes performed similar missions in and around the Red Sea between late 2023 and early 2025.
A stock picture of an E-2D Hawkeye assigned to VAW-121. USN
As noted in the opening of this post, there is already an especially pronounced demand for additional assets, and more capable ones, to spot and track low-flying Iranian kamikaze drones and cruise missiles. This was already evidenced by the Australian government’s announcement last week that it was sending one of its E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft to the region to help with defensive operations, something we will come back to later on.
In addition, from what is known now, U.S. forces taking part in operations over and around Iran are receiving airborne early and warning control support from U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft forward-deployed at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. As noted, Navy Hawkeyes have also already been flying missions as part of Operation Epic Fury from the decks of carriers in the region.
A stock picture of E-3s at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in 2022. USAFAn E-2D launches from the supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford for a sortie in support of Operation Epic Fury. USN
Before the current conflict erupted, TWZ explored in detail the challenges and limitations that the aging E-3s face, including struggles just to keep the aircraft operational at all. On top of that, the total size of the Sentry fleet has dramatically shrunk in recent years, creating additional strain on the remaining jets, nearly 40 percent of which are now on the Arabian Peninsula. Based on available readiness data, this represents an even higher percentage of E-3s available for real-world mission tasking anywhere globally.
Just in terms of their radars, the E-2Ds with their active electronically scanned array (AESA) AN/APY-9s offer a major boost in capability over the older E-3s and their older passive electronically scanned array (PESA) types. In general, AESAs can scan faster, see farther, and produce more precise and otherwise higher fidelity tracks, even when it comes to smaller objects and/or stealthy ones with reduced radar signatures, than older types of arrays. The APY-9, specifically, also benefits from “space-time adaptive processing” functionality that “suppresses clutter, jamming, and other sources of electromagnetic interference, focusing on the target,” according to the manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
As such, with the added benefit of being able to look down from a high perch, the E-2D offers a particularly powerful tool for spotting and tracking smaller, lower, and slower-flying threats, such as Iranian kamikaze drones and cruise missiles. This capability was optimized for overwater and littoral operations to protect the carrier strike group. In addition, the APY-9 has a surface search mode that can be used for maritime surveillance, which, as already mentioned, is also very relevant in the context of the current conflict. Overall, these talents would fit in perfectly with what’s happening in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Unlike older E-2s, Hawkeyes with aerial refueling capability can also fly out to operating areas further away from wherever they are based and stay on station much longer.
A view from inside the cockpit of an E-2D about to link up with a KC-46 tanker during an exercise in 2025. USN
In Navy service, the E-2D is far more than just its radar, too. The aircraft have an extensive communications and networking suite that is tied in directly to the service’s Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) and Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter-Air (NIFC-CA) architectures.
CEC – Cooperative Engagement Capability
As part of these Navy-specific networks, the Hawkeyes are deeply integrated in ‘kill webs’ that include an array of air and sea assets in the service’s inventory. For many years now, the Navy has used the example of E-2s enabling ships to fire long-range SM-6 surface-to-air interceptors at targets beyond the reach of their organic radars and other sensors to explain the benefits of these networked capabilities. CEC and NIFC-CA also just allow commanders to have a more detailed and complete picture of the battlespace around them, including friendly assets and threats, and offer a valuable boost in general situational awareness.
An older but still relevant graphic showing how CEC and NIFC-CA can enable a surface-launched SM-6 to engage targets beyond the detection range of the ship it is fired from, using another platform’s sensor data (for example, an E-2D) to provide targeting information from a forward position. USN
It should also be noted that while Navy E-2s more often operate as part of carrier air wings, the service’s Hawkeyes flying from bases on land is not new. Between 1995 and 2017, the service even had an explicitly land-based E-2 unit, VAW-77, which supported counter-drug operations in the Caribbean from bases in the United States and in Latin America. The majority of non-U.S. E-2 operators, past and present, have also operated their Hawkeyes as land-based aircraft. At the same time, since it was primarily designed around carrier operations, the Hawkeye also has the ability to fly from shorter runways and with a smaller logistics footprint compared to many other airborne early warning and control platforms.
TWZ actually already covered much of this in detail back in 2024 after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released the video below, showing a Navy E-2D refueling from a U.S. Air Force HC-130J combat search and rescue aircraft somewhere in the region. At that time, we also explored how Hawkeyes could bring similar benefits to expeditionary and distributed operations elsewhere in the world, especially an island-hopping campaign in the Pacific, as you can read more about here.
It is also interesting to consider all of this now in the context of the Pentagon’s attempt last year to cancel the U.S. Air Force’s acquisition of new E-7s to replace a portion of its E-3s, and to fill interim capability gaps with additional E-2Ds instead. Questions about the Wedgetail’s survivability in a future high-end fight, such as one against China, as well as delays and cost overruns, were cited as key factors. Congress has since compelled the Air Force to proceed with the E-7A program as planned. Last Thursday, Boeing received two contract modifications, together valued at just over $2.4 billion, for an unspecified number of developmental Wedgetails, as well as materials related to the MESA sensor system.
There do continue to be some lingering questions about the future of the Air Force’s E-7 program. The service had resisted seeking any kind of direct replacement for the E-3 for years. The Air Force’s stated long-term goal remains to push most, if not all, of its airborne target warning sensor layer tasks into space, but this is still years away, at least, from becoming a reality.
A rendering of an E-7 in US Air Force service. USAF
As TWZ has explained in the past, while the E-2D is in many respects the most capable airborne early warning and control aircraft currently in U.S. inventory, the Wedgetail is arguably the most capable such aircraft anywhere globally at present. The jet-powered, Boeing 737-based, aerial refueling-capable Wedgetail with its large AESA Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) sensor, can fly higher, faster, and further than the turboprop Hawkeye.
Northrop Grumman MESA Radar – Boeing E-7 AEWC
The E-7 is also just bigger and can accommodate a larger crew, making it even more adaptable to expanded mission needs, such as battle management and acting as a networking node using its own expansive communications and data-sharing suite. Any survivability concerns that apply to the E-7 would apply just as much to the E-2, as well. As noted earlier, the benefits of the E-7, including in the current context of operations against Iran, are underscored by Australia’s decision to send one of its Wedgetails to the Middle East. That aircraft is explicitly being deployed to help defend the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the region that have been subjected to Iranian drone and missile attacks.
A Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail. RAAF
The group of Navy E-2Ds now heading east across the Atlantic only further calls into question the Pentagon’s puzzling move to axe the E-7 program, as well as the Air Force’s previous dragging of its feet in settling on any plan to replace the aging E-3s. That additional Hawkeyes only appear to be headed to the Middle East now is also another sign that the scale and scope of Iranian retaliation on Gulf Arab States was somehow not expected, despite repeated threats from the regime in Tehran in the lead-up and supporting intelligence assessments to the current conflict. For many years, U.S. intelligence thought it was likely Iran would lash out at U.S. allies in the region, especially those housing U.S. military capabilities. It was a glaring likelihood we have discussed for years in our own reporting.
Regardless, additional Hawkeyes would provide a massive and very much-needed boost in aerial surveillance capability and capacity, as well as other benefits, to help defend against Iranian retaliatory attacks and otherwise support still-expanding U.S. operations against that country.
Special thanks to user @Azorean_Lion on X for sharing the pictures of the E-2D Hawkeyes at Lajes with us.
