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Trump says decision on ending war will be ‘mutual’ with Netanyahu – report
Donald Trump has said a decision on when to end the war with Iran will be a “mutual” one he’ll make together with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Times of Israel is reporting.
It said Trump also claimed in a brief telephone interview on Sunday that Iran would have destroyed Israel if he and Netanyahu had not been around, quoting the US president as saying:
Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it … We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel.
Trump was asked whether he alone would decide when the war with Iran ends or if Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, would also have a say. Trump responded:
I think it’s mutual … a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account.
The report said that when Trump was asked whether Israel could continue the war against Iran even after the US decided to halt its strikes, he said he declined to entertain the possibility before adding: “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary.”
Updated
A newly emerged video appears to show a US airstrike targeting a building at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base adjacent to the elementary school in Minab where Iranian state media says more than 160 pupils were killed on 28 February, CNN has reported.
The video, posted by the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr News, is the first to show missiles striking the area and adds to a body of evidence that appears to contradict recent claims by Donald Trump casting blame on Iran, the report says.
It continues:
In the footage, filmed from a nearby construction site, a munition consistent with an American BGM or UGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is seen before it strikes a location inside the IRGC base. The US Navy operates Tomahawks, launching them from its surface ships and submarines. Israel does not operate the Tomahawk missile, according to experts.
As the camera pans to the right, a huge plume of smoke is seen from the direction of the Shajareh Tayyiba elementary school in Minab. Dozens of people can be seen in the foreground running away from the strikes.
NEW: A newly surfaced video shows a munition consistent with a US Tomahawk cruise missile striking a building at the IRGC naval base in Minab adjacent to the elementary school where Iranian state media says more than 160 pupils were killed Feb. 28.
— Gianluca Mezzofiore (@GianlucaMezzo) March 8, 2026
Donald Trump has blamed Iran… pic.twitter.com/J2UW5KVuLU
Updated
US orders government employees to leave Saudi Arabia
The US state department has ordered all non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia “due to safety risks”.
The US embassy in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, conveyed the order in a post on X.
After the sharp fall of the ASX 200 in Sydney, leading stock markets across Asia are also under significant pressure this morning. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is down 6.1%. South Korea’s Kospi is down 6%.
A weekend of escalating violence in the Middle East intensified concerns around a sustained energy supply crunch, boosting oil prices beyond $100 per barrel, to their highest levels in four years.
Donald Trump, who closely monitors the movement of US stock markets, has already commented on the latest surge of oil, describing it as “a very small price to pay” for safety and peace, even as the fallout from the US-Israel war with Iran continues.
All eyes will be on Wall Street later. Pre-market trading data puts the Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and tech-focused Nasdaq Composite to start the week deep in the red.
There’s more on the oil price surge here:
Updated
Iran fires missiles at Israel after new supreme leader chosen – report
Iran fired its first missiles towards Israel on Monday after the appointment of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, state broadcaster Irib said.
“Iran fires first wave of missiles under Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei towards occupied territories,” it said on its Telegram channel, cited by the AFP news agency.
Irib posted a picture of a projectile bearing the slogan “At Your Command, Sayyid Mojtaba”, a Shia religious reference.
Updated
Who is Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei?
The second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been chosen as the successor to Iran’s slain supreme leader.
The clerical body responsible for selecting Iran’s highest authority announced the decision on Sunday and called on Iranians to rally behind him and preserve national unity.
But Donald Trump has already said Khamenei would be an “unacceptable” choice, while Israel said it would pursue Iran’s next supreme leader.
Mojtaba Khamenei is a 56-year-old cleric who has never held elected office or formally occupied a senior position in the Iranian government.
He has spent much of his life at the centre of Iranian power while mainly staying out of public view.
Khamenei was born in 1969 in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, and was raised within the political and clerical world that emerged after the 1979 revolution. As the Guardian’s Lorenzo Tondo has also written:
As a young man he studied theology in the seminaries of Qom and reportedly took part in the final stages of the Iran-Iraq war.
Unlike many figures in Iran’s leadership, Khamenei never pursued elected office or a prominent government role. Instead, he gradually became an influential presence inside his father’s office, where he was widely seen as part of a small circle managing political access to the supreme leader.
Over the years he cultivated close relationships with conservative clerics and elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps … His name surfaced publicly during the disputed 2009 presidential election, when reformist figures accused him of playing a role in supporting the security crackdown that followed mass protests. But he has never discussed the issue of succession publicly.
Updated
Australian share market plunges nearly 3% as Iran conflict triggers market wipeout
Australia’s share market tumbled 3% this morning, wiping nearly $90bn from the value of the country’s biggest companies.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 fell to 8,576.2 points in early trading, after closing at 8,851 last week.
Markets have started to expect the US will continue its war on Iran, which has restricted oil shipping and sent energy prices soaring. Global oil prices surged past US$100 a barrel this morning for the first time since 2022, now sitting at around US$106.
Almost nowhere is safe, with 186 of Australia’s top 200 listed companies falling in value. The big banks are down 3% each, rare earths producers Iluka, Liontown and Lynas are down 5% or more and Qantas and Virgin Airlines are down 6% each.
The only winners are adjacent to the energy sector: gas companies Santas, Beach and Woodside, petrol retailers Ampol and Viva and coalminers.
Economic disruption from the war on Iran has also sent the US dollar surging in value, at the expense of the Australian dollar, which has fallen back below 70 US cents.
Updated
South Korean and Japanese stocks have reportedly fallen sharply amid the Middle East crisis.
French president Emmanuel Macron will visit Cyprus on Monday, his office said, as France deploys warships to the Mediterranean after a drone attack on the island a week ago.
Macron will meet his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides and Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Paphos to show “solidarity” and detail moves to “strengthen security around Cyprus and in the eastern Mediterranean”, the Élysée Palace said on Sunday.
Cyprus was targeted last week by Iranian-made drones, leading Macron to order France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean and a frigate and air defence units to Cyprus
“This trip is intended to demonstrate France’s solidarity with Cyprus, a member state of the European Union with which we have a strategic partnership” and which was recently hit “by several drones and missile strikes”, said the Élysée, cited by Agence France-Presse.
Brent crude oil price surges to $108
More now on oil prices, which have passed $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022 as intensifying military aggression in the Middle East continues to wipe 20m barrels of oil a daily from the market.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, was at $107.97 after trading resumed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, up 16.5% from its Friday closing price of $92.69.
West Texas Intermediate – the light crude oil produced in the US – was selling for about $106.22 a barrel, the AP is reporting. That is 16.9% higher than it closed on Friday at $90.90.
The increases followed the US crude price jumping by 36% and Brent crude rising by 28% last week.
Donald Trump has brushed aside concerns about the surging price of oil caused by the US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, saying on his Truth Social platform:
Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace.
The US president added in capital letters: “Only fools would think differently.”
There’s more on the surge in global oil prices in our latest full report here:
Updated
Clashes in east Lebanon as Israeli forces land in area – report
Clashes broke out in eastern Lebanon on Monday after Israeli forces landed by helicopter on the Lebanese-Syrian border, state media reported.
“Fierce clashes are taking place ... towards the outskirts of the town of Nabi Sheet to repel Israeli forces that carried out a landing by helicopters on the heights of the eastern mountain range towards the Lebanese-Syrian border and are trying to advance,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
Agence France-Presse, citing the report, has now quoted two sources in Hezbollah as claiming on condition of anonymity that the group downed an Israeli helicopter in the area.
Hezbollah claims it has downed an Israeli helicopter in Lebanon, a news report says.
The AFP agency quoted an official from the Iran-backed militant group as saying on Monday that it had downed the copter in eastern Lebanon amid the renewed fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
“An Israeli helicopter was downed in the mountains east of Baalbek,” the official was quoted as saying, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Updated
Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, notes on social media that while Mojtaba Khamenei has been named Iran’s new supreme leader, succeeding his late father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the father of the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, denounced hereditary succession before he died in 1989.
Khomeini wrote:
Islam proclaims monarchy and hereditary succession wrong and invalid. When Islam first appeared in Iran, the Byzantine Empire, Egypt, and the Yemen, the entire institution of monarchy was abolished.
Monarchy and hereditary succession represent the same sinister, evil system of government that prompted the Lord of the Martyrs10 (peace be upon him) to rise up in revolt and seek martyrdom in an effort to prevent its establishment. He revolted in repudiation of the hereditary succession of Yazid, 11 to refuse it his recognition. Islam, then, does not recognize monarchy and hereditary succession; they have no place in Islam.
Summary of the day so far
Iran has named Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader following the killing of his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes, the state-run media announced. He was selected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body of elected senior clerics tasked with choosing the supreme leader.
Donald Trump warned that Iran’s new leader “is not going to last long” if the Iranians do not get his approval first for the theocratic posting. “He’s going to have to get approval from us,” the president told ABC News. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.”
Another US military service member has died from wounds sustained during Iran’s initial counter-attack a week ago, bringing the number of US troops killed in action so far in the war with Iran to seven, the US military said on Sunday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the amount of people killed from Israeli airstrikes in the past week had increased to 394, including many women and children.
The Iranian army said on Sunday that at least 104 people were killed and 32 were wounded in an attack by the US on an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast last week.
The IDF began “extensive strikes” against the “infrastructure” of the Iranian regime in Tehran and across other areas in Iran. Despite Israel saying it is striking military or “terror” targets in its war on Iran, many civilians have been killed in its attacks.
Overnight strikes by the US and Israel hit five oil sites around Tehran, according to an Iran official. The official said that the five facilities “were damaged” but the “fire was brought under control”.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the US-Israeli aerial bombardment of Iranian energy infrastructure sites marked a “dangerous new phase” of the conflict and amounted to a war crime.
The Iran war has driven the price of crude oil above $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022.
Trump says oil price spike 'a small price to pay'
President Donald Trump brushed aside concerns about the surging price of oil caused by the US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, even as the price of crude topped $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022.
“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” Trump wrote, adding in all caps that “only fools would think differently.”
Updated
Below, see the announcement of Mojtaba Khamanei as the new leader of Iran that played today on state television. The video was posted by Iranian-British BBC reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh, whose Verify unit specializes in fact-checking and video verification.
This is the moment Iran's state TV announced that Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been selected as the third supreme leader of the Islamic Republic by the clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts. pic.twitter.com/tEm9w8WYQo
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) March 8, 2026
Iran war drives oil price above $100 a barrel for first time since 2022
Global oil prices have breached the $100 (£74) a barrel mark for the first time since 2022 as escalating military aggression in the Middle East continues to wipe 20m barrels of oil from the market each day.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed 12.2% to $104.05 a barrel as the new week’s trading began in the Asia Pacific markets, the first time that market prices have soared above this key psychological threshold since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prices rose after a weekend of escalating conflict in the Middle East, during which Kuwait’s national oil company announced a “precautionary” cut to its crude oil production.
The oil price returned to triple digits after the highest weekly gains since the Covid-19 pandemic six years ago, and included a $10 increase in the price of US crude on Friday alone.
Iran has largely halted oil and gas exports through strait of Hormuz
“The grace period given by the market to the Trump administration expired at the end of last week,” according to Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
A US National Guard soldier died in Kuwait on March 6, according to a statement from US Central Command. The soldier, whose name was not disclosed, died in a “health-related incident” that occurred “during a medical emergency.”
“The exact cause of death is under review,” the statement says.
Updated
As our colleague Lorenzo Tondo reports, Donald Trump told ABC News on Sunday that Iran’s next supreme leader is “not going to last long” if Tehran didn’t “get approval from us”.
The US president said in an interview with Axios laste week, “Khamenei’s son is a lightweight”, calling Mojtaba Khamenei, “unacceptable to me”.
Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military said in a post on X in Farsi that it would continue pursuing every successor of Ali Khamenei and that it would pursue every person who sought to appoint a successor for him.
Analysts have suggested Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment is a symbolic move designed to make the regime still appear strong and determined not to bow to western pressure.
The 56-year-old cleric has never held elected office nor formally occupied a senior position within Iran’s government. He has spent much of his life at the centre of power in Iran while remaining largely out of public view.
Updated
For many analysts, Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment is a symbolic move designed to make the regime still appear strong and determined not to bow to western pressure.
The 56-year-old cleric has never held elected office nor formally occupied a senior position within Iran’s government. He has spent much of his life at the centre of power in Iran while remaining largely out of public view.
Born in 1969 in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, Khamenei was raised within the political and clerical world that emerged after the 1979 revolution. As a young man he studied theology in the seminaries of Qom and reportedly took part in the final stages of the Iran-Iraq war.
Unlike many figures in Iran’s leadership, Khamenei never pursued elected office or a prominent government role. Instead, he gradually became an influential presence inside his father’s office, where he was widely seen as part of a small circle managing political access to the supreme leader.
Over the years he cultivated close relationships with conservative clerics and elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a connection analysts say strengthened his standing within the system.
Read more:
Iran names new supreme leader
Iran has named Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader following the killing of his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes, the state-run media announced early Monday.
He was selected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body of elected senior clerics tasked with choosing the supreme leader.
Mojtaba, a mid-ranking cleric with close ties to the powerful Revolutionary Guards, had long been viewed by elements of Iran’s ruling establishment as a potential successor to his father, who was killed after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates called on Sunday for an end to all attacks on both Iran and Gulf states and said renewed diplomacy was needed to ensure long-term regional security, Reuters reported.
“Attention focused on the necessity of stopping attacks that lead to casualties among the civilian population and cause damage to civilian infrastructure both in the Arab countries of the ... Gulf and in Iran,” the ministry said of Lavrov’s telephone conversation with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed.
The UAE has maintained good relations with both Russia and Ukraine during their four-year-old war and acted as an intermediary in holding talks and arranging exchanges of prisoners of war.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said on Sunday that Tehran is not seeking a ceasefire, adding that “aggressors” should be punished.
“If the enemy attacks us from any country, Tehran will respond decisively,” he told Iran’s state TV.
The Iranian army said on Sunday that at least 104 people were killed and 32 were wounded in an attack by the US on an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast last week.
The report follows a statement from US defense secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, who confirmed that a US submarine sank an Iranian naval vessel in international waters.
Following a rescue mission launched by Sri Lankan authorities, the surviving injured crew members were transported to a hospital in Sri Lanka for medical treatment.
Seventh US military service member killed in action
Another US military service member has died from wounds sustained during Iran’s initial counter-attack a week ago, bringing the number of US troops killed in action so far in the war with Iran to seven, the US military said on Sunday.
“Last night, a US service member passed away from injuries received during the Iranian regime’s initial attacks across the Middle East. The service member was seriously wounded at the scene of an attack on US troops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 1,” US Central Command said in a statement.
“This is the seventh service member killed in action during Operation Epic Fury. Major combat operations continue. The identity of the fallen warrior will be withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification,” the statement said.
British forces successfully engaged a one-way drone fired towards Iraq from Iran last night, the UK Ministry of Defence said in an X post on Sunday.
“UK forces successfully engaged a one way attack drone fired from Iran towards Iraq,” the post said. “Last night, the engagement occurred as RAF Typhoons and F-35 jets continued to conduct defensive sorties across the region.”
It continued: “A Merlin helicopter is due to arrive in theatre, further strengthening our ability to detect aerial threats. The aircraft can fly up to a mile in height, giving advance warning of incoming drones or missiles.”
French president Emmanuel Macron has spoken with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, calling on Iran to halt strikes against other countries in the region and to end the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Macron said on Sunday.
In a post on X, Macron also reiterated France’s position that a diplomatic solution was necessary to end the conflict.
“I met with Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian,” he wrote. “I informed him that the safety and return to France of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who are currently within the grounds of the French Embassy, remain an absolute priority for us.”
“I emphasized the necessity for Iran to immediately cease its strikes against countries in the region. Iran must also guarantee freedom of navigation by putting an end to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”
He continued: “Finally, I reiterated our grave concern regarding the development of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programs and the entirety of its destabilizing activities in the region, which lie at the root of the current crisis.”
Macron ended the statement by saying the two “agreed to remain in contact.”
President Donald Trump took a golf break Sunday morning as US airstrikes against Iran continued. Guardian White House correspondent Hugo Lowell posted an image of Trump waving to supporters after finishing up a round.
Trump waves to supporters as he finishes a round of golf on Sunday pic.twitter.com/FF0YZa1Bnt
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) March 8, 2026
Updated
Donald Trump says Iran's new leader 'is not going to last long' if Iran does not get his approval first
Donald Trump warned Sunday that Iran’s new leader “is not going to last long” if the Iranians do not get his approval first for the theocratic posting.
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” the president told ABC News. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.”
He added: “I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again or worse let them have a nuclear weapon.”
Asked on Sunday if he would accept someone with ties to the old regime, the president told the outlet, “I would, in order to choose a good leader I would, yeah, I would. There are numerous people that could qualify.”
He also indicated that he would be willing to send US forces to secure an estimated 460kg of enriched uranium stockpile that Iran is believed to be holding that is considered by the IAEA to be out of regulatory control and could be buried in the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow enrichment – bombed by the US in June.
“Everything is on the table. Everything,” he said.
He again refused to be drawn on how long the US-Israel actions could last. “I don’t know. I never predict,” he said. “All I can say is we are ahead of schedule both in terms of lethality and in terms of time”.
He also dismissed reports of fractures within his Maga base over the US-Israel actions that to some critics appear to run counter to his no foreign wars, America First campaign promise.
“It’s more popular than ever. It’s a very Maga thing what we’re doing. A very very Maga thing,” he told ABC. “Because otherwise we won’t have a country either, we’ll be hit. And Maga is all about saving America … I’m at the highest point I’ve ever been with Maga.”
Updated
Donald Trump appeared unbothered about the effect the war has had on gas prices, referring to the rising costs as “a little glitch.”
“I think it’s fine. It’s a little glitch. We had to take this detour. I knew exactly what was going to happen with the detour,” Trump told ABC News in an interview. “But the nice part is we sank 44 of their ships, which is their entire navy,” he said, going on to continue speaking about the US military’s achievements in the war.
Trump administration officials are defending the temporary easing of certain sanctions on Russian oil, forecasting that the sharp rise in gasoline prices triggered by the war with Iran would subside within weeks. Appearing on several news programs, energy secretary Chris Wright and US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz argued that a waiver granted last week for Indian purchases of Russian crude is a necessary move to stabilize global markets.
“It’s a 30-day pause to allow, which is just kind of common sense, to allow the millions and millions of barrels of oil that are sitting out on ships to go to Indian refineries,” Waltz explained during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Wright said that the waiver is designed to “tamp this fear of shortage of oil, tamp the price spikes and the concerns we see in the marketplace.” As the conflict enters its second week with no clear resolution, rising fuel costs have become a fresh burden for a US economy already shaken by the unexpected loss of 92,000 jobs in February.
According to AAA data from Friday, the national average for regular gasoline has climbed to $3.32 per gallon—an 11% weekly increase and the highest point since September 2024. Diesel prices have seen an even sharper spike, rising 15% in a week to $4.33, the highest level recorded since November 2023.
Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to Donald Trump and discussed their military co-operation through the US use of RAF bases “in support of the collective self-defence of partners” in the Middle East, Downing Street has said.
The call comes after Trump intensified his criticism of Starmer over the lack of immediate UK support for the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, saying on social media: “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
Britain has given permission for the US to use British bases for “defensive strikes” on Iranian facilities, but has not taken part in any direct attacks.
Read more:
Two people were killed and 12 injured after a projectile fell on a residential location in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Kharj city on Sunday, the Saudi Civil Defense said.
The two people killed were of Indian and Bangladeshi nationalities, it added in a post on X. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said earlier on Sunday that they targeted radar systems in locations including Saudi’s Al-Kharj.
IDF launches 'extensive strikes' in Iran
The IDF has said in the past hour that it begun “extensive strikes” against the “infrastructure” of the Iranian regime in Tehran and across other areas in Iran.
Despite Israel saying it is striking military or “terror” targets in its war on Iran, many civilians have been killed in its attacks.
Updated
Israel has attacked a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Lebanese state media reported. Lebanon’s National News Agency said “enemy warplanes launched two raids on the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon”.
It is not immediately clear whether anybody was killed in the strikes on the camp. We will give you more details as soon as we have them.
Condemning what it described as “heinous Iranian aggression”, Kuwait’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the country has detected 234 missiles and 422 drones since the start of the war, which was started by the US and Israel striking Iran on 28 February. In a post on X, the foreign ministry added:
This aggression has resulted in a number of victims among citizens and residents, including a young girl, and led to the martyrdom of two members of the Kuwaiti armed forces and two members of the general department of land borders security affiliated with the ministry of interior while performing their duties, as well as injuries to a number of civilians and military personnel.
Two more US air force planes have landed at RAF Fairford, after the UK allowed Washington to use its bases to take part in defensive operations in Iran.
Footage broadcast on Sunday showed two Boeing C-17 Globemaster transportation planes landing at the airbase in Gloucestershire, days after B-1 Lancer bombers arrived.
One of the C-17s arrived from Glasgow Prestwick airport, after it was redirected there because of poor weather and visibility at Fairford. The BBC reported that the aircraft was carrying munitions and spare parts for the bombers.
Another C-17 arrived from the McGuire airbase near Wrightstown, New Jersey, according to flight tracking data. You can read more here:
In a statement on X, US Central Command (Centcom) has issued a “safety warning” to civilians in Iran, urging them to remain at home as it claims the regime is using densely populated civilian areas to conduct military operations.
Centcom said:
The Iranian regime is using heavily populated civilian areas to conduct military operations, including launching one-way attack drones and ballistic missiles.
This dangerous decision risks the lives of all civilians in Iran since locations used for military purposes lose protected status and could become legitimate military targets under international law.
Iranian forces are using crowded areas surrounded by civilians in cities such as Dezful, Esfahan and Shiraz to launch attack drones and ballistic missiles.
US forces strongly urge civilians in Iran to stay at home. The Iranian regime is knowingly endangering innocent lives. Additionally, Iranian forces are jeopardizing the safety of innocent people throughout the Middle East by deliberately and indiscriminately targeting civilian airports, hotels, and residential neighborhoods.
Many civilians in Iran have been killed in US-Israeli airstrikes since the two countries launched their bombing campaign just over a week ago.
According to officials, military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the strike on an Iranian girls’ school in Minab last Saturday, in which more than 165 people, many of them children, were reportedly killed.
Iranian officials have blamed the US and Israel for the attack- but neither country has accepted responsibility.
Updated
US-Israeli strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure marks 'dangerous new phase' of war, spokesperson says
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the US-Israeli aerial bombardment of Iranian energy infrastructure sites marked a “dangerous new phase” of the conflict and amounted to a war crime.
“By targeting fuel depots, the aggressors are releasing hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air, poisoning civilians, devastating the environment, and endangering lives on a massive scale,” he wrote on X.
Baghaei added:
The consequences of this environmental and humanitarian catastrophe will not be confined within Iran’s borders. These strikes constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide-all at once.
Israeli military spokesperson Lt Col Nadav Shoshani told reporters the depots were used to fuel Iran’s war effort, including producing or storing propellant for ballistic missiles. “They are a legal military target,” he said.
Here is a map put together by our graphics team that shows recent missile, drone and air attacks across the region:
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
The body in charge of selecting a new Iranian supreme leader said it had reached a decision – although the name was not immediately announced.
Israel threatened to “pursue every successor” to the former Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint US-Israeli airstrikes last weekend.
Overnight strikes by the US and Israel hit five oil sites around Tehran, according to an Iran official. The official said that the five facilities “were damaged” but the “fire was brought under control”.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the amount of people killed from Israeli airstrikes in the past week had increased to 394, including many women and children.
An Israeli airstrike hit a hotel in Beirut on Sunday, killing at least four people, according to Lebanese health officials.
Iran’s health ministry, meanwhile, said US and Israeli airstrikes had killed 200 children and about 200 women since the war started, and have damaged critical health infrastructure.
Swiss defence minister Martin Pfister said the US and Israel have violated international law with their attacks on Iran.
A wave of Iranian strikes hit the Gulf on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all reporting attacks. In Bahrain, authorities announced that a desalination plant had been damaged in an Iranian attack.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, reportedly threatened to increase attacks on American targets across the region in the face of ongoing Israeli and US airstrikes. He had earlier apologised to Iran’s neighbours for recent strikes against them and pledged to halt such strikes unless an attack on Iran originated from their soil.
UAE acting in self-defence 'against brutal and unjustified Iranian aggression', foreign ministry says
We can bring you a new statement from the UAE’s foreign ministry issued shortly after the country’s defence ministry said it was responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran.
The United Arab Emirates affirms that it is acting in self-defense against the brutal and unjustified Iranian aggression, which included the launch of more than 1,400 ballistic missiles and drones targeting infrastructure and civilian sites, resulting in civilian casualties.
This constitutes a grave violation of international law and the UN Charter, an infringement upon the UAE’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a direct threat to its security and stability.
The UAE emphasizes that it does not seek to be drawn into any conflict or escalation, but affirms its full right to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty, national security, and territorial integrity, and to ensure the safety and security of its citizens and residents, based on its right to self-defense in accordance with international law and the UN charter.
Updated
In a brief update to X, the UAE’s defence ministry said the country’s air defences successfully intercepted Iranian ballistic and cruise missiles, and drone attacks, without providing further details.
Israel say two soldiers killed in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military said that two of its soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon, marking its first fatalities since hostilities between Israel and Lebanon resumed last week
Israel has issued evacuation orders for south Lebanon, stretching to about 27km into the country and has said it’s objective is to disarm Hezbollah.
Earlier, Lebanon’s health ministry said 394 people have been killed from Israeli airstrikes in the past week.
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Explosions were heard in the UAE, witnesses told the AFP, just as Aboul Gheit was speaking to Arab foreign ministers about what he called Iran’s “reckless” attacks.
Iran has directed missiles across the region since the war started last Saturday.
The latest explosions were heard in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi. Earlier, a Kuwaiti government office block was engulfed in flames after it was attacked by Iranian drones, the country’s interior ministry said.
For its part, the UAE’s defence ministry said in a post on X that it has successfully intercepted a number of ballistic, cruise missiles and drones that have entered its airspace.
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Iran 'reckless' to attack Gulf states, says Arab League chief
The Council of the Arab League are holding an extraordinary meeting today to discuss the escalating crisis as Iran has attacked countries in the Gulf.
The Arab League’s secretary-general accused Iran of being “reckless” over attacking member states ’reckless’ and urged Tehran to end what he called a “massive strategic mistake”.
Speaking to other Arab foreign ministers, Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the strikes “cannot be justified under any pretext or excuse”, and repaid peace efforts by Gulf countries with “treacherous rockets and drone strikes”.
Iran’s president apologised on Saturday to neighbouring states for its attacks on US facilities in those countries, in an attempt to cool anger across the Gulf. Still, he added that Iran may continue to respond to attacks when they originate from countries in the region.
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Iranian Red Crescent Society warns public to avoid toxic acid rain after Israel struck oil storage depots
Plumes of black smoke are filling the skies in Tehran after Israel targeted oil storage facilities in the capital city of Tehran, which has a population of about 10 million.
That marked the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war, the Associated Press reported, although US and Israeli strikes have damaged about 10,000 civilians structures across the country, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
In a post on social media, the group warned the public about the dangers from the fires at the oil facilities and encouraged the public to stay indoors where possible to avoid toxic pollutants.
It said that locals shouldn’t go outside after rainfall over concerns about toxic acid rain and offered advice on gargling salty water if anyone had inhaled the oily soot particles emerging from the black smoke.
Some experts have warned that rainfall could mix with the contaminated water and go into dams in and around Tehran, affecting the quality of drinking water for Iranians.
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A huge column of fire and smoke could be seen rising from an oil depot in Tehran in video shared on social media following reported US and Israeli airstrikes:
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Nearly 400 people killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, health ministry says
Lebanon’s health ministry said the amount of people killed from Israeli airstrikes in the past week has increased to 394 (a death toll given on Saturday was 294).
Among those killed in Israeli attacks were 83 children and 42 women, the country’s health minister said earlier today, according to the AFP news agency.
Rakan Nassereddine also told reporters that nine rescue workers were among the dead. We have not been able to independently verify these figures.
Iran’s new supreme leader has been selected, says deciding body
The body in charge of selecting a new supreme leader for Iran says it has reached a decision – although the name was not immediately announced.
Israel has warned it would target any figure chosen to replace Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint US-Israeli strikes on the first day of the war with Iran.
“The most suitable candidate, approved by the majority of the Assembly of Experts, has been determined,” Mohsen Heydari, a member of the selection body, said on Sunday, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.
Another member, Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri, confirmed in a video carried by Iran’s Fars news agency that “a firm opinion reflecting the majority view has been reached”. You can read more here:
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The explosion outside the US embassy in Oslo may be linked to the ongoing “security situation”, but no suspects have been identified, Norwegian police said in an update to journalists (see post at 10.13 for more details about the incident).
“It’s natural to see this in the context of the current security situation and that this could be an attack deliberately targeting the US embassy,” police spokesperson Frode Larsen said.
The UAE was targeted by 17 ballistic missiles and 117 drones on Sunday, the defence ministry said in a statement. Most of these attacks were intercepted, it said. The statement continued:
Since the start of the Iranian attacks, 238 ballistic missiles have been detected. Of these, 221 were destroyed, 15 fell into the sea and 2 landed within the country.
A total of 1,422 Iranian UAVs have also been detected, of which 1,342 were intercepted, while 80 fell within the country’s territory. 8 cruise missiles were also detected and destroyed.
These attacks resulted in 4 deaths among Pakistani, Nepalese and Bangladeshi nationals, and 112 people sustained moderate to minor injuries.
US-Israeli attacks on Iran violated international law, Swiss defence minister says
Swiss defence minister Martin Pfister has said the US and Israel have violated international law with their attacks on Iran.
“The Federal Council is of the opinion that the attack on Iran constitutes a violation of international law,” Pfister told Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung in an interview published today.
“In our view it constitutes a violation on the prohibition of violence,” he added, calling on all parties involved to stop the attacks in order to protect civilians.
“The Americans and Israel have attacked Iran from the air. In doing so, they, like Iran, violated international law,” Pfister said.
There is consensus among legal experts the Guardian spoke to that the initial strikes on Iran by the US and Israel were unlawful.
My colleague Julian Borger neatly sums up the opinion of many legal experts here when he says the attack on Iran is a clear violation of the UN charter, in any absence of any credible, imminent Iranian threat to the US.
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US- Israeli airstrikes in Iran have damaged about 10,000 civilian structures across the county, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said.
The Red Crescent said the structures include 7,943 residential units and 1,617 commercial units along with several medical and educational facilitiess.
In an update issued at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) this morning, Israel’s ministry of health said that 1,929 people had been injured and evacuated to hospitals since the start of the war.
Of these, 122 remain hospitalised or in emergency departments, it said. The health ministry said 157 people were treated over the past day. We have not been able to independently verify these figures yet.
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An Israeli airstrike hit a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, killing at least four people, according to Lebanese health officials.
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US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran have killed 200 children, health ministry says
US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran have killed 200 children (under the age of 12) and about 200 women since the war started on 28 February, Hossein Kermanpour, the spokesperson for Iran’s health ministry, said in a post on X.
He said they were among more than 1,200 people killed in the war. He said more than 10,000 civilians had been injured, including 1,400 women. Kermanpour said health infrastructure had been targeted in the US-Israeli attacks, with nine hospitals now out of service and 14 ambulances “destroyed”.
We have not yet been able to independently verify any of these figures.
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The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will visit Cyprus on Monday to meet the president Nikos Christodoulides. France sent defence systems and a frigate to the Mediterranean island last week after it was hit by a drone strike on the British RAF base Akrotiri.
Macron will also meet the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the trip.
The Elysee said the visit was aimed at showing France’s “solidarity” with Cyprus, an EU member, in order to “reinforce security around Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean” with our European partners, and to contribute to “de-escalation in the region.”
Macron said last week that France’s presence in the area would be “strictly defensive” in support of its regional allies.
Two other civilians, from Nepal and Bangladesh, have been killed by missile debris in Dubai since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on 28 February, triggering Iran to respond with missile and drone attacks on its Gulf neighbours.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has said he is “deeply saddened by the tragic death of two Pakistani nationals in Dubai caused by missile debris”. In a statement on X, he added:
Our diplomatic missions in the UAE are in close contact with the Dubai authorities to provide all necessary assistance and to facilitate the repatriation process. Our hearts go out to the bereaved family in this hour of grief.
The US embassy in Oslo was hit by a loud explosion early on Sunday morning, causing minor damage but no injuries, according to Norwegian police. The blast at the embassy compound in western Oslo reportedly occurred at about 1am local time (0000 GMT).
Police are searching for one or more potential perpetrators, with Norway’s justice minister, Astri Aas-Hansen, saying they had deployed “considerable resources” to the investigation. “This is an unacceptable incident that we are taking very seriously,” she told Norwegian press agency NTB.
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Yvette Cooper sidestepped a question about UK-US relations being in trouble by saying there is still close cooperation on a range of issues, although divergence can happen as she said it is not in the British interest to “unquestioningly agree” with every strand of American policy.
She made the point of saying it was “important to learn the lessons” from the devastating US-led invasion of Iraq, when it comes to Iran.
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UK government's job is not to be 'outsourcing our foreign policy', foreign secretary says
The UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, has told the BBC that the government’s job is not to be “outsourcing our foreign policy”.
Speaking on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday politics programme, Cooper said:
It’s for the US president to decide what he thinks is in the US national interest, and that’s for him to do.
But it is our job as the UK government to decide what’s in the UK national interest, and that doesn’t mean simply agreeing with other countries or outsourcing our foreign policy to other countries.
Asked if the UK was at war, Cooper responded: “We are providing defensive support in a conflict, and that is, I think, the way to describe it.”
Her comments followed renewed criticism from the US president, Donald Trump, who has apparently told the UK he does not need its aircraft carriers and accused the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, of seeking to “join wars after we’ve already won”, in reference to reports that the UK was preparing an aircraft carrier in response to the escalating conflict.
Relations between Washington and London have sunk to a low point, with Trump strongly criticising Starmer for the lack of immediate UK support for the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
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Here are some of the latest pictures being sent to us from Tehran after overnight Israeli and US airstrikes reportedly struck oil sites around the Iranian capital:
As the war in the Middle East, started by Israel and the US, continues to escalate, we would like to hear how people living, working or travelling in the region have been affected.
Whether you are in the region or impacted in other ways, please get in touch here.
Please note that while we’d like to hear from you, your security is most important. We recognise it may not always be safe or appropriate to record or share your experiences, so please think about this when considering whether to get in touch with the Guardian.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has written an interesting analysis piece looking at the backlash to the Iranian president’s comments, which took many observers by surprise. Here is an extract:
The surprise offer by the president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, not to attack countries in the neighbourhood so long as their airspace and US bases within their territories are not used to attack Iran has provoked a storm inside the country as the military appeared to contradict him, if not outright overrule him.
There were also calls for a new supreme leader to be installed as quickly as possible, as a means of marginalising the president. Attacks on facilities in Bahrain and elsewhere have continued, and there were unconfirmed reports that Bahrain had become the first Gulf country to fire back at Iran …
The backlash over Pezeshkian’s offer was made worse by him including an apology to the region on behalf of himself and the nation in his pre-recorded address on state TV.
He also implied that after the US attack on its top command, rudderless armed forces may have been forced to make targeting decisions on their own.
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Iran's president says his country will 'not bow easily to bullying'
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said his country will “not bow easily” to “bullying” and vowed to continue to respond against attacks.
“When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” Pezeshkian said in video comments this morning.
“Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression – and it never has.”
As we reported in an earlier post, the Iranian president on Saturday apologised to neighbouring Gulf countries hosting US military bases for attacks on their territory.
However, after the statement provoked a backlash inside the country and the military appeared to contradict him, Pezeshkian said his remarks were “misinterpreted by the enemy that seeks to sow division with neighbours”.
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Huge fire engulfs tower in Kuwait after drone strikes
There is footage of a huge fire engulfing a tower in Kuwait city following drone strikes in the early hours of Sunday morning.
It is reported to have broken out at a government site operated by the Public Institution for Social Security in Kuwait. In a social media post, the department said:
The main building of the organization was targeted, resulting in material damage to the building.
The fire appears to be under control now.
Between the 9-15 March, Oman Air has cancelled flights to and from Amman, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha, Dammam, Kuwait, Copenhagen, Baghdad and Khasab “due to ongoing regional airspace closures”.
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Cyprus’ foreign minister Constantinos Kombos has told the Guardian that explosive-packed drones directed at British military bases on the island were launched from Lebanon, 150 miles to the Mediterranean island’s east.
A European armada and air defense assets have rushed to the EU member state as part of an unprecedented security cordon thrown around it.
“Right now it’s a fact that we have to be looking towards the Lebanese front,” said the minister, confirming the drones’ provenance for the first time. “We cannot exclude anything from the broader direction of the north-east. We have to be very careful … we have to make sure that the systems in place are covering all possibilities of threat.”
Cypriot officials, who take pride in the neutrality and humanitarian role of an island nation that is also the EU’s closest state to the Middle East, are adamant it is the British bases, not the republic, that have been singled out for attack since the onset of the US-led offensive against Iran.
Summary
As we hand over the blog to our colleagues in London, here’s a quick summary of today’s events as the conflict in the Middle East continues to escalate and the strikes show no sign of relenting.
Here is what you need to know so far.
A fresh wave of Iranian strikes hit the Gulf on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all reporting new attacks. Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry reported intercepting 15 drones. In Bahrain, the strikes did “material damage” to a crucial desalination plant .
Kuwait’s national oil company announced a “precautionary” cut to its crude oil production after the strikes. The military said fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport were targeted in a drone attack and two firefighters were killed.
Overnight strikes by the US and Israel hit five oil sites around Tehran, according to an Iran official. The official said that the five facilities “were damaged” but the “fire was brought under control”.
Donald Trump had said he is not interested in negotiating with Iran, raising the possibility that the Iran war would only end once Tehran no longer has a functioning military and its leadership is completely wiped out. But while Trump claimed the US and Israel had “decimated” the Iranian regime, he offered only a vague description of what he meant by Iran’s unconditional surrender.
Trump left open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground. The US president addressed reporters hours after travelling to Dover air force base in Delaware to attend the transfer of the bodies of six US service members killed in the opening days of his war against Iran.
A majority consensus has almost been reached by the clerical body that will appoint the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and become Iran’s next supreme leader, according to reports. Israel’s military said it would continue to pursue any successor to Khamenei.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said his country “will be forced to respond” to any attack or invasion attempt from a neighbouring country. His comments came after a backlash by hardliners and within Iranian military ranks after the president appeared to apologise to neighbouring Gulf countries attacked by Iran as they targeted US military bases. Pezeshkian said his comments had been “misinterpreted by the enemy”.
At least 16 were killed in Lebanon after Israeli renewed its assault on Beirut and southern Lebanon. Four were killed in a blast on a hotel in Beirut and 12 were killed in strikes on southern Lebanon as Israel said it was targeting “key commanders” in the IGRC’s Quds Force foreign operations arm.
In a post on social media, Trump renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” the US president wrote.
Trump has warned in a Truth Social post that more Iranian officials will be targeted, saying: “Today Iran will be hit very hard!”.
China’s foreign minister says Iran war ‘should never have happened’. Wang warned that the US-Israel push for regime change in Iran would “find no popular support” and said “the world cannot return to the law of the jungle”.
Israel warns it will pursue Iran’s next supreme leader
The Israeli military warned it would continue pursuing every successor of Iran’s next supreme leader.
In a post on X in Farsi, the Israeli military said it would also pursue every person who seeks to appoint a successor for slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referring to the clerical body charged with selecting Iran’s next supreme leader.
The comments came after Iranian news agency Mehr news reported that he clerical body that will choose Iran’s next supreme leader has more or less reached a majority consensus.
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China’s foreign minister says Iran war ‘should never have happened’
War in the Middle East “should never have happened”, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has declared, even as he struck a more conciliatory tone with the US ahead of a highly anticipated visit by Donald Trump.
Regime change, a key stated aim of the US president as the US and Israel continue to attack Iran, “will find no popular support”, Wang said on Sunday. “A strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle,” he added.
Speaking on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary and political gatherings, known as the Two Sessions, the country’s top diplomat and foreign affairs official notably avoided directly criticising the US.
Instead, Wang stressed that China was “committed to a spirit of mutual respect” in US-China relations. Recent talks between Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s president, were “heartening”, he said.
Wang said that 2026 was a “big year for China-US relations” and that the two sides should “treat each other with sincerity and good faith”.
Donald Trump praised Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and said Italy was willing to help the United States and Israel in their war with Iran, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported on Sunday.
Speaking to the newspaper in a telephone call on Saturday, Trump described Meloni as “a great leader” and said Italy was doing what it could to assist.
“I love Italy, I think she is a great leader,” Trump was quoted as saying of Meloni.
“She always tries to help, she is an excellent leader and she is a friend of mine.”
Italy is planning to send air-defence aid to Gulf countries in the face of Iranian air strikes, Meloni said on Thursday.
An Italian navy vessel is also preparing to sail to Cyprus, a navy spokesperson said on Friday, as part of a joint European mission to protect the island after it came under Iranian fire.
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Israel’s military said on Sunday that it had struck a series of fighter jets that pre-revolutionary Iran purchased from the United States.
The fleet of F-14s parked at Isfahan Airport, south of Tehran, was a pillar of the Iranian air force and historically used to defend its airspace.
The Israeli military did not say whether the jets were destroyed. It also said it had struck detection and air defense systems.
Majority consensus reached on Iran's next supreme leader: Reports
A majority consensus over a successor to Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has more or less been reached, Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammadmehdi Mirbaqeri said on Sunday, according to Mehr news agency.
He said, though, that “some obstacles” need to be resolved regarding the process, according to the report.
Iranian media said the body tasked with appointing Iran’s supreme leader had a minor disagreement over whether their final decision must follow an in-person meeting or instead be issued without adhering to this formality
On Saturday, a senior cleric in the Assembly of Experts said its members would meet “within one day” to choose the leader.
But Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, another member of the Assembly of Experts, said in a video released by Nournews on Sunday that an in-person meeting by the assembly for a final vote was not possible under current conditions.
He said a candidate had been picked, based on the late supreme leader’s advice that Iran’s top leader should “be hated by the enemy” instead of praised by it.
“Even the Great Satan [US] has mentioned his name,” Heidari Alekasir said of the chosen successor, days after Trump said that Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, was an “unacceptable” choice for him.
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US and Israel strikes damage five oil sites around Tehran, says Iran official
The United States and Israel hit five oil facilities in overnight strikes in and near the Iranian capital, an official told state TV.
“Last night, four oil depots and a petroleum products transport centre in Tehran and the Alborz were attacked by enemy aircraft,” the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Keramat Veyskarami told state TV.
He added that the five facilities “were damaged” but the “fire was brought under control”.
On Saturday, an Israeli attack hit an oil storage facility in Tehran.
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Missile and drone attacks injured three people and damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain on Sunday, the interior ministry said, as Iran pressed on with its air campaign against neighbouring Gulf states.
“As a result of the blatant Iranian aggression, 3 people were injured and material damage was inflicted on a university building in the Muharraq area after missile fragments fell,” the Bahrain interior ministry said in a statement.
“The Iranian aggression randomly bombs civilian targets and caused material damage to a water desalination plant following an attack by a drone,” they added.
Earlier, Tehran had accused the US of striking one of its own desalination plants from a base in Bahrain.
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Israel has struck southern Lebanon early Sunday, killing 12 more people, as the widening war in the Middle East keeps escalating and the death toll in the country hit 300.
Israeli officials said the strikes targeted commanders of the Lebanese branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “many surprises” for the next phase of the conflict.
Israel ordered large swaths of the country to evacuate during an offensive that its military said would be aimed at stamping out Iran-supported forces there.
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Iran 'will be forced to respond' if attacked from neighbouring country, says president
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country “will be forced to respond” to any attack or invasion attempt from a neighbouring country, in remarks aired by state TV on Sunday.
If Iran’s enemies “try to use any country to attack or invade our land, we will be forced to respond to that attack. Responding does not mean we have disputes with that country or wish to harm its people – we would be responding out of necessity,” said Pezeshkian.
On Saturday the president apologised to neighbouring Gulf countries hosting US military bases for attacks on their territory.
However, after the statement provoked a storm inside the country and the military appeared to contradict him, Pezeshkian said his remarks were “misinterpreted by the enemy that seeks to sow division with neighbours”.
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Lebanon’s health ministry said Sunday that an Israeli strike on a hotel in central Beirut killed at least four people, with Israel saying it had targeted commanders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.
Early Sunday, the Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli air strike hit Beirut’s city centre, targeting “a hotel room”, killing four people and wounding 10 others.
In southern Lebanon, the official National News Agency said at least 12 people were killed in three separate strikes overnight.
Israel, which has kept up strikes targeting Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire, launched multiple waves of strikes this week across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas.
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AFPTV footage showed smoke billowing over the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday following an apparent air strike on the area where Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, holds sway.
Several hours earlier, the Israeli military said it had launched strikes on “Hezbollah infrastructure” in that area.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 294 people have died in Israeli air strikes over the past week, prompting Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to warn of a looming “humanitarian disaster”.
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Israel launches fresh strikes across Iran
The Israeli military said it launched a wave of strikes “across Iran” on Sunday, targeting military sites.
A military statement said it had “initiated a wave of strikes targeting the Iranian terror regime military infrastructure across Iran”.
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Iran launches fresh strikes launched across the Gulf
The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia said its air defence systems were intercepting missiles and drones launched from Iran on Sunday.
“UAE air defences are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran,” the defence ministry said in a post on X, adding sounds of explosions were a result of the systems “intercepting missiles and drones”.
Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry reported intercepting 15 drones, including an attempted attack in the diplomatic quarter of the capital Riyadh.
The attacks come after Iran’s president apologised to neighbouring states for its attacks on U.S. facilities in those countries, in an attempt to cool anger across the Gulf, but stirred criticism from hardliners at home.
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As day breaks in Iran, some Tehranis have shared their terrifying experience of last night’s strikes in the capital.
Reza*, a human rights activist in southern Tehran, 31, told the Guardian:
It’s catastrophic. The smoke has entered our homes, the flames are still rising and it feels like the sun is shining… The flames are so bright the highways look like it’s day time.
So bright but doesn’t feel right. We can’t leave and we can’t stay… Do we drive out or stay here? Are we the only one in hell, or is the fire burning across the city? We don’t know what’s happening. Help please!”
Mehnaz*, 39, is an artist in southern Tehran. She sought to flee the city overnight with her husband. They had to turn back, however, as smoke from the attack on Shahr-e Rey oil depot filled the streets.
She told the Guardian:
Tehran is burning and smoke has filled the streets. It’s impossible to drive out of the city and even with the windows closed, heavy smoke is making its way inside… Clueless whether to stay in or brave the flames and drive out while it’s still on fire. I don’t even have a mask.”
* Names have been changed
According to reporting by Axios, the United States and Israel have discussed sending special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium at a later stage of the war. They cited four sources with knowledge of the discussions.
The Guardian could not immediately verify the report.
Kuwait cuts crude oil production amid renewed attacks
Kuwait authorities said two border guards were killed when the Gulf country was hit by a barrage of missiles and drones, compounding fears over energy supplies.
Kuwait’s military said it was still intercepting “hostile missile and drone attacks” on Sunday.
“Kuwaiti air defences are currently engaging hostile missile and drone attacks,” the military said in a post on X, adding that explosion sounds were the result of interceptions by air defence systems.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait all reported new attacks on Sunday. Kuwait’s national oil company announced a “precautionary” cut to its crude production, as the country’s military said Sunday it had responded “to a wave of hostile drones that penetrated the country’s airspace”.
Fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport were targeted in a drone attack, the military added. The official Kuwait News Agency said a fire at the airport was brought under control.
It called the drone attack “a direct targeting of vital infrastructure”.
The Kuwaiti interior ministry said two border guards “were martyred... while performing their national duty”, without elaborating. It was not clear whether their deaths were the result of an Iranian attack.
Updated
Israel renews its assault on southern Lebanon
Israel is renewing its assault on southern Lebanon, including targeting commanders of the Lebanese branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force in Beirut.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it would “not allow Iranian terrorist elements to establish themselves in Lebanese territory”.
The latest strikes in Lebanon followed an Israeli attack Saturday on an oil storage facility in Tehran , which sent up pillars of fire into the night sky.
Updated
Air raid sirens sounded across Israel early on Sunday, warning of incoming missiles from Iran, with no reports of damage or casualties.
Israeli military statements said air defences were responding to at least two waves of “missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel”.
Alerts were activated across much of northern Israel including the port city of Haifa, according to the army’s Home Front Command, which ordered residents to go into shelters or safe rooms.
The alerts were later lifted, with the military saying, “it is now permitted to leave protected spaces in all areas of the country”.
Air raid sirens were later activated across southern Israel, including the city of Beersheba as well as parts of the occupied West Bank, according to the Home Front Command.
Israeli media reported that several missiles were launched and most had been intercepted.
US President Donald Trump has warned in a Truth Social post that more Iranian officials will be targets, saying: “Today Iran will be hit very hard!”.
Trump’s post came after comments made to reporters on board Air Force Once where he made it clear he had no intention of negotiating with Iran. He suggested the Iran war would only end once Tehran no longer has a functioning military or any remaining leadership in power.
The US president also left open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground.
Updated
Here are some images coming out of Lebanon and the border with Israel.
Opening Summary
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran, a conflict that is rippling across the Middle East with devastating consequences as it enters its second week.
US President Trump has remained sanguine about the prospects of the war, saying that Iran is being ‘decimated’ even as he has refused to rule out deploying US troops.
Meanwhile China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has condemned the war, saying it never should have happened.
If you are just tuning in, here is a quick recap of events.
Donald Trump claimed the US and Israel had “decimated” the Iranian regime, but offered only a vague description of what he meant by his demand for an unconditional surrender. “It’s where they cry uncle, or when they can’t fight any long longer and there’s nobody around to cry uncle — that could happen too,” the US president said aboard Air Force One.
Trump left open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground. The US president addressed reporters hours after travelling to Dover air force base in Delaware to attend the so-called dignified transfer of six US service members killed in the opening days of his war against Iran.
The US-Israel war on Iran “should never have happened”, China’s foreign minister said on Sunday. “The world cannot return to the law of the jungle,” Wang Yi told a press conference in Beijing, calling for an end to military operations.
Iran can fight a war of this size and scale for “at least” another six months, a Revolutionary Guards official has claimed. The defiant statement was carried by the semi-official Fars news agency, which has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian previously apologised to neighbouring countries attacked by Iran. He also said Iran’s interim leadership council had approved that no attacks or missile strikes would be carried out against such countries unless an attack against Iran originated from them.
Vast plumes of smoke and fire have been seen rising over the Tehran skyline overnight. The Israeli military said it struck “several fuel storage complexes” across the city.
At least four people were killed after an Israeli strike on an apartment in the Ramada hotel building in central Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Ten people were injured. Israel said it conducted a “precise strike” on what it called “key commanders” in the IGRC’s Quds Force foreign operations arm.
In a post on social media, Trump renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” the US president wrote.
Updated
