The day to this point
Iran’s international ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, referred to as Trump’s declare that it has requested for a ceasefire is “false and baseless”, in response to a report on Iranian state tv. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard individually issued a press release saying the strait of Hormuz “is firmly and decisively underneath the management” of its forces, AP reported.
Donald Trump has mentioned he’s “completely” contemplating withdrawing the US from Nato, warning that the matter was “past reconsideration” after the refusal of US allies to hitch the US-Israeli warfare towards Iran. The president’s threats, his most decided to this point, have left the alliance going through its worst disaster in its 77-year historical past, a former US ambassador has warned.
Trump mentioned the US might be “out of Iran fairly shortly” however might return for “spot hits”. Forward of his scheduled nationwide deal with this night, the US president mentioned he would categorical his disgust with Nato over what he described as its lack of assist for his warfare goals towards Iran.
Trump will deal with the nation on the Iran warfare on Wednesday, his first prime-time speech because the battle started. The White Home has given no particulars on the deal with, nevertheless it comes hours after Trump claimed Iran had sought a pause in hostilities – whilst he set situations that underscored the uncertainty surrounding the warfare’s trajectory, AFP reported.
The Israeli navy claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander who was liable for the group’s navy exercise in southern Lebanon. In a press release on social media, the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) mentioned Yusuf Ismail Hashem was killed in a strike in Beirut yesterday. It described Hashem as a “senior commander with 40+ years of expertise” and that he was “a central determine in Hezbollah”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has acknowledged the assault on an oil tanker in Qatari waters, alleging that it had ties to Israel. As reported earlier, the Qatari defence ministry mentioned the Aqua 1 gasoline oil tanker leased to the state-owned QatarEnergy was hit by an Iranian cruise missile.
The brand new supreme chief of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, has issued a message of gratitude to Hezbollah’s secretary basic, Naim Qassem. In a press release carried by Iranian media, he praised Hezbollah for its “perseverance, steadfastness and endurance” towards “probably the most ruthless enemies of the Islamic world”, as he vowed Iran will proceed to assist teams combating US and Israeli forces throughout the Center East.
British counter drone crews in northern Iraq downed over 10 Iranian drones in a single day, the UK Ministry of Defence mentioned. Assaults have continued seemingly undimmed over the previous month, with some or extra aimed toward western bases, beforehand for troops engaged in counter Islamic State operations earlier than the US and Israel attacked Iran.
Kuwaiti firefighters on Wednesday extinguished a fireplace that broke out earlier within the day in gasoline tanks at Kuwait airport following an Iranian drone assault, the federal government mentioned. There have been no casualties, and solely materials harm was reported.
The households of UK residents held within the United Arab Emirates over allegations that they shared pictures of the battle with Iran have voiced frustration on the British authorities’s failure to assist. A number of British residents are amongst greater than 100 international nationals who’ve been detained underneath draconian Emirate guidelines that outlaw publishing or sharing materials that would “disturb public safety”.
Explosions have been heard within the Syrian capital Damascus and its surrounding areas, state TV al Ekhbariyah reported on Wednesday. The community mentioned that that the blasts have been possible brought on by Israeli air defences intercepting Iranian missiles.
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Trump anticipated to reiterate timeline of ‘two or three weeks’ for winding down US operations on Iran in ‘essential replace’ later
With Donald Trump as a result of ship an deal with to the nation tonight, a number of retailers are reporting that he’s anticipated to reiterate a timetable of two or three weeks for winding down US navy operations in Iran.
That may be in step with what the US president mentioned on Tuesday, when he instructed reporters within the Oval Workplace US forces would finish operations in Iran “very quickly”, including:
double citation markNow we’re ending the job. I believe in two weeks or perhaps a couple of days longer, we’ll do the job. We wish to knock out all the things they’ve received.
Trump is because of converse at 9pm ET. The White Home gave no additional particulars, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying solely that the remarks could be an “essential replace”.
Donald Trump speaks to reporters within the Oval Workplace on 31 March. {Photograph}: Evan Vucci/ReutersShare
Up to date at 13.53 EDT
US state division affords $3m reward for info on assaults on Iraq services
The US state division is providing a reward of as much as $3 million for info on assaults on its diplomatic services in Iraq.
It comes after the US embassy in Baghdad, the Baghdad Diplomatic Help Centre and the US consulate Basic in Erbil, in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area, have confronted repeated assaults because the US-Israeli warfare on Iran started over a month in the past.
“In case you have info on Iranian-aligned terrorist militia teams or others liable for these assaults, ship us your ideas immediately,” the division’s Rewards for Justice program mentioned in a put up on X.
“Your info might make you eligible for relocation and a reward,” it added.
That is the newest of a variety of bounties for info the division has issued because the begin of the warfare, together with on high figures within the Iranian management .
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Israel carries out additional strikes on Iran
Earlier, the Israeli air power mentioned it had began a “wave of in depth strikes” on Tehran, claiming the assaults have been focusing on “infrastructures” linked to the regime within the “coronary heart” of the capital.
The Mehr information company reported that an assault struck western Tehran, damaging a number of residential buildings.
The semi-official information company additionally reported that the deputy governor of Isfahan in central Iran had mentioned Kashan passenger airport got here underneath assault this night by US-Israeli forces, with elements of the airport sustaining harm within the strike.
Akbar Salehi, a provincial safety official, mentioned different places have been additionally hit in Kashan and throughout the province, together with Shahreza, Aran, Bidgol and Najafabad.
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Up to date at 13.39 EDT
The day to this point
Iran’s international ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, referred to as Trump’s declare that it has requested for a ceasefire is “false and baseless”, in response to a report on Iranian state tv. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard individually issued a press release saying the strait of Hormuz “is firmly and decisively underneath the management” of its forces, AP reported.
Donald Trump has mentioned he’s “completely” contemplating withdrawing the US from Nato, warning that the matter was “past reconsideration” after the refusal of US allies to hitch the US-Israeli warfare towards Iran. The president’s threats, his most decided to this point, have left the alliance going through its worst disaster in its 77-year historical past, a former US ambassador has warned.
Trump mentioned the US might be “out of Iran fairly shortly” however might return for “spot hits”. Forward of his scheduled nationwide deal with this night, the US president mentioned he would categorical his disgust with Nato over what he described as its lack of assist for his warfare goals towards Iran.
Trump will deal with the nation on the Iran warfare on Wednesday, his first prime-time speech because the battle started. The White Home has given no particulars on the deal with, nevertheless it comes hours after Trump claimed Iran had sought a pause in hostilities – whilst he set situations that underscored the uncertainty surrounding the warfare’s trajectory, AFP reported.
The Israeli navy claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander who was liable for the group’s navy exercise in southern Lebanon. In a press release on social media, the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) mentioned Yusuf Ismail Hashem was killed in a strike in Beirut yesterday. It described Hashem as a “senior commander with 40+ years of expertise” and that he was “a central determine in Hezbollah”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has acknowledged the assault on an oil tanker in Qatari waters, alleging that it had ties to Israel. As reported earlier, the Qatari defence ministry mentioned the Aqua 1 gasoline oil tanker leased to the state-owned QatarEnergy was hit by an Iranian cruise missile.
The brand new supreme chief of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, has issued a message of gratitude to Hezbollah’s secretary basic, Naim Qassem. In a press release carried by Iranian media, he praised Hezbollah for its “perseverance, steadfastness and endurance” towards “probably the most ruthless enemies of the Islamic world”, as he vowed Iran will proceed to assist teams combating US and Israeli forces throughout the Center East.
British counter drone crews in northern Iraq downed over 10 Iranian drones in a single day, the UK Ministry of Defence mentioned. Assaults have continued seemingly undimmed over the previous month, with some or extra aimed toward western bases, beforehand for troops engaged in counter Islamic State operations earlier than the US and Israel attacked Iran.
Kuwaiti firefighters on Wednesday extinguished a fireplace that broke out earlier within the day in gasoline tanks at Kuwait airport following an Iranian drone assault, the federal government mentioned. There have been no casualties, and solely materials harm was reported.
The households of UK residents held within the United Arab Emirates over allegations that they shared pictures of the battle with Iran have voiced frustration on the British authorities’s failure to assist. A number of British residents are amongst greater than 100 international nationals who’ve been detained underneath draconian Emirate guidelines that outlaw publishing or sharing materials that would “disturb public safety”.
Explosions have been heard within the Syrian capital Damascus and its surrounding areas, state TV al Ekhbariyah reported on Wednesday. The community mentioned that that the blasts have been possible brought on by Israeli air defences intercepting Iranian missiles.
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Trump lashes out at Nato: will Europe stand as much as him? – podcast
Donald Trump has mentioned he’s contemplating pulling the US out of Nato, likening the alliance to a “paper tiger”.
It comes after weeks of denouncements from the US president towards allies for not serving to to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, Jon Henley…
Trump lashes out at Nato: will Europe stand as much as him? – The NewestShare
Up to date at 13.28 EDT
Julian Borger
Donald Trump has mentioned he’s “completely” contemplating withdrawing the US from Nato, warning that the matter was “past reconsideration” after the refusal of US allies to hitch the US-Israeli warfare towards Iran.
The president’s threats, his most decided to this point, have left the alliance going through its worst disaster in its 77-year historical past, a former US ambassador has warned.
Trump has lengthy been vocally sceptical about the good thing about Nato membership to the US, however since North Atlantic allies have refused to participate within the month-long, faltering, US-Israeli assault on Iran, the president has stepped up his rhetoric.
He instructed Reuters information company on Wednesday he was “completely with out query” contemplating withdrawal, after telling the Telegraph the matter was “past reconsideration”, insisting he had by no means been “swayed by Nato”. He signalled that he would categorical his disgust for Nato in an deal with to the nation scheduled for Wednesday night.
It might be politically and constitutionally tough for Trump to result in formal withdrawal from the 1949 Washington treaty, Nato’s founding doc, however Ivo Daalder, US everlasting consultant at Nato headquarters from 2009 to 2013, argued the intense harm to the alliance had already been achieved.
“That is by far the worst disaster Nato has ever confronted. Navy alliances are, at their core, primarily based on belief: the boldness that if I’m attacked, you’ll come assist defend,” Daalder wrote in a web-based commentary. “It’s onerous to see how any European nation will now have the opportunity and prepared to belief the USA to come back to its defence.”
ShareMatthew Weaver
The households of UK residents held within the United Arab Emirates over allegations that they shared pictures of the battle with Iran have voiced frustration on the British authorities’s failure to assist.
A number of British residents are amongst greater than 100 international nationals who’ve been detained underneath draconian Emirate guidelines that outlaw publishing or sharing materials that would “disturb public safety”.
UK authorities ministers have refused to sentence the arrests, amid claims they’re too scared of offending the Emirates due to their financial clout.
The marketing campaign group Dubai Watch, which is supporting 9 British detainees, mentioned their identities couldn’t be revealed for worry of reprisals. However it has proven the Guardian anonymised correspondence from their more and more anxious households.
A mom whose daughter is being held wrote: “This expertise is exhausting, mentally and emotionally.”
She described studying media stories concerning the persevering with battle during which Iran has retaliated towards US and Israelis strikes by firing drones and missiles towards its Gulf neighbours, together with the UAE.
She mentioned: “I’ve simply learn one other article, and fairly frankly I might do one purely on the inadequacies and sycophantic responses from this [UK] embassy.”
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Iran says Trump’s declare of ceasefire request is ‘false and baseless’
Iran’s international ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, referred to as Trump’s declare that it has requested for a ceasefire is “false and baseless”, in response to a report on Iranian state tv.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard individually issued a press release saying the strait of Hormuz “is firmly and decisively underneath the management” of its forces, AP reported.
“This strait is not going to be opened to the enemies of this nation by the ridiculous spectacle by the president of the USA,” it added.
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Kuwaiti firefighters on Wednesday extinguished a fireplace that broke out earlier within the day in gasoline tanks at Kuwait airport following an Iranian drone assault, the federal government mentioned.
There have been no casualties, and solely materials harm was reported.
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US president Donald Trump will deal with the nation on the Iran warfare on Wednesday, his first prime-time speech because the battle started.
The White Home has given no particulars on the deal with, nevertheless it comes hours after Trump claimed Iran had sought a pause in hostilities – whilst he set situations that underscored the uncertainty surrounding the warfare’s trajectory, AFP reported.
Iran’s president “has simply requested the USA of America for a CEASEFIRE!” Trump wrote on his Reality Social platform. “We’ll take into account when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Till then, we’re blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they are saying, again to the Stone Ages!!!”
There was no impartial affirmation of Trump’s declare.
Trump is about to talk at 9pm ET, greater than a month after the USA and Israel launched their assault on Iran – a delay that contrasts with the early addresses presidents usually ship on the outset of main conflicts.
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What ought to we infer from Trump’s declare Iran has requested for ceasefire?
Peter Beaumont
President Trump’s Reality Social put up claiming that Iran’s new president had requested for a ceasefire is problematic in a variety of key particulars.
Whereas Iran may need a brand new Supreme Chief in Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father Ali who was assassinated within the opening salvoes of the warfare, it doesn’t have a “new president” who stays precisely the identical individual as earlier than the beginning of the warfare – Masoud Pezeshkian.
If, at a pinch one might argue that, Trump is speaking sloppily concerning the president of a “new regime” that also stays sharply at odds with most skilled evaluation which means that removed from being “much less radicalized” the regime has taken a extra hardline and unpredictable flip since Ali Khamenei’s killing because the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has moved to additional consolidate its energy.
Even within the occasion that Pezeshkian is behind an undisclosed ceasefire initiative of some type – which Iran has not commented on – it isn’t clear what the standing which may means when it comes to Tehran’s inner energy dynamics the place the function of Supreme Chief is seen traditionally as being extra highly effective than the workplace of president.
In a telephone name this week with Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, Pezeshkian urged that Iran might finish of the battle however with the essential proviso of ensures towards a repeat assault – which is one in every of Tehran’s key calls for and which Trump could also be misrepresenting.
“We possess the mandatory will to finish this battle, offered that important situations are met, particularly the ensures required to forestall repetition of the aggression,” Pezeshkian’s workplace mentioned in a press release.
When Iran has commented on contacts by the mediation of Pakistan it has been to counsel that Trump’s remarks on progress have been extremely exaggerated, a well-known Trump trait each in his interventions in Center East diplomacy and over the warfare in Ukraine the place repeated claims of imminent breakthroughs have tended to not survive contact with actuality.
Amid widespread reporting that Trump is searching for an exit technique for a deeply unpopular warfare that he has already turn out to be uninterested in, what appears extra possible is that he’s making an attempt to form a story that might enable him to say the warfare has been received.
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Up to date at 10.17 EDT
Trump repeats claims of Iran ‘regime change’
Reuters has printed additional remarks from Donald Trump in its telephone interview with the US president.
When requested if he was interested by pulling the US out of Nato, he mentioned: “Oh, completely with out query. Wouldn’t you try this when you have been me?”
He added: “They haven’t been buddies once we wanted them. We’ve by no means requested them for a lot … it’s a one-way road.”
He additionally expressed his hope for a take care of the brand new leaders in Iran after airstrikes killed supreme chief Ali Khamenei.
He once more claimed that there was a “full regime change” in Iran, including: “I’m coping with an excellent probability that we’ll make a deal as a result of they don’t wish to be blasted anymore.
“I didn’t want regime change, however we received it due to the casualties of warfare. We received it. So we’ve regime change and the large factor we’ve is they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. Nor do they need one.”
As for the enriched uranium nonetheless possessed by Iran, Trump mentioned: “That’s to this point underground, I don’t care about that.
“We’ll at all times be watching it by satellite tv for pc.”
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has acknowledged the assault on an oil tanker in Qatari waters, alleging that it had ties to Israel.
As reported earlier, the Qatari defence ministry mentioned the Aqua 1 gasoline oil tanker leased to the state-owned QatarEnergy was hit by an Iranian cruise missile. There have been no stories of accidents and the 21 crew members escaped unhurt.
In a press release carried by Iranian state media, the IRGC mentioned an oil tanker belonging to the “Zionist regime with the commerce title ’Aqua 1’” within the the Persian Gulf “was exactly focused”.
It was not instantly clear what hyperlinks the oil tanker need to Israel.
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In additional information alerts, Reuters reported Trump as saying Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon “nor do they need one”.
Iran has lengthy maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceable functions, with leaders citing a spiritual decree (referred to as a fatwa) towards weapons of mass destruction. The US and Israel have at all times disputed this declare.
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Trump says US might be ‘out of Iran fairly shortly’ – Reuters
In an interview with Reuters information company, Donald Trump mentioned the US might be “out of Iran fairly shortly” however might return for “spot hits”.
Forward of his scheduled nationwide deal with this night, the US president mentioned he would categorical his disgust with Nato over what he described as its lack of assist for his warfare goals towards Iran. He added that he was “completely” contemplating an try and withdraw the US from the alliance, in response to Reuters.
He didn’t give a timeline of when the US might finish the warfare, saying: “I can’t let you know precisely… we’re going to be out fairly shortly.”
He added: “They [Iran] received’t have a nuclear weapon as a result of they’re incapable of that now, after which I’ll go away, and I’ll take everyone with me, and if we’ve to we’ll come again to do spot hits.”
ShareDan Sabbagh
British counter drone crews in northern Iraq downed over 10 Iranian drones in a single day, the UK Ministry of Defence mentioned.
Assaults have continued seemingly undimmed over the previous month, with some or extra aimed toward western bases, beforehand for troops engaged in counter Islamic State operations earlier than the US and Israel attacked Iran.
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It was not clear what Donald Trump meant by “Iran’s new regime president”, as there was no current change in that function. Masoud Pezeshkian stays the Iranian president, a job he has served since 2024.
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Trump claims Iran’s president has requested US for a ceasefire
The US would solely take into account a ceasefire with Iran if the Hormuz strait opens, Donald Trump has declared on social media.
He mentioned Iran had requested for a ceasefire, writing:
double citation markIran’s New Regime President, a lot much less Radicalized and much more clever than his predecessors, has simply requested the USA of America for a CEASEFIRE! We’ll take into account when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Till then, we’re blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they are saying, again to the Stone Ages!!! President DJT
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Up to date at 08.54 EDT
