President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran on the first day of strikes, with his son Mojtaba Khameneilater chosento succeed him. Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations. Iran is also attempting to block some shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and expanding its ground operations in the south of the country.
Watch special coverage onNightline, "War with Iran," each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Latest Developments
Mar 30, 4:32 PMTrump 'would be quite interested' in calling Middle East allies to pay for war, Leavitt says
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she thinks President Donald Trump "would be quite interested in calling" on Middle East allies like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to pay for the costs of the war in Iran."I won't get ahead of him on that. But certainly it's an idea that I know that he has, and something that I think you'll hear more from him on," she said in response to a reporter's question at Monday's White House briefing.-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart
Mar 30, 12:30 PMTrump says US dealing with a 'whole new set of people' in IranPresident Donald Trump toldthe New York Poston Monday that the U.S. is talking to new leaders in Iran, without providing more details.
"There has been total regime change because the regimes of the past are gone and we're dealing with a whole new set of people," Trump said. "And thus far, they've been much more reasonable."The president also said the U.S. response to Iranian strikes on an Israeli oil refinery would be seen soon."You'll see shortly," Trump told the paper when asked about his response.Trump added that the U.S. is waiting to see if Iran's Parliamentary Leader Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will work with the U.S., and he claimed that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was "seriously injured.""We're gonna find out," Trump told The Post when asked about Ghalibaf. "I'll let you know that in about a week.""Nobody's heard from him," Trump said of the younger Khamenei. "He's very seriously injured."Asked if he was still alive, Trump said that he "probably" was."We don't know. We think probably yes, but in extraordinarily bad shape," he said.-ABC News' Nicholas Kerr
Mar 30, 11:29 AMNATO intercepts Iranian missiles in Turkish airspace
A missile launched from Iran was intercepted by NATO air defenses after it entered Turkey's airspace, Turkey's Ministry of National Defense said.The ballistic missile was "neutralized by NATO air and missile defense assets deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean," the Turkish officials said in a statement.This is the fourth time NATO has intercepted a projectile from Iran as it approached or entered Turkish airspace. Iran has previously denied launching projectiles at Turkey.-ABC News'Engin Bas
Mar 30, 10:49 AMUS proposals 'excessive, unrealistic and illogical': Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson
Esmaeil Baqaei, the spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said Monday that Iran has "not had any negotiations with America," even though President Donald Trump said this weekend that there have been talks both directly and indirectly.Baqaei said "they have presented a request for negotiations along with a set of proposals, which has reached us through some intermediaries, including Pakistan.""Our position is very clear: we are currently in a situation where the military aggression and invasion by America continues with intensity, and we are certainly exerting all our efforts and capabilities to defend ourselves," Baqaei said at a news conference."The information that has been conveyed to us [from the U.S.], regardless of what name you want to give it, as 15 articles or whatever you call it, involved a large number of requests that are excessive, unrealistic, and illogical," he said.-ABC News'Othon Leyva
Mar 30, 9:58 AMBessent says US will 'retake control' of Strait of Hormuz either through US or multinational 'escort'Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on "Fox and Friends" that the U.S. will "retake control" of the Strait of Hormuz either through a U.S. or multinational escort.
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Bessent, who was responding to a question about the impact of roughly 30 ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz Sunday and Monday, attempted to quell fears about the state of the global oil trade and the current supply."The market is in deficit about 10-to-12 million barrels a day. And we're making up for that deficit," Bessent said, citing the release of 400 million barrels of oil from the International Energy Agency's strategic reserve and the U.S. easing sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil already on the water."The market is well supplied, and we are seeing more and more ships go through on a daily basis as individual countries cut deals with the Iranian regime for the time being," Bessent said. "But over time, the U.S. is going to retake control of the Straits and there will be freedom of navigation, whether it is through U.S. or a multinational escort."-ABC News' Nicholas Kerr
Mar 30, 9:45 AMIDF hits university in Tehran
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a university in Tehran, Imam Hossein University. The IDF said one of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' "central military infrastructure sites" is within the compound of the university, with the IDF calling the school "an emergency asset for the regime's military bodies."This comes after the IRGC warned that it now considers American universities in the region legitimate targets, saying if any more of its universities are hit, it will retaliate.The American University in Beirut has moved all classes online as a precaution.-ABC News' Zoe Magee
Mar 30, 8:18 AMRubio: There are 'fractures' inside Iranian leadershipGeorge Stephanopoulos asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio on "Good Morning America" about President Donald Trump's assertion on Truth Social that the U.S. was "in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME" about ending the military operation against Iran.Rubio responded, "Well, I'm not going to disclose to you who those people are, because it probably would get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside of Iran."
Rubio did say that "there's some fractures" within Iranian leadership."And if there are new people now in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the entire world," he continued. "But we also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even the probability that that is not the case."When Stephanopoulos pushed Rubio for more clarity, he responded, "you have people there that are saying some of the right things privately.""But at the end of the day, we have to see if these people end up being the ones in charge, seeing if they're the ones that have the power to deliver. We're going to test it. We are hopeful that's the case," he went on. "There are clearly people there talking to us in ways that previous people in charge in Iran have not spoken to us in the past. "Rubio also said that Trump's comments indicated that he "prefers diplomacy," despite his threats of repercussions if the talks failed.-ABC News' Shannon Kingston
Mar 30, 7:40 AMTrump threatens broad strikes on Iran infrastructure if talks fail
President Donald Trump said in a post to social media on Monday morning that the U.S. is currently engaged in "serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran," but threatened to expand U.S. strikes if the negotiations fail."Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately 'Open for Business,' we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet 'touched,'" Trump wrote."This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime's 47 year 'Reign of Terror,'" Trump added.
Mar 30, 6:46 AMChinese cargo ships cross Strait of Hormuz, MarineTraffic says
Two Chinese container ships that turned back from trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Friday successfully transited the strategic chokepoint on Monday, according to MarineTraffic data published on X.The ultra-large container vessels are owned by China's state-owned COSCO Shipping company.MarineTraffic said it was the "first confirmed crossing by a major container carrier since the start of the conflict" which could signal "a potential shift in conditions for commercial shipping."The two ships that crossed the Strait on Monday were the CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean, MarinteTraffix said.
-ABC News' Charlotte Gardiner
Mar 30, 5:48 AMIDF reports strikes on northern Israel
The Israel Defense forces said on Monday that rescue and emergency services were responding to the scenes of reported strikes in northern Israel.The IDF statement came after reports of missile fire from Iran and from the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.Photos and videos from the northern Israeli city of Haifa showed emergency services responding to a fire at an oil refinery.
There were no immediate reports of injuries related to Monday morning's attacks.
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