Live updates: Israel kills two top Iranian leaders as allies reject Trump

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Tuesday confirmed the death of the commander of the affiliated paramilitary force Basij.

“Commander Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij Organization, has been a martyr,” the Guard said on its Sepah News website.

Israel said it had killed him in an airstrike.

Satellite images show US reinforcements heading to the Middle East.

The United States is expanding its military presence in the region with the USS Tripoli.

Footage shows the ship passing through the South China Sea.

At a luncheon on Capitol Hill in honor of the Irish prime minister, President Trump said he consulted his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, about the possibility of taking an “excursion” to Iran. The president said intervening was “not an easy decision to make,” given how well he said the U.S. economy was doing before the war.

“I went with Susie, I always go with Susie,” he said. “I said, ‘Susie, do you mind if I take a little excursion here? Do you mind if I do?’ You know, we’re hitting all these records, right?”

The president boasted about the economy’s performance during his second term.

“I said, ‘Do you mind if I take a little excursion? Because we have to do something. And it will be a short-term excursion,'” the president said.

President Trump says he is delaying his trip to China because of the war with Iran.

On Monday, he told reporters that he had requested that his visit be delayed by about a month, and on Tuesday he said China agreed to that proposal. The president was scheduled to arrive in China in early April.

“We are rescheduling the meeting and it looks like it will take place in about five weeks,” he told reporters in the Oval Office during an event with Micheál Martin, the Irish prime minister. “We are working with China. They were fine with it. I hope to see President Xi; I think he hopes to see me.”

Read more here.

American drivers are paying Markedly higher fuel prices since the outbreak of war with Iran, despite the fact that the United States is the largest oil producer in the world. Because?

The United States exports much of the oil it produces and sells it to foreign buyers, but it also remains a major importer and the world’s largest user of oil, data show.

“The global market sets the price. Where the oil we fill our gas tanks with doesn’t matter,” said Bernard Yaros, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

Read more here about how the complexities of global energy markets are driving up American fuel prices amid the US-Israel war with Iran.

Israel said it was attacking posts of the feared Iranian paramilitary force known as Basij across Tehran on Tuesday, hours after announcing the killing of the group’s commander in an overnight attack.

“In the past few hours, the Israeli Air Force is attacking Basij Unit agents and posts that were deployed throughout Tehran,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a social media post.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz previously said the air force had “targeted and eliminated Gholamreza Soleimani, who operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past six years.”

Videos posted online, which News themezone could not immediately verify, showed fires allegedly on the streets of Tehran, where Basij posts were hit. The Basij have long operated as a national paramilitary force under Iran’s Islamic theocratic rulers, playing a major role in the violent suppression of anti-government protests, including January’s unprecedented wave of unrest.

Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that two people suffered minor injuries when the country’s air defenses intercepted another salvo of missiles and drones, as Iran continued to attack Persian Gulf states in retaliation for continued attacks by the United States and Israel.

The ministry said that over the past 24 hours, Kuwait’s air defenses had detected two ballistic missiles and 13 drones within the country’s airspace.

“They were treated and intercepted, and two minor injuries were reported as a result of falling debris,” ministry spokesman Col. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Atwan said in the statement, adding that both injured people were in stable condition and no “significant material damage” was reported.

President Trump struck a defiant isolationist tone Tuesday as U.S. allies rejected his calls to deploy military forces to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran virtually closed to maritime traffic in retaliation for the war the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28.

He said on Truth Social that the United States no longer wants or needs help from NATO countries, “the same goes for Japan, Australia or South Korea.”

“WE DON’T NEED ANYONE’S HELP!” public.

The war was launched without consulting or involving America’s NATO allies, and many were taken aback by the attack launched during ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

On Monday, the president pressed other nations that depend on oil exported through the passage to “come and help us with the Strait.”

Trump said Tuesday that the United States was informed “by the majority of our NATO ‘allies’ that they do not want to get involved” in the operation against Iran.

US diesel prices rose above $5 a gallon on Tuesday, marking the highest level since December 2022, as tension in global energy markets from war with iran continues to impact the US economy.

Diesel prices hit $5.04 a gallon, up from $4.78 a week ago and $3.65 a month ago, according to AAA data.

Diesel prices are rising as the war in the Middle East limits global oil supplies and pushes prices for Brent crude, the international benchmark, above $100 a barrel. Iranian attacks on oil and gas facilities across the Persian Gulf have hampered operations in oil-producing nations such as the United Arab Emirates, where a drone attack on monday caused a fire in the oil industries area of ​​Fujairah.

Read more here.

The UK Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that ongoing efforts to defend British interests and allies in the Middle East and Far East Mediterranean had their busiest night since the war with Iran began in a “high threat zone” when it comes to drone interceptions.

“Overnight, a British ground counter-drone unit operating in a high-threat area eliminated the largest number of drones in a single night since the conflict began,” the ministry said in a daily update.

He added that UK Space Command continued to support Britain’s “and our allies’ response to this conflict”, including by monitoring Iranian missile launches.

The statement said British Typhoon and F-35 fighter jets “continue to conduct defensive air patrols over Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and the eastern Mediterranean,” where the UK has a sovereign air base on the island of Cyprus, which has been the target of Iranian drone attacks during the war.

President Trump has criticized UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in recent days for refusing to commit to sending British warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, along with other European nations. Starmer has defended his decision not to involve the UK military in offensive operations against Iran, arguing that neither the US nor Israel have made clear the end of the conflict.

The Lebanese army said on Tuesday that two soldiers were killed in the south of the country by “a hostile Israeli airstrike” while riding a motorcycle, bringing to three the number of Lebanese soldiers allegedly killed by Israel’s growing military operation in the country.

Earlier, the military said one soldier was killed and four others wounded, one seriously, in a “hostile Israeli raid,” also in southern Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces said in an earlier statement, referring to the first incident in which a Lebanese soldier was allegedly killed, that they were “aware of the allegation that several Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers were injured as a result of an IDF attack in the Froun area of ​​southern Lebanon. The incident is under review.”

The IDF said in its statement that it “operates against the terrorist organization Hezbollah, and not against the Lebanese Armed Forces or Lebanese civilians.”

President Trump’s National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent announced his immediate resignation Tuesday, citing the decision to start a war against to Iran when “Iran did not pose an imminent threat to our nation.

Kent, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate last year, released his resignation letter Tuesday morning. He claimed that the war was “manufactured” by Israel.

“I cannot, in good conscience, support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter to the president and sent to

Read more here.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday praised the Israeli military’s killing of Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, who had been secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for more than half a decade.

“This morning we eliminated Ali Larijani. Ali Larijani was the head of the Revolutionary Guard, the gang of gangsters that effectively rules Iran,” Netanyahu’s statement said.

“We are undermining this regime in the hope of giving the Iranian people the opportunity to overthrow it. It will not happen all at once; it will not happen easily. But if we persist, we will give them the opportunity to take their destiny into their own hands,” Netanyahu said.

Iraq said it was in contact with Iran to try to arrange the passage of some of its oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Communications are being made with the relevant authorities to authorize the passage of certain oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, so that we can resume our exports,” Oil Minister Hayan Abdel Ghani told local al-Sharqiya television.

Iran’s national soccer federation is in talks with FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, about moving Iran’s World Cup matches to Mexico from the United States due to concerns about the safety of its players, the head of the Iranian federation said Monday.

President Trump He said last week that Iran was welcome to participate at the World Cup, which this year will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, but added in a post on his own Truth Social platform: “I really don’t think it’s appropriate for them to be there, for their own life and safety.”

Iran’s sports minister previously ruled out participating in the championship, but in a post on its

“We are negotiating with FIFA to hold Iran’s World Cup matches in Mexico,” Taj said in the post. The Reuters news agency said FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

The UAE Defense Ministry said the Gulf state’s air defenses had “targeted 10 ballistic missiles and 45 unmanned aerial vehicles”. [drones] launched from Iran” on Tuesday.

Iran has fired more weapons at the United Arab Emirates than any other Gulf Arab nation since it began attacking US allies in the region in retaliation for continued attacks by the United States and Israel.

“Since the start of blatant Iranian aggression, UAE air defenses have targeted 314 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,672 unmanned aerial vehicles,” the UAE Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

There were no reports on the impacts of Tuesday’s Iranian attack, but the United Arab Emirates had already confirmed the deaths of eight people in previous attacks, including two members of the country’s armed forces. At least 157 people were injured in the attacks, the ministry said.

The UAE military “remains fully prepared and ready to confront any threat,” according to the statement.

The Israel Defense Forces announced a “broad wave of attacks” in Tehran on Tuesday, shortly after Israeli officials said two top figures in the Iranian regime were killed in targeted overnight strikes.

Israel’s defense minister earlier said the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, and the head of the feared Basij paramilitary force, Gholamreza Soleimani, were killed in strikes.

“After the assassinations of senior officials: the IDF launched a broad wave of attacks against the infrastructure of the Iranian terrorist regime throughout Tehran,” the IDF said in a brief social media post.

The Lebanese army said Tuesday that one of its soldiers was killed and four others were wounded, at least one of them seriously, as a result of a “hostile Israeli incursion” in the south of the country.

The military said in a series of social media posts that troops were traveling in a car and a motorcycle when they were attacked.

Israel on Monday announced the start of a ground incursion into southern Lebanon, targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Israel has long accused Lebanon’s government of failing to prevent Hezbollah from operating in the country and of using it as a launching pad for attacks on Israeli territory.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said it was “aware of the allegation that several Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers were injured as a result of an IDF attack in the Froun area of ​​southern Lebanon. The incident is under review.”

The Israeli military said it “operates against the terrorist organization Hezbollah, and not against the Lebanese Armed Forces or Lebanese civilians.”

The Red Cross says civilians in Iran are paying “a heavy price” as the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic shows no signs of abating.

Vincent Cassard, head of the Red Cross delegation in Iran, said the war has put “great pressure” on Iranians.

“The huge loss of life is alarming,” he said. “Everyday life in Tehran has been deeply disrupted.”

He said the damaged schools and hospitals, as well as Iranian Red Crescent facilities, show “the high price that civilians are paying as a result of the hostilities.”

In a joint statement issued late Monday, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom said they were “gravely concerned” about the escalation of bloodshed in Lebanon.

The leaders called on Israeli and Lebanese officials to negotiate a solution to end the violence and condemned attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. They said that “a major Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon would have devastating humanitarian consequences and could lead to a protracted conflict. It must be avoided. The humanitarian situation in Lebanon, including the ongoing mass displacement, is already deeply alarming.”

The leaders said they supported the Lebanese government’s efforts to disarm the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, which has joined Iran in attacking Israel.

“We stand in solidarity with the Lebanese government and people, who have been involuntarily drawn into the conflict,” the leaders said.

Israeli officials on Monday announced the start of a ground offensive in southern Lebanon, warning that hundreds of thousands of civilians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate from a large area would not be allowed to return until Israel’s objectives are met.

The British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said a tanker reported being hit near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, in the latest apparent attack by Iran.

The UKMTO said it received a report that a tanker was hit by an “unknown projectile” while anchored 23 nautical miles east of the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. The tanker suffered only minor structural damage and no injuries to the crew were reported, UKMTO said.

The agency said Tuesday that it had received a total of 21 reports of incidents involving ships in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman since Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, prompting retaliatory attacks on commercial vessels that virtually paralyzed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

UKMTO said 17 of the reports it had received were of attacks, while four were reports of suspicious activity near vessels.

President Trump has promised that oil tankers will soon return to moving freely through the strait as the closure drives up global energy prices, but his calls for international help to achieve this have not generated offers of imminent assistance to date.

“Of course, we are allies of the United States, but we don’t really understand their recent moves,” Kallas told Reuters in an interview.

“I think after this year it’s pretty clear that the word we have to keep in mind is unpredictability. So now we’re calmer because we expect unpredictable things to happen all the time, and we take it as it is, put a little ice in our hat and stay calm and stay focused,” he added.

President Trump has repeatedly argued that Europe, and the entire world, will benefit from the US-Israel war against the Iranian regime, which he and his close Israeli ally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, insist posed an imminent threat to the region and beyond.

The European Union, the 27-nation bloc that includes some of the United States’ closest allies, made clear Tuesday that it would not rush to meet President Trump’s calls for military assistance to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran has seen or traffic through the vital sea route almost paralyzed due to Tehran’s retaliatory firing of missiles and drones across the Persian Gulf. About a fifth of all crude oil supplies typically pass through the strait, so the closure has caused global energy prices to rise sharply.

Trump has issued repeated demands that America’s European allies, all of whom were excluded from planning ahead of the attack on Iran, deploy warships to help protect commercial vessels sailing through the strait.

“No one is willing to put their people in danger in the Strait of Hormuz,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. “We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, a fertilizer crisis and also an energy crisis.”

Trump has focused significant criticism in recent days on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has also refused to commit to specific assistance in the Persian Gulf. Starmer said on Monday that the UK would work with its allies to create a “workable collective plan” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, mentioning that British demining vessels were already in the region, but noted the challenges of operating in an area still plagued by regular Iranian missile and drone launches.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Tuesday that the commander of Iran’s feared Basij paramilitary force was among senior leaders killed in overnight attacks in Tehran, and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz later confirmed that Ali Larijanithe head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was also “eliminated.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to continue seeking leadership of the regime of terror and oppression in Iran,” Katz said in a statement, adding that Israel would update President Trump on the assassination of the two senior Iranian figures “when dawn breaks in Washington.”

“The Israeli Air Force, acting on the basis of IDF intelligence, targeted and eliminated Gholamreza Soleimani, who operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past six years,” the IDF said in an earlier statement, accusing the Basij, under Soleimani’s command, of leading “major repression operations, employing severe violence, widespread arrests and the use of force against civilian protesters” to quell the spreading anti-government protests. all over Iran in January.

The IDF called Soleimani’s killing “an additional significant blow to the regime’s security command and control structures” and vowed to “continue to operate resolutely against the commanders of the Iranian terrorist regime.”

Until Monday, Larijani was among the regime’s most senior leaders still living in Iran. He had been a defiant voice since the war began, warning just a week ago, in a message to Trump, that the Iranian people “are not afraid of your empty threats; not even those older than you have managed to erase them…so be careful not to be the ones who disappear.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s office posted a photo on social media of the Israeli leader speaking on the phone, with a message that read only: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders removal of top Iranian regime officials.”

Falling debris from a missile intercept killed one person on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, officials said, as Iran steps up its attacks on Gulf countries in the Middle East war.

The incident took place in the Bani Yas area “following the interception of a ballistic missile by air defenses,” the Abu Dhabi press office reported in X.

The day before, a Palestinian citizen was killed on the outskirts of the city when a missile hit his car.

This brings to eight the death toll in the UAE since the start of the war with Iran, with six civilians killed and two military personnel killed in a helicopter crash.

The oil-rich Gulf has been hit hardest by Iran’s attacks in response to US and Israeli strikes that sparked the war in the Middle East, with Tehran attacking US assets but also civilian infrastructure.

On the country’s east coast, the Fujairah oil industrial zone was hit Tuesday morning, causing a fire but causing no injuries, local authorities said.

It was the second day in a row that the site was attacked, and a source told News on Monday that loading of the oil storage had been interrupted by an attack.

An News journalist heard several explosions in Doha on Tuesday, a day after similar explosions were heard across the Qatari capital.

Qatar, like other Gulf nations, has been targeted by drones and missiles in recent days.

Attacks by proxy forces linked to Iran continued in Iraq, when the US embassy in Baghdad was hit by shrapnel from drones that had been intercepted.

The embassy’s air defenses were able to shoot down all four drones targeting the facility, according to two Iraqi security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

A separate attack targeted a house in the heavily fortified presidential compound in the al-Jadriya area of ​​Baghdad, officials said.

It was not clear who carried out any of the attacks, but Iran-allied militias have been regularly attacking US targets inside Iraq since the conflict began.

Separately, Iraq’s Oil Minister said Baghdad has been in contact with Tehran in an effort to get Iran to allow some oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the state news agency reported on Tuesday, according to Reuters news agency.

Iraq is also working to resume exports via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to Türkiye in an effort to reduce shipping disruptions stemming from the war, Reuters reported.

News/AP

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Tuesday its forces had arrested 10 “foreign spies” as the war with Israel and the United States continued.

“Ten mercenary and traitor elements were identified and arrested,” the ISNA news agency reported, without identifying their nationalities, according to the Guard intelligence organization in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan.

The Guards said four of them were collecting information “on sensitive sites and economic infrastructure”, while others were linked to a “monarchist terrorist group”.

China said Tuesday it will provide humanitarian assistance to Middle Eastern countries, including Iran and Lebanon, that are targets of US and Israeli attacks.

“China has decided to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. This is expected to help alleviate the difficult humanitarian situation faced by local populations,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a news conference.