Donald Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a White House press appearance, March 26, 2026

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Will Trump Risk Ground Troops in Iran?

EA-Indo Daily Podcast: Trump’s Dead End on Iran

EA on RTE’s PrimeTime: US-Israel War on Iran — Mapping the Trump Camp’s Next Step

EA on France 24 and Pakistan TV: US-Israel War — Trump’s Deception About “Talks” With Iran

UPDATES: US-Israel War, Day 27 — Iran Rejects Trump’s 15-Point “Plan”

UPDATE 2154 GMT:

Iran’s Khondab Heavy Water Research Reactor, attacked by Israel on Friday, has “sustained severe damage and is no longer operational”, says the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Israel Defense Forces also launched strikes on a uranium processing site in Yazd in central Iran on Friday.

UPDATE 2135 GMT:

Israel has killed another paramedic in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, after slaying nine on Saturday.

World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a medical warehouse in the city was destroyed by the Israelis.

Ghebreyesus said the WHO has verified Israel’s killing of 51 Lebanese health workers since March 2.

This cannot become the norm. Health workers are safeguarded under international humanitarian law and should not be targeted. Peace is the best medicine.

UPDATE 2123 GMT:

Pakistan has hosted talks with Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia on efforts to mediate an end to the US-Israel War on Iran.

“Sources familiar with the matter” said initial discussions focused on proposals to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, some of which have been sent to the Trump Administration. Possibilities include fee structures, similar to those for the Suez Canal.

Two Pakistani officials said Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia could form a consortium to manage oil flows. The proposal has been discussed with the US and Iran.

A Turkish official said “ensuring the safe passage of ships could serve as an important confidence-building measure” towards a ceasefire.

UPDATE 2118 GMT:

‌Israel’s Prime Minister ⁠Benjamin Netanyahu ⁠has ordered an expansion of the occupation of southern Lebanon.

In a video statement, Netanyahu said he has instructed the military ⁠to expand the “buffer ⁠zone”, “We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north.”

UPDATE 1621 GMT:

Ten Kuwaiti military personnel have been injured by an Iranian missile strike on a military camp in the country.

The camp has sustained material damage amid 14 ballistic missiles and 12 drones fired on Kuwait over the past 24 hours.

UPDATE 1352 GMT:

Two India-bound liquefied petroleum gas tankers have passed through the Strait of Hormuz, the Indian Petroleum Ministry says.

With a total of about 94,000 metric tons, BW Tyr and BW Elm are expected in Mumbai on March and New Mangalore on April 1 respectively.

Four Indian-flagged LPG tankers have already completed the crossing, while three more are still in the western section of the Strait.

UPDATE 1342 GMT:

International monitors have documented the civilian casualties in Iran from the US-Israel War.

Human Rights Activists in Iran recorded at least 1,443 civilian deaths, including at least 217 children, between February 28 and March 23. The actual number is expected to be much higher.

Joined by Airwars and the Center for Civilians in Conflict, HRA identified killings from targeting errors and misidentification, including as a result of outdated or faulty intelligence; inadequate precautionary warnings for civilians; the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas; and attacks on or impacting civilian and “dual-use” infrastructure.

HRA verified damage to 60 hospitals or medical centers, 44 schools, and 129 residential buildings. At least 543 strikes targeted “dual-use” infrastructure, including energy and transport systems essential to civilian life.

Around 3.2 million people are displaced, according to the UN.

HRA also noted an intensification of domestic repression, including arbitrary arrests — at least 1,830 as of 19 March — restrictive security controls, and official rhetoric threatening arrest and even death to perceived opponents.

UPDATE 1321 GMT:

An Israeli missile hit the Tehran building of the Qatari news channel Al Araby, causing “extensive damage and halting live broadcasts”.

The outlet said 10 people were injured.

UPDATE 1026 GMT:

Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has called out the Pentagon’s preparations (see 0659 GMT) for ground and naval operations against Iranian islands and the coast.

The Trump camp hoped to cultivate Ghalibaf as an Iranian leader willing to make concessions to the US over Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and control of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s oil.

However, Ghalibaf publicly rejected last weekend’s approach for talks in Pakistna.

Ghalibaf wrote in his latest message:

The enemy openly sends a message of negotiation and secretly plans a ground attack. The United States expresses its desires with a list of 15 points and pursues what it did not achieve in the war.

We are in a major world war, and we must prepare ourselves for the tortuous and difficult path ahead of us until we reach the summit.

UPDATE 1013 GMT:

Iran is threatening retaliation for US-Israel airstrikes on two universities in Tehran and Isfahan.

The Revolutionary Guards said they will target Israeli or US universities in the region, advising evacuations within a 1-km radius. They gave the Trump Administration an ultimatum to condemn the strikes to avoid the retaliation.

The Guards said they launched missile and drone strikes on aluminum plants in Bahrain and the UAE over the weekend in retaliation for a US-Israeli attack on Iranian industrial infrastructure, launched from bases in Gulf states.

Aluminium Bahrain, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, said two employees were lightly in an Iranian strike targeting its facility on Saturday.

UPDATE 0728 GMT:

US-Israeli strikes on a quay at the port city of Bandar Khamir in southern Iran have killed five people, say Iranian State media.

UPDATE 0721 GMT:

Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, says Iran is allowing an additional 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Two ships will be permitted to transit each day.

Dar posted on social media, “This is a welcome and constructive gesture by Iran and deserves appreciation. It is a harbinger of peace and will help usher stability in the region.”

UPDATE 0659 GMT:

US officials say the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, with the arrival of several thousand US soldiers and marines in the region.

The officials said the potential ground operations involve raids by a mixture of Special Operations forces and conventional infantry troops.

They did not make clear if Donald Trump would approve any of the plans.

One person said the objectives under consideration will probably take “weeks, not months” to complete. Another put the potential timeline at “a couple of months”.

The officials set out four possible operations:

  • Invasion or blockade of Kharg Island, through which more than 90% of Iran’s oil exports pass;
  • Invasion of the island of Larak in the Strait of Hormuz, which hosts Iranian attack craft that can blow up cargo ships and radars;
  • Seizing the islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb, which lie near the western entrance to the strait. Iran took them in 1971 but the UAE disputes the claim and has reportedly been pressing the Trump Administration to occupy them;
  • Blocking or seizing ships that are exporting Iranian oil on the eastern side of the Strait.

The officials also described plans for ground operations in Iran to secure highly enriched uranium buried within nuclear facilities. However, they pointed to large-scale airstrikes to prevent Iran from ever recovering the material.

US Central Command announced on Saturday that the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, has arrived in the region with around 2,200 sailors and troops of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Another amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, is en route from California. The Pentagon announced last week that more than 1,000 members of the 82nd Airborne have been mobilized.

UPDATE, MARCH 29:

An Israeli soldier has been killed in south Lebanon.

Five Israeli troops have been slain amid Israel’s offensive since March 2.

UPDATE 1950 GMT: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organisation, has spoken about Israel’s killing of nine paramedics and injuring of seven in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

The rescuers were slain while working in the field amid five separate attacks on Lebanese villages. Their murders brought the number of health workers killed this month to 51.

Ghebreyesus posted:

Health workers are protected under international humanitarian law and should never be targeted.

The only way to end these tragedies is to end attacks on health care, NOW!

UPDATE 1756 GMT:

A US official says about two dozen American personnel were injured, at least two seriously, in Friday’s Iranian strike on the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia.

Most of the wounded suffered traumatic brain injuries. Numbers could go up as more troops come forward to report symptoms.

Two KC-135 refuelling tankers were significantly damaged, said US officials.

UPDATE 1753 GMT:

An “Israeli security source” says Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have launched a second missile towards Israel today.

The source said the both missiles were intercepted with no injuries or damage.

Announcing the initial attack, the Houthis said they fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at “sensitive Israeli military sites” and that they would continue military operations until “aggression” came to an end on all fronts.

UPDATE 1746 GMT:

At least 47 people have been killed and 112 injured in Lebanon by Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.

The victims include paramedics, journalists, farmers, and a father and son (see 1110 GMT).

Israel has killed at least 1,189 people and wounded 3,427 since March 2.

UPDATE 1413 GMT:

The shipping giant Maersk has suspended its operations at the port of Salalah in Oman after this morning’s drone attack (see 0617 GMT).

Following the incident in which a terminal crane sustained damage, the port was immediately evacuated and operations across the facility were temporarily suspended.

The Port of Salalah remains in full cooperation with relevant authorities and Maersk’s current estimate is that operations will be on hold for approximately 48 hours.

UPDATE 1209 GMT:

The Iranian Red Crescent says US and Israeli airstrikes have damaged more than 93,000 civilian properties.

They include 71,547 homes; 20,779 commercial sites; 295 health and emergency facilities; 600 schools; 48 emergency vehicles; 46 ambulances; and three rescue helicopters.

UPDATE 1110 GMT:

Five paramedics have been killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon.

The Islamic Message Scouts Association posted that the paramedics were “martyred while performing their humanitarian duty in the aggressive raid on the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyah today”.

The toll from an Israeli attack on Syrian farmers in al-Hanniye in southern Lebanon has climbed to at least five killed and eight injured.

Three journalists, working for Hezbollah outlets Al-Manar and Al-Mayadeen, were killed by an airstrike on their car.

And a father and son were slain by heavy fire on their civilian vehicle in the al-Awainat area.

UPDATE 1055 GMT:

“Several drone attacks” on Kuwait airport have caused “significant damage” to its radar system.

Civil aviation authorities said there were no injuries.

The airport has been targeted several times during the US-Israel War on Iran, including on Wednesday when a drone attack on a fuel depot caused a massive fire.

UPDATE 0949 GMT:

At 15 US troops were wounded, five seriously, by an Iranian bombardment of the Prince Sultan airbase on Friday.

Officials said Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones.

More than two dozen US troops have been wounded by three Iranian attacks on the airbase in the past week.

UPDATE 0623 GMT:

Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul says an agreement has been reached with Iran to allow Thai oil vessels safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

UPDATE 0617 GMT:

Six people have been injured in the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi by falling debris from an intercepted ballistic missile interception.

Two fires were started near the Khalifa Economic Zones.

In Oman, a drone attack injured a worker and damaged a crane.

A spokesman for Iran’s military claimed, “A logistics vessel supporting the aggressive US army was targeted by the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran at a considerable distance from the port of Salalah in Oman.”

UPDATE 0615 GMT:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they turned back three ships, with different national flags, trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz on Friday.

The Guards reiterated that all shipping “to and from ports of allies and supporters of the Israeli-American enemies” are prohibited from passage.

UPDATE 0610 GMT:

Israel says it detected a missile fired from Yemen, the first during the US-Israel War on Iran.

The attack came as Israel was again striking Iran’s capital Tehran.

On Friday, Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi insurgency said their “finger is on the trigger” if attacks on Iran and the “Axis of Resistance” continue.

During Israel’s mass killing in Gaza, the Houthis fired on Israeli territory and on shipping around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea.

UPDATE 0606 GMT:

Twelve US troops were wounded, two of them seriously, by an Iranian military strike on the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia.

US Central Command says more than 300 military personnel have been wounded during the US-Israel War on Iran, with most returning to service.

Thirteen US personnel have been killed.

UPDATE, MARCH 28:

A man was killed in Tel Aviv on Friday by Iranian missile strikes. Two other men, aged 65 and 50, were wounded.

Home Front Command official Col. Miki David said a residential apartment was hit by a cluster munition.

In Lebanon’s capital Beirut, a pre-dawn Israeli strike killed two people.

UPDATE 1707 GMT:

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Donald Trump broke his pledge of no attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure for 10 days.

Araghchi pledges retaliation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeated its call for “restraint” after Israel’s attacks on a uranium production facility and the Arak heavy water reactor.

UPDATE 1639 GMT:

The foreign ministers of the G7 countries — the US, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, and the UK — have called for an immediate stop to attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Iran war.

In a joint statement on the second day of their meeting in France, the ministers said:

We focused on the value of diverse partnerships, coordination and supporting initiatives, including to mitigate global economic shocks such as disruptions to economic, energy, fertilizer and commercial supply chains, which have direct impacts on our citizens.

They reiterated the need to restore safe and toll-free freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

The ministers did not explain how their statement was consistent with the launch of the war by the US, alongside, with the killing of hundreds of Iranian civilians.

UPDATE 1628 GMT:

“US intelligence sources” say a third of Iran’s missile stocks are confirmed to have been destroyed in the US-Israel War.

The status of another third is less clear, although strikes likely damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers.

One official said the intelligenceis similar for Iran’s drone capability.

Donald Trump asserted on Thursday that Iran had “very few rockets left”.

UPDATE 1615 GMT:

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization says US-Israeli strikes hit a uranium processing facility in central Iran.

“The plant in Ardakan, located in Yazd Province, was targeted minutes ago in an attack by the American-Zionist enemy,” the Organization posted on Telegram. The attack “did not result in the release of any radioactive material.”

An Iranian official in Markazi Province in central Iran said two waves of US-Israeli strikes hit the Khondab Heavy Water Complex.

Iranian outlets said there were no casualties or radiation leak from the site.

Iranian media claimed that after an evacuation warning, the Israeli Air Force bombed the Arak heavy water reactor. Revolutionary Guards-linked Fars said the strikes “did not result in any human casualties, and due to prior safety measures, there is no danger threatening the local people”.

The Israeli military lied that Arak is a “key plutonium production site for nuclear weapons”.

Israel bombed the Arak complex during its 12-day war in June 2025.

UPDATE 1117 GMT:

UNICEF says at least 121 children have been killed and 399 injured in Lebanon by Israel’s attacks since March 2.

More than 370,000 have been forced from their homes, said UNICEF’s representative in Lebanon, Marcoluigi Corsi.

An official of the UN’s refugee agency estimates that around 150,000 people are isolated in southern Lebanon after the Israeli destruction of bridges.

We have seen increasingly worrying rhetoric concerning activities in southern Lebanon by the Israeli army and authorities.

“What we really need is for Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty to be fully respected.

UPDATE 1049 GMT:

“People familiar with the matter” says the US military has fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in four weeks of war with Iran, a rate alarming some Pentagon officials and prompting internal discussions about how to make more available.

Only a few hundred Tomahawks, with a range of more than 1,000 miles, are manufactured each year.

Because of the high burn rate, the US Navy has conducted resupply aboard at least some of the warships involved in the attacks on Iran.

The most recent versions of the missile cost up to $3.6 million each and require up to two years for construction. In recent years, they have been purchased in small batches, with just 57 included in last year’s defense budget.

UPDATE 0944 GMT:

A “Saudi intelligence source” has confirmed that the kingdom is urging the Trump Administration to escalate attacks on Iran.

The source said Riyadh is considering whether to join the war directly.

Officials from unnamed countries have told the New York Times that Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has urged Donald Trump to escalate, including the use of American ground forces.

An EA correspondent confirms that both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are concerned that the Trump camp will cut a deal with the Iranian regime, leaving Tehran as a threat to the Gulf States.

Trump told journalists on Tuesday: “Yeah, [Mohammad bin Salman] is a warrior. He’s fighting with us.”

UPDATE 0702 GMT:

Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says of US-Iran contacts, “Based on my information, there have been indirect contacts, and preparations have been made to meet directly. That would be very soon in Pakistan, apparently.”

UPDATE 0659 GMT:

Drones have struck Kuwait’s Shuwaikh port, causing material damage.

No injuries are reported.

UPDATE 0652 GMT:

The UAE has reportedly told other countries that it would participate in a multi-national naval operation to take control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran.

The Emirates told the US and other western states, “according to three people familiar with the situation”. Two said Abu Dhabi would deploy its navy.

The UAE is the only country which has publicly backed the Trump Administration’s call for an international naval military intervention.

An EA correspondent notes that Emirates leader Mohammad bin Zayed is pressing the US to seize three Iranian islands in the Strait: Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb.

Iran claimed the islands, pushing back the UAE, in 1971.

One official said the UAE is working on a UN Security Council resolution with Bahrain to provide any future naval force with a mandate.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Donald Trump has wobbled again in the US-Israel War on Iran, retreating by another 10 days in his threat to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure.

Trump issued the statement on social media on Thursday. Without any evidence, Trump claimed that the request for the extension came from Tehran and that alleged US-Iran talks are going “very well”.

He assailed the “fake news media” for reporting that there is no basis for his assertions.

The reality TV star extended his “deadline” by five days on Monday, amid surging oil prices and falling stock markets because of his threat of “obliteration” of Iran’s power plants.

Oil prices were again rising and markets slumping after their brief rally after Trump’s declaration on Monday. Asian markets opened lower on Friday, with South Korean shares down more than 3% and Japan’s Nikkei on track for a fourth straight weekly decline.

Brent oil had dropped below $100 per barrel on Monday. On Friday morning, it was slightly down at $108.

The Iranian regime has been in contact with the Trump camp with messages through intermediaries. However, it has loudly rejected the Trump camp’s 15-point ultimatum, including Tehran’s permanent shutdown of its nuclear program, strict limits on its ballistic missiles, and breaking of ties with its allies in the Middle East.

The regime again rebuffed Trump’s “extension”. Drones were fired on the Americans’ Sultan Amir military base in Saudi Arabia. Iranian missiles targeted Israel throughout the day, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Trump persisted in his unsupported declarations. He told Fox TV, “I gave them a 10-day period, they asked for seven.”

Then he maintained, “In a certain sense, we have already won.”