DAY 7 | TOP DEVELOPMENTS
Israeli warplanes struck Beirut and Tehran on Friday as Iran launched another wave of retaliatory attacks on Israel and Gulf states, with no sign of the conflict easing on its seventh day. The United States warned that its air campaign against Iran would “surge dramatically.”
‘Unconditional surrender’: US President Donald Trump on Friday demanded Iran's "unconditional surrender" as the only acceptable outcome to end hostilities, while promising to help rebuild the country's economy if Tehran complied and installed new leadership.
'Nations seeking mediation': Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that some countries had begun mediation efforts to end the war with the US and Israel, but said any talks should address those who started the conflict.
Gulf allies blame US over war ops: Officials from Gulf countries said their governments were disappointed with the US’ handling of the war, particularly the initial strike on Iran last Saturday. They said they were not given advance notice and that US officials ignored their warnings that the war could devastate the region.
Major humanitarian emergency: The United Nations has declared the crisis in the Middle East a major humanitarian emergency, stressing the need for an immediate response.
US likely behind Iran shcool strike: The US was "most likely responsible" for the airstrike on an elementary school in southern Iran that left over 160 dead, according to a NYT investigation. US officials told Reuters that military investigators “believe it is likely” that its forces carried out the strike.
Thousands displaced in Lebanon: Hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon have been displaced in days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Red Cross said, adding many fled on foot with little more than the clothes on their backs and no clear destination.
'Plenty of oil': International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol on Friday sought to tamp down fears of a global oil crisis after prices spiked because of the Middle East war, saying there was "plenty of oil in the market."
Several Iranian Red Crescent facilities, including “relief posts and warehouses”, have sustained significant damage since the war on Iran began a week ago, Jagan Chapagain of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has said.
“Communities on all sides are already paying a heavy price, with deaths and injuries, and damage to homes, schools, hospitals, and other vital civilian infrastructure,” he said in a post on X.
“These and all Red Cross Red Crescent personnel and infrastructures must be protected during this challenging time.”
A drone attack targeted on Friday evening a military base at Baghdad airport that hosts a US diplomatic facility, security sources told AFP.
A security official said that "four drones targeted" the military base, while another official reported that at least two of the drones crashed inside it.
Several drone attacks have been intercepted near Baghdad airport since the start of the war in the Middle East.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister has visited Iran’s embassy in Moscow to offer condolences following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko visited the embassy yesterday and conveyed the condolences of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the Iranian people.
Rudenko also signed a book of condolences for the family of Khamenei and for those killed in what Moscow described as “US-Israeli aggression”.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Friday "unlawful attacks" across the Middle East and warned that the situation could spiral out of control as the regional war raged across multiple countries.
"All the unlawful attacks in the Middle East and beyond are causing tremendous suffering and harm to civilians throughout the region -- and pose a grave a risk to the global economy, particularly to the most vulnerable people," he said.
"The situation could spiral beyond anyone's control. It is time to stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations."
Only nine oil tankers, cargo and container ships, some of which at times concealed their position, have been recorded crossing the Strait of Hormuz since Monday, according to data by MarineTraffic analysed by AFP.
After three ships were attacked Sunday, at least three tankers and a vessel carrying gas have crossed this chokepoint.
Nearly 20 percent of the world's crude oil and about 20 percent of LNG transit through Strait of Hormuz.
The Israeli army says it hit more than 400 targets in Iran today, including ballistic missile launchers and storage facilities for unmanned aerial vehicles.
In western Iran’s Shahroud area, Israeli forces destroyed a truck that was transferring air defence systems to another location, the army claimed on Telegram.
Iranian forces fired seven attack drones at civilian, residential neighborhoods in Bahrain on Thursday night, U.S. Central Command commander Brad Cooper said on Friday in a statement.
Cooper said that Iran has attacked 12 different countries since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
"This is unacceptable and will not go unanswered," Cooper said in a statement.
The tanker was empty when it came under fire on Thursday, U.N. Undersecretary-General Jorge Moreira da Silva said.
No one was injured, he said, but gave no further details as he called for a full investigation.
“Fuel must be allowed into Gaza consistently, its delivery facilitated safely and without interruption,” said da Silva. He leads the U.N. agency known as UNOPS, which helps the U.N, governments and others with projects, procurement and deliveries.
His statement Friday said fuel is critical to the operations of humanitarian and essential services including hospitals, water and sewage systems, and bakeries.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Lebanon’s town of Majdal Selm has killed nine members of the same family, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports.
Most of those killed were woman and children, NNA said.
The Iraqi government and the autonomous Kurdistan region said Friday that Iraq must not be a launchpad for attacks against neighbouring countries, following reports that militants might attempt to cross into Iran.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Kurdistan's regional president Nechirvan Barzani agreed in a phone call "that Iraqi territory must not be used as a launching point for attacks against neighbouring countries", the premier's media office said.
Tehran threatened Friday to target "all the facilities" of Iraq's autonomous region if exiled Kurdish Iranian militants were allowed to enter Iran.
Aid agency the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said Friday that 300,000 people in Lebanon had been forced to flee after Israel launched a wave of evacuation orders and airstrikes.
The aid agency also questioned the legality of the mass-evacuation orders Israel had issued there.
The orders cover hundreds of villages in South Lebanon, as well as villages in the Bekaa region and the southern suburbs of Beirut, constituting a large area of Lebanese territory.
It added that the number of people who might be displaced could potentially exceed one million.
France has sent a helicopter carrier to the Mediterranean in response to the Middle East war, the French military told AFP on Friday.
"An amphibious helicopter carrier has been deployed in the Mediterranean to reinforce the presence of the French armed forces in the context of the Middle East crisis," a spokeswoman said, after France decided to deploy its flagship aircraft carrier and a frigate earlier in the week.
A similar ship was sent off the shore of Lebanon as a precautionary measure to help with repatriations if needed during the 2024 war between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The current conflict has already drawn in Lebanon.
Lebanese civilians are “paying a painfully heavy price” in Israel’s expanded bombing campaign and ground incursions, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned.
The breadth of mass evacuations in suburban Beirut and the Bekaa Valley “makes them very difficult for the population to comply with and therefore brings into question their effectiveness, a requirement under international humanitarian law, and risks amounting to prohibited forced displacement”, spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani wrote in a statement Friday.
Combined with attacks on residential buildings, Israel is “bringing more misery and suffering to an already weary civilian population”.
“We urge the parties to step back from the brink of a major escalation of this conflict in Lebanon,” Shamdasani added.
The Saudi ministry of defence says on X that a cruise missile was intercepted and destroyed “east of Al-Kharj Governorate”.
An Iranian warship has docked in the southwest Indian port of Kochi, a government source in New Delhi said on Friday, after a US submarine sank another Iranian frigate and a third docked in Sri Lanka.
"IRIS Lavan... docked at Kochi on March 4. In this context, its crew of 183 are currently accommodated at naval facilities in Kochi," the source said.
The president is hosting executives from various defense contractors on Friday to push them to expedite the delivery of more American-made weapons.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday that the US military has “more than enough munitions, ammo, and weapons stockpiles” to continue its operations in the Middle East.
“Nevertheless, President Trump has always been intensely focused on strengthening our military, which is why this meeting with defense contractors was scheduled weeks ago.”
In his latest Truth Social post, US President Donald Trump has claimed that the Department of State is “moving thousands of people out of various Countries throughout the Middle East”.
“It is being done quietly, but seamlessly,” the president said, praising Secretary of State Marco Rubio for “doing a great job!”
The Israeli military on Friday said Hezbollah had fired around 70 rockets toward Israel since midnight, many of them from southern Lebanon.
"After midnight yesterday, around 70 rockets were launched towards the direction of Israel," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told journalists, adding that "a lot of these launches were from southern Lebanon".
Shoshani also said that since Israel began striking in Lebanon this week, it had hit "more than 500 targets across Lebanon and eliminated over 70 Hezbollah terrorists".
Hezbollah says it has fired rockets at two locations in northern Israel in response to Israeli attacks across Lebanon.
In two statements, the group said its fighters targeted Malkia and Ramot Naftali with rocket barrages today.
Hezbollah said the first attack struck Malkia at about 9:00am local time (07:00 GMT), while a second barrage targeted Ramot Naftali at about 2:00pm local time (12:00 GMT).
Flagging concerns over “unwarranted sensationalism and speculative content” about the ongoing Iran-United States-Israel conflict aired by some television news channels, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) on Friday decided to temporarily suspend Television Rating Points (TRPs).
The ministry directed the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to withhold TRPs for at least four weeks in “public interest”.
Israel struck Lebanon's ancient city of Tyre on Friday, killing at least one person, in an area adjacent to a UNESCO World Heritage site, according to state media.
"Enemy warplanes carried out a strike on the ruins district of Tyre city," near the Bass Palestinian refugee camp, the National News Agency said.
Bass is one of a dozen Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it has targeted United States forces at two military bases in the Gulf, according to Iranian state media.
The report said the attacks targeted Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, both of which host US military personnel.
Israel’s military said Friday that it had pummeled an underground bunker Iranian leaders had planned to use in emergencies, deploying more than 50 fighter jets and 100 munitions.
Iran’s education minister has written to UNICEF calling for condemnation of what he described as attacks on schools, students and educational infrastructure across the country.
In the letter, Alireza Kazemi accused the US and Israel of carrying out strikes that he said targeted residential areas, healthcare facilities and schools.
Kazemi said the attacks had killed and injured students and teachers in several provinces, including Minab, Fars, Ilam, East Azerbaijan, Tehran and Qazvin, as well as counties around the capital.
According to the letter, about 20 educational centres have been severely damaged, with some completely destroyed, disrupting schooling for thousands of students.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was not struck by drones, a US defense official said Friday, after Iranian state TV reported a strike on the massive warship.
"The reports are not true," the defense official said.
EU chiefs will hold talks with Middle East leaders by video-link on Monday on the war in the region, a spokesperson for the European Council president said.
"This exchange will provide an opportunity to hear leaders' assessments of the situation and to discuss further support from the EU and its member states to countries in the region, as well as ways to bring the current conflict to an end," the spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
The spokesperson did not provide details of which Middle East leaders will take part in the meeting with European Council president Antonio Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Iran has carried out missile attacks targeting Kurdish armed opposition groups in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, according to Iranian state television.
The report said Iranian forces struck positions belonging to what Tehran described as anti-Iran separatist groups based in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
Iran's sole competitor at the Paralympics in Milan-Cortina has been forced to pull out of the Games due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, the International Paralympic Committee said on Friday.
Aboulfazl Khatibi Mianaei was due to compete in two cross-country skiing events but "cannot travel safely to Italy" due to the war pitting Iran against the US and Israel, IPC president Andrew Parsons said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump on Friday demanded Iran's "unconditional surrender" as the only acceptable outcome to end hostilities, while promising to help rebuild the country's economy if Tehran complied and installed new leadership.
"There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that his intention was to "MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!)"
Hezbollah’s military command is calling on the group’s gunmen to fight to the death, saying that the war they are fighting is similar to that fought by one of Shiite Islam’s most important religious figures 13 centuries ago.
The group’s command also said in a statement directed to fighters that they should “defend the nation” to keep Hezbollah’s yellow banner flying.
“Kill them wherever you find them,” the command said, describing the ongoing war as a religious battle similar to the one fought by Imam Hussein in Karbala.
Imam Hussein was killed in a climactic battle in Karbala, which is now part of Iraq, in AD 680. “Karbala is happening again,” the statement said.
Iran's police chief Ahmad Radan said on Friday that officers had been authorised to shoot at suspected looters amid the war with Israel and the United States. "Because we are in wartime conditions, I have issued orders to shoot at potential thieves," Radan told state TV, adding that any thieves would be "swiftly neutralised".
He also said that authorities had taken measures to maintain order online.
"We will not allow a group of paid agents to undermine the unity that the people achieved with the blood of thousands of martyrs by spreading agitation," said Radan.
Thousands of men and women gathered in Tehran’s streets Friday in a show of defiance and to hold prayers in the open.
Waving clenched fists and Iranian flags as they filed past a poster of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the marchers chanted “We’ll fight, we’ll die, we won’t accept humiliation” and “No compromise, no surrender, destruction of Israel.”
Hassan Fathollahi, 54, said he had brough his children to “make our enemies understand that we and our children will sacrifice our lives for the (Islamic) revolution.”
“We will not give up the blood of our leader. Every single son of Iran is ready to fight America and Israel until victory, God willing,” he said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday said the Middle East war must not lead to the collapse of the Iranian state, warning of the impact this would have on migration to Europe.
"An endless war is not in our interest. The same applies to a collapse of Iranian statehood or proxy conflicts fought on Iranian soil," he said.
"Such scenarios could have far-reaching consequences for Europe, including for security, energy supply and migration."
Iran’s internet shut down has spurred a thriving black market for virtual private networks.
A woman who lives in Tehran told The Associated Press she has had growing trouble with connecting to the internet. She added that since the beginning of the war, those who can afford it are having trouble finding steady connections that last more than a day.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that her mobile phone also stopped receiving signal overnight until around dawn, and that her VPN no longer allowed her to send video and pictures.
“This VPN will end in about 4-5 hours and it is very expensive to renew it,” she said, before losing connection again.
Explosions were heard on Friday in the Kuwaiti capital, an AFP journalist said, as authorities said they were confronting missile and drone strikes on the country.
"Kuwaiti air defences are currently dealing with missile and drone attacks that penetrated Kuwaiti airspace," the defence ministry said on X, after authorities said 67 soldiers were injured in Iranian strikes over the past week.
Three aerial drones hit the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the country’s Defense Ministry said on X. It did not elaborate on where they fell or any damage caused.
The UAE’s air defenses destroyed nine ballistic missiles and intercepted a further 109 drones on Friday, the ministry added. Since the start of the war, 205 ballistic missiles and 1,184 drones have been detected in UAE territory, with most destroyed, officials said.
Several explosions were heard in the Bahraini capital Manama on Friday, an AFP correspondent said, with authorities sounding sirens as Iran pressed its retaliation campaign in the Gulf.
"The siren has been sounded. Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place," the interior ministry said in a statement on X.
Iranian media said on Friday that explosions had rocked the key port city of Bandar Abbas on its Gulf coast amid US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
"Several explosions were heard in the city of Bandar Abbas," the Etemad online website reported. Other media including Shargh daily carried similar reports.
Witnesses say intense airstrikes hit Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Friday afternoon as Israel’s military has issued a warning that people should flee an industrial area of Qom, the Shiite seminary city south of Tehran.
The International Energy Agency director says the conflict in Iran has halted exports of Iranian gas to largely Asian markets, a stoppage that if drawn out will likely lead to a bidding war between Europe and Asia and energy prices will soar.
“If the crisis continues this way, the Asian buyers and the European buyers will need to compete for the LNG which will get scarce and scarce,”
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said during a news conference in Brussels.
“So this will be the challenge for European countries if the crisis continues in the next days or weeks to come.”
Officials from two Gulf countries said their governments were disappointed in the way the US has handled the war, particularly the initial attack on Iran last Saturday, sources told The Associated Press.
They said their countries were not given advance notice of the US-Israeli attack and complained the US had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences for the entire region.
One of the officials said that Gulf countries were frustrated and even angry that the US military has not defended them enough. He said there is belief in the region that the operation has focused on defending Israel and American troops, while leaving Gulf countries to protect themselves and said that his country’s stock of interceptors was “rapidly depleting.”
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that some countries had begun mediation efforts to end the war with the United States and Israel, but said any talks should address those who started the war.
"Some countries have begun mediation efforts. Let's be clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region yet we have no hesitation in defending our nation's dignity and sovereignty," said Pezeshkian in a post on X.
"Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict."
An Iranian military spokesman said on Friday that forces targeted what he described as a US-owned oil tanker in the Gulf and that it was now "burning."
"An oil tanker vessel owned by the United States near the borders of Kuwait has been targeted and is burning," said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the military's central headquarters, according to state TV.
The US is most likely responsible for a strike that reportedly killed scores of people at an elementary school in southern Iran, according to a New York Times investigation.
The February 28 strike hit an elementary school in the Iranian town of Minab and killed at least 160 people, according to Iranian officials.
Neither Israel nor the US has claimed responsibility for the attack, which was in close proximity to sites controlled by the IRGC. The US Department of Defense has said it is investigating the incident.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that US military statements indicating forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where an IRGC base is located, "suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike."
An analysis of social media posts from the time of the attack, as well as photos and videos from witnesses, indicated that the Shajare Tayyebeh elementary school was struck at the same time as a Revolutionary Guards' naval base sites, the Times said.
Two unidentified US officials told Reuters that military investigators "believe it is likely" that US forces were responsible for the strike.
Iraqi Kurdish authorities said on Friday that oil production at an oil field operated by US firm HKN Energy has been halted following an attack.
A security source told AFP the attack was carried out with two drones the previous day.
The natural resources ministry in the northern Kurdistan region said in a statement that an "outlaw group in Iraq launched a terrorist attack on the HKN oil field in the Sarsang area" in Dohuk province, damaging the field and "halting production".
Iran's army said on Friday it had attacked US bases in Kuwait and vowed that it would press on with further strikes.
"Over the past few hours, various types of destructive drones of the Army's ground forces have targeted American military bases in Kuwait in large numbers," the army said, according to Iranian state TV.
"These attacks will continue in the coming hours."
International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol sought Friday to tamp down fears of a global oil crisis after prices spiked because of the war in the Middle East, saying there was "plenty of oil in the market."
Addressing reporters in Brussels, Birol said "logistical disruption" from the conflict was "creating challenges for many countries," but insisted: "There is no shortage of oil globally."
The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday it had declared the crisis in the Middle East a major humanitarian emergency, stressing the need for an immediate response.
"UNHCR has declared the escalating crisis in the Middle East as a major humanitarian emergency requiring an immediate response across the region," Ayaki Ito, the agency's emergency chief and its cross-regional refugee coordinator, told reporters in Geneva.
The World Health Organization said its global health emergencies logistics hub in Dubai was resuming operations on Friday after a pause caused by the war in the Middle East.
"One of our most immediate concerns is the disruption of humanitarian health supply chains. After a temporary pause, WHO’s Hub for Global Health Emergencies Logistics is today resuming operations," Hanan Balkhy, the UN health agency's Eastern Mediterranean regional chief, told a press conference in Geneva, speaking from Cairo.
Azerbaijan said on Friday it was withdrawing diplomatic staff from neighbouring Iran, a day after Iranian drones targeted an airport and a school in an Azerbaijani border region.
"Azerbaijan is evacuating its diplomatic personnel from Iran. The process applies to both the embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Tabriz," Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said, adding: "Work in this direction is currently underway."
Israel struck a building on a main thoroughfare of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Friday, state media said, without prior warning.
The strike targeted the tenth floor of an office building near two shelters for displaced people, an AFP photographer said.
Rescuers removed at least one body and were gathering human remains, the photographer said.
Kuwait's defence ministry said early on Friday that 67 army personnel have been injured since the beginning of Iran's retaliation campaign -- the highest number by far of any Gulf military.
"Sixty-seven Kuwaiti military personnel have been injured" since the beginning of the attacks, according to Colonel Saud Al-Atwan, the defence ministry spokesman.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned on Friday that "a humanitarian disaster is looming" as a result of Israeli evacuation orders that are causing a massive displacement of the population.
"The humanitarian and political consequences of this displacement could be unprecedented," the premier told foreign ambassadors.
The United Nations rights chief stressed Friday the need for "transparent and impartial investigations" into an alleged deadly strike on a school in Iran, urging Washington to move "very quickly" with its announced probe.
"What we have asked for is obviously prompt, transparent and impartial investigations, which we understand has been announced by the United States of America," Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva, stressing that "we need this to happen very quickly and we need to also make sure that there is accountability as well as redress for the victims".
The United Nations rights chief called on Friday for cool heads to prevail in the Middle East and urged the warring sides to pull back and give peace a chance.
"The world urgently needs to see steps to contain and extinguish this blaze -- but instead we are only seeing more inflammatory, bellicose rhetoric, more bombings, more destruction, killings and escalation, that fuels it further," Volker Turk told reporters.
"I urge the states involved to take immediate steps to de-escalate, to give peace a chance. And on other states to call clearly on those involved to pull back. Cool heads must prevail if we are to prevent further terror and devastation for civilians."
The Israeli military on Friday said it had started a new "wave of strikes" against Iran-backed Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
"The IDF is now striking Hezbollah infrastructure in the Dahiyeh area in Beirut," the military said, using the Arabic name for the area.
The United States is not in a position to provide enough missiles to the Gulf states and Ukraine to defend themselves, European defence and space commissioner Andrius Kubilius said on Friday.
He said following the US-Israel war on Iran, "Americans really will not be able to provide enough of those missiles, both for the Gulf countries, for American army itself and also for Ukrainian needs".
Several blasts were heard over Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Friday, AFP journalists reported, after the military said it had detected new missiles launched from Iran towards the country.
"A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat," the military said.
Residents of Dubai received an Emirati interior ministry alert on their phones on Friday urging them to shelter from potential missile threats, AFP correspondents reported, as Iran pressed on with its Gulf retaliation campaign.
"Due to the current situation, potential missile threats, seek immediate shelter in the closest secure building and steer away from windows, doors and open areas," the alert read.
Sri Lanka has taken in more than 200 Iranian sailors after a US torpedo strike on an Iranian warship near its southern coast earlier this week.
The crew from the Iranian vessel IRIS Bushehr were brought ashore on Thursday and are being housed at a military camp near Colombo after the ship reported engine trouble and sought port entry.
The request came after another Iranian warship, IRIS Dena, was hit by a US torpedo off Sri Lanka’s southern coast on Wednesday, killing at least 84 sailors and leaving dozens missing.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the decision to shelter the sailors was a humanitarian one, stressing that saving lives remained the country’s priority despite escalating tensions in West Asia.
President Donald Trump said Thursday it would be a "waste of time" currently to consider sending US ground troops into Iran, NBC News reported, dismissing the Iranian foreign minister's warning that such a move would spell disaster for invaders.
"It's a waste of time. They've lost everything. They've lost their navy. They've lost everything they can lose," he told NBC by telephone, adding that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's earlier remark that Iran was ready for a US or Israeli ground invasion was a "wasted comment."
Trump also indicated he is keen to see Iran's leadership structure removed and that "we want to go in and clean out everything" quickly.
"We don't want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period," he said. He added that he had ideas for a new leader but declined to name anyone.
Trump said earlier he would "have to be involved" in the appointment of Iran's next leader after US-Israeli strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei when the conflict began on Saturday.
Heavy attacks were reported in Tehran on Friday after Israel said it was hitting "regime infrastructure" in a "new phase" of the war it launched with the US against Iran.
Pir Hossein Kolivand, president of the organisation, said the strikes had hit 3,643 civilian sites, including 3,090 homes. He added that 528 commercial and service centres, 14 medical or pharmaceutical facilities, and nine Red Crescent facilities were also damaged.
Kolivand said most of the strikes targeted “densely populated residential areas.”
Iran is fully prepared for a “prolonged war” and could soon deploy advanced weapons not yet used in the conflict, according to a spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as reported by Al Jazeera.
In a statement, Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini said Iran’s adversaries should expect “painful blows” in the next wave of attacks.
“Iran’s new initiatives and weapons are on the way,” he said, adding that these technologies have not yet been deployed on a large scale.
Donald Trump has pushed back against Iranian claims that the country is prepared for a potential ground invasion by US and Israeli forces.
Speaking to NBC News, the US president dismissed the warning as “a waste of time,” adding that Iran had already suffered major military losses.
“They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their Navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose,” Trump said.
His remarks came in response to comments by Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran, who told NBC that a ground invasion would be a “big disaster” for the US and Israel. “We are confident that we can confront them,” Araghchi said.
In the phone interview, Trump also spoke about influencing Iran’s political future, saying the US wanted leadership in Tehran that would not take years to rebuild the country’s military capabilities.
“We want to go in and clean out everything,” he said. “We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period.”
“We want them to have a good leader,” Trump added, without naming any specific individuals.
Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran, has said his country is prepared for a potential ground invasion by the United States.
In an interview with NBC, Araghchi said Tehran was ready if Washington chose to deploy troops on the ground, declaring, “We are waiting for your ground troops.”
His remarks come as analysts warn that the US could intensify its military operations against Iran in the coming days. However, it remains unclear whether any escalation would involve deploying ground forces in an effort to topple the leadership in Tehran.
A US military investigation has found that American forces were likely responsible for a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school that reportedly killed 165 children, according to a report by news agency Reuters.
Citing two US officials, Reuters said investigators believe US forces probably carried out the attack, though the probe has not yet reached a final conclusion and further details of the investigation were not immediately available.
The elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, was struck on Saturday by either US or Israeli missile fire. Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, initially said 150 students were killed in the attack, a figure that was later revised to 165.
Iran held a mass funeral ceremony this week for the schoolgirls and staff who died in the strike.
Under international humanitarian law, deliberately targeting civilian structures such as schools or hospitals is considered a war crime.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards announced a wave of missile launches on the Israeli commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Friday, according to Iran's state news agency IRNA.
"Missiles headed toward Tel Aviv," IRNA said, reporting a Guards statement on "a combined missile and drone attack... targeting locations in the heart of Tel Aviv".
The US military said it struck an Iranian vessel, described as a “drone carrier,” which is now on fire.
“US forces aren’t holding back on the mission to sink the entire Iranian Navy,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on X, as the joint US-Israeli military attack on Iran enters its seventh day.
CENTCOM described the drone carrier as “roughly the size of a WWII aircraft carrier.” It remains unclear where the attack was carried out, according to the post.
A video of the attack, shared by CENTCOM, shows the purported Iranian vessel engulfed in thick smoke after being hit by US forces.
Top developments
The raging Iran war, which has spread across the Middle East and beyond, entered its seventh day Friday after Israeli forces announced a "next phase" in the conflict and bombed Beirut's southern suburbs.
Major humanitarian emergency: The UN had declared the crisis in the Middle East a major humanitarian emergency, stressing the need for an immediate response.
'Plenty of oil': International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol sought Friday to tamp down fears of a global oil crisis after prices spiked because of the Middle East war, saying there was "plenty of oil in the market."
Azerbaijan evacuating diplomats: Azerbaijan said it was withdrawing diplomatic staff from Iran, a day after Iranian drones targeted an airport and a school in an Azerbaijani border region.
Trump wants to be involved in picking Iran’s next leader: The U.S. president called Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the late supreme leader who is a possible candidate for the post, “unacceptable” and “a lightweight.”
Iran death toll: The death toll in Iran from the ongoing war with the United States and Israel has reached at least 1,230 people, an Iranian government agency said Thursday.
Israel targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, saying it was "striking Hezbollah infrastructure".
The Israeli military had earlier issued an unprecedented evacuation warning for the entire area -- "save your lives and evacuate your residences immediately".
The Israeli warning that preceded the strikes sent people fleeing from the area, with massive traffic jams on the outskirts of the suburbs as people fired guns in the air, urging residents to leave as soon as possible.
CBS, the American broadcaster, is citing anonymous government sources to report that the US is evacuating its embassy in Kuwait.
The embassy had already been shut after it had been targeted in an Iranian strike. The US embassy in Riyadh and the US consulate in Dubai have also been targeted.
Hegseth has also pushed back on criticisms that the US and Israel have created regional instability, saying “nothing could be further from the truth”.
Countries including the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are saying, “‘We’ll shoot with you, we’ll fly with you, we’ll defend with you'”, the defence secretary claimed.
“It’s firming up the unity of the resistance,” he said, adding of the war’s scope: “This idea that it’s expanding … it’s actually simplifying in a number of ways.”
Iran’s government has condemned a US and Israeli strike on the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran.
In a post on X, Iranian officials said a strike hit the 12,000-seat stadium at the complex, describing it as a site deeply embedded in the country’s collective memory.
Iran’s sports minister, Ahmad Donyamali, visited the site and called the attack a violation of international law and the Olympic Charter, urging global accountability.
Iran said the stadium was heavily damaged in the strike. The United States and Israel have not commented on the claim.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the United States has both the resources and the determination to sustain its military campaign against Iran.
Speaking about the conflict, Hegseth said Iran was miscalculating if it believed the United States could not maintain the operation.
“Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this – which is a really bad miscalculation,” he said.
“Our munitions are full up and our will is iron-clad, which means our timeline is ours to control,” he said.
“The dumb politically correct wars of the past are the opposite of what we are doing here,” he added.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Iran was hoping that “we can’t sustain this”, adding that this was a mistaken assessment on the part of Tehran.
“We’ve got no shortage of will … we’ve got no shortage of munitions,” he said, addressing a media briefing on the US-Israel war on Iran.
“Our capabilities: We’ve only just started … and we have no shortage of authorities,” he added.
The US House of Representatives rejected an effort to stop President Donald Trump’s war on Iran and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorised by Congress, backing the Republican president’s military campaign on the sixth day of the expanding conflict.
The vote was 219 to 212 in the House, where Trump’s fellow Republicans control a narrow majority of seats.
A similar measure was voted down yesterday in the US Senate.
The president has now turned his gaze towards Cuba.
“We want to finish this one first, but that will be just a question of time,” he said of Cuba, adding that people are “going to be going back to Cuba”.
“Hopefully not to stay … we don’t want to make it so nice that you stay,” he said. “But some people probably do want to stay. They love Cuba so much.”
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said his government would soon take action to "reduce pressure on oil," after prices spiked due to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
"Further action to reduce pressure on oil is imminent and the oil seems to have pretty much stabilized. We had it very low but I had to take this little detour if it's ok with everybody?" he said at a White House event.
He referenced having earlier taken "decisive action" by "offering political risk insurance for tankers transiting into the Gulf."
The US president has called on Iranian diplomats at embassies around the world to defect and seek asylum.
Trump also repeated his earlier offer-cum-threat to commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, asking them to step down: If they did, they would get complete immunity, he said; if they didn’t, they would be killed.
The Air France plane was supposed to pick up citizens stranded in the United Arab Emirates.
But before it could get to the UAE, it had to turn around amid missile fire, the country’s Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reports that 123 people have been killed and 683 wounded in Israeli strikes since Monday.
The figure has climbed since just before 16:00 GMT, when the ministry reported the death toll surpassing 100 people.
Citing emergency services, Haaretz is reporting damage to multiple buildings across central Israel amid a renewed wave of Iranian strikes.
Journalists at AFP, meanwhile, reported the sound of two waves of simultaneous explosions in Tel Aviv shortly after 21:00 GMT.
Sirens continued to ring in Tel Aviv, central Israel and the occupied West Bank, Haaretz said.
An Israeli strike targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut late Thursday, according to Lebanese state media, following an Israeli evacuation warning.
AFPTV footage showed a plume of smoke rising from the site in Lebanon, which was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday when the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iran's supreme leader.
The Israeli military said late Thursday it had detected new missiles launched from Iran towards Israel and the country's defence systems were operating to intercept them.
"A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat," the military said.
A limited number of Iranians are quietly fleeing into Turkiye, where they can remain for up to three months without a visa, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu reports.
Families lugging bags and suitcases entered checkpoints along the shared 530 kilometre (330 mile) border Thursday, where they lamented their friends and relatives back home.
“This is our country, our home,” one Iranian man told Al Jazeera. “My family is there, my daughter is there, my mother is there, my father is there. We are just normal people.”
“I’m really sorry for all the world, not just my country,” he said. “In war, there is no safety for [anyone].”
Others told Al Jazeera that US-Israel bombing campaigns were targeting schools and medical facilities, a reality that has been verified by international bodies such as the WHO and independent reporting.
Another man seeking refuge said ongoing strikes have become “normalised”.
“They’ve grown used to it,” he said of his fellow Iranians. “What once felt hard has become part of everyday life.”
The White House press secretary says the administration will work with the Senate to confirm Mullin to replace Noem “as quickly as possible.”
Karoline Leavitt said Mullin was “extraordinarily qualified” for the post. She added that Trump was “grateful” to Noem for “helping usher in the most secure border in American history.”
“President Trump’s immigration agenda is keeping our borders secure and deporting illegal alien criminals from our country, and it will continue without interruption,” Leavitt said in a post on X.
A drone attack has struck an oilfield operated by a US firm in Dohuk in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, causing a fire, security sources said.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has locked horns with US President Donald Trump over the war on Iran, has also criticised the Israeli escalation in Lebanon that has displaced thousands of people.
“I just spoke with the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, about the serious situation in Beirut and the rest of the country,” Sanchez wrote on X. “The Lebanese people can count on our total support and humanitarian assistance for the thousands of displaced people. Enough with the escalations. No more destruction. No to war.”
Markwayne Mullin, a close ally of Donald Trump and a Republican senator from Oklahoma, is set to take over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on an acting basis as his nomination for the post remains pending under federal rules governing executive branch vacancies.
Mullin, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for several years before being elected to the United States Senate in November 2022, has been one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill and a frequent intermediary between the White House and congressional Republicans. He has often relied on his longstanding House ties while working with former colleagues as Republicans negotiated the party’s sweeping tax and border security law last year.
If confirmed, Mullin would take charge of the third-largest department in the federal government, which plays a central role in implementing Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
He assumes the role at a crucial moment for that agenda. Immigration enforcement during the first year of Trump’s administration was largely characterised by high-profile operations designed for social media, often led by Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who reported directly to then department chief Kristi Noem.
Noem herself frequently participated in those operations, accompanying officers during field missions when arrests were carried out.
Rome is temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran and moving staff to Azerbaijan, Italy's foreign minister said Thursday.
"We have decided for security reasons to temporarily close our embassy in Tehran, and move the personnel to Baku," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told journalists at the Senate.
His spokesman confirmed the closure to AFP but stressed Italy "has not broken off diplomatic relations".
The United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on Saturday, prompting it to retaliate across the region.
Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that several explosions were heard in Tehran on Thursday morning.
Amjad Hussein Panahi, head of the political bureau of the Komala Party of Kurdistan, says that he believes “the Iranian regime” will soon come to an end.
“The Iranian regime needs time to collapse, and we, as part of the Women’s Revolution for a Free Life, are working towards that with other nations,” Panahi told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview.
“The regime is crumbling before the international community and is breathing its last. In my view, the Iranian regime will not last much longer.”
Pahani told Al Jazeera that “so far, our political program, as part of the coalition of Iranian Kurdish parties, does not include any separatist projects.”
He also laid out what his party is striving for: “we want our rights guaranteed in a decentralized Iran that ensures the rights of Kurds, Baloch, Arabs, Persians, and all other groups. We want an end to executions, and we want to study in our language and remain on our land within a free and democratic Iran where everyone feels safe.”
He said that the party has not received backing from the US, but “that the results will be greater and more welcome” should it join them in “an uprising to liberate our people from the oppressive Iranian regime.”
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has warned the country is in a “state of near-emergency” economically as the Middle East war threatens to drive up prices.
Speaking at an event at a military academy, Sisi said the conflict could have serious repercussions for Egypt’s economy, particularly through rising inflation.
“The current crisis might have some repercussions on prices”, he said, warning that traders accused of price gouging could face military courts.
Although Egypt has not been directly involved in the US and Israeli war on Iran, the conflict has disrupted trade routes and heightened economic pressures across the region.
Sisi also warned the conflict could affect traffic through the Suez Canal, a major source of foreign currency for Egypt, as shipping companies reroute vessels away from the region.
He said Egypt was making “sincere and honest mediation efforts to stop the war”.
rump said he is appointing Noem to serve as his “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas” as he announced her ouster from DHS.
Trump is gathering with the leaders of 11 Latin American countries for a “Shield” summit on Saturday at his golf club in Doral, Florida.
The name of the gathering is supposed to reflect Trump’s vision for U.S. national security strategy to put a greater emphasis on the Western Hemisphere, as he looks to leverage U.S. military and intelligence assets unseen in the region since the end of the Cold War.
Noem, speaking in Nashville, confirmed she will be at the summit and that Trump will announce “a big agreement” that will detail “how we’re going to go after cartels and drug trafficking in the entire Western Hemisphere.”
“Thank you @POTUS Trump for appointing me as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” Noem wrote on X.
She added that she looked forward to working with top administration officials “to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren.”
She also said that, during her tenure, the department “delivered the MOST secure border in American history” and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “delivered disaster relief at a 100% faster rate.”
The post followed Noem making no mention of being ousted during a more than 30-minute address and question-and-answer session at a law enforcement event in Nashville.
The Middle East conflict will have “immediate repercussions” for European Union security with an increased threat of terrorism, serious and organised crime as well as violent extremism and cyberattacks, European police body Europol has told Spanish news agency EFE.
Europol spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth said he expected to see more cyberattacks against European infrastructure and an increase in online fraud using increasingly sophisticated AI and exploiting the flurry of information swirling about the conflict online, EFE reported.
Groups linked to Iran could seek to carry out “destabilising activities” within the EU, he added, referring to groups linked to the so-called Axis of Resistance, the network of anti-US and Israeli militias in countries including Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. These could include terrorist attacks, intimidation campaigns, terrorist financing and cybercrime.
“The level of terrorist threat and violent extremism in EU territory is considered high,” he told the news agency.
The terror threat could be heightened by individuals acting alone or small cells acting on their own initiative, he said.
“The rapid spread of polarising content on the internet can accelerate short-term radicalisation processes among diaspora communities within the EU and other individuals,” he said.
Hezbollah says it fired a missile barrage at the Naftali base west of Lake Tiberias, in northern Israel.
In a statement, the group said the attack took place at about 18:45 GMT (8:45pm local time), describing it as a response to what it called Israeli strikes on Lebanese cities and towns, including Beirut’s southern suburbs.
In a separate statement, Hezbollah said it also targeted a gathering of Israeli army vehicles at a site in the town of Markaba in southern Lebanon.
The group said the attack on the vehicles took place at about 15:00 GMT (5:00pm local time).
Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai, deputy prime minister and defence minister, has held a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The two discussed “the most important developments on the regional scene, and the blatant attacks that the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, along with a number of brotherly countries, were subjected to in the past few days”, said Dubai Media Office in a post on social media.
“Both sides condemned the heinous attacks that represent a clear violation of international covenants, the sovereignty of states, and the security and safety of their peoples.”
In addition, “both sides affirmed the two countries’ right to take all measures deemed necessary to protect their capabilities and ensure the safety of all who live on the soil of the two countries,” concluded the post.
Noem’s agency, the Department of Homeland Security, has also been shut down for 20 days, although much of the employees are continuing to work, albeit without pay.
Iran has fired waves of missiles and drones at the American-allied Gulf country since the start of the war. Six American soldiers were killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait on Sunday.
Israel's military chief said Thursday that more than 60 percent of Iran's ballistic missile launchers and 80 percent of its air-defence systems have been destroyed in the ongoing US-Israeli campaign against the Islamic republic.
"We have neutralised and destroyed more than 60 percent of the ballistic missile launchers," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a televised statement.
He added that Israel had also destroyed 80 percent of Iran's air defence systems and had "achieved almost complete air superiority in the skies of Iran".
Israel's military chief said Thursday he had ordered troops to expand the area under Israeli control in southern Lebanon, as the country's ongoing operation against Hezbollah intensified.
"We are striking with force, on the front line and deeper in Lebanon. I instructed Israeli army forces to move forward and deepen the line of control along the border, while establishing positions at key points in southern Lebanon," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said during a televised address.
Israel's military chief on Thursday said the US-Israeli campaign against Iran was entering its next stage, with operations aimed at further dismantling the Islamic republic's military capabilities.
"We are now moving to the next phase of the operation. In this phase, we will further dismantle the regime and its military capabilities. We have additional surprises ahead which I do not intend to disclose," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a televised statement.
The Israeli military on Thursday warned residents of three villages in Lebanon's eastern Beqaa region to evacuate immediately.
"Urgent warning to the residents of the Beqaa region, specifically the residents of the villages and towns of Douris, Brital, and Majdaloun: Hezbollah's activities in the area are forcing the IDF (Israeli military) to operate forcefully against it in order to target its military infrastructure," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
"To ensure your safety, we urge you to evacuate the area immediately and head west."