Live updates: Iran will stop attacking neighbors unless they are used to launch strikes, president says
This version of Live Updates Iran War Trump Dignified Transfer Us Soldiers Rcna262207 - World News | NBC News Clone was adapted by NBC News Clone to help readers digest key facts more efficiently.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would stop some attacks on neighboring states but rejected a call for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
Members of the Iranian Red Crescent Society rescue teams work at the site of a building damaged in an airstrike in Iran, on Saturday. Ircs / ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters
What to know
- DIGNIFIED TRANSFER: The dignified transfer for the six U.S. service members killed in the war with Iran will be held today in Dover. President Donald Trump is expected to attend.
- IRAN STEPS BACK FROM STRIKES: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the country will "no longer attack neighboring countries or launch missiles unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries." He also rejected Trump’s call for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
- SCHOOL STRIKE INVESTIGATION: It looks increasingly likely that a U.S. munition was responsible for a strike on a school in Iran, a U.S. official and another person familiar with the preliminary findings of the U.S. investigation said. More than 160 people, including children, died in the strike.
- IRAN'S FUTURE LEADER: The clerics choosing the new figurehead after the death of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were making plans to “introduce the future leader,” state media reported. Trump has that Iran should have a “good leader” and that he has some names in mind.
- STRIKES IN TEHRAN: The area around Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran was bombed last night, according to the semiofficial Iranian news agency Tasnim.
- AMERICANS STRANDED: Thousands of American citizens remain stranded in the Middle East as Iran has continued to strike Gulf nations.
- DEATH TOLL: Hundreds of people have been killed across the Middle East. In Iran, at least 940 have been killed by Israeli and American strikes, Iranian state media reported, and 11 have died in Israel as Iran fired back. And in Lebanon, 217 people have been killed by Israeli strikes.
Photos: Displaced people fill the streets in Lebanon
Thousands of displaced people who fled Beirut’s southern suburbs are filling the streets and public squares of the Lebanese capital.
Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit said 110,162 people have been internally displaced following Israeli evacuation warnings for areas in southern and eastern Lebanon and across Beirut’s southern suburbs, a densely populated district on the outskirts of the capital that is home to hundreds of thousands.
A displaced man who fled Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, sleeps at Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut today. Bilal Hussein / AP
Displaced people fleeing Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, sleep at Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut today. Bilal Hussein / AP
Displaced people fleeing Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, sleep at Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut today. Bilal Hussein / AP
Tehran will not back down against U.S. or Israel, says IRGC advisor
Iran will not back down against the U.S. or Israel, an advisor to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said today.
"Countries that have not allowed their territory or facilities to be used by America or the Zionist regime have not been and will not be targeted," Moghadam Far said in a statement.
"All bases that were used as launch points for attacks against Iran were hit," he added.
A general view of Tehran with smoke visible in the distance after explosions were reported in the city yesterday. Getty Images
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said earlier today that the country will “no longer attack neighboring countries or launch missiles unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries.”
He also rejected Trump’s call for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
Qatar urges all residents to stay in doors
Qatar's Interior Ministry has called on residents to stay at home today after announcing the security threat level is high, the state-run Qatari News Agency said today.
The warning advised people to stay away from windows and exposed areas.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said earlier the country will “no longer attack neighboring countries or launch missiles unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries.”
Azerbaijan says it foils Iranian plots including plan to attack major pipeline
Azerbaijan said it had prevented several acts of “terrorist” sabotage planned by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including a plot to attack a major oil pipeline running through the South Caucasus to Turkey.
The targets included the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan, an Ashkenazi synagogue, and a leader of an ancient Jewish community in Azerbaijan called the Mountain Jews, according to a State Security Service statement cited by the Azertag state news agency late on Friday.
Iran has not commented on the statement.
The BTC pipeline travels via Georgia and Turkey and sends oil to Europe, and also accounts for roughly a third of Israeli oil imports. Any damage to its infrastructure could drive global energy prices even higher as the war in the Middle East enters its second week.
The Azerbaijani statement came just a day after Baku vowed to retaliate for what it said was an incursion of four Iranian drones into its Nakhchivan exclave, which injured four people and damaged airport infrastructure. Iran flatly denied it sent the drones into Azerbaijan.
Baku said an investigation found two Iranian citizens and an Azerbaijani national had colluded to bring over seven kilograms of the C-4 explosive into Azerbaijan on the instructions of the IRGC. Authorities have issued international arrest warrants for four people.
Qatar’s foreign minister calls Iran missile attacks a violation of sovereignty
Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi told foreign affairs ministers from Lebanon, Cuba and other countries that Iranian missile attacks are unacceptable.
The foreign minister “stressed that the targeting of Qatari territory with Iranian ballistic missiles constitutes a blatant violation of Qatar’s national sovereignty, is inconsistent with the principles of good-neighborliness, and cannot be accepted under any justification or pretext,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on the calls.
The foreign ministry also said that Qatar “has consistently sought to distance itself from regional conflicts and has worked to facilitate dialogue between Iran and the international community.”
The statement said the ministers Al Muraikhi spoke with “expressed their countries’ concern over regional developments, calling for de-escalation, the prioritizing of reason, and a return to negotiations and diplomatic channels to prevent further chaos.”
Nearly 24,000 Americans have returned to the U.S. from Middle East, says State Dept
Nearly 24,000 American citizens have returned to the U.S. since the war began a week ago, the State Department said today, but thousands remain stranded in the Middle East.
"Several flights have safely returned hundreds of Americans to the United States with additional flights scheduled to take place over the coming days, as security conditions allow," it said.
"The Department continues to proactively call American citizens to offer charter flight or ground transport travel assistance," the statement added.
Dubai airport says it has partially resumed operations today, just hours after Emirates said all flights to and from the city had been suspended.
Photos: Funeral for Iranian two-year-old killed in strike
Majid Asgaripour / West Asia News Agency via Reuters
Majid Asgaripour / West Asia News Agency via Reuters
Mourners gathered in Tehran today for the funeral of Zainab Sahebi, a two-year-old child who was killed in a strike amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict.
India’s foreign minister confirms an Iranian naval ship docked at the port in Kochi
India has allowed an Iranian warship to dock as a humanitarian gesture, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday, after the U.S. sank another Iranian navy vessel off neighboring Sri Lanka.
A fisherman moves on the waters of Vembanad Lake with the Iranian ship IRIS Lavan docked at a port in the background, in Kochi, India today. Sivaram Venkitasubramanian / Reuters
The Lavan docked at India’s southern port of Kochi on Wednesday, the same day the U.S. submarine struck Iranian navy frigate Dena, after an urgent request from Tehran, an Indian government source told Reuters.
President Trump has said destroying the Iranian navy is one aim of the war he and Israel launched against the Islamic Republic a week ago.
The Lavan — an amphibious landing vessel, according to the U.S. Naval Institute’s online news site — and two other ships “were coming in for a fleet review and then they got, in a way, caught on the wrong side of the events,” Jaishankar told the annual Raisina Dialogue event.
At least 87 people were killed in the U.S. attack on the Dena in Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone 19 nautical miles off the coast, outside its maritime boundaries.
Iran responds to U.N.'s call to 'stop the fighting'
The war in the Middle East is "an unprovoked act of aggression," Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on X, addressing the United Nations Secretary General.
The U.N. chief said on X yesterday that it was “time to stop the fighting,” calling attacks in the Middle East “unlawful.”
"Dear Mr. Secretary General, Let’s call a spade a spade," Esmaeil Baqaei said in response. "This is not “the fighting”; this is an ‘unprovoked act of aggression’ launched by two nuclear armed regimes against Iran."
Baqaei said Iran was in “serious diplomatic negotiations” when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran last weekend, "for a second time during the past 9 months."
"The UN shall be forthright and shoulder its legal and moral responsibilities regarding this illegal war on Iran," he said.
Iranians warned they could be treated as 'enemy spies' if they photograph impact sites
Iranian authorities have warned people not to photograph impact sites in the country, saying they could be treated as "enemy spies."
"Do not send images to terrorist satellite networks, otherwise we will deal with you with strong measures," Iran's Ministry of Intelligence said today, as reported by the country's Fars State-run news agency.
It claimed small number of "American-Zionist" spies were photographing locations and sending them to "terrorist satellite networks," the report added, claiming that espionage activities "are being monitored."
Stranded American made it home for his son’s first birthday party
An American who was left stranded in Dubai when the war broke out has made it home just in time for his son’s first birthday party.
Cody Greene, 36, who was visiting Dubai for work, was left scrambling to find a way out of the Gulf as missile and drone attacks cancelled flights across the region.
“To finally get back here is just a weight off my shoulders,” he said yesterday from his home in Tampa, Florida, after securing a last-minute flight out of the country after multiple previous cancellations.
“The flight was very tense up until we were actually like 20,000 feet up,” he said. “And then everyone realized things were OK. There was just a massive cheer and celebration when we landed.”
Cody Greene was stranded in Dubai when the war started. Courtesy Cody Greene
Happily, Greene made it back in time for his son Reece’s birthday party. “I’m even back in time to help set up for it,” he said.
“My heart’s still with everyone that’s still there and still trying to get out,” he said, adding that there had been little help from U.S. officials.
Israel launches 'broad wave' of strikes toward Iran
Israel has launched a "broad wave" of strikes toward Iranian infrastructure in Tehran and Isfahan, the IDF said in a statement today.
Israel targeted the Iranian capital Tehran with intense overnight bombardment that woke residents and shook windows. An NBC freelance producer in Iran reported jets passing by and huge explosions in the east of Tehran.
Iran’s escalating retaliatory campaign continued with a new round of strikes, including on Tel Aviv.
Israeli strikes kill 16 in Lebanon
Israeli strikes have killed 16 people in Lebanon, the country's public health ministry said today.
Raids launched by Israel on the town of Nabi Sheet in Lebanon's north eastern Baalbeck district "resulted in a preliminary total of 16 citizens being martyred and 35 others being wounded," it said.
In recent days, Israel has launched a wave of airstrikes and evacuation orders in south Lebanon and Beirut, including a prominent bombardment last night.
Approximately 300,000 people have been displaced by the strikes in Lebanon and sweeping Israeli evacuation orders, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Dubai airport partially resumes operations
Dubai airport says it has partially resumed operations today, just hours after Emirates said all flights to and from the city had been suspended.
"Please do not travel to the airport unless you have been contacted by your airline that your flight is confirmed, as schedules continue to change," Dubai airport posted on X.
Dubai International Airport on Monday. Fadel Senna / AFP - Getty Images
Emirates Airline also said it will resume operations, "including customers transiting in Dubai."
It said earlier that flights to and from the city had been suspended until further notice amid ongoing strikes in the region.
Dubai's airport is one of the busiest in the world, welcoming over 95 million guests in 2025. It has begun running a limited number of services from Dubai in recent days following the outbreak of the war.
Iran will only attack neighbors used to launch strikes, President Masoud Pezeshkian says
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the country's temporary leadership council had agreed to “no longer attack neighboring countries or launch missiles unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries.”
He blamed the loss of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and senior military commanders for some of his country's strikes, saying in an address on state television that some attacks were carried out because the armed forces "acted independently."
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran in Feb. Iranian Presidency / Anadolu via Getty Images
But Pezeshkian warned Iran's neighbors not to become "tools of imperialism," one week on from the outbreak of the war that has seen strikes across the Gulf.
"Let us set aside all disagreements, concerns and grievances," Pezeshkian said. "Today we must defend our own land to bring Iran out of this crisis with dignity."
He also rejected President Trump’s call for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” responding: "They will take their dream to the grave if they think we will surrender unconditionally."
Trump to attend dignified transfer of 6 U.S. soldiers
Trump said he will attend the dignified transfer today of the six U.S. service members who were killed in Operation Epic Fury.
“I will be going to Dover Air Force Base tomorrow, with the First Lady and Members of my Cabinet, to pay our Highest Respect to our Great Warriors, who are returning home for the last time,” the president said in a post on Truth Social last night.
Trump is expected to fly up to Delaware to attend the dignified transfer after hosting and participating in the Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral, Florida, a White House official confirmed to NBC News.
Saudi Arabia says it intercepts missiles, UAE says incoming attacks
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said that it intercepted two ballistic missiles fired at the Prince Sultan Air Base and that a drone was intercepted east of Riyadh.
The United Arab Emirates also said that it was “currently dealing with incoming missile and drone threats from Iran.”
“The Ministry of Defense confirms that the sounds heard in various areas of the country are the result of the air defense systems intercepting ballistic missiles, and fighter jets intercepting drones and loitering munitions,” the UAE’s defense ministry said on X.
