Houthis fire missile at Israel from Yemen; Trump delays Strait of Hormuz deadline

CAIRO — Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis confirmed on Saturday that they had launched an attack on Israel for the first time during the current Israeli-U.S. war against Iran, marking their entry to the conflict and raising the prospects of a broader regional confrontation.

Israel earlier said it was working to intercept a missile from Yemen.

The group said the attack with a barrage of missiles came after continued targeting of infrastructure in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, adding that their operations would continue until the “aggression” on all fronts ends.

Speaking at a Saudi investment conference in Florida, Trump referred to the Strait of Hormuz as the “Strait of Trump.”

He said “we’re negotiating” with Iran, and it would “be great if we could do something. But they have to open it up. They have to open up the Strait of Trump. I mean, Hormuz,” he said to laughs from the audience.

“Excuse me, I’m so sorry. Such a terrible mistake. The fake news will say he accidentally said. No, there’s no accidents with me. Not too many. If there were, we’d have a major story,” he said.

Israel’s military says that “identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward Israeli territory.”

The Israel Defense Forces said in the alert Saturday morning local time that defense systems were working to intercept.

The IDF did not say who launched the missile.

Houthi rebels control parts of Yemen and are backed by Iran, and in the past have launched attacks against Israel and against shipping in the Red Sea.

If the missile was launched by Houthis, it appears to be the first time they have taken military action against Israel during the current war with Iran.

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said there are negotiations with Iran underway despite denials from the Iranian government. He also repeated the administration’s stance that Iran must abandon uranium enrichment. 

“Everybody in this room knows we are negotiating. It’s clear some ships are coming through. We may have a different definition of negotiating than they do, but there may be people within this system today that just don’t have the ability to admit it,” Witkoff said at an investment conference in Miami, noting that there will likely be more diplomatic discussions this week.

He added: “Our solution is all about what’s best for the region, what’s best for the United States, what’s best for the world. No enrichment. You can’t have a second coming of North Korea in the Middle East.”

Witkoff also said the U.S. did not rely heavily on commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, but that President Trump was working to secure the waterway for the sake of other countries.

“We’re doing this for everybody else,” Witkoff said.

Trump spoke on Iran in his remarks to the Future Investment Initiative at the Faena Forum in Miami Beach today. 

“Tonight, we’re closer than ever to the rise of the Middle East that is finally free at last, from Iranian terror aggression and nuclear blackmail,” he said. 

Trump gave a positive assessment of the U.S. operations, saying it’s “two weeks ahead of schedule.”

He said Iran’s 22 mine droppers are “gone,” the nation’s leaders are dead, and in reference to Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, he said the “son is either dead or in very bad shape because nobody has heard from him.”

Trump said the U.S. has another 3,554 targets — “and that’ll be done pretty quickly.”

He went on to say the U.S. is in a good position, and has weapons “that nobody even knows about, except for a few of us.”

The U.S. and Israeli military have dropped bombs on targets across Iran but villagers in southern Iran discovered something entirely different dropped into backyards and gardens around their town, a video verified by NBC News shows: American anti-tank mines. 

The landmines, identified by several munitions experts as U.S.-made BLU-91/B, were found in Jamal Abad, a village on the outskirts of Shiraz, near a missile base that had been struck earlier in the Iran war. 

N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of arms intelligence firm Armament Research Services, told Bellingcat, who first reported on the discovery, that the mines appear to have been dropped from the air. 

In the video, published on March 26, a crowd of villagers and journalists can be seen walking through the rain-drenched side streets of the village into several backyard lots. One mine is found beside a wall next to a volleyball court. Another is found upside down, half-buried in a garden behind a house. 

The group moves on to a driveway where a man guiding the group explains that someone was killed by accidentally setting off a mine while trying to move it away from his car. Video shows the back tire and side of the truck riddled with shrapnel next to the blown apart pieces of another mine. 

“He got close to this mine and tried to take it,” a man guiding the group says. “But it was blown up.” 

Iran’s foreign minister, responding directly to a news article about the slump in U.S. stocks and bonds amid the war, accused Israel’s leader of having “gambled” with America’s future.

“Netanyahu gambled with American taxpayer dollars and American lives,” Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X, referring to the Israeli prime minister.

“Having badly lost that gamble, he is now singlehandedly making sure that ordinary Americans, particularly retirees and those retiring in next few years, will pick up the tab,” Araghchi added.

Araghchi was reacting to a Financial Times article published today under the headline, “Stocks and bonds slump in tandem as Iran shock leaves investors ‘nowhere to hide.’”

Saudi Arabia says it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired towards the Riyadh area.

The kingdom’s Ministry of Defense announced the interception on X around 1 a.m. local time.

Iran says there was a strike in the area of its Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said, marking “the third such incident in 10 days.”

There was no reported damage to the reactor nor was any radiation released, the agency said in a post on X. The plant’s condition was described as normal. 

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed “deep concern” about reports of military activity in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant.

“It could cause major radiological incident if reactor were to be damaged,” the post said. “DG Grossi reiterates call for maximum military restraint to avoid risk of a nuclear accident.”

A 60-year-old man died in Tel Aviv following a missile strike, Magen David Adom, the Israeli ambulance service, said. 

EMTs and paramedics are also caring for two people who were lightly injured at another scene in central Israel, the ambulance service said. 

The Israel Defense Forces said search and rescue forces are operating at sites in central Israel where “reports of impact have been received.”

Several American service members were injured by an Iranian missile fired at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia today, according to two U.S. officials.

None of the injuries are considered life-threatening. At least one aircraft was also damaged in the attack.

At least 303 Americans have now been injured in the war against Iran, 10 of those seriously.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, threatened payback against Israel after a wave of strikes on steel factories, a power plant and civilian nuclear areas inside the Islamic Republic.

"Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes," Araghchi said in a post on X.

Araghchi said he believes the Israeli attacks contradicted Trump's "extended deadline for diplomacy" aimed at resolving the war.

The price of U.S. crude oil ended the week at more than $101 per barrel, as of the last quote at 5 p.m. ET.

Today alone, the price of U.S. oil surged 7%, bringing its total rise since the war with Iran began to more than 50%.

Since the start of the year, U.S. crude oil prices have soared more than 75%.

The Israel Defense Forces said that it is currently intercepting Iranian missiles.

"A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel," the group said in a statement. "Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat."

A mobile phone alert was sent advising people to take cover.

"Upon receiving an alert, the public is instructed to enter a protected space and remain there until further notice. Leaving a protected space is permitted only after receiving explicit instructions," the statement said.

Iran's representative to the United Nations in Geneva said today that his government will facilitate and expedite the passage of humanitarian shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which 20% of the world's oil supply travels, according to the ISNA news agency.

NBC News has not independently verified the ISNA report.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, appeared to mock the U.S. military's ability to keep soldiers safe in the event the Pentagon deploys ground troops.

“How can the US, which can’t even protect its own soldiers at its bases in the region and instead leaves them stashed away in hotels and parks, protect them on our soil?” Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X.

The U.S. is not currently planning to deploy ground troops to Iran.

More than 70,000 residential units and nearly 300 health facilities across Iran have been damaged by airstrikes since the start of the war, according to the latest figures from Iran's Red Crescent Society.

The Red Crescent Society said some 600 schools have been damaged in the same time frame.

Pro-Iran hackers published more than 300 emails and photos Friday from what appears to be a personal email account for FBI Director Kash Patel.

In a statement, an FBI spokesman acknowledged the Iranian campaign. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity. The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information,” the spokesman said.

The hacking group, called Handala, indicated on its website that the leak was in retaliation for the FBI and Justice Department seizing several of its websites last week, accusing the group of “psychological operations” and saying it was a front for Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on Iranian hackers threatening U.S. critical infrastructure.

NBC News did not forensically verify that the emails are authentic.

The group published on its website several photos of Patel that do not appear to have previously been made public, according to an NBC News review through several reverse-image searches. The hacked emails appear to have been sent from or to a personal Gmail account that is listed as belonging to Patel in at least one public government document. Gmail didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Read the full story here.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters today, insisted the U.S. military campaign in Iran was "on or ahead of schedule," adding that the Trump administration expects the operation to end "in a matter of weeks, not months."

Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, said "progress is going very well" but "we have some work to do." He did not specify what remains to be done.

Iran has not responded to a 15-point plan sent by U.S. negotiators, he said, adding that there was a "willingness to talk about certain things."

Six steel factories in Israel and five other countries are expected to be struck by Iranian forces, Iran's Tasnim state media agency reported today, citing unnamed informed sources.

The attacks follow U.S. and Israeli strikes on steel assets in Iran.

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies have called for “an immediate cessation of attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure” in the Iran war.

In a statement issued after they met today in Abbaye des Vaux-de-Cernay, France, they also called for the reopening of Strait of Hormuz and for coordination to mitigate “global economic shocks such as disruptions to economic, energy, fertilizer and commercial supply chains, which have direct impacts on our citizens.”

They also called for the coordination of humanitarian aid efforts.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended the meeting alongside his counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

After it broke up, he told reporters that the ⁠U.S. ​expects ⁠its operation in ⁠Iran ​to conclude in “weeks, ⁠not ‌months.”

Russia sent 313 tons of medical supplies to Iran, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported on Telegram.

Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said the medical supplies were part of a wider shipment of humanitarian aid, Mehrs reported.

Always on the move, Amir and Sara had a busy life before the war, whether it was barbecuing, playing sports or packing up their SUV with camping gear and heading out into the countryside. 

Today, like many of other Iranians, the couple in their 40s are facing an uncertain future. Amir, who works in IT, was counting on several web design projects, but they have now fallen through.

Sara, who works in a hotel, is also concerned for her job with tourism currently at a standstill because of the war. 

As the war rages on, they spend their time watching and waiting in their ground floor apartment in one of Tehran’s older blocks. They also work in their small garden, which has a beautiful greenhouse out back.

Lebanon's Ministry of Health said an Israeli raid on the town of Al-Bazaliyeh in the northern Bekaa left a pregnant woman dead and injured seven people.

The Israeli military has not publicly confirmed or denied a raid there.

A crucial part of the Iranian nuclear program near the city of Arak has been struck, state media reported.

The strikes on the Khondab heavy water complex did not cause any casualties, a provincial official said in a statement to the Fars news agency.

“No danger threatens the people of the area,” the official was quoted as saying.

The official did not specify the extent of the damage.

Iran-linked hackers have publicly claimed a ⁠breach of FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal inbox, publishing photographs of the director and his purported resume ⁠to the ​internet.

On ⁠their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team ⁠said Patel “will now find his ​name ⁠among the list ‌of successfully hacked victims.”

Reuters was not able to immediately authenticate ‌the emails published by Hanadala, ‌but a sample of the material uploaded by the hackers and ⁠reviewed by Reuters appears to show a mix of personal and work correspondence dating between 2010 and 2019.

A Justice Department official confirmed to Reuters ‌that Patel’s emails were compromised ​but did not go ‌into detail. ⁠The FBI did not immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment. ‌The hackers did ​not immediately ‌respond to messages.

Civilians are paying “the highest price” for the war in Iran, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council said.

“Countless homes, hospitals and schools have been damaged or destroyed,” Jan Egeland said in a statement. “It must end.”

“If this war continues, we risk a far wider humanitarian disaster,” he added. “Millions could be forced to flee across borders, placing immense pressure on an already overstretched region.”

Workers remove the wreckage of a car outside a residential building that was targeted in southern Tehran today.  AFP - Getty Images

Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Friday as the monthlong Middle East war dragged on, weighing on sentiment, while investors watched for any signs of de-escalation.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq stayed on track for their fifth week of losses. The Dow ​was set ⁠to end the week little changed.

“Financial markets remain headline-driven. Investors are being buffeted by U.S. claims ⁠that progress is being made to end hostilities, while Iran denies ​that ⁠any serious negotiations are taking place,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.

“It seems obvious that neither side is close to accepting the other’s conditions for peace, so for now, the ⁠war continues.”

At least 120 museums, historical buildings and cultural sites across Iran have been directly targeted or damaged during the war, the head of the Tehran city council’s cultural heritage committee said today.

Tehran province, with more than 50 damaged sites, topped the list in terms of losses, Seyyed Ahmad Alavi said in a message on Telegram.

Ezra Acayan / Getty Images

Ezra Acayan / Getty Images

Aaron Favila / AP

Transport workers staged a two-day strike in Manila today as global oil supply disruptions linked to the Iran war hit the Philippines, prompting a national energy emergency and driving fuel prices sharply higher. 

Israel’s military has urged civilians to flee the industrial area of the Iranian city Arak as it prepares to carry out attacks on the regime’s military infrastructure there.

“Dear citizens, for your safety and health, we ask you to immediately leave the designated areas mentioned in the map,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a Farsi-language post on X. “Your presence in these areas endangers your lives.”

Iran’s central site for the production of missiles and sea mines has been struck, Israel’s military said in a Telegram post this morning.

The facility in the central Iranian city of Yadz “was used for the planning, development, assembly, and storage of advanced missiles intended for launch from cruise platforms, submarines, and helicopters toward both mobile and stationary maritime targets,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

Iran’s navy also develops the majority of its missiles and sea mines at the site, the IDF said.

In a separate post, the IDF said it attacked dozens of weapons production sites during overnight strikes on Tehran. 

Russia has supplied military equipment to Iran, but can’t agree with “accusations” it is providing Tehran with intelligence, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today.

Lavrov accused the media of blowing the issue “out of proportion” in an interview with French public broadcaster France Télévisions yesterday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Alexander Zemlianichenko / Reuters

“We have an agreement on military-technical cooperation,” he said. “We have supplied certain types of military equipment to Iran, but we cannot agree with accusations that we are providing Iran with intelligence.”

Citing four sources with knowledge of the matter, NBC News reported earlier this month that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran on the location of U.S. forces in the Middle East.

The U.S. and Iran have had indirect talks, with representatives from both sides planning to meet in Pakistan in the near future, Germany's foreign minister has said.

“Based on my information, there have been indirect contacts, and preparations have been made to meet directly,” Johann Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk radio today, according to Reuters. “That would be very soon in Pakistan, apparently,” he said.

NBC News could not immediately independently confirm reports of the expected talks or their location.

The mother of two children killed in the strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab has called for the U.S. and Israel to be held accountable.

More than 170 students and staff were killed at the Shajareh Tayyebeh school including Mohaddeseh Fallahat's children Mahdiyeh and Amin.

After joining the United Nations’ urgent debate on the protection of children and educational institutions today via video link, Fallahat said her life changed forever on the day of the strike. When she sent her children off to school, she said she did not think it would be the last time she would see them alive.

“As they walked out the door, they simply said, ‘Mum, come pick us up after school,’” Fallahat said, according to a translation provided by the U.N. “That simple sentence now repeats in my mind a thousand times, and each time my heart burns with pain,” she said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to unequivocally condemn last month’s strike on a school in Minab in southern Iran.

Delegates from the United States and Israel were absent from the chamber, when he called the attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School a “war crime and a crime against humanity.”

Outdated intelligence likely led to the deadly strike, a U.S. official and three sources familiar with the preliminary findings told NBC News earlier this month.

Araghchi also accused the United States and Israel of a broader pattern of attacks on civilian infrastructure, saying more than 600 schools had been damaged and more than 1,000 students and teachers killed or wounded across Iran.

Entering into a ground operation so far from the U.S. shores “threatens roughly the same consequences as what happened in Vietnam,” Russia's former president said today.

“When Washington intervened in a foreign country, located a thousand miles away, and for 10 years was unable to find a dignified way out of this conflict,” Dmitry Medvedev told the state-run Ria news agency in an interview published earlier today.

Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, added that a U.S. ground operation in Iran would have “fatal consequences” for the region and for all parties to the conflict.

At least 26 people, including seven children, have been killed in an attack on a residential area in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, the deputy governor of the province of the same name has said.

Akbar Salehi told the semiofficial Tasnim news agency that seven women were also among the dead. He did not say who was behind the attack.

Salehi's comments came hours after United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk warned about the civilian toll in the war.

“U.S. and Israeli attacks have increasingly struck densely populated residential areas and destroyed civilian infrastructure. Homes, medical facilities, schools, courts, transport networks and energy installations have been hit across all 31 provinces of the country,” Türk said.

Photos have revealed the extent of destruction to Iraq's Habbaniyah military base after it was hit by an airstrike that killed seven members of the army on Wednesday, according to a statement from the country's defense ministry.

Iraq has said that it will file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council regarding the attacks on its territory.

Iraqi soldiers inspect the site of the health center in the Habbaniyah military base yesterday. Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP via Getty Images

A family member mourns over the coffin of Ahmed Al-Jubouri, a member of Iraq's Ministry of Defense who was killed. Qassem al-Kaabi / AFP via Getty Images

An Iraqi soldier stands guard at the site of a destroyed health care center.  Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP via Getty Images

Iraqi officers visit a soldier who was injured in the strikes. Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP via Getty Images

More than 1 million people, including over 300,000 children, have been displaced in Lebanon due to Israeli strikes, the United Nations’ refugee agency said in a statement today.

They are “fleeing continued Israeli strikes,” the statement said, adding that the children deserved “more than survival” and “they deserve a childhood.”

A displaced child at a temporary encampment in Beirut yesterday. Murat Sengul / Anadolu via Getty Images

Israel’s strikes on Iran will “intensify and expand,” the country’s defense minister said today.

Israel Katz said attacks would ramp up because the Islamic Republic had not heeded warnings “to stop firing missiles at Israel’s civilian population.”

“The fire has continued — and therefore, IDF strikes in Iran will intensify and expand to additional targets and domains that assist the regime in developing and deploying weapons against Israeli civilians,” Katz said.

Saudi Arabia and Ukraine have signed an agreement on defense cooperation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today in a post on X.

“We are ready to share our expertise and systems with Saudi Arabia and to work together to strengthen the protection of lives,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the deal laid the foundation for future contracts, technological cooperation and investment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah last year.  Anadolu via Getty Images file

“Now into the fifth year, Ukrainians are resisting the same kind of terrorist attacks — ballistic missiles and drones — that the Iranian regime is currently carrying out in the Middle East and the Gulf region,” Zelenskyy said. “Saudi Arabia also has capabilities that are of interest to Ukraine, and this cooperation can be mutually beneficial.”

Ukraine has already offered its expertise and drone technology to countries in the Middle East that have been hit by Iranian strikes.

Iranian drones and cruise missiles struck a port in the northwestern part of the Gulf, Kuwait's Ministry of Public Works said in a statement today.

While damage was reported, no casualties were recorded, the statement said, adding, “Emergency procedures in place for such cases have been activated in coordination with the relevant authorities.”

A Thai-flagged cargo ship that came under attack from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and was abandoned by its crew has run aground, Iranian media reported Friday.

Smoke rising from the Thai bulk carrier Mayuree Naree near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month.  Royal Thai Navy via AFP - Getty Images

Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that the Iranian and Omani authorities were able to reach the Mayuree Naree on a rescue mission as three sailors remain unaccounted for. The ship came under attack March 11.

The semiofficial Tasnim and Fars news agencies, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, reported that the ship ran aground near the village of Ramchah on Qeshm Island.

Oil prices continued to spike this morning, with international Brent crude oil once again surpassing $110 per barrel. For the day so far, that’s up another 3%.

U.S. crude oil prices are also continuing to climb, and prices nearly hit $97 per barrel, up more than 2% for the day.

Those moves come despite President Donald Trump's Truth Social announcement late yesterday in which he said he would give Iran more time to reopen the Strait of Hormuz before striking its power infrastructure.

Vessels from countries or ports considered to be U.S. allies are barred from entering the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement provided to state-run Student News Network

Three container ships from different countries attempted to transit the strategic waterway but were turned back, the statement said.

“The IRGC Navy announced that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and any movement through it will face a strong response,” the statement added.

The United States ⁠should conclude its investigation into a fatal strike on an Iranian primary ⁠school ⁠at the start of U.S.-Israeli attacks ⁠last month and publish ​the ⁠findings, the United Nations rights chief said Friday.

The aftermath of a strike on a school in Minab, Iran on Feb. 28.  Abbas Zakeri / Mehr News via Reuters

“Senior U.S. ‌officials have said the strike is under investigation. ‌I call for ‌that process to be concluded as ⁠soon as possible, and for its findings to be made public,” Volker Türk told the U.N. Human Rights Council ‌in Geneva during ​an urgent debate called ‌by Iran.

“There ⁠must be justice ⁠for the terrible harm ‌done,” ​he added.

In a letter Friday to the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, mothers of soldiers called for an end to the further ground offensive into Lebanon.

The group, Parents of Combat Soldiers, includes 600 military parents. The letter said the military was receiving orders from politicians who are ready to “sacrifice” its children, and urged Zamir to focus on a political solution. “Four soldiers have already been killed in Lebanon, how many more will sacrifice their lives in vain?!” said the letter.

Attacks on Iran have damaged 82,000 civilian buildings, including hospitals, residential units and the homes of 180,000 people, across 20 of Iran’s 32 provinces, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

Vahid Salemi / AP

Vahid Salemi / AP

Australia’s prime minister defended his country’s efforts in the Iran war, after Trump accused the U.S. ally of not doing enough.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting yesterday, Trump called out Australia specifically while complaining about the perceived lack of support from U.S. allies, particularly in the face of Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz oil trade route. “Australia was not great. I was a little surprised by Australia,” he said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country had been “constructive” in its response to the war despite not being consulted about it beforehand, sending a military surveillance plane that is playing a “critical role” in supporting Gulf states under Iranian attack.

“There is no request being made to Australia that has not been agreed to,” he told reporters.

Iran is allowing Malaysian vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the Malaysian prime minister said.

“We are now in the process of releasing the Malaysian oil tankers and the workers involved so that they may continue their journey home,” Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a televised address yesterday, according to Reuters.

The address came after Ibrahim held talks with the leaders of Iran, Egypt, Turkey and other regional countries about efforts to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

“But it is not easy, as Iran feels it has been deceived repeatedly and finds it difficult to accept steps toward peace without a clear and binding security guarantee for their nation,” he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in France meeting his Group of Seven foreign minister counterparts today, after President Trump criticized NATO countries over a reluctance or refusal to take part in the Iran war.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot during a G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting in Cernay-la-Ville, France, today. Alain Jocard / AFP via Getty Images

Rubio will have a hard time trying to sell the other top diplomats from G7 countries on the U.S. strategy for the Iran conflict, to which almost all nations have raised objections. On his arrival at the meeting venue at a historic 12-century abbey in Vaux-de-Cerney outside of Paris, Rubio posed for a group photo with his fellow foreign ministers but none of them spoke.

What was supposed to be an uneventful first voyage transporting oil across the Persian Gulf has turned into a nightmare for a 28-year-old sailor from India, who has spent the past month stuck as his ship sits idled by the Iran war.

“We don’t sleep at night. We stay up on deck because you never know what might happen next,” said the sailor, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from authorities and his employer.

 Elke Scholiers / Getty Images

He was speaking to NBC News from Iraqi waters minutes after an air attack Tuesday afternoon, which he says landed on Iran just a few miles away. He and the three other crew members on the small oil vessel are among 20,000 sailors stranded on hundreds of ships in the Persian Gulf, according to the U.N.’s maritime agency.

Read the full story here.

Call it the world’s most dangerous toll booth.

Iran is forcing oil tankers to take a new route in the Strait of Hormuz through a narrow passage controlled by its Revolutionary Guard, with some ships charged millions of dollars to transit, according to maritime data shared with NBC News.

A closer look at shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz with Gulf oil exports slowed by war

02:35

The new system — dubbed “the Tehran toll booth” by shipping industry experts — indicates Iran remains firmly in control of the critical waterway despite intense strikes on the country, and may be looking to cement that control over the longer term.

Read the full story here.