Israel says it killed Iran navy chief; Trump warns Tehran to 'get serious' in talks 'before it is too late'

Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken today pushed back hard against claims that he had approved of Trump's war in Iran.

Trump "cited me as supporting his attack on Iran and expressing regret we didn’t do it during the Biden Administration. Except I didn’t," Blinken wrote on X.

Blinken, who served under President Joe Biden, went on to write that Trump's decision to exit the 2015 nuclear agreement and "replace it with nothing" had been a "terrible decision."

German and Polish lawmakers, reacting to climbing energy costs linked to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, took measures today to help bring domestic prices under control.

German legislators approved initial steps to bring down fuel prices, including a measure to limit gas stations to just one price hike a day. Poland, meanwhile, plans to cut fuel taxes and cap pump prices, according to the prime minister.

Romania and Hungary are also moving to put limits on prices, according to Reuters.

Rocket trails were seen tonight in the sky over Israel amid a fresh barrage of Iranian missile attacks near the coastal city of Netanya.

Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images

Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images

The head of the White House’s task force on the upcoming World Cup told the BBC that Iran’s national team is welcome to attend despite the war.

“Right now, we’re expecting the Iranian team to come,” task force Executive Director Andrew Giuliani told the news agency. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the Iranian diaspora here in the United States of America to be able to celebrate their country.”

The World Cup this summer will be played in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

The United Arab Emirates said today that Iran has launched at least 372 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,826 drones since the war began.

Those are the numbers of weapons launched from Iran that have been engaged by air defenses, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Eleven people have been killed and 169 have been injured, the Defense Ministry said.

The dead included two members of the UAE’s armed forces and a Moroccan civilian contracted with the armed forces, it said.

The statement comes hours after two people were reported killed by falling debris from an intercepted Iranian missile in the UAE's capital, Abu Dhabi.

The Abu Dhabi media office said three other people were injured and cars were damaged.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down today in Saudi Arabia on an unannounced visit, days after he announced his country is assisting five nations in the Middle East and Persian Gulf region fend off Iranian drone attacks.

“Arrived in Saudi Arabia. Important meetings are scheduled,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X accompanied by a video clip. “We appreciate the support and support those who are ready to work with us to ensure security.”

More than 160 Russian specialists have been evacuated from a nuclear power plant in the Iranian port city of Bushehr, the Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported.

"We anticipate that all 163 individuals will cross the Iranian-Armenian border tonight," Rosatom State Corp. CEO Alexey Likhachev said in a statement, according to Tass.

Iran says it has launched a new wave of drone attacks targeting a U.S. military base in Kuwait, as well as bases in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain that host American forces.

The IRGC claimed, via the state news agency IRNA, that it destroyed a Patriot radar station near Bahrain’s Isa Air Base, as well as a hangar for a P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft at the site.

The IRGC said that at Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base, its drones took out American support fuel tanks, an MQ-9 Reaper drone hangar and a satellite communication dish used to communicate with unmanned vehicles. It said it also attacked Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia without mentioning any damage there. The U.S. and the bases’ host countries have not confirmed the claim.

IRNA attached a video to the statement showing drones being launched at night and someone writing on one of the aircraft, “Dear Lord of Iran” — referring to the killed supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — “your path continues.”

Trump said in on Truth Social that any attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure will be paused until April 6 and that talks with Iran continue.

“As per Iranian Government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time. Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP," he wrote.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters today that the U.S. has made "concrete progress" in diplomatic talks with the Iranian regime and touted "a growing amount of energy" flowing through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

Rubio did not provide specifics about the U.S. talks with Tehran, describing the diplomatic efforts as "an ongoing and fluid process and not one we're going to negotiate or talk about in the media."

He addressed Trump's repeated criticism of NATO allies, which have largely refused to aid the U.S. and Israel in the military offensive against Iran, referring to Trump's broadsides as "an observation."

"He's just making the observation that, I think, there was a couple of the leaders in Europe who said that this was not Europe’s war. Well, Ukraine is not America’s war, and we contributed more to that fight than any other country in the world," Rubio said, referring to U.S. support for Kyiv.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, said today that Israel's killing of the Revolutionary Guard's naval chief "makes the region safer."

Israel has said Alireza Tangsiri oversaw the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which roughly 20% of the world's oil passed before the war. Iran did not immediately confirm or deny Tangsiri's death.

In a statement, Cooper said the U.S. Treasury had designated Tangsiri a global terrorist.

Trump told reporters at today's Cabinet meeting that it was "inappropriate" for the president of Germany to criticize the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

In a speech this week, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier characterized the military offensive against Iran as a “dangerous mistake” that violated international law.

Trump compared Steinmeier's statement to the U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

"When I heard the head of Germany say this is not our war about Iran, I said, well, Ukraine is not our war; we helped," Trump said. "I thought it was a very inappropriate statement to make. But he made it. He can’t erase it."

Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, said today that the U.S. and Iran should return to the negotiating table and work toward a settlement to end the war, according to a state media report cited by Reuters.

Wang made the remarks during a phone call with his Canadian counterpart, Anita Anand, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. Wang said Beijing and Ottawa should jointly play a constructive role in a settlement.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said today that the military alliance is "stronger" than ever.

Rutte made the comments as the 32-member coalition faces a wave of criticism from Trump, who has faulted traditional U.S. allies for not doing enough to aid in the Iran war.

Rutte did not criticize Trump by name, and he credited Trump with his efforts to get member nations to boost their spending on defense.

“Iran now has capabilities increasingly dangerous for allies,” Rutte said, referring to reports that missiles were fired at the joint U.K.-U.S. Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean.

Images of the aftermath of Israeli attacks on Beirut and southern Lebanon show mass destruction and displaced Lebanese people forced to shelter in the streets.

Two men walk in front of the aftermath of an IDF strike in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut yesterday. Adri Salido / Getty Images

Members of a family that fled Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sit around a bonfire outside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut early today. Emilio Morenatti / AP

A man with his wife, displaced from the suburb Dahiyeh, shelter from the rain inside a tent along the coast in Beirut today. Emilio Morenatti / AP

A woman takes the stairs in a building that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre today. Hussein Malla / AP

The Iran war is causing “significant damage” to global production and supply chains, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned today, saying there are assessments that it could be as serious as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Putin said at the annual Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs that the consequences of the conflict in the Middle East are difficult to accurately predict. “I believe those involved in the conflict themselves can't predict anything, but for us, it’s even more difficult,” he said.

“The armed conflict in the Middle East is making an increasingly significant contribution to the current situation and causing significant damage to international logistics, production and supply chains,” he said. “Entire industries associated with the extraction and processing of hydrocarbons, metals, fertilizers and many other goods are under attack.”

Putin said there are assessments that the consequences of the conflict could be compared to the Covid pandemic, which threw the global economy into disarray for years. “And that, let me remind you, has sharply slowed the development of every region and continent without exception,” he said.

Iran’s digital blackout has entered its 27th day, according to NetBlocks, a cybersecurity watchdog.

Internet connectivity remains at around 1%, the group said, noting that the country has now experienced more than 620 hours of digital isolation.

“Rights monitors, independent media and the public are sidelined as access is granted only to those on a state-approved whitelist,” it added.

Trump says the 'present' from Iran was 'eight big boats of oil'

01:28

Trump said Iran allowed a handful of oil tankers to sail through the Strait of Hormuz as a “present” to the U.S. to prove its seriousness in discussions to end the war.

He said at this morning's Cabinet meeting that while watching Fox News, “They said something’s unusual happening. There are eight boats that are going middle of the Hormuz strait, eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right through. And I said — well, I guess they were right, and they were real, and I think they were Pakistani-flagged — and I said, ‘Well, I guess we’re dealing with the right people.’”

The president then said Iran allowed two more boats to go through, bringing the total to 10. Trump then told U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff during the meeting that he hoped he hadn’t “screwed up” negotiations with Iran by revealing that information.

The leader of the Houthis, a key Iranian regime proxy, blasted the U.S.-Israeli military offensive as "unjustifiable."

Abdul Malik al-Houthi did not confirm whether his armed rebels planned to enter the conflict, but he said “any developments in the fight that necessitate a military response will be met with complete trust in God.”

He called for solidarity protests tomorrow in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, according to a message posted on the Telegram platform. The Houthis have previously attacked ships in the Red Sea to protest the war in Gaza, a step which, if repeated, could worsen the chaos caused by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

At least one person was killed and 11 others injured after a rocket was fired into northern Israel today, according to the country's emergency medical service.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Magen David Adom said a man in his 30s died after sustaining shrapnel injuries. The people injured include a man in his 50s with shrapnel injuries to his limbs.

Eighteen people have been killed in Israel since the war began.

Authorities in the Iranian city of Yazd say they have seized six Starlink terminals and arrested six people.

The suspects have been accused of “buying or selling, sending news and information to foreign and enemy media services” and “selling internet for malicious purposes,” according to a statement from Yazd police quoted by Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency. Police also blocked 61 bank accounts associated with the suspects, who have been referred to the prosecutor’s office, the statement said.

The regime has blocked internet access for most Iranians since the war began 27 days ago, with access given “only to those on a state-approved whitelist,” according to the NetBlocks online monitoring group.

The Los Angeles-based activist group Holistic Resilience says it has been involved in “smuggling networks” that have kept 50,000 Starlink terminals active across Iran throughout the blackout.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, has accused Russia of providing intelligence support to the Iranian regime used to “kill Americans.”

Kallas called on the U.S. to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

“We see that Russia is helping Iran with intelligence to target Americans, to kill Americans, and Russia is also supporting Iran now with the drones so that they can attack neighboring countries and also U.S. military bases,” Kallas told reporters at a G7 meeting outside Paris, according to the AFP.

“These wars are very much interlinked,” she added. “If America wants the war in the Middle East to stop and Iran to stop attacking them, they should also put the pressure on Russia so that they are not able to help them in this.”

A report that Russia is sending drones to Tehran is part of “many lies” surrounding the Iran war, the Kremlin said.

During a daily briefing with reporters earlier today, spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about a Financial Times report that Moscow was close to completing a phased shipment of drones, medicine and food to Iran, citing western intelligence.

“There are so many lies floating around in the media right now, and even the most respected publications aren’t above publishing them. Ignore them,” Peskov said.

Russia has publicly supported the Iranian regime in the aftermath of the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. NBC News reported earlier this month that Moscow was providing intelligence to Iran on the location of U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Trump continued to assail the NATO alliance at this morning's Cabinet meeting, criticizing traditional U.S. allies for having done "absolutely nothing" to assist with the Iran war.

"I said 25 years ago that NATO is a paper tiger, but more importantly, that we’ll come to their rescue, but they will never come to ours," Trump said, alluding to his record of NATO skepticism predating his entrance into electoral politics.

Trump nevertheless insisted the U.S. does not need NATO's help and mocked British aircraft carriers as "toys compared to what we have."

"We don’t need it, and we don’t need it. We don’t need them," Trump said.

Trump: Iran is 'begging to make a deal'

00:55

Trump, speaking to reporters at a Cabinet meeting at the White House, again insisted the Iranian regime is eager to make a deal to resolve the war.

"They are begging to make a deal, not me. They’re begging to make a deal," Trump said.

Trump said earlier this week that he was engaged in productive conversations with his counterparts in Tehran. Iranian leaders have pushed back, however, with state media reporting that no direct or indirect talks had taken place.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called on the public to use less electricity as the Iran war sends global energy prices soaring, saying the government “has fully transitioned into an emergency economic response system.”

“It is precisely at times like this that we must come together, pool our wisdom and share the burden in solidarity,” Lee, whose country relies almost entirely on imports for its energy needs, said today during an emergency economic meeting.

The government “must lead by example,” he said, with civil servants instructed to restrict vehicle use to every other day. In addition, Lee said, “I ask our citizens to actively participate in small, everyday actions such as using public transportation and conserving energy.”

He added that the government is “actively controlling energy prices and general price levels in other private sectors.”

Iran has now sent its response to the United States’ 15-point peace plan, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported, citing an “informed source.”

Tasnim, a hard-line voice close to the powerful IRGC, said that the response was sent last night through intermediaries.

“Iran stated in its response that aggression and assassination by the enemy must end, concrete conditions must be created to ensure the war will not be repeated and payment of damages and war compensation must be guaranteed,” it said.

The report reiterated Iran’s belief that the U.S. is not serious about negotiations.

Trump is only feigning diplomacy, the source said, according to Tasnim, “to mislead the world by presenting a seemingly peace-seeking image,” to “keep global oil prices low,” and to “buy time to prepare for a new act of aggression in southern Iran through a ground incursion.”

Yesterday, the state news agency Press TV said that Iran had “responded negatively” to a U.S. proposal and listed the same set of counter demands, citing a senior official.

Strong thunderstorms capable of torrential rain are ongoing across eastern Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Iraq and western Iran today.

In addition to flooding rainfall, the thunderstorms will be capable of large hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes.

Commuters wade through a water-logged street yesterday after heavy rain in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.  AP

Through the next 48 hours, 10-80 millimeters (0.5-3 inches) of additional rain is possible across the region, which could cause flash flooding.

U.S. stocks and bonds sold off and oil continued its weekslong upward trajectory this morning as optimism faded about possible peace talks or a U.S.-Iran ceasefire.

The “de-escalation playbook” was put on hold this morning, “with posturing headlines creating a lot of noise and little clarity on actual ceasefire progress,” JPMorgan’s trading desk wrote in a note to clients.

Read the full story here.

Even as air raid sirens blared at least four times throughout this morning in central Israel, the country’s military insisted that its air defenses remain formidable and that the waves of Iranian missile attacks are growing less effective.

“Since the third or fourth day, the numbers have been high single digit and low teens,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, of the frequency of Iranian missile strikes. “We haven’t seen anything different recently, not in the amounts or the munitions used.”

The impact site of an Iranian missile in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. Erik Marmor / Getty Images

Considering that Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel for nearly a month, Israeli fatalities from Iran’s counterattacks have remained remarkably low thanks to the country’s air defense system, its early-warning sirens and publicly available bomb shelters.

But the IDF has come under increased scrutiny over the past several days after multiple Iranian projectiles managed to pierce Israel’s high-tech missile umbrella.

An Iranian health official says the death toll from the war in Iran has reached at least 1,937 people.

Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian gave the figure to the pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera today. He said 240 of the dead were women and 212 were children.

More than 24,800 others have been wounded so far, he added.

Iran has not offered any official death toll figures in days.

Iranian women mourn during a funeral for war victims at a cemetery in southern Tehran today.  AFP - Getty Images

The secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council has accused Iran of charging ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran had previously said it would attack any American, Israeli or allied vessels that attempted to transit the vital oil bottleneck. A British naval monitor says that 16 ships have been attacked during the war. But Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, the chief of the GCC, is the first official to publicly accuse Iran of charging money to get through the strait.

Bulk carriers sit anchored in Muscat, Oman on Monday. Elke Scholiers / Getty Images

“They closed the Strait of Hormuz and imposed fees for passing through it, which is an aggression and a violation of the United Nations agreement on the law of the sea,” he told a news conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to The Associated Press news agency.

The GCC is a bloc comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The head of the World Trade Organization has issued a jolting appraisal of the challenges facing the world, saying in a speech that the postwar order has “irrevocably changed” and “we will not get it back.”

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the WTO, told delegates at her organization’s annual conference in Cameroon that “the world is in turmoil” and that we are living in a “time of great disruption and uncertainty.”

“We cannot deny the scale of the problems confronting the world today,” she said in Yaoundé. “Even before the conflict in the Gulf destabilized trade in energy, fertilizer and food, national governments and international institutions alike had been struggling to navigate rising geopolitical tensions, intensifying climate pressures and rapid technological change.”

“The world order and multilateral system we used to know has irrevocably changed,” she said, warning that we “will not get it back.” She added that “we must look to the future,” keeping what was working, fixing what wasn’t and closing gaps in the global trading system.

A huge turnout of food delivery riders gathered in Manila today to receive cash aid amid rising fuel prices in Manila.

As the conflict continues and global oil prices remain volatile, the country's government is considering temporary fuel tax cuts to mitigate the impact on an economy heavily reliant on imported oil.

Jose Monsieur Santos / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Jose Monsieur Santos / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Jose Monsieur Santos / NurPhoto via Getty Images

The only oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz are being forced into a new route controlled by Iran with some charged millions of dollars to transit the crucial waterway. 

“It’s been dubbed the Tehran toll booth,” Tomer Raanan, a risk analyst at Lloyd’s List, a leading maritime intelligence service, told NBC News.

Maritime traffic routes through the Strait of Hormuz on March 22-24. NBC News

Before the war, around 110 ships passed through the strait each day, and now it’s 10 ships or fewer. Raanan said. “Whatever we can detect going out of the strait right now, is going through this narrow channel in Iranian territorial waters where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps essentially verifies the ship’s information and acts almost like a toll booth.”

With state media reporting that Iranian lawmakers are planning legislation to charge ships in the long term to pay for war damages, Raanan said it was “very much the implication” that Iran would attack ships in future if they refused to pay up.

Surging global energy prices triggered by the American-Israeli assault on Iran will cause higher-than-expected inflation around the world, according to a forecast by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Across the Group of 20 countries, known as the G20, inflation is expected to be 1.2 percentage points higher than previously expected in 2026, now forecast at 4%, the OECD said in a report published today.

The United States is also expected to see an extra 1.2 percentage-point rise to 4.2%, it said, while allies such as the United Kingdom are charted to add 1.5 percentage points.

“The evolving conflict in the Middle East has human and economic costs for the countries directly involved,” the report said, “and will test the resilience of the global economy.”

The Environmental Protection Agency said it was issuing a temporary emergency fuel waiver to allow nationwide sales of E15, gasoline blended with 15% ethanol, in an effort to ease a surge in gas prices stemming from the war with Iran.

The agency is also removing all federal restrictions on the sale of E10, gasoline blended with 10% ethanol, with both waivers taking effect May 1.

“This emergency action will provide American families with relief by increasing fuel supply and consumer choice,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said yesterday.

Sales of the E15 biofuel, which is available at more than 3,000 gas stations nationwide, are restricted in many states during the summer because of concerns it can worsen air pollution.

Trump has once again criticized his NATO allies, claiming they “HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP WITH THE LUNATIC NATION" of Iran.

The president has grown increasingly frustrated with his alliance partners, who have been reluctant to join the American-Israeli assault and questioned its legal basis.

“THE U.S.A. NEEDS NOTHING FROM NATO,” Trump said in an all-caps post on Truth Social. “BUT ‘NEVER FORGET’ THIS VERY IMPORTANT POINT IN TIME!”

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The post comes ahead of a speech in Brussels this afternoon by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. The NATO leader, who is presenting the alliance’s annual report, will face increased scrutiny over the criticism from Trump, whom Rutte has in the past has attempted to flatter and placate.

Oil prices are continuing their weekslong rise this morning, with international Brent crude oil jumping another 4% to more than $106 per barrel.

U.S. crude oil prices are also up about 3.5% to around $94 per barrel.

Today's jumps came after a down day, fueled by optimism around possible peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. But with clear progress failing to materialize by the end of the day, energy prices resumed rising.

Since the start of the year, Brent is now up more than 75% and U.S. crude oil is up more than 60%.

Meanwhile, stocks in Europe are currently trading down due to oil's renewed rise. The Stoxx 600 is down more than 1%, and benchmark indexes in Germany, the United Kingdom and France are down around 1% as well.

U.S. stock futures also indicate that indexes stateside will fall at the opening bell. The S&P 500 is set to drop about 0.8% and the Russell 2000 is set to tumble 1.1%.

Iran and Israel exchanged a new wave of strikes today as Trump insisted Iran is desperate for a deal, saying, “They want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it.”

It comes as thousands more U.S. troops speed toward the region.

02:05

A U.S. Navy sailor was injured aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln while the aircraft carrier was conducting flight operations in the Arabian Sea yesterday, according to a statement from the U.S. 5th fleet.

The sailor was taken ashore and remains in stable condition, the statement said, adding that the injuries were not combat-related or life-threatening.

The circumstances of the incident are under investigation, it said.

“The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group continues to conduct strike missions in support of Operation Epic Fury,” the statement added. 

Pakistan’s foreign minister has said that indirect peace talks are taking place, as he pushed back on what he described as “unnecessary speculation.”

“There has been unnecessary speculation in the media regarding peace talks to end ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” Ishaq Dar wrote on X. "In reality, US-Iran indirect talks are taking place through messages being relayed by Pakistan. In this context, the United States has shared 15 points, being deliberated upon by Iran."

He said that Turkey and Egypt "among others, are also extending their support to this initiative." Dar added: "Pakistan remains fully committed to promoting peace and continues to make every effort to ensure stability in the region and beyond. Dialogue and Diplomacy is the only way forward!"

Iranian state media reported, citing an unnamed senior official, that Tehran had responded negatively to a proposal from Trump aimed at ending the conflict.

Trump is renewing claims that Iran wants a deal to end the war, while simultaneously making escalatory threats if Tehran does not “get serious soon.”

Tehran has flatly denied that talks with American officials have taken place, accusing the president of using them as cover to prepare for a possible ground invasion.

In one of a flurry of Truth Social posts early today, Trump rejected this.

“The Iranian negotiators are very different and ‘strange.’ They are ‘begging’ us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback,” he wrote. “And yet they publicly state that they are only “looking at our proposal.” WRONG!!! They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!” he added.

Pakistan has said publicly it is passing messages between Tehran and Washington.

Israel says it has killed the Iranian naval commander who was responsible for mining and blockading the Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told a briefing that last night the military had “eliminated” Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, “in a precise and lethal operation.”

 Sepahnews / Zuma Press via Reuters

Tangsiri was killed “along with senior naval command officials,” Katz said.

Iran did not immediately confirm or deny his death.

The IRGC navy is separate and parallel to the regular Iranian navy, and is a branch of the IRGC, a paramilitary, political and economic powerhouse within the Iranian state. If confirmed, Tangsiri’s assassination would be the latest Israel has carried out against senior figures in the regime.

China declined to confirm the dates of Trump’s upcoming visit to the country, which he said had been rescheduled for mid-May after being delayed so he could focus on the Iran war.

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP - Getty Images file

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he would visit Beijing from May 14 to 15, about six weeks after the trip was originally planned. He added that he plans to host Chinese President Xi Jinping and Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, in Washington at a later date.

“China and the United States are maintaining communication regarding President Trump’s visit to China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing today.

China does not typically confirm the dates of such visits until shortly before they take place and had not confirmed the original dates of Trump’s trip, which the White House had said would last from March 31 to April 2.

An Iranian brigadier general warned that any ground war would be “more dangerous and costly for the enemy,” according to remarks carried by state media.

"Every inch of Iran’s geography is protected with the vigilance and readiness of the fighters. All enemy movements along the borders are being monitored and we are prepared for any scenario," Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Jahanshahi said, according to the IRIB news agency.

“The sons of the nation in the army, relying on God, are standing firm and steadfast on the front lines of defense and will pin the enemy down,” he added.

Japan has begun releasing oil from its national reserves, its top government spokesperson said today, to stabilize supplies as the war in Iran sends global energy prices soaring.

Japan, which imports almost all of its oil and gas, is releasing almost 80 million barrels of mostly crude oil as part of a record 400-million-barrel release from global oil stockpiles coordinated by the International Energy Agency.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Tuesday that Japan had begun releasing privately held reserves March 16 and would begin releasing national stockpiles today. Releases from stockpiles jointly held with oil-producing countries are also set to begin later this month, she said.

“We will respond with our utmost effort to minimize the impact on economic activities through these measures,” Takaichi said.

Masses of pro-government supporters gathered in Tehran last night, holding flags and portraits of Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

AFP via Getty Images

Vahid Salemi / AP

Vahid Salemi / AP

Two people were killed and three others injured in Abu Dhabi after debris fell from a ballistic missile that was intercepted by the emirate’s air defense systems, officials said. 

They said the missile was successfully intercepted, but falling debris caused casualties and damage on the ground.

“The incident resulted in the deaths of two unidentified individuals, three injuries, and damage to a number of cars,” the statement added.

The statement did not say where the missile originated, but the United Arab Emirates has been the target of frequent strikes by Iran.

Six Arab nations have condemned attacks by Iran and its allies, according to a joint statement.

The statement, issued yesterday by Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, said it strongly opposed Iranian attacks “whether carried out directly or through their proxies and armed factions they support in the region.”

The statement singled out attacks on Gulf nations by “armed factions loyal to Iran” that are based in neighboring Iraq.

It described the attacks as a “breach of international laws and conventions” and urged the Iraqi government to take “necessary measures to immediately halt” them.

Less than 20 miles off Iran’s shallow coastline sits a rare island made of hard coral — a natural, geological platform rising from the Persian Gulf that’s perfect for one thing: exporting oil.

 Gallo Images / Getty Images

This is Kharg Island, a crucial outcrop 5 miles long that might be about to become central to the Iran war.

Read the full story here.

Tensions flared behind closed doors yesterday as defense and intelligence officials briefed some lawmakers about the war in Iran, with Republicans and Democrats expressing frustration about a lack of clarity and information about President Donald Trump’s strategy, according to four congressional officials who attended the briefing and a lawmaker who was briefed on it later.

Much of the frustration during the briefing for the House Armed Services Committee centered on the prospect of the United States sending ground troops into Iran, the officials and lawmaker said, including what the troops could be used for and whether the U.S. can adequately protect them once they were deployed.

Read the full story here.