Here's the latest
• Trump on Iran: US President Donald Trump said most of Iran’s military installations have been “knocked out” and that new strikes today targeted Iranian leadership.
• Strikes in Iran and Lebanon: Israel said it launched strikes in Tehran and Beirut, targeting Iranian military sites and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, as its troops intensify their push in Lebanon. Israel also struck a compound belonging to a group responsible for electing Iran’s next supreme leader, an Israeli source told CNN.
• Embassies closed: As Iran continues to strike US targets and allies, the US has closed embassies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Lebanon and warned Americans to leave more than a dozen countries in the region.
• Iran death toll: At least 780 people have been killed by US and Israeli bombing across Iran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing the Iranian Red Crescent.
• Oil markets roiled: The price of gasoline in the US just had its largest one-day increase since 2005, as vessels have effectively stopped going through the critical Strait of Hormuz. Oil continued to rise and stocks fell.
Witkoff has not engaged in diplomacy with Iran following strikes, official says
Steve Witkoff, who has led US-Iran diplomatic negotiations in recent months, has not spoken with the Iranians or an interlocutor in the days since the US and Israel launched strikes in Iran, a senior Trump administration official said today.
The comments reflect that the Trump administration has moved on from diplomatic efforts, at least for now, while carrying out military strikes in Iran.
“This is a military action, and it’s got to run its course,” the official said.
Witkoff has not spoken with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the days “since this thing went kinetic” the official said, which is notable given the two have had numerous back-and-forth conversations over the past year as the Trump administration tried to negotiate a nuclear deal.
The official also disputed reports that Witkoff has spoken with Iran’s top national security official, Ali Larijani, adding that Witkoff has never had a conversation with him.
Roughly a dozen countries have reached out to the Trump administration in recent days to see if they can aid the United States’ efforts in the war, the official said. The official emphasized that none of those conversations have included direct or indirect talks with the Iranians.
Trump posted this morning that the Iranians “want to talk. I said ‘Too Late!’”
Trump admin says it is working to secure military aircraft to transport stranded Americans
The Trump administration on Tuesday said it is working to secure military aircraft and charter flights to assist the scores of US citizens trapped in the Middle East.
Trump officials took to social media to assure those stranded days after the US and Israel launched its operation against Iran, prompting retaliatory attacks on countries throughout the Middle East.
“The State Department is actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave the Middle East,” Dylan Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, posted on X.
“We’ve been in direct contact with nearly 3,000 Americans abroad. American citizens should call 1-202-501-4444 for assistance with departure options,” he wrote.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the State Department “is actively working on plans to help Americans in the Middle East return home.”
The administration has come under immense scrutiny for what critics say is a failure to properly advise Americans to leave the region before the military action began and a lack of assistance to US citizens stuck in the Middle East.
On Monday, days after the launch of the first wave of strikes, State Department’s top official for consular affairs called on US citizens to depart “using available commercial travel” from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
There are virtually no commercial travel options available.
UAE opens safe air corridors with neighbors for evacuation flights
The United Arab Emirates says it has opened safe air corridors with its neighbors to facilitate the return of its citizens and help visitors leave the country.
The UAE says it is capable of operating 48 emergency flights per hour, Economy and Tourism Minister Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri told reporters on Tuesday, adding that the number of flights could increase gradually based on safety assessments.
More than 17,000 passengers have been flown out of the country on 60 flights since Sunday in the first phase of the plan, the minister said. The next phase will see more than 80 flights per day with the capacity to transport over 27,000 people, he added.
Israel says it killed Iran's top commander for Lebanon in strike on Tehran
Israel’s military claims it killed a commander of Iran’s Quds Force - the unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in charge of foreign operations -in a strike on Tehran.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed Daoud Ali Zadeh, who is described as the “temporary commander” of the Quds Forces’ Lebanon Corps and the “highest ranking” Iranian commander responsible for Lebanon. Zadeh’s predecessor Hassan Mahdavi was previously killed in an IDF strike, the military said.
CNN is unable to independently confirm the claim and Iran has not commented on it.
The division Zadeh led supports Hezbollah in building its forces and functions as the connection between senior IRGC and Hezbollah leadership, the IDF said.
According to the IDF, the Lebanon corps was the bridge between the IRGC and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon that Israel has repeatedly targeted since Monday.
After claiming to kill Zadeh, the Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned “all remaining representatives of the Iranian Terror Ministry in Lebanon” to leave before they are targeted
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said Iranian “regime representatives” had 24 hours to leave.
“After this time, no location in Lebanon will be considered a safe haven for Iranian regime personnel,” Adraee said. The IDF will engage these targets with full force wherever they are located.
Trump just spoke to reporters about the war with Iran. Catch up here
US President Donald Trump discussed the war with Iran on Tuesday, marking the first time he took questions from reporters in a public setting since the conflict began. His remarks came as he sat in the Oval Office alongside German Chancellor Chancellor Friedrich Merz before the pair had a closed-press meeting.
Catch up on what was said below:
- Trump disputed the suggestion that Israel’s plans to attack Iran prompted him to launch strikes on Saturday, saying he might have “forced their hand” rather than the other way around.
- “Just about everything’s been knocked out” in Iran, he said, telling reporters the country has “no navy,” “no air force,” “no air detection” and no radar after the US military operation.
- There was no evacuation plan for Americans in the Middle East before the strikes in Iran on Saturday, Trump also said, arguing the military operation unfolded too quickly to organize such efforts in advance.
- Trump said he was surprised to see Iran turn its fire on its neighbors in its retaliation to the US-Israeli attacks, adding that he thinks countries targeted by Tehran were surprised as well.
- The US has an effectively inexhaustible supply of certain munitions, Trump claimed. He also told Politico that defense manufacturers are operating under emergency authorities to accelerate weapons production.
- The president blasted the UK as “very, very uncooperative,” renewing his feud with the close US ally over its decision to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, which house a joint military base.
- Trump said he does not want Iranians to protest “yet,” saying that “it’s very dangerous out there. A lot of bombs are being dropped.”
- He also said the “worst-case” scenario for Iran would be if “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person,” referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, who was killed this weekend.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Maureen Chowdhury, Alejandra Jaramillo, Alayna Treene, Adam Cancryn, Morgan Leason and Rebekah Riess contributed to this reporting.
The war isn't just delaying oil shipments. It’s causing supply cuts in the Middle East
The war consuming the Middle East has caused a de facto shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz that is delaying the shipment of oil to the rest of the world.
Not only are supplies delayed, but some OPEC countries have been forced to dial back crucial oil production just when it’s needed to fight surging prices.
“It’s causing production cuts,” Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CNN in a phone interview.
Lipow noted that if virtually no tankers are transiting the Strait of Hormuz, that means tankers are not loading crude oil in key Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.
“If they’re not loading crude oil, then the storage tanks are filling up. If you can’t put the oil in storage, what are you doing to do with it?” Lipow said.
These supply cuts are already happening in Iraq.
According to Bloomberg News, Iraq has started shutting oil production at its biggest oilfields and could eventually shutter 3 million barrels per day of output if the Strait of Hormuz crisis continues.
For instance, the Rumaila field, one of the biggest in the world, has started to shut down, Bloomberg reported.
CNN has reached out to BP, which helps manage the Iraqi field.
Israeli military warns residents to evacuate ahead of strikes on Tyre in southern Lebanon
Israel’s military has issued an urgent warning to residents of Tyre in southern Lebanon, saying it would “shortly strike Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” in the area.
The Israel Defense Forces said the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group was attempting to reconstitute activity there and warned those in buildings it marked on maps to evacuate immediately and remain at least 300 meters away.
Just now, the IDF said several projectiles from Lebanon were launched at central Israel and mostly intercepted. The barrage would mark the second time Hezbollah fired at central Tel Aviv since it entered the latest conflict on Monday, but the first time it triggered sirens in the city.
Israel has been carrying out intensified strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, after the militant group fired toward Israel on Sunday night.
Trump threatens to end trade with Spain, blasting NATO spending and refusal to let US use military bases
President Donald Trump brought up NATO spending commitments, and in particular, his frustration with the Spanish government’s defense spending during his Oval Office meeting with the German chancellor.
Last June, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez rejected the NATO proposal for members to increase their defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035 — more than double the original 2% target. Sánchez called it “unreasonable” and “counterproductive” at the time.
In 2025 the US exchanged $47.5 billion worth of goods with Spain, according to US Census Bureau data. The US exported $4.6 billion more to Spain than it imported from there, meaning Trump’s trade threat could hurt US businesses more than Spanish ones.
“And now Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases,” Trump also said, likely speaking about his recent requests to use allies’ bases in the Middle East to launch further strikes on Iran. “Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people.”
Sitting alongside Trump in the Oval Office, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz added of the NATO spending increase: “As the president said, it’s correct, Spain is the only one who is not willing to accept that. And we are trying to convince them that this is part of our common security.”
Trump cites decades-old events as rationale for Iran war
In justifying his attack on Iran, President Donald Trump is citing events from more than four decades ago, claiming the country has a long record of “evil ideology.”
“It’s a bad seed. And somebody had to do it and it should have been done sometime during a 47-year period. Because so much death has been caused by them. So much unbelievable death,” he said in the Oval Office.
Trump raised two incidents from the last century: the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, in which 52 US citizens were held captive for 444 days, and the 1983 bombing of a Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 US service personnel.
“When you look at the barracks … when you look at the hostages, when you look at a lot of hostages, when you look at all of the problems, they were really a purveyor of terror all over the world for many, many years,” Trump said. “And it’s something that had to be done.”
Trump tells Iranians not to protest “yet”
President Donald Trump said he does not want Iranians to protest “yet” during a meeting in the Oval Office today.
“If you’re going to go out and protest, don’t do it yet. It’s very dangerous out there. A lot of bombs are being dropped,” the US president said during a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Shortly after the strikes over the weekend, Trump told Iranians in a video address that they should seize control of their government. He’s repeated that call in interviews with reporters since then, though he has not weighed in on a particular successor he’d like to see for Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the attacks.
“We’d like to see somebody in there that’s going to bring it back to the people, and we’ll see what happens to the people,” Trump said. The president added that he had at least one replacement in mind who is now dead.
More than 1,700 targets struck since beginning of US operation against Iran, military says
The US military has hit an additional roughly 700 targets in Iran since Sunday and has introduced new bombers and fighter aircraft to the operation, a fact sheet released on Tuesday said.
US Central Command said Tuesday that more than 1,700 targets have been struck throughout the operation dubbed Operation Epic Fury. As of Sunday, more than 1,000 targets had been struck. A listing of US assets involved also added B-1 Bombers, long-range B-52 bombers, and F-15 fighter jets.
Three US F-15 fighter jets were accidentally shot down on Monday by Kuwaiti air defenses, CENTCOM previously announced.
"Not the age of Churchill": Trump rages at UK over island sovereignty deal
President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted the UK as “very, very uncooperative,” renewing his feud with the close US ally over its decision to give up sovereignty over islands that house a joint military base.
“This is not the age of Churchill,” he said from the Oval Office. “The UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have that they gave away and took a 100-year lease having to do with perhaps Indigenous people claiming the island.”
Trump also complained about the UK’s energy and immigration policies, accusing its leadership of relying too heavily on wind power and doing too little to crack down on immigration. He has previously pressed the UK to accelerate oil and gas production in the North Sea.
“They got windmills all over the place that are ruining the country, ruining the landscapes,” he said. “Open up the North Sea.”
Trump has repeatedly criticized the UK over its deal to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while continuing to lease a joint US-UK military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
For context: In the past few days, Trump has made clear that he is not happy with Starmer for his response to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Starmer announced on Sunday that he would allow the US to use British bases for a “specific and limited defensive purpose” focused on Iran’s missile launch sites and storage facilities, and stressed the UK would not be directly involved in offensive operations against the Iranian regime.
Trump says there was no evacuation plan for Americans before Iran operation
President Donald Trump said Tuesday there was no evacuation plan for Americans in the Middle East before the US-Israeli strikes in Iran, arguing the military operation unfolded too quickly to organize such efforts in advance.
“Because it did happen all very quickly,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about thousands of Americans stranded in the region and why there wasn’t an evacuation plan.
Trump did not directly address the logistics of assisting Americans overseas, saying he could ask Secretary of State of Marco Rubio, “but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked. They were getting ready to attack Israel. They were getting ready to attack others,” he said of Iran.
The president’s comments come as concerns grow about the safety of US citizens in the region.
The State Department has urged Americans throughout the Middle East to “depart now” via commercial means. It is unlikely that the majority will be able to depart quickly, as many airlines have suspended their flights in the region. The US government has not begun evacuation flights for American citizens.
Trump says Iran was able to build “thousands of missiles” in a “short period of time”
President Donald Trump said that Iran was able to build up its missile stock pile in a “fairly short period of time.”
“Look at all the missiles they built — a lot have been now taken out by us, and a lot have been expended, but they had thousands of missiles in a fairly short period of time,” the president said.
Trump and his administration have cited various reasons for launching the Iran strikes over the weekend, including the country’s missile capabilities.
Trump downplays odds of exiled activist Pahlavi becoming Iran's next leader
President Donald Trump just downplayed the prospect that exiled Iranian activist Reza Pahlavi could assume leadership of the country, saying he preferred that someone from within Iran take charge.
“Some people like him, and we haven’t been thinking too much about that,” Trump said. “It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate.”
Pahlavi, the son of the last shah of Iran, has positioned himself as a prominent face of the Iranian opposition.
But Trump said that while “he looks like a very nice person,” it was more likely that “somebody that’s there, that’s popular, if there’s such a person” would be a better candidate.
Nearly 50 years after Iran’s revolution, the son of the ousted Shah of Iran is drawing renewed attention as protests spread. CNN’s Jomana Karadsheh explains the significance.
German chancellor says he is on "same page" with Trump to "get rid of terrible regime in Iran"
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he is on the “same page” with US President Donald Trump in terms of ousting the Iranian regime.
“We all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible,” Merz added. “So, we are hoping that the Israeli and the American army are doing the right things to bring this to an end and to have, really, a new government in place, who is coming back to peace and freedom.”
For context: The Trump administration has offered several evolving explanations for its decision to attack Iran, citing both an “imminent threat” to the US and defending against the risk of Iran building nuclear weapons. But Trump has also called for the Iranian people to take control of their country and suggested that he has some successors in mind, even as top US officials say the war is not about regime change.
In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Merz also said that he will talk with Trump about a US-Germany trade agreement, which, he added, he “would like to be in place as soon as possible.” The German chancellor noted that the war in Ukraine is also on their agenda.
Thune expects US military strikes in Iran to end before a required authorization vote
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he expects US military action in Iran will end before the 60-day mark when Congress would have to vote to authorize further action.
“I’m not the war planners on all this, but my assumption is, based on what they stated as their objectives, you know, how we would achieve those objectives, I would certainly hope that that would be a sufficient amount of time to complete the mission in terms of what they laid out they want to get done,” he said.
He was responding to a question about a requirement in the War Powers Act that Congress vote to authorize any action beyond that 60-day window, which can be extended an additional 30 days to allow troops to leave.
He also said he is aware of questions about munitions shortages for the US military but indicated he doesn’t think it’s a problem.
“We have to have a sufficient number of interceptors to knock down incoming Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, et cetera,” he said. “And based on what I’ve been told, some of the briefings I’ve been in, I feel good about where we are, and I also think that our allies in the neighborhood are stepping up in a pretty significant way too.”
Trump expresses surprise at Iran's retaliation against neighbors
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he thinks countries targeted by Iran have been surprised by the retaliation and that he, too, has been surprised to see Tehran turn its fire on neighbors.
“Amazingly, they’re hitting countries that were, you know, let’s call them neutral, right? They lived together for a long time. … I think they were surprised. I was surprised, and now those countries are all fighting against them and fighting strongly against them,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office.
The president said Iran’s retaliatory strikes demonstrate “the level of evil that we’re dealing with — they’ll hit people that were actually at least somewhat friendly, and they had no problems with. Also hitting only civilian places, hotels and apartment buildings, and we’re hitting them where it is much more appropriate, we’re hitting them very hard.”
Trump’s comments echo what he told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview Monday in which he said the “biggest surprise” was Iran’s attacks on Arab countries in the region.
Trump cites emergency powers to surge weapons production for Iran conflict
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States has an effectively inexhaustible supply of certain munitions and that defense manufacturers are operating under emergency authorities to accelerate weapons production.
Trump said although the US “gave away” a lot of high-end ammunition to aid Ukraine in its war against Russia, “we have unlimited middle and upper ammunition.”
“We have really an unlimited supply. We also have a lot of the very high end stored in different countries throughout the world,” he added in remarks from the White House.
His comments echo those he made to Politico in a short interview Tuesday in which he suggested Iran’s ability to retaliate would diminish and asserted that US stockpiles remain robust.
“The defense companies are on a rapid tear to build the various things we need,” Trump told Politico. “They’re under emergency orders.”
Trump says “worst case” for Iran would be new leadership “as bad as the previous person”
US President Donald Trump said “the worst-case” scenario for Iran would be if “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”
“That could happen. We don’t want that to happen,” Trump said. “We’d like to see somebody in there, bring it back to the people, and we’ll see what happens.”
Of the candidates the administration had considered for leadership, some are dead, Trump said, adding that “pretty soon, we’re not going to know anybody.”
“It would seem to me that somebody from within might maybe would be more appropriate,” Trump suggested. “If there’s such a person, but we have people like that. We have people … more moderate.”
