President Donald Trump says the United States is in talks with Tehran to end the war, even as both sides kept up intense barrages and Iran denied negotiations were underway.
The Islamic Republic fired a dozen missile salvos at Israel on Tuesday and rocket attacks by Lebanese militants killed a woman —- the first death in Israel by fire from Lebanon during the war.
Israel said it carried out an extensive series of strikes on Iranian “production sites,” without providing details.
Although the volume of Iranian missiles fired at Israel has decreased, Tehran has kept up and indeed increased the pace of its launches, sending millions of Israelis into shelters multiple times a day. Recent failed interceptions have caused deaths and injuries.
Trump has delayed his self-imposed deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The near-total closure of the crucial waterway has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and threatened the world economy. U.S. stocks swung between losses and gains on Tuesday over uncertainty about the length of the war.
Pakistan has offered to host talks on ending the conflict but Iran remains defiant, with a top military spokesman vowing to fight “until complete victory.”
Here is the latest:
Pope Leo XIV repeats his appeal for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday evening outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo, the pontiff invited leaders to “work for peace” not with weapons but rather “with dialogue, truly seeking a solution for all.”
“Hatred is increasing, violence is worsening,” Pope Leo warned, saying more than a million people have been displaced and many others killed.
“We want to pray for peace,” he said, adding, “but I invite all authorities to truly work through dialogue to resolve this problem.”
Lebanon orders Iran’s ambassador out, escalating a crackdown on Tehran’s influence
The decision was the clearest sign yet of deteriorating relations between the two countries and raises tensions within Lebanon over the role of Tehran and its Lebanon-based ally, the militant group Hezbollah.
Over the weekend, Lebanon’s prime minister said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is commanding the attacks by Hezbollah on Israel, which have drawn stiff retaliation and dragged Lebanon into a confrontation the government “was not willing to get involved in.”
Lebanon’s foreign minister posted on X that Iran’s new ambassador, Mohammad Reza Shibani, will be declared “persona non grata, and requested that he leaves Lebanese territory no later than 29 March 2026.” The ministry later said the move does not mean that Lebanon is severing its diplomatic relations with Tehran.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Qalibaf is floated as a possible US contact in talks as war rages
Long before he became Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf went on a charm offensive for almost two decades, portraying himself as a hard-liner the West could do business with in the Islamic Republic.
The 64-year-old pilot and former Revolutionary Guard commander has denied that there have been discussions with the United States amid reports that he was floated as Washington’s negotiating partner in talks.
Questions also remain as to what power Qalibaf has within Iran’s theocracy, shattered after the Feb. 28 Israeli airstrike that killed 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, now Iran’s new supreme leader, has backed Qalibaf through his repeated and failed presidential campaigns. Still, multiple centers of power within Iran’s theocracy now likely vie for control of the Islamic Republic — and uncertainties remain over Mojtaba Khamenei’s status as he has yet to be seen after reportedly being wounded.
Meanwhile, Qalibaf has been tied to the crackdown against protesters calling for change within Iran’s government and has seen corruption allegations swirl around him during his time in office.
Israel isn’t part of any reported Iran talks and will continue military operations with US, ambassador says
Israel’s U.N. ambassador Danny Danon says as far as he knows Israel isn’t part of any reported talks between the United States and Iran later this week in Pakistan.
“As we speak, Israel and the U.S., we continue to target military targets in Iran, and we will continue to do that,” he told U.N. reporters Tuesday.
He said the attacks have “accomplished a lot” but not everything.
Danon accused Iran’s foreign minister of saying just weeks ago that Iran didn’t have missiles with a range beyond 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) — then launching a missile that went nearly 4,000 kilometers (2,500 kilometers) toward Diego Garcia, a remote Indian Ocean island that hosts a major U.K.-U.S. military base.
In negotiations at the end of the conflict, he said, Israel is determined to ensure that Iran has no nuclear or ballistic missile capability.
Iran says a projectile struck the area of Bushehr nuclear power plant
No casualties or technical damage was reported at the facility from the incident Tuesday night, which Iran’s atomic agency blamed on Israel and the United States.
The International Atomic Energy Agency posted on X that it “has been informed by Iran that another projectile hit the premises of the Bushehr.”
A similar event was reported last week by Iran and Russia who said a projectile had struck the grounds of the Russia-built Bushehr plant, raising the specter of a radiological incident as the war rages.
Latest Iranian missile attack on Israel hits apartments and injures at least 7 people
Images released by rescue authorities showed extensive damage to one floor of a residential building in Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv, where rescue services said a man was moderately wounded and six people lightly injured, including a 7-year-old boy and 80-year-old woman.
Impact sites with varying degrees of damage were reported in at least seven other locations in central Israel.
This was the 12th Iranian missile barrage fired at Israel on Tuesday, while rockets fired by militants in Lebanon also kept air raid sirens sounding for hours in Israel’s north and killed at least one woman.
Iran is firing an average of 10 missiles a day at Israel, military says
Israeli Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the military’s spokesman, said in a televised statement that Iran fired dozens of missiles on Israel in the war’s first and second days of the war but this number “dropped quickly.” He attributed that to Israel’s continued strikes on military headquarters, launch sites and missile production sites across Iran.
He said the military completed several more waves of strikes on targets in Iran on Tuesday.
Although the volume of missiles has decreased, Iran has kept up and indeed increased the pace of its launches, sending millions of Israelis into shelters multiple times a day. Recent failed interceptions have caused deaths and injuries.
In a cryptic comment, Trump says Iran has shared a ‘present’ as show of faith
Asked if he trusts the Iranians said to be in talks with U.S. representatives, Trump said he doesn’t trust anybody but alluded to receiving a “gift” that he said suggested “we’re dealing with the right people.”
“They gave us a present, and the present arrived today,” Trump said speaking at the White House on Tuesday. “It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. And I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize.”
Pressed for more detail, Trump said it was “oil- and gas-related” but went no further. “It was a very nice thing they did. But what it showed me is that we’re dealing with the right people.”
A missile fired from Iran exploded over Lebanon, official says
A senior Lebanese military official said the cluster munition-equipped ballistic missile exploded earlier Tuesday over the Keserwan region north of Beirut, causing some material damage.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, added that the missile was heading west when it exploded but it was not clear where it was headed. It marked the first time an Iranian missile was intercepted over Lebanese airspace during the current conflict.
It was not clear how the missile was intercepted. The Lebanese military lacks air defenses.
The Israeli military said following an assessment that alongside the Iranian launches toward Israel on Tuesday was a ballistic missile fired from Iran that fell in Beirut.
— By Bassem Mroue.
Trump says Vance, Rubio and others are involved in talks about Iran
The president said while speaking at the White House on Tuesday that the U.S. is “in negotiations right now,” and that his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are involved in the talks, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
“We have a number of people doing it,” Trump said. “And the other side, I can tell you, they’d like to make a deal.”
The first Chinese-owned cargo ship crosses Iran’s safe corridor in the Strait of Hormuz
The Chinese-owned vessel sailed through a pay-to-pass corridor between Larak and Qeshm islands that Iran set up earlier this month, according to its location transponder data.
The Panama-flagged ship, Newvoyager, is the first Chinese-owned container ship to transit the corridor, according to the Chinese financial news site Caixin.
The vessel, owned by a shipping company in the Chinese province of Anhui, broadcasted its status as “China Owner” during the transit on Monday, according to Caixin.
Data show the ship set sail from Iranian waters on Sunday and transited out of the strait by Monday.
Iran has insisted that “safe passage” in the Strait of Hormuz is possible for non-enemies. Vessels with ties to India and Pakistan are among those that have already transited the strait.
Woman killed by shrapnel in northern Israel is the war’s first Israeli death by fire from Lebanon
Paramedics from Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said the woman was found lying in a ditch by the side of a road with critical wounds, south of the town of Safed, and was declared dead shortly after. Medics said two more people were lightly injured in the attack.
Sirens rang out across northern Israel almost nonstop for hours on Tuesday warning of drones and rockets fired from Lebanon.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon has been carrying out attacks against Israel in support of Iran from the early days of the war, with Israel striking across Lebanon.
Also Tuesday evening, sirens rang out across parts of the northern Israel after the military warned of another wave of incoming missiles from Iran.
France’s armed forces chief says the US is ‘less and less predictable’ as an ally
Gen. Fabien Mandon made the comments Tuesday at a Paris defense and security forum. The French military chief described France’s relationship with the U.S. as “very strong” but lamented that “they have just decided to intervene in the Near and Middle East without notifying us.”
“We acted immediately, surprised by an American ally, who remains an ally, but who is less and less predictable and doesn’t even bother to inform us when it decides to engage in military operations. This affects our security. This affects our interests,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, the commander of chief of France’s armed forces, dispatched the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and other naval warships to the Mediterranean, and deployed aircraft and other assets, to defend France’s interests and allies in the region and the Persian Gulf after the launch of the U.S.- Israeli war with Iran.
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Turkey warns against ‘sabotage’ of diplomatic efforts by Israel
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that the war must be brought to an end through dialogue and serious negotiations but suggested that Israel’s position was undermining diplomacy.
“Israel’s uncompromising, maximalist, radical stance must not be allowed to sabotage diplomatic solutions,” Erdogan, a consistent and outspoken critic of Israel, said in a televised address. “No country that values world peace and stability should continue to add fuel to the fire that Israel has unjustly ignited in our region.”
White House describes possibility of Iran talks as a ‘fluid situation’
When asked about the possibility of the U.S. participating in talks in Pakistan, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that “these are sensitive diplomatic discussions and the U.S. will not negotiate through the press.”
“This is a fluid situation, and speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House,” Leavitt said.
China calls for seizing ‘every opportunity and window’ for peace in the Mideast
Amid regional efforts to revive talks between the U.S. and Iran, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
“Wang called on all parties to seize every opportunity and window for peace and start peace talks as soon as possible,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.
Missiles intercepted over Lebanon
It was unclear what the intended target of the missiles was or how they had been intercepted. The Lebanese military lacks air defenses.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that explosions heard north of Beirut in the Keserwan district were caused by interceptor missiles, and that missiles fell in the town of Faitroun and in the mountain village of Baskinta.
In the Sahel Alma area on the coast north of Beirut, Associated Press journalists saw minor damage to buildings and a wall. No casualties were reported.
US stocks give back some of the rally sparked by Trump’s talk of negotiations with Iran
With airstrikes still battering Iran and missiles still targeting sites across the Middle East, some of the optimism that sent stocks rallying the day before drained out of Wall Street on Tuesday. Oil prices got back to rising, and U.S. stocks are returning some of their gains.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 2.9% to $102.84, a day after slumping more than 10%. The main measure of the U.S. stock market, the S&P 500, fell 0.4% to give back more than a third of its climb from the day before.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 127 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% lower.
The optimism at the week’s start came after President Donald Trump raised hopes that the war could end soon when he said the United States and Iran held productive talks “regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.” His announcement caused stocks to flip immediately from losses to gains.
But Iran has denied such talks are underway, and attacks continued Tuesday.
A civilian contractor with the UAE Armed Forces was killed in Bahrain in an Iranian attack
That’s according to Bahraini and Emirati authorities.
The Defense Ministry in Bahrain says he was killed while responding to the Iranian attacks along with Bahraini forces.
An Emirati statement says the man killed was a Moroccan civilian contractor in the UAE armed forces, adding that the Iranian attack also resulted in injuries to five members of the Ministry of Defense. They did not provide further details.
Trump and Modi speak about the Iran conflict
Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, posted about the call on social media Tuesday morning.
He called it a “useful exchange of views” and stressed that India “supports de-escalation and restoration of peace at the earliest.”
Modi also emphasized that the Strait of Hormuz needs to be “open, secure and accessible.”
At least 3 people injured in an Iranian missile attack on southern Israel
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said a 40-year-old man was in moderate condition and a woman and 2-month-old baby suffered minor injuries in the attack, in a day of heavy missile fire from Iran.
The impact caused damage to a mobile home, according to Fire and Rescue services.
Many members of Israel’s Bedouin community live in unrecognized villages in the south, often in mobile and makeshift homes. They face severe shortages of bomb shelters.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military says it identified more missiles launched from Iran toward southern Israel, for the second time in an hour. It’s the tenth wave of missiles launched toward Israel from Iran on Tuesday.
At the same time, sirens sounded in parts of northern Israel with no advance warning, suggesting fire from Lebanon.
Pakistan says it's ready to host talks aimed at ending the Iran war
Pakistan’s prime minister says his country is ready to “facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks” to end the Iran war.
Shehbaz Sharif made the comment in a post on X.
Pakistan is one of the countries pushing diplomatically for talks between Iran and the United States after President Donald Trump said Monday there were ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
“Subject to concurrence by the US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honoured to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict,” Sharif wrote.
Pakistan says it ‘remains committed to resolving the ongoing conflict in the Middle East’
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that Islamabad “remains committed to resolving the ongoing conflict in the Middle East” through diplomacy and engagement, but urged the media to “refrain from speculation and to await official announcements regarding decisions and outcomes.”
In a statement, ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said “diplomacy and negotiations often require that certain matters be advanced with discretion.”
His remarks came in response to questions about Pakistan’s reported role in mediating talks between Washington and Tehran.
Philippine president declares a state of national energy emergency
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday declared a state of national energy emergency to respond to the impact of the Middle East war, which his administration said posed “an imminent danger of a critically low energy supply.”
Under the declaration, which would initially last for a year, Marcos would lead a contingency committee that would monitor and ensure the availability and orderly distribution of fuel, food, medicines, agricultural products and other basic goods.
Authorities were ordered to take action against the hoarding, profiteering and manipulation of the supply of petroleum products. The Department of Migrant Workers, meanwhile, was asked to brace for the possible rescue and evacuation of Filipinos in the Middle East.
More than 2 million Filipinos live and work in the Middle East, including about 31,000 in Israel and 1,000 in Iran, but most have opted to stay in the region.
Israel’s military said it identified additional missiles from Iran for the ninth time within hours
The missiles are aimed at southern Israel, across a region near Israel’s main nuclear research center where two missiles struck Saturday.
Official says two Indian‑flagged gas tankers have passed through Strait of Hormuz without incident
And the Indian officials say they’re expected to reach Indian shores later this week.
The Pine Gas and the Jag Vasant LPG carriers crossed the war-hit strait late Monday, Rajesh Kumar Sinha, special secretary at the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, said Tuesday.
Indian media reported that the two tankers, carrying roughly a day’s supply of the country’s cooking gas, sailed close to each other and followed a route approved by Iran that cuts closely to the country’s coastline.
Officials did not explain how the ships got permission to travel through the strait.
Iran continues to keep a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf toward the open ocean and through which a fifth of the world’s oil and other important commodities are shipped.
A trickle of ships has been getting through the strait and Iran insists it remains open — just not to the U.S., Israel or their allies.
Amazon says Bahrain data center operations disrupted by drone activity
Amazon says data center operations in Bahrain have been disrupted by drone activity, the second time that its cloud computing service in the Middle East has been affected since the Iran war erupted.
The company says Amazon Web Service in the Bahrain region “has been disrupted as a result of the ongoing conflict” early Tuesday, without providing further details.
“We continue to support affected customers, helping them to migrate to alternate AWS Regions, with a large number already successfully operating their applications from other parts of the world,” the company said.
Three AWS Middle East data centers, including two in the United Arab Emirates and one in Bahrain, were damaged by Iranian drone strikes days after the war began.
The company has been advising customers using servers in the Middle East to shift their cloud computing workloads to other regions and to direct online traffic away from the UAE and Bahrain.
Palestinians in the West Bank inspect trunk of a massive missile that hit near village homes
The missile, which dwarfed its many onlookers, cratered the ground in the Palestinian village of Kifl Haris. It wasn’t clear whether it was an Iranian missile or an Israeli interceptor missile fired by Israeli air defense.
“We are caught between two fires, between Israeli missiles and Iranian missiles, so we do not know,” said resident Hatem Dawood. “We have no shelters to protect our children, nothing at all.”
Dawood, who’s also a former member of the village’s governing council, said the missile had fallen Tuesday morning.
Palestinian paramedics haven’t reported any injuries or deaths from the impact. Israel’s military did not respond to requests for details from The Associated Press.
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