Live updates: Trump scolds NATO allies over lack of support, Israel says it killed Iran security chief
Iran did not immediately confirm Larijani's killing. Tehran also did not confirm Israel's claim to have killed Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Basij militia used to suppress protests.
What to know
- ISRAEL SAYS TOP IRAN OFFICIALS KILLED: Israel said it killed Iran's top security official, Ali Larijani, one of the regime's most powerful surviving figures. Israel also said it killed the head of the Basij force, a key militia used to suppress protests in the Islamic Republic. Iran did not immediately confirm the claims, and it was not clear what Israel was basing its assessment on.
- COUNTERTERRORISM CHIEF QUITS: Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a retired Green Beret and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, said he has resigned over the war with Iran.
- U.S. EMBASSY TARGETED: An Iran-aligned militia group fired a combination of drones and rockets at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad earlier today, according to a U.S. official, who said six of the seven projectiles were intercepted and there were no injuries or serious damage. Videos geolocated by NBC News showed explosions and a column of smoke rising near the compound.
- DEATH TOLL: More than 2,000 people have been killed across the Middle East. In Iran, Israeli and American strikes have killed more than 1,200 people, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. At least 850 people have been killed in Lebanon, and 13 have died in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed, and two more died of noncombat causes.
- INSIGHTS AND ANALYSIS: Get exclusive analysis and insight into the Middle East conflict by becoming an NBC News subscriber.
Trump says NATO is 'making a very foolish mistake' in its response to his Iran demands
Trump lambasted U.S. allies in Europe this afternoon as NATO members are not giving in to the president's demands to assist with reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
"I think NATO is making a very foolish mistake," he said. "And I've long said that, you know, I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us. So this was a great test, because we don’t need them, but they should have been there."
Trump said that he's "disappointed in NATO" after he said the U.S. spends "trillions of dollars" on the alliance.
He added, "We've had great support from countries in the Middle East, great support, but we've had no support from, essentially no support from NATO."
Iranian soccer players train with Australian team after being granted asylum
Two members of the Iranian women’s soccer team joined a training session with a professional club in Australia, in their first publicly shared appearance since they accepted a government offer of asylum.
Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh were among seven people — six players and one staff member — who initially accepted humanitarian visas to stay in Australia amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Five of them later changed their minds, joining the rest of the Iranian team in leaving Australia, where they had traveled for a regional tournament before the war began.
Trump lashes out at NATO allies, says they're no longer needed
In a social media post, Trump blasted traditional NATO partners who he said had refused his demand to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, calling the alliance a “one way street.” He also insisted the U.S. did not need the cooperation of NATO members as it pursues its military campaign in Iran.
“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s fiery rhetoric against NATO came after key European powers such as Germany and Italy rebuffed the president’s demand that they assist in breaking the Iranian regime’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Sen. Lindsey Graham says he just spoke to Trump about Iran and he 'never heard him so angry in my life'
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he had never heard President Donald Trump “so angry” as when they discussed the war against Iran this morning and talked about “European allies’ unwillingness” to provide assets to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
"I have never heard him so angry in my life. I share that anger given what’s at stake," Graham wrote in a post on X.
"The arrogance of our allies to suggest that Iran with a nuclear weapon is of little concern and that military action to stop the ayatollah from acquiring a nuclear bomb is our problem not theirs is beyond offensive," he added. "The European approach to containing the ayatollah’s nuclear ambitions have proven to be a miserable failure."
European allies have been balking at Trump’s demands to assist with the blocked Strait of Hormuz.
Graham warned that the “repercussions” Europe faces in response to providing “little assistance to keep the Strait of Hormuz functioning are going to be wide and deep for Europe and America.”
“I consider myself very forward-leaning on supporting alliances, however at a time of real testing like this, it makes me second guess the value of these alliances,” he added. “I am certain I am not the only senator who feels this way.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Analysis: U.S. says it doesn't know who to talk to, Larijani would have been a good candidate
President Donald Trump said yesterday that he didn’t know who to negotiate with in Iran, yet at the same time the U.S. and Israel keep assassinating senior leaders inside the Islamic Republic.
Ali Larijani was one such leader. A well-known figure, he has been managing many of the day-to-day affairs in the country for some time, even before Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A top, inner circle figure, he was not universally beloved, but respected as someone close to the center of power in the country, with good ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the clerics and the civilian government, which is often sidelined in times of crisis. Some had touted him as a future leader.
So this was a powerful man, a serious guy who led the Iranian team in the recent nuclear negotiations. So while the U.S. is saying it doesn’t know who was in charge, it appears that one of the people who it certainly did know and who was in a position of considerable authority has just been taken out.
Ali Larijani speaks in Beirut in 2025. Bilal Hussein / AP file
Senate intelligence vice chair says Joe Kent is 'right' on Iran war
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said departing National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent is right to object to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
In a statement, Warner called Kent’s record “deeply troubling,” highlighting what he characterized as the longtime Trump supporter’s attempts to politicize the U.S. intelligence community.
“But on this point,” Warner said, “he is right: there was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice in the Middle East.”
“Ignoring the facts to pursue a predetermined war puts American lives at risk and undermines our national security,” Warner added. “The United States cannot be led into conflict on the basis of politics, impulse, or a president’s desire for confrontation. We have seen where this road leads before.”
Oil tankers 'starting to dribble through' the Strait of Hormuz, White House economic adviser says
Oil tankers are beginning to move through the Strait of Hormuz, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said today, while insisting Iran’s efforts to halt traffic through the crucial shipping waterway had not damaged the U.S.
"Already you’re seeing tankers are starting to dribble through the straits, and I think it’s a sign of how little Iran has left," Hassett said in an interview with CNBC.
“We’re very optimistic that this is going to be over in the short run, and then there will be price repercussions when it is over for a few weeks, as the ships make it to the refineries," he added.
Israel 'destabilizing' Iranian regime to give people the chance to remove it, Netanyahu says
Israel is destabilizing the Iranian regime in the hopes of giving its citizens “the opportunity to remove it,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today after his country said it had killed the Islamic Republic’s top security official, Ali Larijani, and the head of its Basij force, Gholam Reza Soleimani.
Local men sit in the rubble of a destroyed residential building in Tehran on Sunday. Shadati / Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
“This will not happen all at once, and it will not be easy. But if we persist, we will give them the opportunity to take their destiny into their own hands,” Netanyahu said in a video address shared by his office today.
Israel “eliminated” Larijani and Soleimani and was “determined” to win, he said. “I ask you simply to ignore voices of discouragement. We are achieving historic accomplishments,” Netanyahu added.
U.S. firm targeted by Iran-linked cyberattack says it is now 'contained'
An American company that was targeted in a cyberattack that was purportedly carried out by an Iran-linked hacker group has said it is now contained.
Stryker, a medical tech company headquartered in Michigan, said in an update on its website that its products remained safe to use. "The incident has been contained, and we are now in the restoration process, which is progressing steadily," the weekend update added.
Last week's cyberattack on Stryker appeared to mark the first significant instance of Iran hacking an American company since the war with the U.S. and Israel began.
Handala Team, which cybersecurity companies say has ties to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, claimed responsibility for the hack in statements on its Telegram and X accounts. The group said the attack was carried out in retaliation for a strike on a children's school in Minab in southern Iran, according to Reuters.
National Counterterrorism Center chief resigns over Iran war
The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a retired Green Beret and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, said he has resigned over the war with Iran.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation,” Joe Kent said in a statement posted on X today. “It is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
Jenny Kane / AP file
The National Counterterrorism Center oversees U.S. government intelligence on terrorist threats and retains a database of all known and suspected terrorists.
Kent worked under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and the two were political allies. Gabbard has kept a low profile since the war started and has previously criticized U.S. military interventions abroad.
U.N. has requested access to Iran to investigate Minab school strike
United Nations investigators have requested access to the site of a deadly strike on a school purported to have killed scores of children at the start of the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, a member of the Iran fact-finding mission said.
The U.N. had credible reports that at least 168 people were killed in the strike and that the majority were female students, many as young as 7 years old, Max du Plessis told British broadcaster BBC today.
The aftermath of a missile strike on a school in Minab, Iran, on Feb. 28. Abbas Zakeri / Mehr News via Reuters
“We’ve requested access to Iran and we’ll continue to seek that access,” he said, adding that the probe was still at an "early stage" and the U.N. was trying to determine who was responsible and what the legal consequences, if any, may be.
His comments came as an American investigation into the strike is ongoing. A U.S. official and three sources familiar with the preliminary findings previously told NBC News that outdated intelligence likely led to the deadly strike.
The investigation had found that American munition was likely responsible for the deadly incident, an American official and a person familiar with the preliminary findings had separately told NBC News, though the military had yet to formally conclude whether the U.S. was responsible.
Keeping Beirut's airport open is 'very complicated,' Lebanon's transport minister tells NBC News
Keeping Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport open amid regular Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s capital is “very complicated,” the country’s transport minister told NBC News.
Fayez Rasamny said it was “very challenging” but Lebanon had taken the decision to “keep our airspace open since day one of the war.”
On one occasion, he said, a Middle East Airlines flight from Paris had been unable to land for 40 minutes “because there were fighter jets in the area.”
After considering whether to turn back to Cyprus and the plane’s fuel supply, Rasamny said, the pilot landed after around 40 to 50 uncertain minutes.
A Middle East Airlines aircraft takes off from the airport in Beirut as smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs today. Ibrahim Amro / AFP - Getty Images
Iran war may push 45 million into acute hunger by June, World Food Programme warns
As many as 45 million more people could be pushed into acute hunger by June if the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran carried on until then, the World Food Programme has warned.
Millions could fall into acute food insecurity if the war does not end by the middle of the year and if oil prices remain above $100 a barrel, according to a new analysis, the WFP said in a statement on its website today.
This would add to roughly 318 million people around the world who are already food insecure, it said.
The global numbers of food-insecure people could reach levels that were last seen at the start of the war in Ukraine, which triggered a cost of living crisis and saw global hunger reach record levels with 349 million people impacted, the WFP added.
It also warned that its “latest projections indicate we are at risk of facing a similar situation in the months ahead if the Middle East conflict continues.”
A displaced family outside their tent along Beirut's seafront Sunday. Ibrahim Amro / AFP - Getty Images
Tanker hit by debris off UAE coast, British monitoring agency says
A tanker has been struck by falling debris while anchored off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a British maritime monitoring agency said this morning.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the vessel sustained minor structural damage and the crew was safe.
In an advisory yesterday, UKMTO said no confirmed vessel attacks have been reported since last Thursday, but the overall maritime threat level in the region remains critical due to prior attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The waterway, one of the world’s busiest oil shipping channels, has been effectively blocked by Iran in response to the strikes by the U.S. and Israel.
As Iran war throws Trump’s China trip into doubt, Beijing doesn’t seem to mind waiting
The timing of a highly anticipated summit between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping is in doubt after Trump asked to delay it by “a month or so” so he can focus on the widening war with Iran.
It’s the latest complication from the U.S.-Israeli attack on Tehran, which has close ties with Beijing, as the conflict adds another possible point of tension between America and China.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images file
The summit was meant to focus on trade, as both Trump and Xi seek to extend a delicate tariff truce between the world’s two biggest economies. But China showed little immediate sign that it was bothered by the likely delay, which analysts said may actually prove beneficial to efforts to further stabilize relations.
American Embassy in Baghdad attacked by drones and rockets, U.S. official says
An Iran-aligned militia group fired a combination of drones and rockets, at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad earlier today, according to a U.S. official.
Of the seven projectiles fired, U.S. defenses intercepted six of them, but one got through and struck an empty slab of concrete on the compound, the official said. There were no injuries or serious damage, the official added.
Security outside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad today. Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP - Getty Images
Photo: Netanyahu orders the killing of Iranian officials
An image released by Israel's government press office today shows what it says is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordering the killing of senior Iranian regime officials.
@IsraeliPM via X
Hundreds of Starlink terminals seized in Iran, local media reports
Hundreds of Starlink satellite internet terminals have been seized in Iran, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported today, citing the Intelligence Ministry.
The seizure happened in “a large-scale combined operation using extensive technological tools” to identify the locations of satellite systems and “criminal activities of their users,” ISNA quoted the ministry as saying.
“These measures will continue until all satellite internet terminals that in any way serve the enemy are fully identified,” the ministry was quoted as adding before it warned that the procurement and use of illegal Starlink systems was criminal and “during wartime it carries the most severe punishment for offenders, especially those linked to or cooperating with the enemy.”
Iran has been offline since the U.S.-Israeli military operation against it began last month. The blackout has now lasted for more than 400 hours, the monitoring service NetBlocks said earlier today.
Israel launches strikes across Tehran
Israel’s military said it has begun a “wide-scale wave of strikes” across Iran’s capital, Tehran. The announcement came shortly after air raid sirens were heard going off in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
Europe should prepare measures to support consumers, business as energy prices soar, Greek PM says
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis today said that Europe should prepare short- and long-term measures to support consumers and businesses as energy prices soar due to the conflict in the Middle East.
More Israeli troops join ground operations in southern Lebanon
More troops have joined ground operations in southern Lebanon with the aim of expanding Israel’s “forward defense,” the country's military announced this morning on Telegram.
Israeli soldiers are seen along the border with Lebanon in northern Israel today. Ariel Schalit / AP
The Israel Defense Forces said the “limited and targeted ground operations” had begun in “recent days.” Troops were working to “establish the forward defensive posture in order to remove threats and create an additional layer of security for residents of northern Israel,” it added.
The announcement came as fears of a prolonged occupation in southern Lebanon grew, where hundred of thousands of people have been displaced from in recent weeks.
The IDF said it would "continue to operate with determination" against Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.
Sirens sound in Tel Aviv
Air raid sirens have been heard going off in Tel Aviv.
A family shelters as sirens sound, warning of a missile attack over Holon, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv today. Jack Guez / AFP - Getty Images
Israel vows to keep pursuing Iran's leaders
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has told reporters that his military will continue going after Iranian leaders.
Together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said he had instructed the IDF to "continue pursuing the leadership."
Katz said that Iran's powerful security chief, Ali Larijani, and Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Basij force, were killed last night. He did not say what formed the basis of the Israeli military assessment.
Handwritten note about dead sailors posted on Larijani’s X account
A handwritten note commemorating Iran's dead sailors was posted on Ali Larijani's X account, shortly after Israel said it had killed the powerful security chief.
The note was also posted on Iranian state media. There was no public evidence indicating when the note was written or whether Larijani wrote it.
"The security and field of effort of the nation’s soldiers in distant areas, aimed at safeguarding the country’s national interests, continues despite all hardships," reads the handwritten note, signed off with Larijani's name.
The funeral of the sailors, killed in a U.S. attack, is expected to be held today.
Iran has not confirmed Larijani's death, and it was not immediately clear what Israel was basing its assessment on.
Israel claims it killed Iran security chief Ali Larijani
The Israeli military has killed Iran's powerful security chief, Ali Larijani, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed this morning.
Ali Larijani, center, participates in the Quds Day rally in Tehran on Friday. Supreme National Security Council / ZUMA Press via Alamy
Iran offered no immediate response to the claim, and it was not immediately clear what Israel was basing its assessment on.
Israel will update Trump later today that the "high rate of turnover" in Iran's leadership is "continuing and even accelerating following the elimination of two of the most senior remaining figures," Katz said.
Larijani would be the highest-ranking Iranian official to be killed after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's death at the very start of the war.
Larijani was an influential figure in Iran's leadership who was viewed by some as a de facto ruler in the wake of Khamenei's death, and with the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei making no public appearances.
Israel says it killed the leader of Iran's Basij militia
The Israeli military said today it had killed Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Basij, an all-volunteer force of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard that is key in suppressing protests around the country.
Israel said Soleimani was killed in an airstrike yesterday. It said that he has acted as the unit's commander for six years and helped oversee the regime's repression of dissent and mass arrests.
Gholam Reza Soleimani. Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images
Iran gave no immediate confirmation of Israel's claim to have killed Soleimani. He would be one of the most senior Iranian officials to have been killed since the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei early in the war.
Both the U.S. and Israel have targeted the leadership of Iran's internal security apparatus throughout the conflict, hoping to damage the regime's ability to put down any unrest.
Video shows drones intercepted near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
Multiple drones were intercepted by air defense systems near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as Iranian-backed militias target American interests in Iraq.
It was not immediately clear if the facility suffered any damage.
Exclusive: War planning on Iran conflict includes off-ramps for Trump should he choose them
Military officials have included options in regular war planning for Trump to end the conflict in Iran should he decide to do so, six people familiar with the plans told NBC News.
So far, he hasn’t.
