Reports of Iran closing Strait of Hormuz are ‘completely unacceptable,’ White House says

Donald Trump is accustomed to criticism from coast to coast — Democrats, disaffected Republicans, late-night comedians, massive protests. Yet in his second presidency, Trump’s most influential American critic doesn’t live in the country but at the Vatican.

It’s an unprecedented situation, with the first American pope directly assailing the American president over the war in Iran, where a fragile ceasefire took hold this week. The announcement came after Pope Leo XIV declared that Trump’s belligerence was “truly unacceptable.”

BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has weathered a fresh ordeal with President Trump, this time over the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, a conflict that does not even involve the world’s biggest military alliance, and one the alliance was never consulted about.

Since launching the war, Trump has derided U.S. allies as “cowards,” slammed NATO as “a paper tiger” and compared U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Neville Chamberlain, who is probably best remembered for a policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany.

WASHINGTON — Morning broke in the Middle East on Wednesday with a wave of attacks by Iran. Air defenses in Kuwait were overwhelmed. Three dozen drones and 17 ballistic missiles were shot down over the United Arab Emirates. The most important oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia suffered a hit. Sirens flared in Tel Aviv, and a devastating drumbeat of Israeli strikes targeting Iran’s allies in Lebanon killed scores in Beirut.

A day after President Trump hailed a ceasefire in his war with the Islamic Republic, reversing course on his threat to escalate, the only country spared from attack appeared to be Iran itself.

WASHINGTON — Hackers backing Tehran say an uncertain ceasefire between Iran and the United States and Israel won’t end their retaliatory cyberattacks, a warning that American cybersecurity experts say should be taken seriously by potential targets in the U.S. and Israel.

One leading hacking group known as Handala said after the ceasefire announcement that it was temporarily postponing attacks on the U.S. but would continue to target Israel. It vowed to revive its efforts against America when the time was right — demonstrating again how digital warfare has become ingrained in military conflict. Already, the two-week ceasefire appears at risk of fraying over significant disagreements between the parties, which each are claiming victory in the war.

WASHINGTON — A day after the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, the truce showed signs of strain Wednesday as Iranian leaders accused Americans of violating the agreement and reports emerged that Tehran had moved to restrict traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

The developments tested President Trump’s ability to parlay a fragile pause in fighting into a lasting peace deal with a country he has spent weeks threatening to destroy, and raised questions about whether the Trump administration had the diplomatic leverage to hold the deal together.

AMMAN, Jordan — Even as a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appeared to hold on Wednesday, Israel insisted it would continue operations against Hezbollah, while its warplanes carried out the largest wave of strikes across Lebanon since the current round of hostilities began with the Lebanese Shiite militant group.

In response to the Israeli attacks, Iran once again sealed the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that is central to the ceasefire agreement, Iranian state media reported.

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz was a central pillar of the delicate ceasefire deal between Iran and the United States, but questions arose Wednesday about when commerce will begin to flow unimpeded through the vital waterway.

Fars News, an Iranian media agency closely associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported Wednesday that the Iranian Navy has issued new threats to oil tankers attempting to transit the strait of Hormuz, citing shipping sources.

“Any vessel trying to travel into the sea ... will be targeted and destroyed,” the Navy reportedly told ships.

Asked at a press briefing Wednesday about media reports that the strait was closed again, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump’s expectation is that the waterway will be reopened immediately and safely.

“The president was made aware of those reports before I came to the podium,” she said, calling them “completely unacceptable.” She said the reports were false, and they prove that what Iran says publicly often differs from its private negotiations.

Maritime traffic remains heavily restricted through the strait, as transport companies await safety assurances from Iranian armed forces before attempting the journey. There have been at least 28 reports of incidents affecting vessels operating in the region.

Maersk, a Danish shipping company, said it is working “with urgency” to obtain clarity about potential commercial passage through the Strait, the Associated Press reported.

“Any decision to transit the Strait of Hormuz will be based on continuous risk assessments, close monitoring of the security situation, and available guidance from relevant authorities and partners,” the company said on its website.

Meanwhile, the Tasnim news agency, another Revolutionary Guard-aligned outlet, reported that Iran may consider backing out of its ceasefire deal with the United States over Israeli airstrikes Wednesday in Lebanon.

The claims were not publicly confirmed by Iranian officials.

Uncertainty about the durability of the ceasefire agreement arose Wednesday morning, when the Israeli military ordered massive strikes in Lebanon, hitting over 100 targets simultaneously over south and east Lebanon and in Beirut, killing at least 112 civilians, according to Lebanese health officials.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have both maintained that that Lebanon is not subject to the current pause in hostilities. Trump told PBS Friday morning that “they are not included in that deal.” Asked why, he said, “because of Hezbollah. They were not included in the deal. That’ll get taken care of too. It’s all right.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that he was aware of several violations of the ceasefire across the conflict zone. Though he fell short of detailing violations, he said the attacks “undermine the spirit of peace process.”

“I earnestly and sincerely urge all parties to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire for two weeks, as agreed upon, so that diplomacy can take a lead role towards peaceful settlement of the conflict,” he wrote on X.

“Many shipowners will remain extremely cautious, fearing a sudden resumption of hostilities,” Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, said in a Wednesday note.

He stressed that future escalation cannot be ruled out, “given the significant differences in the parties’ positions.” It could take months for the Strait of Hormuz to resume operations at full capacity, he said, which will continue to keep oil prices high.

Karin Ström, vice president of logistics and supply chain work at Proxima, reiterated that the “fragile political landscape has the potential to change within a matter of hours” and that many vessels may not choose to return immediately, as they seek “greater reassurances about the safety of their cargo and crews.”

AMMAN, Jordan — Israel’s Arabic-language spokesman said the Israeli military’s latest attacks in Lebanon targeted Hezbollah in areas beyond Shiite-dominated neighborhoods near Beirut, which are among its traditional bastions of support in the country.

Avichay Adraee, the spokesman, accused the Shiite militant group of embedding itself in northern Beirut and mixed-sect neighborhoods with Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims. Until now, Israel has focused its offensive on southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“To the people of Lebanon: Do not be mistaken — the destruction that Hezbollah brought to the suburb will move with it,” Adraee said, adding the group was spreading “destruction across Lebanon at your expense.”

“Do not allow this; do not allow Hezbollah to bring devastation to you,” he added.

Oil prices plunged below $95 per barrel, and stock markets surged worldwide Wednesday after President Trump pulled back from his threat to destroy Iran.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 leaped 2.5% after Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran, less than 90 minutes before a deadline Trump had set for it to open the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf.

AMMAN, Jordan — As the 11th-hour ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran came into effect on Wednesday, Middle East governments welcomed the cessation of hostilities even as Israel continued to pound wide swaths of Lebanon.

Regional countries are breathing a sigh of relief after Washington and Tehran announced Tuesday night that they had reached a two-week ceasefire, averting a threat from President Trump to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization” if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz..

Pakistan, which brokered the agreement and is set to host talks in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Friday, said Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, who reaffirmed his government’s participation.

Egypt, which along with Turkey also pushed for the ceasefire, said that the 14-day suspension of military activity “represents a significant opportunity that should be seized to open the door for negotiations, diplomacy and constructive dialogue.”

Turkey echoed the sentiment, saying in a statement from its foreign ministry that “the path to lasting peace can only be achieved through dialogue, diplomacy and mutual trust.

“We emphasize that the temporary ceasefire must be fully implemented on the ground and hope that all parties will adhere to the agreement reached,” the statement said.

Yet despite Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, saying that the ceasefire included “Lebanon and elsewhere,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the ceasefire “does not include Lebanon.”

Netanyahu’s assertion was followed by repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon throughout the day on Wednesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the latest operation targeted “hundreds of Hezbollah operatives… at headquarters across Lebanon, in the largest concentrated blow.” He warned Hezbollah General Secretary Naim Qassem that “his turn will come.”

Israel said the strikes — which hit several neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital Beirut, its southern suburbs, and at least 31 villages in the country’s south and six villages in its east — targeted more than 100 targets within 10 minutes, according to a statement from the Israeli military.

The attacks took place shortly before 3 p.m. during rush hour traffic, sparking widespread panic on Beirut’s congested streets. In a statement, Lebanon’s health ministry exhorted residents in Beirut “to clear the way for ambulances so they can carry out their work.”

“The traffic congestion caused by the unprecedented wave of airstrikes launched by the Israeli enemy is hindering rescue efforts,” the ministry added.

Casualty figures from the latest barrage were still unclear, but authorities said hundreds were killed and wounded.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it mobilized 100 ambulances to take casualties to hospitals, while the head of the country’s medical union called on all doctors to go to hospitals and assist in treatment.

Before Wednesday’s barrage, Lebanese health authorities said more than 1,500 people were killed in Israeli attacks since March 2, when Hezbollah launched drones and missiles on Israel in support of Iran and in response to more than 10,000 Israeli attacks on Lebanon since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in 2024.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned Israel’s attacks on densely populated areas, saying they killed “defenseless civilians.”

He added that Israel “remains utterly heedless of all regional and international efforts to halt the war — not to mention its utter disregard for the principles of international law and international humanitarian law, which it has never respected.”

“All friends of Lebanon are called upon to assist us in bringing an end to these aggressions by every means available,” he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said his government “continued efforts to ensure that the regional peace includes Lebanon in a stable and lasting manner,” according to a statement from his office.

The Israeli military said it had ceased fire against Iran after targeting the country’s missile launch sites in a wave of strikes overnight.

In Lebanon, however, Israel carried out its largest strike across the country since the start of the conflict in Iran, Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday on X, targeting what the military described as Hezbollah headquarters and command centers in Beirut and elsewhere. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier said Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire agreement.

Hegseth said the Strait of Hormuz is reopened and that “commerce will flow” during the ceasefire.

He added that “it’s time for the rest of the world to step up and ensure that that stays open after President Trump and the War Department brought Iran to the place where they are voluntarily opening it right now.”

At the briefing, Hegseth was asked if President Trump was prepared to wipe out “a whole civilization” if Tehran did not agree to a ceasefire.

“We had a target set locked and loaded of infrastructure, bridges, power plants,” Hegseth said. “Iran ultimately understood their ability, their future to produce, to generate power, to fuel their terrorist regime was in our hand. That’s why they came to the table.”

Hegseth focused his answer on the U.S. military’s ability to eliminate Iran’s “ability to export energy,” not civilian life as Trump warned about.

Hegseth said the U.S. military has no plans to leave the region during the two-week ceasefire.

“We will be hanging around, not going anywhere,” Hegseth said. “We’re going to make sure Iran complies with this ceasefire and then ultimately comes to the table and makes a deal. So we’ll stay put.”

Hegseth said the U.S. military will continue to monitor Iran’s stockpile of Iran’s enriched uranium, the fissile material that is core to developing nuclear weapons.

He suggested Iran may “hand it over.” But if they do not do so, Hegseth said: “We will take it out, or if we have to do something else ourselves like we did [with] Midnight Hammer or something like that, we reserve that opportunity.”

Iran has repeatedly vowed to retain what it has called a “right to enrich” uranimum. The 10-points in the ceasefire deal did not have any mention of uranium.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that it could take a little time for the ceasefire to fully take hold, saying Iran “would be wise to find a way to get the carrier pigeon to their troops out in remote locations to know not to shoot ... any longer.”

But, he said, “we hope and believe” that the ceasefire will hold.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine echoed Hegseth’s declaration that the United States had achieved Trump’s objectives in Iran. Caine called the ceasefire “a pause” and said the military remains ready to resume combat if needed.

Caine said the joint forces had struck more than 13,000 targets in Iran since Feb. 28. He said about 80 percent of Iran’s air defense system, 90 percent of their regular navy fleet and more than 95 percent of its naval mines had been destroyed.

“We hope that Iran chooses a lasting peace,” Caine said, speaking to reporters Wednesday morning from the Pentagon.

The U.S. military carried out more than 800 strikes against Iranian targets on Tuesday night before the two-week ceasefire deal was reached, Hegseth said.

“We finished completely destroying Iran’s defense industrial base, a core pillar of our mission,” he said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that President Trump was not bluffing when he threatened to target crucial Iranian infrastructure if they did not cut a deal with the United States.

“You see, had Iran refused our terms, the next targets would have been their power plants, the bridges and oil and energy infrastructure targets,” he said. “We were locked and loaded.”

At a Pentagon news briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield.”

Hegseth, however, acknowledged Iran still has the military capability to launch missiles.

“They can still shoot,” he said. “We know that their command and control is so decimated they can’t really talk and coordinate. So they still may shoot here and there, but that would be very, very unwise.”

Vice President JD Vance called the two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran a “fragile truce,” saying, “If the Iranians are willing in good faith to work with us, I think we can make an agreement.” He warned Iranians not to undermine negotiations, however, suggesting that the United States still had economic and military means to pressure Iran.

“The president... has told us to come to the negotiating table, but if the Iranians don’t do the exact same thing, they’re going to find out the president of the United States is not one to mess around,” Vance said, speaking at a Wednesday event in Budapest. “He’s impatient. He’s impatient to make progress.”

President Trump said Wednesday morning that any country supplying military weapons to Iran will face a 50% tariffs, starting immediately.

“There will be no exclusions or exemptions!” he wrote on Truth Social.

President Trump stood down from bellicose threats to strike Iran’s critical infrastructure on Tuesday night, agreeing instead to a last-minute, two-week pause in fighting to make room for negotiations.

But he did so stating that diplomacy would revolve around a 10-point proposal from Tehran, a framework he described as a “workable basis on which to negotiate.”

The remark drew immediate concern among allies in the Middle East and even critics of the war at home, who fear that Iran’s criteria for an end to the war would leave the Islamic Republic in a stronger position than when the war began.

Officials familiar with the 10-point proposal have described it as including a toll system that would allow Iran to collect fees for commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international waterway that typically sees 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transit each day.

Tehran is also asking the United States to relieve longstanding sanctions. And the document also called on Washington to remove U.S. troops throughout the Middle East, presumably a nonstarter for the Pentagon.

Iran repeatedly vowed to retain what it has called a “right to enrich” uranium, the fissile material core to developing nuclear warheads. Over five weeks of war, Trump said the conflict was predicated on preventing Iran from ever building nuclear weapons.

The Iranian proposal also calls on Israel to stop Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

In his statement announcing a ceasefire, Trump said the agreement was “subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” He made no mention of a potential toll system, or of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in a statement that the strait would reopen for a two-week period.

“Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible,” he said, adding, “via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”

Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said that he views the ceasefire as a “tactical pause.”

“If Trump concedes on freedom of navigation and on enrichment, this isn’t a ceasefire agreement. It’s a surrender agreement,” he said.

Staff writer Gavin Quinton contributed reporting.

Pakistan is set to host negotiations between American and Iranian envoys on Friday, though the White House cautioned Tuesday that an in-person meeting is not assured.

“There are discussions about in-person talks, but nothing is final until announced by the president or the White House,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday evening.

The talks, if confirmed, would mark the first time U.S. and Iranian envoys have met face-to-face since the U.S. and Israel launched the war Feb. 28.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the two-week ceasefire announced Tuesday is designed to allow diplomacy to achieve “conclusive termination of war, in the interest of long-term peace and stability in the region.”

The U.S. team could include Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Vice President JD Vance. Iran has not named its delegation.

Both sides spent recent weeks exchanging proposals through Pakistani intermediaries rather than meeting directly.

Trump has said Iran’s 10-point peace framework is “a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

Iran previously rejected a U.S. 15-point proposal as too extreme, and denied that negotiations were taking place. Friday’s meeting would mark a significant shift, though though Iranian leaders warned that a pause in hostilities does not signify the end of the war.

“Our hands remain upon the trigger, and should the slightest error be committed by the enemy, it shall be met with full force,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council stated Tuesday.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council announced Tuesday that Iran will agree to a two-week ceasefire if military strikes against the Islamic Republic stop.

In a statement posted by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s leaders said that formal negotiations with Washington will begin Friday in Islamabad, Pakistan.

“If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations,” Araghchi posted to X.

The two-week ceasefire comes after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir pushed both sides toward the table. Araghchi credited the two Pakistani officials with “tireless efforts to end the war in the region.”

Iran also agreed to allow passage through the Strait of Hormuz during the negotiating window, with coordination required through Iranian armed forces.

President Trump announced he agreed to suspend bombing after conversations with Pakistani leaders, saying the U.S. had “met and exceeded all military objectives.”

The Iranian statement did not mention Israel, which joined the U.S. in attacking Iran on Feb. 28.

WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran reached an 11th-hour ceasefire deal on Tuesday night, pausing for two weeks the threat of military strikes that President Trump had warned would wipe out a “whole civilization” unless Tehran agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The agreement, announced by Trump in a social media post a little more than an hour before the 5 p.m. PDT deadline, came shortly after Pakistan, a mediator in the peace talks, asked Trump to give more time for diplomacy.

President Trump has agreed to suspend an aggressive bombing campaign targeting Iran’s vital infrastructure for a period of two weeks, he wrote on social media Tuesday, just shy of a self-imposed deadline he set for Tehran to agree to broad terms of a ceasefire.

It’s unclear if the Iranian government made any such commitments. But in a post on Truth Social, Trump said that Iran had offered a 10-point proposal that provides a “workable basis on which to negotiate.”

Trump said the pause came after a day of intensive negotiations brokered by Pakistan’s prime minister, who personally requested a two-week delay in the bombing campaign.

The president said he had ordered the halt to the operation “subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.”

“It is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution,” he added.

The Iranian government did not immediate comment on the president’s remarks.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday afternoon that President Trump is reviewing a proposal from Pakistani Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif asking him to extend his deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“The President has been made aware of the proposal, and a response will come,” she said.

Before Pakistan made the request, Leavitt had said: “The Iranian regime has until 8PM Eastern Time to meet the moment and make a deal with the United States. Only the President knows where things stand and what he will do.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies are “urgently warning” private-sector companies nationwide that Iranian actors are conducting cyber operations targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, a campaign that has already caused disruptions, according to a government notice.

The activity comes as President Trump threatened Iran’s infrastructure, particularly its bridges and power plants.

At a special “shadow hearing” in Los Angeles focused on the midterm elections, where House Democrats dismissed President Trump’s claims about widespread fraud and defended state election systems as secure, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) denounced Trump’s comments about destroying Iranian civilization.

The former House speaker also said protecting the election, and getting out the vote, is critically important to hold Trump and Republicans accountable, because she does not give much credence to the idea that Trump’s cabinet will check him.

“Something very sick happened over the weekend. We heard statements from a person whose mental stability has to be questioned for the statements that he’s made about obliterating a civilization. A civilization,” Pelosi said, referring to Trump.

“While Republicans [seem] not willing to exercise the 25th Amendment, we have to do that in the public,” she said. “We have to make sure that the mentality that would obliterate a civilization, undermine a democracy by fighting free and fair elections, just cannot prevail.”

Asked if she and other Democrats would push harder for the actual exercise of the 25th Amendment, including when Congress returns to Washington, she said that wasn’t their role.

“Well, it isn’t up to us. As you know, the Constitution, the 25th Amendment, calls for the vice president and members of the president’s cabinet, who see his incapacity so clearly, to honor their oath of office to uphold the constitution,” Pelosi said.

“But since that can’t happen, as we see, it is very important for us to do what we have to do outside, and that is to just make sure that people know that their vote will be counted as cast. That they should vote early,” Pelosi said.

Other California members of the House echoed House Democratic leaders in calling on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to call the House back to Washington so they can vote on a resolution restricting Trump’s powers to wage war in Iran. Several called Trump “unhinged,” and said he has to be checked.

In a later statement on X, Pelosi also backed Congress reconvening to “end this war.”

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country is serving as a mediator in ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran, asked President Trump on Tuesday to extend his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks,” Sharif wrote on X. “Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture.”

Shortly after the Iran war started four weeks ago, farming executive Bikram Hundal was beside himself.

The vice president of operations at Sequoia Nut Co. had shipped 15 containers of almonds, walnuts and pistachios from the Port of Long Beach, and he wasn’t exactly sure where they were on the high seas.

WASHINGTON — Merely two weeks had passed since the Iran war began when Gen. Randy George, the Army’s highest-ranking officer, began sounding an alarm.

Touring a weapons depot in North Carolina, George warned lawmakers present that the conflict’s vast and ever-growing list of targets was straining U.S. capacity — “depleting our stockpiles faster than we can replace them,” as one congressman recalled. Since assuming Army leadership, George had made it his mission to strengthen the nation’s industrial base in anticipation of precisely this moment, when the United States would be engaged in a major war with a formidable adversary.

Two Los Angeles-based relatives of a deceased Iranian leader were arrested by immigration agents after one of them extolled Iranian leadership and denigrated the United States and both repeatedly posted images and videos depicting a decidedly Western lifestyle, according to federal authorities and screenshots of the two women’s social media accounts.

Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Friday and had their green cards revoked, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement over the weekend, citing in particular Afshar’s “outspoken” support of the “totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran.”

WASHINGTON — An audacious operation Saturday night deep inside Iran rescued an American officer whose fighter jet had gone down behind enemy lines, a dramatic mission involving hundreds of U.S. soldiers that underscored the ongoing dangers of President Trump’s war.

Early on Easter Sunday morning, the president celebrated the mission as one of the most daring of its kind in U.S. history. But he was angrily threatening to escalate the conflict only hours later, warning Iran with an expletive that he would order strikes against its vital infrastructure unless it agreed by Tuesday to allow all maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

At a small Persian church in Chicago’s western suburbs, the pastor bowed his head and offered a special prayer for regime change and freedom of worship in his native Iran, as the five-week U.S.-Israeli war there rages on.

“We pray to God to tear down the darkness power from Iran and bring his kingdom and give people peace,” the Rev. James Shahabi said in Persian during a Palm Sunday service at Kheimeh Molaghat church in Addison, Ill. “And let his name be glorified in Iran freely.”

CAIRO — Iran’s government is detaining family members and threatening to seize property of Iranian opposition figures in exile, some told the Associated Press, in the latest crackdown on dissenting voices as the war rages on.

Activists overseas play a key role in tracking the crackdown, which is complicated by the ongoing internet shutdown imposed early this year during massive nationwide protests against the Islamic theocracy. The crackdown left thousands of people dead, even by the government’s estimate, and activist groups say the toll may be as high as 30,000.

ISTANBUL — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concern that a prolonged U.S.-Israeli war on Iran could further erode America’s support for his country as Washington’s global priorities shift and Kyiv braces for reduced deliveries of critically needed Patriot air defense missiles.

Ukraine desperately needs more U.S.-made Patriots to help it counter Russia’s daily barrages, Zelensky said, speaking to the Associated Press in an exclusive interview late Saturday in Istanbul.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world’s woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, emphasized Easter’s message of hope as a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after being crucified.

A man detained in Bahrain last month as the island kingdom came under missile attack from Iran vanished for days, until his family was called to retrieve his body from a military hospital.

Relatives said Mohamed al-Mousawi, a Shiite Muslim who had previously been imprisoned, was saving money to start a business. His body was returned covered in slash marks and bruising, including on the soles of his feet.

NEW YORK — This is not the run-up to the midterm elections that Republicans wanted.

A year and a half after winning the White House by promising to lower costs and end wars, Donald Trump is a wartime president overseeing surging energy costs and an escalating overseas conflict that many in his own party do not like.

WASHINGTON — An American pilot flying over Iran was rescued Friday after his fighter jet was shot down by enemy fire, an attack that defied U.S. proclamations of total control over Iranian skies and prompted a hurried search and rescue operation for the pilot’s crew member.

Word of the downed F-15E, a storied U.S. fighter jet rarely before defeated in combat, was followed only hours later by news that a second U.S. aircraft had crashed in the area at roughly the same time. Iranian officials claimed credit for shooting down that aircraft, as well. While U.S. officials did not confirm that the A-10 Thunderbolt II had been shot down, they did confirm the successful rescue of its sole pilot.

LONDON — Britain accused Iran on Thursday of holding the world’s economy hostage as diplomats from more than 40 countries held talks on ways to press Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil route that has been choked off by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

The U.S. didn’t attend the virtual meeting, which came after President Trump made clear that he thinks securing the waterway is not America’s job. Trump has also disparaged America’s European allies for failing to support the war and renewed his threats to pull the U.S. out of NATO.

LONDON — President Trump says he’s strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO, ratcheting up his criticism of European allies and exposing a wider rift in the trans-Atlantic alliance — this time over the Iran war.

While Trump’s talk of a possible NATO pullout dates back years, the comments to The Telegraph newspaper in the U.K., published Wednesday, were among the clearest and most disparaging yet — suggesting that the fracture has deepened perhaps to a point of no return.

WASHINGTON — President Trump signaled Wednesday that the United States is eyeing an offramp in its war with Iran, as he also raised the possibility of a major shift in U.S. alliances, including the potential withdrawal from NATO.

Trump indicated in a social media post that Iran’s president wanted a ceasefire, and that the United States would be open to doing so, if Iran agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route that has been affected during the monthlong conflict.

ROME — Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who make war or cite God to justify their violence, as he prayed especially for Christians in the Middle East during a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran entering its second month and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, Leo dedicated his Palm Sunday homily to his message that God is the “king of peace” who rejects violence.

WASHINGTON — President Trump is threatening to deploy ground troops to seize critical oil infrastructure on Iran’s Kharg Island, a military gambit that experts say would risk American lives and could still fail to end the war.

If Trump wants to hobble Iran’s oil industry for leverage in negotiations, a better option might be setting up a blockade at sea against ships that have filled up at Kharg Island’s oil terminals, the experts said.

WASHINGTON — President Trump says the United States is winning the war with Iran, even as thousands of additional American troops deploy to the Middle East.

He has pilloried other countries for not helping the U.S., only to say later he does not need their assistance. He has twice delayed deadlines for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s energy plants if the vital waterway remains largely shut down and said the U.S. was “not affected” by the closure.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — A generational divide over the Iran war surfaced between older attendees and their political heirs at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, as the group’s leaders pleaded for unity in a challenging midterm election year for Republicans.

Younger conservatives at CPAC, which concluded Saturday, spoke of disappointment and even betrayal over President Trump’s war against Iran, saying in interviews with the Associated Press that the president’s actions run counter to his many pledges to oppose foreign entanglements.

WASHINGTON — The number of American service members wounded in the Iran war has grown beyond 300, with more than two dozen troops injured this week in attacks on a Saudi air base.

Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base in an attack Friday that injured at least 15 troops, including five seriously, according to two people briefed on the matter. U.S. officials initially reported that at least 10 U.S. troops were injured.

DUBAI — Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the month-old war in the Middle East on Saturday, claiming two missile launches at Israel, as about 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region and Pakistan’s government said that regional powers plan to meet Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting.

The war has threatened global supplies of oil and natural gas, sparked fertilizer shortages and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices. The United States and Israel continue to strike Iran, whose retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighboring gulf Arab states. More than 3,000 people have been killed.

The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran continued to upend markets, cause death and destruction across the Middle East and elude any diplomatic resolution heading into its fifth week on Friday — even as President Trump claimed victory and a coming end to the conflict.

“We’re doing really well in Iran, just so you understand,” the president insisted to a group of farmers gathered for a White House agriculture event. “I mean, how good is our military? How good is our military?”

President Trump on Thursday continued projecting confidence in the U.S. war effort in Iran, suggesting online and during a high-level Cabinet meeting that Iran has been “obliterated,” that its leaders were “begging” for a deal, and that the U.S. is “roaming free” over Iran and “NEEDS NOTHING” from its European allies.

He also again delayed threatened U.S. attacks on Iranian power plants, based on talks that he said were going “very well.”

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has offered Iran a 15-point ceasefire plan aimed at temporarily halting the war in the Middle East, as the Pentagon simultaneously orders thousands of Marines, paratroopers and a warship to the region.

The plan presented to Iranian leadership Tuesday broadly included a 30-day ceasefire and sanctions relief for Iran in exchange for a laundry list of U.S. demands, according to the Associated Press and other outlets.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — Conservatives are holding one of their largest annual gatherings at a perilous political moment for President Trump and with open division on the right over the war he launched in Iran.

While Trump maintains broad support among conservatives, the war in Iran is more than a wrinkle for activists drawn to his “America First” campaign pledge against getting involved in foreign conflicts. A new AP-NORC poll shows about 59% of Americans think the military action in Iran is excessive. The debate will be a subtext — and likely flare publicly — as thousands of activists, influencers and Republican lawmakers gather at the Conservative Political Action Conference that begins Wednesday outside Dallas.

WASHINGTON — Most Americans believe recent U.S. military action against Iran has gone too far, and many are worried about affording gasoline, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

As the war launched by the U.S. and Israel continues in its fourth week, the survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates that while President Trump’s approval rating is holding steady, the conflict could be swiftly turning into a major political liability for his Republican administration.

TEHRAN — In typical times, Nowruz is a much-anticipated moment of hope across Iran.

Preparations for the Persian New Year begin days in advance, with people spring-cleaning their home — “shaking the house,” as the expression goes — or buying new clothes and furniture.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Tuesday that Iran wants to “make a deal” with the United States to end the war in the Middle East, saying that negotiations are ongoing with the conflict in its fourth week.

Iran has publicly denied that talks are happening. But Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event that negotiations are underway and being led by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

TEL AVIV — The role of Israel’s hijacking of Iran’s street cameras in the killing of the country’s supreme leader underscores how surveillance systems are increasingly being targeted by adversaries in wartime.

Hundreds of millions of cameras have been installed above shops, in homes and on street corners across the world, many connected to the internet and poorly secured. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have enabled militaries and intelligence agencies to sift through vast amounts of surveillance footage and identify targets.

BEIRUT — President Trump and Iranian officials gave conflicting statements Monday about a possible deal to end the war — with Trump extending a deadline he’d set for bombing Iranian power plants and claiming negotiations were underway, while Iran denied having any dialogue with Trump officials.

“We are in the throes of a real possibility of making a deal,” Trump told reporters Monday. “If I were a betting man, I’d bet for it — but again, I’m not guaranteeing anything.”

ARAD, Israel — The United States and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region.

Iran said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial to oil and other exports, would be “completely closed” immediately if the U.S. follows up on President Trump’s threat to attack its power plants. Trump late Saturday set a 48-hour deadline to open the strait.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that the United States is considering “winding down” hostilities in the Middle East as the Pentagon is sending thousands of California-based Marines to the region and has requested billions in new funding for the Iran war.

“We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

QUSHTAPA, Iraq — They fled Iran as children and now, living in Iraq as adults, they express guarded hope that the U.S.–Israeli war with Iran will weaken the theocracy that forced them into exile decades ago.

Behind that hope is the longing of Iranian Kurds in Iraq that they can someday return to homes they only remember through paintings on their walls and faded photographs.

WASHINGTON — Before Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi departed for Washington, she told her nation’s lawmakers that her Oval Office meeting with President Trump on Thursday would be “very difficult.”

Actually, it was awkward.

BRUSSELS — European leaders doubled down Thursday on refusing to join the United States and Israel military campaigns in the Middle East as they met in Brussels to grapple with rising oil and gas prices caused by the war.

European leaders have deflected entreaties from President Trump to send military assets to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the global flow of oil, gas and fertilizer. However, rising energy prices because of the war and fears in Europe of a new refugee crisis have pushed leaders to make the Middle East a priority at the summit.

WASHINGTON — In the escalating war in Iran, the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs would ordinarily be at the center of the geopolitical fray.

Typically led by a veteran diplomat, the bureau’s role would be to coordinate U.S. foreign policy across an 18-country region, much of which has become a chaotic battlefield scarred by drone and missile strikes as the U.S. and Israel remain locked in conflict with Iran.

It was no surprise when Joe Kent showed up on Tucker Carlson’s podcast a day after quitting his counterterrorism job in President Trump’s administration. Here was a top official who resigned to protest the war with Iran turning to right-wing media’s leading critic of the conflict.

“The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” Kent said in Wednesday’s interview.

NEW DELHI — Countries in Asia are scrambling to conserve energy and protect consumers as the war on Iran and attacks on gas fields and oil refineries disrupt critical supplies, rattling markets and driving up prices.

The crisis is hitting Asia hardest because of its heavy reliance on imported energy, much of which is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, a key choke point now under strain. Only about 90 vessels — mostly Indian, Pakistani and Chinese-flagged — have made it through the strait since the beginning of Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran, and Iran’s strikes against Israel and Gulf Arab neighbors, on Feb. 28.

Iranian attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Persian Gulf on Thursday posed new threats to global energy supplies, as President Trump rebuked Israel for striking a key Iranian gas field, and other nations voiced growing fears that the conflict was escalating.

Saudi Arabia said it might respond with force if Iran continues to attack facilities in the kingdom, and the price of oil once more skyrocketed.

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — President Trump paid his respects on Wednesday at a Delaware military base where the remains of six U.S. service members killed in the crash of a refueling aircraft were returned to their families.

It was the second time since launching the war with Iran on Feb. 28 that the Republican president attended the solemn military ritual known as a dignified transfer, which he once described as the “toughest thing” he has had to do as commander in chief.

WASHINGTON — The Iranian government remains “intact but largely degraded,” National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard told Congress on Wednesday, as Israel continued to hunt down the Islamic Republic’s leadership with an overnight airstrike that killed the nation’s spy chief.

The death of Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, announced Wednesday by Israel, was the third high-level assassination in roughly 24 hours in a series of strikes that have hollowed out Tehran’s leadership ranks.

WASHINGTON — U.S. companies will be allowed to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company after the Treasury Department eased sanctions, with some limitations, on Wednesday as the Trump administration looks for ways to boost world oil supplies during the Iran war.

The Treasury issued a broad authorization allowing Petróleos de Venezuela S.A, or PDVSA, to directly sell Venezuelan oil to U.S. companies and on global markets, a massive shift after Washington for years had largely blocked dealings with Venezuela’s government and its oil sector.

PARIS — We’ve long had your back, now it’s our turn. That is how the famously transactional President Trump is framing his demands that allies help him with the Iran war. He wants to call in IOUs for decades of U.S. security guarantees.

The string of refusals indicates his stock of European goodwill is low. He has put allies through the wringer since returning to the White House, bullying them over tariffs, Greenland and other issues, and disparaging the sacrifices their soldiers made alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is traveling Wednesday to the United States for what she expects to be a “very difficult” meeting with President Trump after he called on Japan and other allies to send warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

The three-day visit to Washington was originally expected to focus on trade and strengthening the U.S.-Japanese alliance as China’s influence grows in Asia. It is now expected to be overshadowed by the war the United States and Israel launched against Iran on Feb. 28.

WASHINGTON — Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, abruptly resigned Tuesday, becoming the most senior national security official to break publicly with the Trump administration over its military campaign against Iran.

In a statement posted on social media, Kent said he “cannot in good conscience” continue serving in the administration, contending that Iran had “posed no imminent threat to our nation” and that the United States had been drawn into the conflict through “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

BORJ QALAOUIYA, Lebanon  — His evening meal done, Ali Jishi, a nurse serving in the health center of this southern Lebanese town, figured it was calm enough to deliver supplies to the civil defense crew down the road.

He was walking back Friday when he watched the Israeli missile lance through the building’s four floors, killing his father and 11 of his colleagues.

BEIRUT —  Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, has been killed in an Israeli airstrike, a move that represents a palpable hit to an Iranian leadership that has shown little interest in compromise after almost three weeks of war with the U.S. and Israel.

Killing Larijani, who led Iran as de facto wartime leader after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died on the first day of the war, eliminates a veteran official seen as the consummate insider despite not having the religious credentials for the Islamic Republic’s highest offices. Israel, in an announcement Tuesday, said the attack occurred the night before.

NEW YORK — Iranian American Ariana Afshar has tried to produce commentary about the first weeks of the war in the Middle East based on the perspectives of people in Iran.

But the New York-based social media creator keeps running into an obstacle: An internet blackout imposed by the government in Tehran has stifled almost all communications from the country. That makes it nearly impossible to reliably survey perspectives on the escalating conflict from inside Iran, where Afshar lived as a teenager and still has family.

WASHINGTON — President Trump expressed frustration Monday that U.S. allies were not enthusiastic about sending warships to protect merchant vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a sign of Washington’s growing isolation as it tries to stabilize one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes amid its war against Iran.

Trump declined to name the “numerous countries” he said had agreed to help reopen the oil route, which has come under the threat of retaliation from Iran, but was annoyed that most longtime allies were hesitant about joining his international police force. He said they should be “jumping to help us.”

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio had some explaining to do when he arrived on Capitol Hill for a classified briefing with lawmakers in early March.

Members of Congress wanted to know why, two days earlier on Feb. 28, the United States and Israel had attacked Iran and killed its supreme leader — without notifying them first. After the briefing, Rubio told reporters the U.S. preemptively struck Iran to get ahead of an Israeli attack. A day later, he tried to clarify his remarks.

WASHINGTON — After two weeks of war with Iran, the Trump administration is being forced to temper its expectations of a swift end to the conflict, with U.S. intelligence and defense officials expressing doubt it can achieve the overthrow of Iran’s government and the destruction of its nuclear program through military means.

It was an outcome forewarned by analysts at the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon, who together alerted the administration to the pitfalls full-scale war with Iran would bring before President Trump decided to proceed, two U.S. officials told The Times, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

In one of his latest missives on social media, President Trump complained that he wasn’t getting enough credit for “totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise.”

“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time,” he wrote of a war that has crippled the global supply of oil, sharply increased gas prices, cost U.S. taxpayers billions, left thousands dead and wounded, and so far defied Trump’s own “short term” timetable.

DUBAI — Iran urged people Saturday to evacuate the Middle East’s busiest port and two others in the United Arab Emirates, openly threatening a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets for the first time as its war with the U.S. and Israel entered a third week.

Tehran said the United States had used “ports, docks and hideouts” in the UAE to launch strikes on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran’s oil exports, without providing evidence. It urged people to leave areas where it said U.S. forces were sheltering.

WASHINGTON — Six American airmen deployed to operations against Iran were killed after their refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, U.S. Central Command said Friday, bringing the U.S. death toll in the war to 13, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a deployment of Marines to the region ahead of the heaviest day of strikes yet.

The crash involved two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” the Pentagon said, adding that the other plane landed safely. The downed KC-135 refueling tanker is the fourth U.S. aircraft to crash during the war against Iran.

SEOUL, South Korea — All six crew members of a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting operations against Iran are dead, the U.S. military said Friday, after their plane crashed in western Iraq.

The U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” and that the other plane landed safely.