Meridiano

Add Article

No Image Available

Article Details

Title

Article: Experts doubt Tehran’s claims of advanced ‘hypersonic’ missiles.

Impact Score

8 / 10

AI Summary (Processed Content)

Based on the provided text, the key points are:

Senate Republicans blocked a measure to limit presidential war powers regarding the conflict with Iran, highlighting a partisan divide. Concurrently, the military conflict is widening, with new U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, a NATO interception of an Iranian missile near Turkey, and several European nations deploying forces to the region. The crisis is causing international concern, prompting Chinese mediation efforts and leading to increased evacuations and regional instability.

Main Topics Covered: * U.S. domestic political action (Senate vote on war powers). * Escalation and internationalization of the U.S.-Israel-Iran military conflict. * Regional spillover and humanitarian impacts (e.g., attacks in Lebanon, evacuations). * International diplomatic and economic responses.

Original URL

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/04/world/iran-war-israel-lebanon-trump/experts-doubt-tehrans-claims-of-advanced-hypersonic-missiles

Source Feed

NYT > World News

Published Date

2026-03-05 01:04

Fetched Date

2026-03-04 23:01

Processed Date

2026-03-04 23:03

Embedding Status

Present

Cluster ID

Not Clustered

Raw Extracted Content

Tel Aviv4:01 a.m. March 5
Tehran5:31 a.m. March 5
Live Updates: Senate Republicans Block War Powers Limits as Mideast Crisis Widens
The Defense Department released the name of a fifth American killed in an Iranian attack on Sunday, and released the name of another soldier believed to have died in the same incident. The State Department said a charter flight was returning to the U.S. with Americans wanting to leave the region.
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Video Obtained By Reuters
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- WANA via Reuters
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Ariel Schalit/Associated Press
- Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- AFP
- Fadel Senna/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
Republican lawmakers blocked a measure Wednesday that would have limited President Trump’s power to continue waging war against Iran without congressional authorization, even as the conflict expanded into a wider international crisis.
Earlier in the day, NATO air defenses shot down an Iranian ballistic missile headed toward Turkey, the United States sank an Iranian navy ship in international waters and several European nations deployed military assets to the region to protect their interests.
American officials insisted that there would be no letup in U.S. and Israeli strikes. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said American and Israeli warplanes would soon gain total control of Iranian airspace, allowing them to pick off targets and deliver “death and destruction all day long.”
In Washington, Senate Republicans turned back a bid by for Congress to weigh in on what has been shaping up to be an open-ended military campaign. The vote reflected a deep partisan divide on the war. Only one Republican, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, backed the measure, which invoked a provision of the 1973 War Powers Act.
Late Wednesday, as the fifth day of the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran drew to a close, the Israeli military announced it had launched a new wave of attacks on Tehran. Earlier, Turkey’s defense ministry announced that NATO air defenses had shot down a ballistic missile fired from Iran that had been heading toward Turkish airspace.
The ministry did not say what the missile’s intended target was, and Iran did not comment on the claim. But an attack on Turkey, a NATO member that hosts a major U.S. military base, would be a dangerous escalation in Iran’s retaliatory targeting of neighboring countries.
In a sign of the growing international concern, China, the largest buyer of Iranian oil, said it would send a special envoy to the Middle East to help conduct conflict mediation efforts, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. The U.S. State Department ordered more employees to leave their posts at embassies and consulates in four more countries, and the United Kingdom, France and Greece said they were deploying military assets to the region to defend their citizens and interests.
In Lebanon, Israel ramped up its attacks against Hezbollah, ordering a mass evacuation in the country’s south. The Israeli military ordered Lebanese to flee north of the Litani, a river long seen as a front line in the conflict.
Financial markets appeared to stabilize after days of turmoil, as investors assessed the effects of rising energy costs and fears that a prolonged war could send those costs surging. But gasoline prices in the United States jumped again, and are now 20 cents higher than last week.
Hundreds of people in Iran have been killed in the U.S.-Israeli strikes, but Iran’s leaders have vowed not to bow to the bombing campaign, and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait announced new Iranian attacks on Wednesday.
Top Iranian officials were deliberating over the replacement for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader assassinated by Israel on Saturday. Iran’s leaders are leaning toward anointing his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, a hard-liner who would likely carry on his father’s legacy, according to three Iranian officials familiar with the deliberations. Israel’s defense minister vowed that if the next supreme leader followed Ayatollah Khamenei’s ideology, he would become “an unequivocal target for elimination.”
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Submarine strike: Mr. Hegseth said that a torpedo launched by a U.S. submarine was used to sink an Iranian warship, the first time an American sub has fired a torpedo against an enemy ship since World War II. Dozens were feared dead after an Iranian naval ship with a crew of 180 people sank in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday off the coast of Sri Lanka, according to the authorities in that country. Read more ›
Funeral rites: The farewell ceremony for Ayatollah Khamenei was postponed, Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported. The three-night observance had been scheduled to start on Wednesday. A top official told IRNA that millions of people were expected to attend and the authorities need to provide “the necessary infrastructure.”
Evacuations: Western governments were working to evacuate hundreds of thousands of their citizens from the region. The White House press secretary said that 17,500 Americans had returned safely since the start of the war. Wednesday evening the State Department, after facing criticism about not doing enough to help facilitate evacuations, said a charter flight was returning to the United States with Americans who wanted to leave the region. Read more ›
Death toll: The Red Crescent Society, Iran’s main humanitarian relief organization, said the death toll had risen to 787 since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks. The bombing of a girls’ elementary school in Iran killed at least 175 people. Dozens of people in Lebanon also have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry, in Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah. Read more ›
Americans killed: Six U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict. The Defense Department on Wednesday night released the name of a fifth American killed in an Iranian attack on Sunday, and released the name of another soldier believed to have died in the same incident. The department on Tuesday had released the names of the other four killed. Read more about them ›
The master of a tanker at anchor about 30 nautical miles southeast of Kuwait reported seeing and hearing a large explosion at the port side, or the left-hand side, of their vessel, and then saw a small craft leaving the area, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which tracks security at sea, said on Wednesday evening. The crew is safe, but “there is oil in the water coming from a cargo tank which could have some environmental impact,” it said, and the vessel has taken on water.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway off Iran’s southern coast that carries a fifth of the world’s oil, has become perilous for mariners amid Iranian retaliation for American and Israeli attacks on it that began on Saturday. A senior Iranian military official threatened this week to “set on fire” any ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. Vessels in the region have already come under attack. The UKMTO reported five such incidents since Tuesday, before announcing the latest report of trouble in the waters near Kuwait.
The Defense Department released the name of one soldier who was killed in an Iranian drone attack in Kuwait on Sunday, and the name of another soldier who was believed to have been killed in the same attack.
Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, a reserve officer from Waukee, Iowa, died in the attack, the department said in a statement. The major was assigned to the same unit, the 103rd Sustainment Command in Des Moines, as the four soldiers whose deaths were announced on Tuesday.
A separate statement said that Chief Warrant Officer Robert M. Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, Calif., was believed to have been killed in the same incident. Identification of the warrant officer’s remains, it said, would be made by a medical examiner.
Major developments — March 4
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTEven as the U.S.-Israeli air campaign diminishes Iran’s ability to fire ballistic missile strikes, Tehran has warned that it has yet to deploy its most advanced weaponry.
“We do not intend to deploy all our advanced weapons in the first days,” Reza Talaei-Nik, Iran’s defense ministry spokesman, told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Tuesday.
While Mr. Talaei-Nik did not provide details, he could have been referring to Iran’s hypersonic missiles, which the country has flaunted since 2023, when IRNA reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had unveiled the first domestically produced model of the weapon.
The government claims it has developed hypersonic missile technology as part of its Fattah missile series, and that its version can travel many times faster than the speed of sound, with a range of about 870 miles. At such high speeds, the missile can render traditional air defense systems futile.
But many security experts doubt that the missiles have hypersonic capacity, and there has yet to be independent verification of their capabilities.
There have been indications that Iran has previously deployed versions of the Fattah missile against Israel, but Tehran’s claims about the weapon are likely “hyperbolized,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank.
“They have a history of thumping their chests about what they have,” said Admiral William J. Fallon, a former commander of U.S. Central Command. “I doubt they have many, if any, that are real hypersonic.”
Both experts said efforts to destroy the Fattah missile series would advance the U.S. objective of crippling Iran’s ballistic missile capacity. The U.S. military has focused its assaults on mobile missile launchers and underground facilities where officials believe Iran stores its ballistic missiles.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday that the number of ballistic missiles fired by Iran is down 86 percent from the first day of fighting.
Government reports from some Persian Gulf states also indicate that Iran has scaled back its ballistic missile attacks. The United Arab Emirates’ defense ministry said that Iran had fired 174 ballistic missiles toward the country during the first three days of war, but only three in the last 24 hours.
“What the Americans and Israelis are doing is going after the launchers of these bases,” Mr. Taleblu said. “That way, you can multiply the effect of the mission in Iran.”
The United States has said it has struck more than 2,000 targets in Iran, though the status of Iran’s stockpile of ballistic missiles is unclear. Before Israel launched a 12-day air attack on Iran last summer, Israeli intelligence had estimated Iran’s missile capacity stood at roughly 3,000 missiles, but intelligence reports suggested the Iranians planned to produce as many as 8,000 missiles by 2027.
The Alma Research and Education Center, an Israeli security nonprofit, published a blog post on Wednesday citing Israeli military estimates that, as of last month, Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal had grown to approximately 2,500 missiles.
The State Department said it arranged a charter flight that has picked up American citizens in the Middle East and is on its way back to the United States. Department officials have helped about 6,500 people try to get out of the region, said Tommy Pigott, the agency’s deputy spokesman. Pigott said the earlier recording on a department evacuation hotline that said American citizens are on their own on getting out of the Middle East is outdated.
Pigott said the help that the department provided ranged from taking phone calls to advising on commercial travel options.
The Israeli military has over the last several hours announced strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure and the militant group’s members in Lebanon, including in Beirut, the capital. It has issued multiple evacuation warnings to residents in a dense commercial and residential area on the southern outskirts of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold, and Israel also directly targeted a car on Airport Road in the capital. The Lebanese health ministry said that three people died and six were injured in the attack on Airport Road. Huge explosions have been heard from across Beirut. Hezbollah, for its part, has issued 23 statements since Wednesday about its attacks and direct clashes with the Israeli military.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTPro-American, Iranian Kurdish forces based in Iraq are preparing armed units that could enter Iran, creating a potential new front in an already expanding conflict, according to Iraqi officials and senior members of Iranian Kurdish groups.
The C.I.A. has previously given small arms to the Iranian Kurdish forces as part of a covert program to destabilize Iran, an effort that began before the current war, according to people familiar with the effort.
But in a briefing on Wednesday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said reports that President Trump had agreed to any plan for the Kurds to launch an insurgency in Iran were “completely false.”
The U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran that began on Saturday has killed the country’s supreme leader and other top officials. It has also targeted government and security facilities around the country, including on the Iran-Iraq border. American officials are debating the utility of a Kurdish incursion as fighting intensifies, according to the people briefed on the situation.
Any U.S. effort to assist the Kurds in beginning an incursion into Iran, or any sort of insurgency there, would be a surprising twist in the war. If large enough, the incursion could force Iranian army units to respond, allowing American or Israeli planes to target them.
The United States has a long history of working with Kurdish militia forces in Iraq and Syria. But America also has a reputation of abandoning the Kurds, an ethnic group that stretches across parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. After the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the United States encouraged a Kurdish uprising in Iraq, but then stood by as the Iraqi army slaughtered Kurdish forces.
Some people familiar with the planning for any potential Kurdish incursion into Iran voiced a note of caution. There is no way that any Kurdish force could topple the Iranian government, they say, or even significantly influence who might take power. The C.I.A. has provided only small arms to the Kurdish forces, which do not have tanks or heavy weaponry to launch an invasion or to plausibly threaten the theocratic government in Tehran.
Former officials also said Iran’s Persian majority would not welcome an armed Kurdish incursion. There are an estimated 6 million to 9 million Kurds in the country of 90 million people.
The people familiar with the deliberations echoed Ms. Leavitt, saying the White House had not yet decided whether to send the Kurds into Iran. And some of the people said the decision may not be up to Israel or the United States, and the Kurdish leadership might make its own call.
Iran has been pressuring Iraq to prevent the Kurdish fighters from crossing the border, the Iraqi officials and Iranian Kurdish leaders said.
This week, Mr. Trump asked two Iraqi Kurdish leaders, Massoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani, to enable Iranian Kurdish fighters based in Iraq to move into Iran, according to two Iranian Kurdish leaders and two Iraqi security officials.
One of the Iranian Kurdish officials said Mr. Trump had a separate call on Tuesday to discuss sending forces over the border with the head of one of those Kurdish groups, Mustafa Hijri, of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran. All the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Neither the security officials nor the group members elaborated on what form the U.S. support might take.
Ms. Leavitt said that she would not comment on Mr. Trump’s calls with foreign officials but that the president “did speak to Kurdish leaders with respect to our base that we have in northern Iraq.”
The C.I.A. declined to comment on the effort to support the Kurds.
It is not clear precisely when the C.I.A. began arming the Kurds, but it is part of a long-term covert campaign by the agency to destabilize the Iranian government, according to those familiar with the effort. Former officials said it was never meant to topple the government in Tehran, but aimed at distracting leaders or potentially creating a security crisis.
The C.I.A. effort to arm the Kurdish forces was earlier reported by CNN. Axios reported on a call between Kurdish leaders in Iraq and Mr. Trump to discuss the war in Iran.
Since the beginning of the joint U.S.-Israeli war campaign, bombs and missiles have struck targets in eastern Iran, apparently focused on Kurdistan Province, according to an analysis by The New York Times. It is unclear from imagery if the United States, Israel or both forces have hit those targets.
Several Iranian Kurdish leaders described the strikes in eastern Iran as part of an effort to support an infiltration from Iraq.
The strikes have hit Islamic Revolutionary Guards facilities, police stations and, critically, border guard posts and communications towers. The strikes also have hit civilian administrative buildings, and damaged nearby residential areas.
An analysis of video footage and satellite imagery shows that the strikes have been concentrated on locations near highways that run from the Iraq-Iran border into Iran. The bombardments have come at a huge cost to civilian lives in the area, Iranians who have relatives there told The Times.
Where strikes hit along the Iran-Iraq border
The bombing campaign would make any incursion by Iranian-Kurdish forces from Iraq easier, reducing the strength of Iranian forces that could seek to stop the invasion.
In Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Iran’s Kurdistan region, the strikes flattened security facilities and administrative offices. One verified video captured a large explosion at a police headquarters already surrounded by smoke, with later images showing the destroyed complex, including a broadcast tower.
In Marivan, a smaller city closer to Iraq’s border, a prison and adjacent jail were heavily damaged, satellite imagery and video posted online show. Other targeted locations included Baneh, where a video verified by The Times showed extensive destruction in the city’s center.
Since the opening salvos of the war on Saturday, Mr. Trump has framed the attacks as a “historic opportunity” for Iranians to overthrow their authoritarian clerical rulers.
Iran’s Kurds have often faced the brunt of the authoritarian government’s repression. Their political leaders have long sought to create a national homeland, either as a state or through self-governing federal regions within their current countries.
“We are fighting for freedom and of course we are fighting against the military that is harming our people,” said Siamand Moani, a veteran leader of the Kurdistan Free Life Party, one of the Iranian Kurdish groups in Iraq that officials say plan to send fighters into Iran. Mr. Moani would not confirm nor deny that effort, but said the militants had “broadened” their operations.
Since the war began, proxy militias aligned with Iran have struck a U.S. base in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region. They have also hit the region’s international airport, oil and gas facilities, and at least two bases used by Iranian Kurdish fighters there.
Iraq’s central government, which has close ties to Iran, has ordered officials in the Iraqi Kurdistan region not to allow Iranian Kurdish militants to cross the border, according to two senior Iraqi officials. Regional officials in Iraqi Kurdistan seem to have complied with the request, the officials said.
On Tuesday, the deputy prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, Qubad Talabani, said in a statement that he had stressed in a security meeting that the region “is not a part in the regional conflict, and adopts a neutral stance.”
Some Iranian Kurdish leaders said they were hesitant to work with the United States to launch operations in Iran, given the potential costs to their people if the effort failed.
Still, one of those officials said that some Iranian Kurdish forces based in Iraq have decided to go forward with a plan to send forces into Iran.
Their hope is that once an insurgency is launched, local residents will join them — though there is no guarantee of that, as many Kurds in the region are not loyal to these groups.
Iranian Kurdish regions, however, were some of the most restive during a nationwide protest movement against Iran’s government in January, which authorities crushed in a deadly crackdown.
Michael Crowley and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington, and Natan Odenheimer from Jerusalem.
Not even sirens warning of incoming ballistic missiles from Iran could stop the ultra-Orthodox dancers celebrating the Jewish holiday Purim in a Jerusalem yeshiva, a religious school, on Wednesday, the fifth day of the war with Iran.
The study benches of the hall had been pushed aside, empty bottles of red wine were piling up in the corner, and a keyboardist in a black gown and sailor cap played music for devoted revelers.
Like many in the ultra-Orthodox part of the city, they paid little heed to Israeli military orders forbidding large gatherings and to get into bomb shelters when sirens go off.
“We don’t need to follow the instructions,” said Yonatan Perlov, a long-bearded 55-year-old teacher, as he took a break from jumping up and down with students ecstatically.
“Only God, not an army, protects us.”
Israeli air defense systems have intercepted multiple rockets, ballistic missiles and drones fired by Iran in retaliation for a joint Israeli-American assault that began on Saturday. Airstrikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sparked a broader regional conflict.
Iran has been firing on Israel every night since, and some missiles have made it through Israeli air shields, killing at least 10 people earlier this week. Many Israelis have spent the past few days running in and out of underground shelters in the face of incoming fire.
Most Jewish communities — religious and secular — celebrate Purim, and families across the country who didn’t want to give up on the festivities chose to bring the holiday traditions into their protected areas.
In a Tel Aviv public shelter on Tuesday, a crowd of hundreds dressed up in colorful costumes listened to a reading of the portion of the Bible that tells the events commemorated during Purim: the deliverance of the Jews from a massacre plotted by an adviser to the king of Persia, where today’s Iran is.
In the ultra-Orthodox part of Jerusalem, some find mystical significance in the fact that a war with Iran is unfolding during Purim.
“In the same way that the Iranians failed to kill us then,” said Yoel Nayot, 20, standing outside a study hall turned party venue, “they will now fail again.”
He said this was the second day in a row he has been mostly intoxicated — drinking to the point where one cannot distinguish between good and evil is another tradition of the holiday.
In the courtyard of the center of the Karlin community, a Hasidic sect, men and even children who looked as young as their early teens were lying on the ground in the street or vomiting on the floor.
The insular religious communities — known for their disregard for state laws — were not the only ones to ignore the safety orders on Wednesday. Jerusalem is famous for Purim street parties that close off entire neighborhoods, and while this year’s celebrations were nothing like that, thousands still filled the city’s downtown dressed as everything from a purple dinosaur to sultry nurses.
But when a siren went off Wednesday evening, many in the city center rushed to a public shelter behind a residential building.
Maayan Vaizman, a 20-year-old horse-riding instructor dressed as a Hasid, wearing a white large skullcap with fake payot, or side-locks, said that she had been celebrating in a building’s lobby.
“I must party,” she said. “Otherwise, I’ll sink into anxiety and depression from the war.”
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe Israeli military said late on Wednesday that the country’s Home Front Command has updated guidelines for the public, easing restrictions on gatherings and activities, starting on Thursday at noon. The transition, from only “essential” activities to a “limited” level of activity, was based on a “situational assessment,” the military said, but it provided no details. Gatherings of up to 50 people will be permitted and workplaces may operate if protected spaces can be reached promptly, the authorities instructed.
Republicans on Wednesday blocked a measure that would limit President Trump’s power to continue waging war against Iran without congressional authorization, turning back a bid by Democrats to insist that Congress weigh in on a sweeping and open-ended military campaign.
The 53-to-47 vote against taking up the measure was almost completely along party lines, reflecting a deep partisan divide on the Iran war as the Senate delivered the first clear test of congressional resolve since the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, Operation Epic Fury, began across Iran four days ago.
Senators Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, and Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, tried to force action on the measure. They invoked a provision of the 1973 War Powers Act, which requires that resolutions to terminate offensive hostilities be considered under expedited procedures.
Mr. Paul was the only Republican leading the effort, and no other G.O.P. senators joined him in support of the measure.
Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to break with his party and vote against the resolution, in keeping with his vocal stance in support of Israel and reluctance to place limits on the president’s authority to act in its defense.
The measure’s failure came as the administration offered varying and at times conflicting explanations for the war, raising questions about its legality and posing a dilemma for some lawmakers as they were called upon to register a position on a conflict that has already cost American lives. It also comes only months before the midterm elections and as polls show the conflict is deeply unpopular.
“Americans want President Trump to lower prices, not drag us into unnecessary forever wars,” Mr. Kaine said ahead of the vote. “Yet he has unilaterally launched strikes at Iran without congressional authorization.”
Mr. Kaine introduced the resolution with Mr. Paul in January as the president was directing the largest military buildup in the Middle East since the war in Iraq and shortly after Mr. Trump said that the United States was “locked and loaded and ready to go” ahead with military action against Iran in response to a violent crackdown on protesters there.
Republicans have largely praised Mr. Trump’s decision to launch the military campaign, which has killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, along with a number of his deputies and senior advisers. They argue that the action was justified given Iran’s decades of targeting Americans through its own forces and proxy terror groups throughout the region.
Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, on Wednesday said that he grieved “the six American servicemen and women who’ve died in the fighting” and added that he was also mourning “the thousands of Americans that have died over the last 47 years at hands of the brutal Islamists.”
The president understands “the weight of war,” Mr. Wicker added, lauding his decision to begin strikes as “profound, deliberate and correct.”
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, spoke in favor of the military campaign, saying during a speech on the Senate floor that “the Islamic Republic of Iran was, quite literally, founded on the premise of existential war against America and against Israel. And over and over again, it has escalated the war, exported more terror, spilled more blood and destabilized an entire region.”
But he cautioned that his support for executive authority was not boundless, adding that the president has a responsibility to make sure the use of his authority is “judicious, rooted in core national interests and broadly supported by the American people.”
Some other Republicans who opposed the resolution also suggested their position could shift if the military action expanded or dragged on.
Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said on Wednesday that his support for the operation could flag if it were to expand beyond aerial strikes.
“I’ve always drawn a line at ground troops,” he said, adding that if Mr. Trump sought to deploy them, that would “require some sort of authorization.” He has also emphasized the need for continued briefings as the campaign continues to unfold and widen in scope.
Hours before the vote, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the U.S. military was overwhelming Iran with aerial strikes and that a more intense phase of the campaign had begun as more bombers arrived on Wednesday.
Iranian leaders, Mr. Hegseth said, were looking up at the skies “and seeing only U.S. and Israeli air power, every minute of every day until we decide it’s over. And Iran will be able to do nothing about it.
“Death and destruction from the sky, all day long.”
General Caine said that the campaign had devastated Iran’s ballistic missile program and its naval fleet, and that it continued to make “steady progress” with plans to “expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory.”
The conflict has, so far, resulted in the deaths of at least six American service members, a sobering reminder that this conflict is remarkably different than other military actions Mr. Trump has undertaken since his return to office, which allies on Capitol Hill have praised as limited in scope and resulting in no American casualties.
Wednesday’s vote marked the latest in a series of failed war powers resolution efforts in both the House and Senate since Mr. Kaine began a series of challenges after Mr. Trump carried out a series of strikes against nuclear sites in Iran last summer. Since then Democrats have tried, and failed, repeatedly to rein in the president’s ability to act without consulting with Congress.
While the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war, it has not done so since World War II, and the president has authority to act in defense of the nation. Over the last several decades, Congress has approved authorizations for the use of military force, which confer the executive with powers to direct military action without an immediate need to consult with the legislative branch. During his first term, Mr. Trump cited a Bush-era authorization that was used to justify a wide range of military actions over many years as legal grounds for a drone strike that killed Iran’s Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad in 2020.
This time, the president’s letter to Congress did not point to any previous authorization as justification and instead referenced the president’s “responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests both at home and abroad” without citing any specific or imminent threat.
A similar measure is expected to receive a vote on Thursday in the House, where it is also expected to fail.
Some Republicans who said Congress should have had a greater role in the decision to go to war against Iran nonetheless argued that removing U.S. forces at this stage would place American lives at risk.
“I will say very clearly: Yes, I wish I would have been consulted. I wish my vote would have been asked for before this,” said Senator John Curtis, Republican of Utah. “But the president did act within his legal bounds to do what he has done.”
Voting to halt the operation, he added, “is not the right answer to this.”
But the Democrats insisted that even if the mission was worthy, Congress had to step up and reassert Congress’s constitutional prerogatives on matters of war.
“I believe the founders’ worst fears have come to pass,” Senator Adam B. Schiff of California, one of the Democrats who cosponsored the resolution, said ahead of the vote. “Donald Trump has become too fond of going to war, and has done so again without congressional authorization.”
Megan Mineiro contributed reporting.
The Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers spoke on the phone, after NATO air defenses earlier shot down an Iranian missile headed toward Turkey’s air space, the Iranian ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, stressed that the country’s armed forces “will not rest until the complete repulsion of the enemies’ malevolence,” and defended Iran’s strikes as targeting bases used to “plan and execute aggressive operations against Iran,” the statement said. He also called for Iranian-Turkish cooperation against what he described as Israeli plots in the region.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTLebanon’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday night that three people were killed and six people were injured in an airstrike near Beirut, the capital. Israel had previously announced new strikes in Lebanon on Wednesday night, including two targeted attacks on individuals near Beirut who were not named.
A senior U.S. military official and a Western official said the Iranian ballistic missile that NATO air defenses shot down as it was headed toward Turkish air space had been targeting Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, a NATO member that hosts American troops and those from other allied countries. Both officials said the Iranian missile was shot down by an interceptor fired from a U.S. warship in the eastern Mediterranean. The senior U.S. official said it was shot down shortly before midnight Eastern time Tuesday by an SM-3 interceptor for ballistic missiles launched by a U.S. Navy ship.
The Spanish government on Wednesday categorically denied an assertion by the White House that the country had reversed its opposition to the war on Iran and was now cooperating with the U.S. military.
It was the latest twist in the back and forth between the United States and Spain’s left-wing government, which has been the Trump’s administration’s most vocal European critic and which has staked out an unequivocal antiwar position. In contrast, Britain, France and Germany have issued a joint statement promising to help in defensive actions against Iran.
On Sunday, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, condemned the attack on Iran as a violation of international law, calling it “an unjustified and dangerous military intervention.” His government banned American warplanes involved in the attacks from using Spanish bases.
On Tuesday, President Trump, visibly furious, threatened to cut off trade with Spain and suggested America could use the bases anyway.
That led Mr. Sánchez to address the nation on Wednesday morning. “We are not going to be accomplices to something that is bad for the world and contrary to our values and interests, simply because of fear of reprisals from some,” he said.
He added that Spain would keep “demanding the end of hostilities,.”
Spain had joined the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Mr. Sánchez said had “provoked a drastic increase in jihadist terrorism, a severe migration crisis in the eastern Mediterranean.” He added, “Another American administration dragged us into a war in the Middle East.”
Later on Wednesday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, suggested that Spain had changed course. “I think they heard the president’s message yesterday loud and clear,” she said. “It is my understanding over the past several hours they’ve agreed to cooperate with the US military.”
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, swiftly rejected the White House assertion. “That’s not true,” he said on a radio show that was disseminated Wednesday evening by the Spanish government. “We categorically deny it. Spain’s position has not changed.”
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTLate in the night in Iran, American–Israeli strikes targeted the western part of the capital, Tehran, as fighter jets attacked the grounds of Mehrabad airport, several locations west of Azadi Square, as well as the Tehransar and Chitgar neighborhoods, according to Tasnim, a semiofficial Iranian news agency.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkey, about the U.S.-Israel military action that has enveloped the Middle East. The call came soon after the Turkish defense ministry said a NATO air defense system shot down a ballistic missile fired from Iran that was headed toward Turkish airspace.
“The secretary told the foreign minister that attacks on Turkey’s sovereign territory were unacceptable and pledged full support from the United States,” the State Department said.
President Trump called President Emmanuel Macron of France to update him on the military campaign against Iran, according to an official in the French president’s office. Macron raised the issue of the widening conflict in Lebanon, which has been of special concern to the French. It is the first time that Trump and Macron are known to have spoken since the conflict in Iran began.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTPresident Trump made some new comments on the war in Iran during an afternoon appearance at the White House just now. He still doesn’t seem to have an idea for who should run Iran’s government after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Their leadership is just rapidly going,” he says. “Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end up dead. It’s an amazing, an amazing thing that’s taking place before your eyes.”
He said that on a scale of 1 to 10, he would rate the American war effort a 15.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is scheduled to headline a “Top Gun”-themed political fund-raiser next week for a Republican congressman whose constituent was among the four American soldiers killed in the opening hours of the war with Iran. All four service members had been stationed in the district before deployment.
The event, on behalf of Representative Zach Nunn, who is facing a potentially competitive re-election race, comes as the secretary has signaled he expects more U.S. casualties in the broadening regional conflict.
Four Army Reserve soldiers assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command in Mr. Nunn’s Des Moines district were killed by an Iranian drone in Kuwait on Sunday. The fallen soldiers included Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, who was a resident of Des Moines; Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Nebraska; and Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of Minnesota.
In promotional materials, the event is billed as “Operation Top Nunn — A Salute to the Troops!” and themed after the action-adventure movie “Top Gun.” On Tuesday, hours before the Pentagon released the names of four out of the six U.S. troops killed after the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, Mr. Nunn announced the secretary would attend.
Democrats are eyeing Mr. Nunn’s seat as one they could potentially flip in November’s midterm elections.
“WINGMAN CONFIRMED,” Mr. Nunn, a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, posted on social media, adding that the event Mr. Hegseth planned to join would be “a tribute to the brave men and women who wear the uniform and defend our freedom.” Tickets for the event in Ankeny, Iowa, on March 14, start at $26, but those who pay $1,000 or $3,500 also gain admittance to a V.I.P. reception.
The release of the names of the soldiers killed came Tuesday night as lawmakers were in a classified briefing on the military operation in Iran. Several congressional Republicans said their deaths were the cost of war, echoing Mr. Hegseth.
“This is really tough stuff,” said Senator Jim Justice, Republican of West Virginia, on Wednesday. “But when you go into a conflict like this, you’re going to have casualties.”
Mr. Nunn said in an interview on Tuesday evening that the soldiers died countering a “clear and direct threat from Iran” and to “prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon that could potentially take the entire world into a nuclear holocaust.”
He said he had directly asked Mr. Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the closed-door meeting how the Trump administration would support the families of the soldiers who died.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on the secretary attending the campaign event. A spokesman for the congressman declined to comment on the details of the event on Wednesday but confirmed the secretary still planned to attend.
Several Republicans declined to comment on whether the defense secretary should be fund-raising during an ongoing military conflict in the Middle East that has so far killed six U.S. troops and injured others.
But Democrats said the event was inappropriate.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said it was “disrespectful and unseemly when he and the president acknowledge there’s going to be probably many more victims to come.”
Mr. Hegseth suggested Wednesday that the media had focused too much on the death of service members since Mr. Trump launched the attacks over the weekend and not enough on the outcomes of the mission.
“We’ve taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground,” he told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. “We control their fate. But when a few drones get through, or tragic things happen, it’s front page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad; but try, for once, to report the reality.”
Representative Scott Franklin, Republican of Florida, said he had personally met Captain Khork, his constituent, and called his death a “tragic loss.”
He added that he supported the president’s sweeping air campaign on Iran but that he would want Mr. Trump to seek congressional authorization before any potential deployment of ground troops.
“There are costs associated with war,” he said. “That’s why we need to be very careful before we ever getting involved in something like this.”
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTPresident Emanuel Macron of France said on Wednesday that he had spoken with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, and its prime minister, Nawaf Salam, to discuss the situation in Lebanon, which he called very concerning. Macron said that he had reaffirmed the need for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, to immediately cease its attacks against Israel, calling its strategy “a major error that endangers the entire region.” Similarly, he said, he called on Netanyahu to preserve Lebanon’s territorial integrity and “to refrain from a ground offensive.”
“It is important for the parties to return to the cease-fire agreement,” Macron said, referring to a fragile truce brokered late in 2024 and ruptured in recent days. France will continue to support the Lebanese Armed Forces, so that they can “put an end to the threat posed by Hezbollah,” he said, and he pledged to support people in southern Lebanon displaced in the renewed conflict.
Naim Qassem, the head of Hezbollah, said “we will fight to the death and will not surrender.” He said Hezbollah’s fight “is not linked to any other battle,” indicating Hezbollah’s grievances with Israel were not solely tied to its military actions in Iran or the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and could continue even after that conflict.
Naim Qassem, the head of Hezbollah, said in a speech on Wednesday evening that the Lebanese militant group has repeatedly reiterated that “patience has limits.” Qassem said that Hezbollah adhered to the cease-fire agreement that Israel and Lebanon reached late in 2024 but charged that “Israel did not abide by any of its provisions.”
Qassem said that Hezbollah had not previously responded to Israeli attacks “so as not to be accused of obstructing diplomacy.” He also said that “the state must be effective,” in reference to the Lebanese government, calling Israeli violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty “significant.”
A United Nations human rights panel on Wednesday strongly condemned the attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran as a violation of the U.N. Charter.
The panel, which has been investigating abuses by the Iranian authorities in their crackdown on anti-government protests, said the recent U.S.-Israeli strikes left Iranians caught between large-scale military operations and a government with a long record of gross human rights violations.
“The rules of international law must apply to all and consistently, they cannot be varied according to the state taking action,” the U.N. independent fact-finding mission on Iran said in a statement on Wednesday.
At least 787 people have been killed in the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran since they began on Saturday, according to Iran’s Red Crescent Society, its main humanitarian relief organization.
The U.N. panel said it was shocked by the reports of strikes on schools in Iran, including on the Shajarah Tayyebeh school in the southern town of Minab, which killed at least 175 people, mostly children, according to the Iranian state media. It was not immediately clear why the school was hit, or which country’s forces had fired at it.
The panel also said it was alarmed by the civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure in Iran’s retaliatory attacks on its regional neighbors. At least 10 people have been killed in Israel in retaliatory strikes since Saturday, according to Israeli officials, and at least six people have been killed in countries in the Persian Gulf.
The panel said it was appalled that U.S. and Israeli strikes had killed Iranian officials, “even if some of these individuals may have borne responsibility for human rights violations or international crimes.” Extrajudicial killings, the panel said, “are not an acceptable means for delivering justice under international law.”
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTAmerican ground troops are not a part of the U.S. military’s current plans for Iran, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said. But she added that she would not rule out any option for President Trump that is currently “on the table.”
“They’re not part of the plan for this operation at this time, but I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States or the commander in chief, and he wisely does not do the same for himself,” she said. President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have similarly declined to rule out any military option in recent days.
Leavitt was pressed on why no administration official had been able to articulate what imminent threat the United States faced from Iran that required them to attack it. She took exception to the question and said that President Trump “does not make these decisions in a vacuum,” and that his “decision to launch this operation was based on a cumulative effect of various direct threats that Iran posed to the United States of America.”
On Tuesday, during an Oval Office appearance with Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, Trump suggested that he was guided by instinct. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” Trump said. “If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, defended the Trump administration against criticism that it did not do enough to evacuate Americans in the Middle East ahead of the strikes on Iran, telling reporters that the State Department had put out “many signs” and was “all hands on deck” in advising Americans in the region to exercise extreme caution and not travel to certain countries. But even after the State Department announced on Tuesday that it would arrange for military and charter flights, Americans who called a department hotline for help were told for hours not to rely on the U.S. government for assistance. The recorded message on the hotline has since been corrected, Leavitt said.
Leavitt said at her briefing that the White House had seen “reports” that the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has emerged as the person likely to succeed his father as Iran’s supreme leader, and that it was something “our intelligence agencies are closely monitoring and looking at.” Iranian officials told The New York Times that the clerics responsible for selecting Iran’s next leader wanted to announce him as early as Wednesday, but some had expressed reservations that it could make him a target for the United States and Israel.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe suspension of liquefied natural gas exports from Qatar this week has sent prices of the fuel soaring in Europe and Asia. And the biggest beneficiaries of that jump are likely to be Western energy companies.
Major European firms like Shell and TotalEnergies, and U.S. firms like ExxonMobil and Cheniere, stand to earn big profits even if Qatar quickly restarts gas shipments disrupted by the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran that began on Saturday.
That’s because U.S. and European energy companies are the most viable alternative suppliers for countries and companies that previously relied on Qatar for the gas they use to generate electricity or make chemicals, steel and other industrial goods.
Over the past decade, companies like Cheniere have built eight U.S. terminals where gas is chilled into liquid that can be transported on oceangoing tankers. Much of that gas is bought under contracts by large oil and gas companies, including Shell, Total and Exxon, that, in turn, sell it to customers around the world.
The main Asian L.N.G. price benchmark is up about 91 percent since the end of last week and the benchmark European price is up about 44 percent.
“It’s a real windfall,” said Jason Feer, head of business intelligence at Poten & Partners, a global consulting firm and shipping brokerage. “They get the benefit of this big jump.”
The price at which Western energy companies can sell L.N.G. to Europe is now roughly twice what it costs those businesses to buy and deliver the fuel, Mr. Feer said. A week ago, the companies were earning revenue that was roughly 27 to 28 percent more than their costs.
Qatar, which supplies about 20 percent of the world’s L.N.G., on Monday suspended production of the fuel and other products, after its facilities were attacked.
In addition, the conflict has significantly limited how many ships are going through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passage on Iran’s southern coast.
L.N.G. has emerged as a critical resource for Europe in particular. That’s because Russia cut off much of the gas it piped to European countries in 2022 when it invaded Ukraine. Since then, Europe has become more reliant on the United States and Norway, with smaller amounts of gas coming from Qatar and elsewhere.
Qatar has the third-largest natural gas reserves in the world and has been working to roughly double its export capacity by 2032 to meet rising demand, according to Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm. The country’s L.N.G. customers include China, India and South Korea.
More expensive L.N.G. could hurt importers in Asia and Europe, especially if prices stay at current levels for a while or rise further. Stores of gas in Europe are low because a lot of fuel was used for heating this winter.
The director general for energy at the European Commission, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, said in a LinkedIn post that European leaders were following the conflict but believed that gas prices would not climb to the very high levels they reached in 2022.
“Our supplies are diversified and complemented by strategic reserves,” Ms. Jorgensen said.
There has been another big change over the last four years — a substantial increase in American L.N.G. exports — said Geoffrey Pyatt, who oversaw L.N.G. issues as an assistant secretary of state during the Biden administration.
The United States has become the world’s largest L.N.G. exporter because of a boom in gas production in states like Texas and Pennsylvania. Australia is also a major player.
Last year, U.S. suppliers entered contracts to sell more L.N.G. than they have in any year since 2022, when demand surged after the attack on Ukraine, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. The E.I.A. expects U.S. export capacity to nearly double by 2031 compared with December 2025.
“The spike that’s happened in prices is still very modest compared to what we saw in 2022,” said Mr. Pyatt, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. “That could change significantly if the crisis really drags on.”
He said that many natural gas users were holding off buying at today’s higher prices to see how long the war lasts. That might be why the share prices of Western energy companies involved in the L.N.G. business have changed relatively little in recent days.
If prices do stay high for an extended period, Shell could be among the top beneficiaries as the world’s largest trader of L.N.G. The company declined to comment.
TotalEnergies was the largest seller of American L.N.G. last year. And Cheniere was the largest producer of liquefied natural gas in the United States in 2025. TotalEnergies and Cheniere did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
ExxonMobil declined to comment about L.N.G. but referred to remarks its senior vice president, Jack Williams, made Tuesday at a Morgan Stanley conference.
Exxon has ample oil and natural gas supplies in the United States but has little control over prices, Mr. Williams said. “We have good physical access to what we need here, but the prices obviously are subject to the global market.”
Rebecca F. Elliott and Eshe Nelson contributed reporting.