Meridiano

Add Article

No Image Available

Article Details

Title

Article: How many Americans live in the Mideast?

Impact Score

9 / 10

AI Summary (Processed Content)

Summary: The article reports on escalating tensions in the Middle East following the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader. It details President Trump's assertion that he should influence Iran's leadership succession, alongside a widening conflict involving Israeli threats in Lebanon, European military deployments for defense, and Iranian drone incidents in Azerbaijan.

Main Topics Covered: 1. U.S. political commentary on Iran's leadership succession. 2. Regional military escalation and spillover of the Iran-Israel conflict, particularly in Lebanon. 3. International defensive deployments and diplomatic responses from European and regional actors.

Original URL

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/05/world/iran-war-israel-trump/american-citizens-expats-middle-east

Source Feed

NYT > World News

Published Date

2026-03-05 19:17

Fetched Date

2026-03-05 17:00

Processed Date

2026-03-05 17:00

Embedding Status

Present

Cluster ID

Not Clustered

Raw Extracted Content

Live Updates: Trump Says He Should Have Role in Picking Iran’s Leader
Israel threatened more strikes in Lebanon as the Middle East crisis spilled beyond Iran. Italy pledged air defense weapons to help Gulf nations defend against attacks, and Iranian drones landed in Azerbaijan.
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Reuters
- Diego Ibarra Sánchez for The New York Times
- Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
- Bilal Hussein/Associated Press
- Reuters
- Reuters
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Eranga Jayawardene/Associated Press
- Ihlas News Agency, via Reuters
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Ariel Schalit/Associated Press
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
President Trump on Thursday said he should have a role in choosing Iran’s new leader, and that Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who appeared to be the leading candidate to succeed his father, was an “unacceptable” choice.
Mr. Trump’s comments, in interviews with Reuters and Axios, were the most explicit he has been yet about his vision of an American role in creating a new government in Tehran. They came as the war in Iran widened further on Thursday, with Israeli evacuation orders for parts of Lebanon sparking panic in and around Beirut, European countries accelerating their deployment of military assets in the Middle East, and world leaders bracing for the war’s impact on the global economy.
The threat of a major Israeli attack on the suburbs of Beirut was another sign that Lebanon, home to an Iranian proxy force, Hezbollah, was fast becoming a new front in the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran. The possibility of new Israeli attacks is exposing rifts inside Lebanon, where Hezbollah’s weakness after two years of fighting with Israel has emboldened a civilian government long overshadowed by the Iranian-backed militia.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said four fighter jets were being sent to Qatar to strengthen “defensive operations” across the region, and military helicopters with counter-drone capabilities were scheduled to arrive in Cyprus on Friday. Italy said that it was sending air defense support to Gulf countries, which have taken much of the brunt of Iran’s retaliatory strikes.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said that two Iranian drones had landed in Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave on Iran’s northern border. Iran’s armed forces denied firing drones at Azerbaijan and blamed the action on Israel. Iran also denied Turkey’s claim that it had fired a missile toward Turkish airspace a day earlier.
European leaders, several of whom disapproved of the initial U.S.-Israeli assault, emphasized that the deployments were to protect their citizens and their interests, as well as crucial shipping routes, and not to participate in the bombing of Iran.
U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran continued unabated. The U.S. military said that it was “finding and destroying” Iran’s mobile missile launchers. Iran for days has targeted Kurdish forces in the region, which it views as terrorist groups, as Iraqi officials and senior members of the forces say Kurdish armed units are preparing to possibly enter Iran. Mr. Trump told Reuters he is “all for” Kurdish forces waging an offensive against Tehran’s government.
Iran has said its strikes, begun in retaliation to the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday, are in self-defense. But the targets Iran has hit in the Persian Gulf in recent days have included American embassies, energy installations, airports and hotels. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told “NBC Nightly News” on Thursday that Iran sees “no reason” to come to the negotiating table and is prepared to confront a U.S. ground invasion should the conflict escalate.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Beirut evacuations: The Israeli military on Thursday called on people to leave Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the militant group Hezbollah holds sway, ordering them to flee northward. “Save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” it said in a statement. “We will inform you when it is safe to return.”
Sunken ship: Iran’s foreign minister accused the United States of an “atrocity at sea” after a torpedo launched from a U.S. Navy submarine sank an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka on Wednesday. Dozens of sailors were killed, Sri Lankan authorities said. After a second Iranian naval vessel asked the Sri Lankan government for permission to dock, Sri Lanka agreed to bring the 208 people on the ship to Colombo. Read more >
Markets rattled: Global oil prices jumped and stocks fell, rattling financial markets. The jump in oil prices has raised inflation fears globally. Read more ›
Americans killed: Six U.S. service members have been killed. 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. Read more ›
Death toll: At least 787 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks, according to the Red Crescent Society, Iran’s main humanitarian relief organization, including at least 175 who died in the bombing of a girls’ elementary school. At least 102 people in Lebanon have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Fears in Ukraine: The conflict is reverberating in Ukraine, putting peace talks with Russia on hold and raising fears in Kyiv of diminished military support. Read more ›
A fire at a state-owned oil refinery in Bahrain started by an Iranian missile strike is now under control, with limited material damage and no lives lost, Bahrain’s interior ministry said on Thursday night.
Separately, the ministry of Bahrain said late on Thursday that it had arrested four people who posted videos related to “malicious Iranian aggression and expressing sympathy with it.” The ministry said such posts contributed to “misleading public opinion,” spread fear and threatened security.
President Trump on Thursday said he should have a role in choosing Iran’s new leader, and that Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who appeared to be the leading candidate to succeed his father, was an “unacceptable” choice.
Mr. Trump’s comments, in interviews with Reuters and Axios, were the most explicit he has been yet about his vision of an American role in creating a new government in Tehran. They made clear that Mr. Trump’s model for Iran, as he told The New York Times in an interview on Sunday, was to replicate the installation of a new president in Venezuela after a Delta team seized Nicolas Maduro and sent him to a federal prison in Brooklyn, where he is awaiting trial.
Many analysts have noted that there are huge differences between Iran, a country of 92 million people run by a complex mix of clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Venezuela. But Mr. Trump has continued to cite the example, including in conversations with world leaders and members of Congress.
Mr. Trump’s statement is the also latest in a series of contradictory claims about Washington’s war aims.
On Saturday, as the attacks began, he called on the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the existing regime. On Sunday, he told The New York Times that he had three candidates for supreme leader in mind, though he later told ABC that he believed all three had been killed in days of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
His comments to Axios, and then to Reuters, are bound to remind Iranians of a period in their history taught in the country’s schools: the 1953 coup, run by the C.I.A., that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, to assure that Britain had access to Iranian oil.
That coup ultimately led to the installation of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as the shah of Iran. He was overthrown in the 1979 Iranian revolution that ushered in a half-century of theocratic rule.
President Barack Obama acknowledged the C.I.A.’s role in the Iranian coup in a 2009 speech in Cairo, admitting that “the United States played a significant role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government.” He was criticized by Republicans at the time for seeming to apologize for America’s past interventions in Iranian politics.
Major developments — March 5
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTNATO has increased its air defenses and missile alert levels across the military alliance, a day after officials said an Iranian missile was intercepted as it headed toward an air base in Turkey where American troops are stationed. A NATO military spokesman, Col. Martin O’Donnell, would not provide details. But the move gives the the top NATO commander, Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, “exactly what he needs to defend the alliance based on the current threat and defend it he will!” Colonel O’Donnell said in a statement.
The evacuation advisory issued by the State Department this week for 14 countries and the Palestinian territories has left well over 100,000 American citizens with limited options to leave the Middle East as the conflict has spread throughout the region.
Precise numbers of U.S. citizens living in each of the 14 countries are challenging to track. A New York Times analysis of publicly available federal and United Nations data suggests that roughly 150,000 to 200,000 Americans live in the region, which includes Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A majority of these Americans reside in Israel, which has a large population of dual citizens.
Separately, there’s also a significant U.S. military presence in the Middle East, numbering more than 50,000, with more troops on the way.
Earlier this week the State Department urged Americans to depart via commercial means, even as a wide corridor of airspace shut down. The State Department has since said it will charter free flights, though it has offered few details. The department reported on Thursday that it offered assistance to 10,000 Americans in the Middle East, and that nearly 20,000 citizens had returned to the United States, with many more to other countries — a fraction of those in the region.
The Indian Navy said on Thursday it had received a distress call from the Sri Lankan navy on Wednesday morning about the Iranian warship IRIS Dena, which was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine in the Indian Ocean. In a statement, the Indian Navy said it had joined the search and rescue efforts led by Sri Lanka, deploying maritime refueling aircraft and ships. The statement came more than 30 hours after the sinking of the Iranian frigate and followed widespread criticism of Indian officials for remaining silent. Dozens of Iranian saliors have been reported dead or missing.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTPrice of Brent Crude Oil
Oil prices jumped and stocks fell on Thursday, as the U.S.-Israel led war with Iran began to widen outside the Middle East, rattling financial markets and governments around the world.
The jump in oil prices has raised inflation concerns globally, hitting both stock and bond markets in a stark example of how intertwined the global economy is with the oil-exporting nations of the Persian Gulf. Shipments of crude and natural gas from the gulf have slowed significantly since the attacks and counterattacks.
Higher oil prices passed onto consumers at the pump, or to businesses in the form of increased diesel costs, could dampen the U.S. economy. Those concerns have weighed on the stock market, though major benchmarks have been volatile as investors try and assess how long the conflict could last.
There have also been other things impacting the stock market besides Iran. The sharp sell off in software stocks this year, for example, seemed to hit its nadir just before the war began and this unloved part of the market has been rallying while most other stocks have been falling, helping to mute some volatility of individual stocks from showing up in the price of the overall index.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, rose about 5 percent to $85 a barrel in afternoon trading. West Texas Intermediate, the domestic benchmark, crossed above $80 a barrel, after gaining more than 8 percent. Both measures are at the highest they’ve been since around July 2024.
The S&P 500 tumbled more than 1 percent in early afternoon trading, and is now in negative territory for the year. Stock investors are also now grappling with a report by Bloomberg News that the government is drafting sweeping rules to control the sale of the high powered computer chips used for artificial intelligence. Nvidia, the largest company in the S&P 500, fell 2.6 percent on Thursday, dragging down the broader index with it.
S&P 500
The price for a gallon of regular gasoline, on average, was over $3.25 in the United States on Thursday. Diesel prices rose to over $4 a gallon this week, on average, their highest price since April 2024. Oil is the biggest factor in the price of gas for American drivers.
Government bond yields, which underpin borrowing costs for consumers and companies, continued to rise. The 10-year Treasury yield has risen to 4.14 percent this week, from 3.93 percent before the war began, a gain that reflects concerns about inflation. That’s equivalent to roughly one standard interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
President Trump told Reuters he would be “all for” Kurdish forces waging an offensive against Tehran’s government but would not say if the U.S. would provide them military support. “I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that,” he said. The C.I.A. has previously given small arms to Iranian Kurdish forces to destabilize Iran. Pro-American, Kurdish forces in Iraq are preparing armed units that could enter Iran, according to Iraqi officials and senior members of Iranian Kurdish groups.
Stocks have continued to fall today, with the S&P 500 now down more than 1 percent. The sharp rise in oil prices stemming from the war with Iran has raised investors’ inflation expectations, weighing on the bond and stock markets. Stocks are also now grappling with news that the government is drafting sweeping rules to control the sale of the high-powered computer chips used for artificial intelligence. Nvidia, the largest A.I. chip company in the S&P 500, fell 2.6 percent on Thursday, dragging down the broader index with it.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTDanny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., said it will be “much, much harder” for Iran to disrupt vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz within several days. “Every day, their capabilities shrink,” Danon said about Iran. “The volume of missiles they’re firing is already falling, and we are only six days in. They are getting weaker and weaker.” A senior Iranian military official threatened this week to “set on fire” any ships traveling through the channel.
British drone specialists who have worked in Ukraine have been sent to the Middle East, Britain’s defense ministry, said without specifying precisely where they were being deployed. Their expertise could help nations that face the complicated task of fending off attacks from drones and ballistic missiles. In a statement, Britain’s defense ministry also said that, overnight, one of its units had destroyed “further drones in Iraqi airspace that were heading towards Coalition forces.”
A day after an Iranian ship was torpedoed by the U.S. in the waters near Sri Lanka, the country’s president said his government has allowed a second Iranian ship to dock in one of its ports and allowed its crew into the country.
Appearing on television, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake of Sri Lanka said that the second Iranian naval vessel, the IRINS Bushehr, asked the Sri Lankan government if it could dock at one of the country’s ports.
Sri Lankan officials decided to bring the 208 people on the ship — 53 officers, 84 cadet officers, 48 senior sailors, 23 sailors — to Colombo, the capital, and take the ship into custody in Trincomalee, on the east coast, rather than in Colombo, one of the busiest commercial ports in the world.
Sri Lanka, which has taken a neutral position on the conflict, is being forced to weigh its self-interest against the possibility of angering the United States and Israel for helping Iran. At the same time, Sri Lanka’s navy continues to sieve from the water any wreckage from the destroyed warship, treat injured sailors and brace for the economic hit it might take as the war pushes up oil prices.
Sri Lanka’s plight is an example of the spillover effect of a regional conflict that is dragging in faraway countries. The war has already engulfed around a dozen countries in the six days since it started. On Thursday, Azerbaijan was hit by two Iranian drones, a day after NATO intercepted what it said was an Iranian missile headed in Turkey’s direction.
On Thursday, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Vijitha Herath posted on X that he had spoken with his Iranian counterpart and “expressed grave concern over the escalation of hostilities.”
Sri Lanka and Iran have solid political and economic ties. The former bought $250 million worth of crude oil shipments from Iran before sanctions on the Middle Eastern country kicked in over its nuclear program. The two sides agreed to an “oil-for-tea” barter deal, which allows Sri Lanka to pay Iran in monthly installments of tea, a top export to Iran.
Bilateral ties are especially important for Sri Lanka, which has struggled to right its economy in recent years after defaulting on its sovereign debt. American tariffs have been an additional burden. Mr. Herath said on Wednesday that ties with Iran had “broadened significantly” under the tenure of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the recently slain Iranian leader. In January, he and Iran’s foreign minister spoke over the phone about Iran’s escalating hostilities with Israel and the United States, and said Sri Lanka was committed to strengthening relations.
That friendship is being put to the test this week, as the second ship, an auxiliary vessel, sought to dock in Sri Lanka.
The ship is sitting in Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone, defined under United Nations maritime law as a stretch of sea, beyond a country’s territorial waters, to which it has sovereign exploration rights.
Mr. Dissanayake said that officials from the foreign ministries of Iran and Sri Lanka, along with diplomats and defense officials, had been in discussions since the call from the Bushehr came on Wednesday as the Sri Lankan government debated how to handle the issue after agreeing to take the ship into custody. The ship’s crew members had said that one of its engines was in trouble, and that Sri Lanka offered humanitarian help.
“Our seas and skies can’t be used by another nation for their own gain or to harm another nation,” Mr. Dissanayake said. “Our actions since the beginning of the incident have been in line with that stance.”
The IRIS Dena was also in Sri Lanka’s E.E.Z. when a U.S. submarine took it down using a torpedo.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the ship’s fate a “quiet death,” while Iran called the attack an “atrocity at sea.” India, which hosted the navy exercises that the Iran ships were returning from, has not commented.
On Thursday, the Sri Lanka Navy was still searching for sailors who are believed missing from the IRIS Dena, a day after it found 84 bodies in oil-slicked water, amid life rafts and other flotsam. The navy said it rescued 32 people, who were taken to the emergency ward of National Hospital Galle, one of the country’s biggest hospitals. It was unclear whether the ship was carrying 180 people, a number provided by Sri Lankan authorities, or 130, a number provided by Iranian officials.
The survivors were treated for burn injuries and other cuts and scrapes, and all except one were in mostly good shape. Some of the sailors were expected to be discharged from the hospital and taken to the Iranian Embassy in Colombo, the nation’s capital that is a half-hour drive away from Galle.
After Nalinda Jayatissa, the cabinet spokesman, disclosed the second ship’s presence to Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Thursday, the opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, said that a country’s E.E.Z. “is for peaceful purposes, not for military action.” Such action within that zone is “a death blow to our sovereignty,” he said.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTPresident Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine says the United States has now requested “specific support” from his country to help protect against Iran’s drones in the Middle East. Zelensky in recent days has repeatedly emphasized how Kyiv’s expertise in combating the drones — which have been launched by Russia throughout the war in Ukraine — could be useful to countries under attack now in the Mideast.
“I gave instructions to provide the necessary means and ensure the presence of Ukrainian specialists who can guarantee the required security,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “Ukraine helps partners who help ensure our security and protect the lives of our people.” Read more about how the Mideast crisis is reverberating in Ukraine.
President Emmanuel Macron of France said he had spoken with Lebanon’s “highest authorities” on Thursday and had received a commitment that Lebanon would take control of positions held by Hezbollah. France will strengthen its cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces and provide armored vehicles and operational and logistical support, Macron said. “Hezbollah must immediately cease its fire toward Israel,” he said. “Israel must refrain from any ground intervention or large-scale operation on Lebanese territory.”
Reuters reported that President Trump said in an interview the United States wants to be involved in picking a new leader for Iran. In an earlier interview with Axios, Trump said that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was an “unacceptable” choice.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told “NBC Nightly News” on Thursday that Iran has not asked for a cease-fire, sees “no reason” to come to the negotiating table and is prepared to confront a U.S. ground invasion should the conflict escalate. He said he has had no communication with President Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner since last week, when nuclear talks in Oman were interrupted by the start of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday, citing local estimates, that some 100,000 people fled Tehran in the first two days after the U.S.-Israeli attacks began. Many appear to be displaced within Iran; the agency said it has not seen a major increase in movements across the border. More than 84,000 people in Lebanon have also moved to collective shelters, the agency said, citing Lebanese authorities.
Senator Tim Sheehy, Republican of Montana, defended his actions after he helped Capitol Police officers forcibly remove an antiwar protester from a Senate hearing on Wednesday, a physical struggle that was captured on video. The protester, Brian McGinnis, a Marine Corps veteran and a Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina, said that his arm was broken during the struggle. “This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one,” Sheehy wrote on social media.
The Sri Lankan president, Anura Dissanayake, made a public televised statement on Thursday, a day after an Iranian ship was torpedoed by the United States in the waters near Sri Lanka. He said that a second Iranian naval vessel, the IRINS Bushehr, asked the Sri Lankan government if it could dock at one of the country’s ports. Sri Lankan officials decided to bring the 208 people on the ship — 53 officers, 84 cadet officers, 48 senior sailors, 23 sailors — to Colombo and take the ship into custody in Trincomalee, on the east coast, rather than in Colombo, one of the busiest commercial ports in the world.
The streets of Beirut erupted in chaos on Thursday after the Israeli military ordered people to flee the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, prompting fears that it might be about to begin a large-scale bombing campaign there.
The threat of a major Israeli attack on Beirut’s suburbs was another sign that Lebanon, home to Iran’s proxy force Hezbollah, is fast becoming a new front in the widening conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran.
Soon after the order was issued on social media, roads in Beirut were clogged with honking cars as panicked residents attempted to flee the area known as the Dahiya, a densely populated cluster of neighborhoods where Hezbollah has long held sway.
The militant group fired rockets into northern Israel earlier this week, igniting the most recent round of fighting. At least 102 people have been killed in Lebanon since Monday, according to a statement from the Lebanese health ministry.
“I just saw the message, but I have no place to go,” said Amir Hattoum, one of the thousands attempting to leave, who had careened through the back streets on his moped.
Israel has been striking parts of Dahiya since Monday, but one senior Israeli minister, in a video released Thursday on social media, threatened widespread destruction of the area.
“The Dahiya will look like Khan Younis,” said Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, referring to a city in Gaza that was decimated during Israel’s bombing campaign. “You wanted to give us hell, but you’ve brought hell upon yourself.”
Danny Dannon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday statements from the Lebanese government Hezbollah’s military actions were commendable, “but they have to take action against Hezbollah.” he said. He vowed Israel would eliminate “the operatives of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime representatives in Lebanon. “
The Israeli military said people should head to the north or east of the city, but should not move to the south, as doing so could “endanger your lives.” In recent days, the Israeli military has issued broad evacuation warnings across southern Lebanon, raising concerns that it may be about to launch a ground invasion.
The office of Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said in a statement that he had spoken with President Emmanuel Macron of France after the evacuation order, urging him to “intervene” to prevent the targeting of southern Beirut. It was unclear how much diplomatic influence France could have on Israel’s military plans.
Al-Sahel Hospital, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, ordered staff and patients to evacuate, with the sickest patients, including those in intensive care, being transferred to hospitals outside the targeted area, said Fadi Alameh, the hospital’s director.
Bahman Hospital, also in the south of the city, closed its emergency department and partially evacuated its facility, according to its director, Ali Krayem. Only a skeleton crew of doctors and nurses remained to care for patients on life support until space could be found for them elsewhere, he said.
Many of the hundreds of thousands of people who live in Dahiya had already left their homes in recent days, after Israel began carrying out airstrikes there.
Many residents took refuge in government buildings and schools that the authorities have converted into makeshift shelters but, with limited space, some have been forced to sleep in their cars or on the street.
“There’s no safe place in Lebanon anymore,” said Fatima Ibrahim, who had been preparing lunch at one of the shelters when the evacuation order was issued. She said she dropped everything and fled, joining the crowds thronging the streets as people ran in every direction. Ms. Ibrahim planned to try to reach the city’s coastline, she said, hoping they might be safer there.
Such sweeping evacuation warnings in southern Beirut were never issued during Israel and Hezbollah’s most recent war, which ended with a fragile cease-fire in November 2024. The move has left many fearing what might come next.
“We are afraid,” said Ms. Ibrahim. “Where shall we go?”
Johnatan Reiss and Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTcongressional memo
When President Trump gave reporters a brief update this week on the accelerating bombing campaign against Iran, he said, “We’re doing very well on the war front.”
That complicated matters for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have spent the days since the U.S.-Israeli attacks began engaging in semantic gymnastics to describe the widening conflict as a “major combat operation,” a “mission,” “hostilities” or really just anything other than “war.”
“They declared war on us,” Speaker Mike Johnson said of Iran as he repeated the administration’s justification for the offensive. Still, he quickly added, there was, in fact, no war.
“We’re not at war right now,” he said on Wednesday. “We’re four days into a very specific, clear mission — an operation.”
The verbal gyrations reflect the tricky politics of an unpopular war, especially for a party that has long condemned “forever wars” on foreign soil. They also underscore the legal and constitutional questions raised by Mr. Trump’s decision to begin an offensive against Iran without congressional approval.
Under the Constitution, only Congress can declare war. But most Republicans on Capitol Hill have taken the position that it is up to the president alone — not, heaven forbid, the legislative branch — whether to commit U.S. forces to a military mission whose objectives, scope and duration remain a big question mark.
“It’s not a war,” Representative Randy Fine, Republican of Florida, snapped as he made his way to the House floor on Wednesday, employing some tautological reasoning. “The way you are officially at war is Congress declares war, and we haven’t declared war.”
As the Senate prepared to vote on whether Mr. Trump needed to win approval from Congress for the mission, many Republicans employed an exceedingly narrow definition of what would constitute war. They argued that so far, at least, what was happening in the Middle East was not it.
“Listen,” said Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, “if I’m going to commit ground troops into combat, that constitutes war in the constitutional sense and will require some sort of authorization.”
(He voted to block the war powers measure, ensuring that Congress would have no say for now.)
Representative Ken Calvert, the California Republican who serves as the chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, said it was not a boots-on-the-ground issue so much as a time-frame issue.
“This has been about 72 hours,” he said. “I would call it an operation at this point.”
With “war” transforming into the Republicans’ Lord Voldemort on Capitol Hill — otherwise known in “Harry Potter” lore as “He Who Must Not Be Named” — those who accidentally used the word quickly contorted themselves to get out of it.
“This is war, and we’re taking out the threat,” Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, said on Tuesday, echoing top administration officials’ bellicose language in recent days. But he quickly backtracked under questioning from reporters in the basement of the Capitol.
“We haven’t declared war,” Mr. Mullin said. “They called it war. I was saying they declared war on us, but war is ugly.”
When reminded that he had, in fact, used the word, Mr. Mullin replied, “That was a misspoke.”
David Axelrod, who was a top adviser to President Barack Obama, said watching congressional Republicans avoid using a word the president was throwing around freely made him feel like he was watching a performance of Cirque du Soleil.
“You find yourself wondering, how many ways can they bend?” he said.
The ridicule came in from the right, as well.
“It’s not a war unless it comes from the war region of France, otherwise’s it’s just sparkling combat,” Sean Davis, the co-founder of The Federalist, a conservative online magazine, wrote on social media as he circulated a clip of Mr. Johnson’s tortured effort to avoid using the term.
Mr. Trump, for his part, has described the military operation as a “war” a number of times. In his first comments after launching an attack on Iran, the president said in a recorded video that the mission could result in American casualties, as “often happens in war.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegesth on Wednesday promised an escalation that sounded like “war” to every Democrat listening when he said that the United States was “just getting started” and promised to rain down “death and destruction from the sky, all day long.”
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, later in the day directed the attention of his Republican colleagues to Mr. Hegseth’s remarks.
“To anyone around here who thinks we’re not at war, listen to Hegseth’s press conference,” he said on the Senate floor. “What he is saying loud and clear is this: We’re at war, and this administration is signaling more escalation ahead.”
But for Republican lawmakers to call it a “war,” they would have to concede that the president started one without congressional authorization.
The conflict has so far resulted in the deaths of at least six American service members. And the administration has continued to offer varying and conflicting explanations for striking Iran, raising questions about legality that are easier for lawmakers to deal with if they do not acknowledge that it is a war at all. The military action is deeply unpopular, with about three-fifths of Americans disapproving, according to recent polls.
Not to mention the fact that Mr. Trump ran and was elected as an “America First,” antiwar political candidate, and many of his supporters — the constituents of his Republican allies in Congress — are unhappy with this turn of events. Playing down its scope through language may help blunt some of that blowback.
Democrats sought to capitalize on the friction the war was causing in the MAGA movement.
“This war is costing a billion dollars a day,” Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, wrote on social media. “They literally are taking away your food and your healthcare for this regime-change war of choice.”
Still, as they banded together to vote down measures to rein in Mr. Trump’s ability to continue the war without Congress, Republicans batted away the term. Some of them reached to World War II as their reference point for what “war” would look like.
“This is an argument about semantics,” Mr. Fine said. “I haven’t seen the Grand Army of the Republic storm the beaches yet. We’ll see what happens.”
At the White House, Mr. Trump did not bother with such subtleties. Wrapping up an event in the Indian Treaty Room on Wednesday afternoon, he noted, “I have to go back and look at the war.”
The temperature was below freezing at the Kapikoy Border Gate on Turkey’s eastern border with Iran as small groups of Iranians crossed into Turkey on Thursday. They offered a glimpse of how the U.S.-Israeli air campaign is disrupting people’s lives.
A 35-year-old woman who left her husband behind said she hadn’t slept in three days and was severely anxious. She fled Tehran as bombs fell around her neighborhood, she said. She was planning to go to Istanbul, then travel on to Sydney to be with relatives. Like many of those interviewed, she declined to give her name for fear of repercussions from Iran’s government.
Ibrahim Jalili, 75, said he and his wife had left the northwestern city of Urmia and were heading to Istanbul to be with their son. Anticipating the worst, their son had left earlier and rented a house for the family, Mr. Jalili said.
“There were lots of explosions in the city,” he said of Urmia.
A 20-year-old medical student who said he had also arrived from Urmia was headed to Turkey to try to get a visa to go to China to continue his education. The Chinese Consulate in Iran was no longer serving Iranians, he said.
Despite the fear, his family was not thinking about fleeing Iran, he said.
Kerim Jalali, 26, said that “other than the places that were hit, life goes on” in Urmia, with stores and marketplaces open. But, he added, in areas that have been hit, people were afraid to open businesses.
Commercial trucks that were waiting to enter Iran were allowed to cross toward the evening. More than 20 taxis, carrying passengers, went into Iran too.
In similar numbers, Iranians were heading back to their country, some to be with their families, despite the bombing. A 25-year-old who works as a hairdresser in Istanbul said she couldn’t reach her parents for three days but couldn’t persuade to leave the country.
She was returning, she said, because she couldn’t live without them.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn a war that has rapidly engulfed much of the Middle East, one party has held back from joining the fight: Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Mugeeb Shamsan, an army brigadier affiliated with the Houthis, said in a phone interview that the group was “watching the situation” and would take action if necessary. “Iran has the capabilities to defend itself and Yemen will be there in the right time,” he said.
When the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, Europe’s leaders were largely left out of the loop. Italy’s defense minister, Guido Crosetto, was left so unaware of the impending strike that he had traveled to the Mideast for a family vacation and had to be evacuated by military plane.
Now, European countries like Italy are being drawn into the widening orbit of the Iran conflict, committing military assets to the region even as they try to maintain a veneer of neutrality.
Italy announced on Thursday that it would deploy naval ships to defend Cyprus, a Mediterranean island that has come under retaliatory Iranian fire, and air defense weapons to protect Arab allies in the Persian Gulf that have also weathered attacks from Iran.
In doing so, Italy joined nations including Britain, France, Greece and Spain in pledging to blunt Iran’s counterattacks in the Mediterranean or the Persian Gulf, or both. Those commitments came even as top European officials expressed reservations about the legitimacy and wisdom of the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.
The war with Iran “began without the world’s knowledge,” Mr. Crosetto said on Thursday, adding that “we now find ourselves having to manage, like the rest of the world.”
Italy’s balancing act reflected a broader European dilemma over how to prevent Iranian retaliation against their citizens and diplomats, many of whom are stranded across the Middle East, while avoiding President Trump’s ire and honoring their diplomatic commitments to Arab and Mediterranean allies.
In Spain, the defense ministry announced that it was sending a warship to protect Cyprus, a day after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez gave an address to the nation in which he condemned the initial U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran and reiterated his refusal to participate despite President Trump’s threats of economic retaliation.
Speaking on local radio Thursday morning, Spain’s defense minister, Margarita Robles, said that the assistance to Cyprus was a response to a request for support from a fellow European Union nation in accordance with the “fundamental principles of peace.”
“An offensive mission is one thing; a defensive mission is another,” she said.
In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer initially declined to join the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, but said at a news conference on Thursday that “when Iran started attacking countries around the Gulf and the wider region, the situation changed.”
He said that four British fighter jets were being sent to Qatar to “strengthen our defensive operations” across the region, while military helicopters with counter-drone capabilities were expected to arrive on Friday in Cyprus, where a drone hit a British base this week.
President Emmanuel Macron of France has said that the U.S.-Israeli attacks broke international law, but he has also committed to help counter the Iranian retaliatory strikes across the Middle East. And on Thursday, he spoke separately with the leaders of Italy and Greece to coordinate the deployment of military resources to Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean, according to a French official who requested anonymity under French government protocol.
Even as Italy committed ships and weapons to defend allies under fire, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni emphasized that Italian military bases were not being used for offensive operations against Iran. She told an Italian radio station that her government would honor longstanding bilateral agreements regulating U.S. military bases on Italian soil, which allow the bases to be used for logistical operations.
Italy has not been asked for the bases to be used for any other purpose, she said, adding that should such a request arrive, it would be up to Parliament to decide.
“I want to say that we are not at war and we do not want to go to war,” Ms. Meloni said.
Ana Castelain in Paris and Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Britain has been in a “heightened state of readiness” for conflict in Iran since January.
“We started pre-deploying to the region in January and February, particularly to Cyprus and Qatar, and that was fighter jets, air defense missiles, advanced radar and anti drone systems,” he said. “We did that in conjunction with the U.S. and with our allies.”
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe crisis in the Middle East has started to reverberate in Ukraine, putting peace talks with Russia on hold and raising fears in Kyiv of diminished military support.
After the United States and Israel started bombing Iran five days ago, the conflict quickly spread through the Mideast. As Iran has targeted the United States’ Persian Gulf allies with missiles and drones, those countries and American forces have fired large numbers of interceptor missiles to fend off the attacks.
That has drained stocks of the defensive weapons that Ukraine has come to rely on from its allies to defend against Russian missiles. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has acknowledged the potential knock-on effects from the Middle East conflict, telling reporters this week that he had raised the issue with Kyiv’s partners.
“There are concerns that in the event of a prolonged war, America may reduce supplies of air defense systems and missiles for air defense to Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said in an interview with the Italian national broadcaster, RAI, that aired on Wednesday.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said on Thursday that the events in the Middle East had a “clear impact” on the war in Ukraine.
“There are defense capabilities that are needed in Ukraine now moving also to the Middle East,” she said in Brussels. “There is also the issue of supply chains, of supplying the capabilities that Ukraine needs, now also the Middle East needs, when it comes to air defense, for example.”
Those air defenses are critical to protect towns and cities from Russian attacks and to save Ukrainian lives. Shortages not only could embolden Moscow to step up barrages, but also could give the impression that Ukraine has a weakened hand in peace negotiations once they resume.
The negotiations had been expected to continue this week with trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States. A meeting was scheduled to be held in the United Arab Emirates, but that country has come under Iranian attack in recent days.
Mr. Zelensky had suggested moving the talks to Switzerland or Turkey. But in his overnight address on Wednesday, he said, “Because of the situation with Iran, the necessary signals for a trilateral meeting haven’t come yet.”
“As soon as the security situation and the broader political context allow us to resume the trilateral diplomatic work, it will be done,” he added. “Ukraine is ready for it.”
With the crisis in the Persian Gulf intensifying, Mr. Zelensky and Kyiv’s European allies have tried to keep Ukraine from falling out of the international focus, even as the war against Russia continues unabated four years after Moscow’s invasion.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, speaking at a news conference this week after visiting the White House, said he had explicitly urged President Trump to link the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.
“Anyone who fights for security and justice in the Middle East must also want security and justice in Europe,” Mr. Merz said.
Mr. Zelensky has also tried to connect the two, noting the ties between Russia and Iran in his statements. He has spoken with several Middle Eastern leaders in recent days and offered to share Ukraine’s expertise in contending with drone strikes.
Ukraine has years of hard-gained experience defending against Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones, which Russia deploys by the dozen every night. On Thursday morning, the Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia had launched 155 of them overnight.
Mr. Zelensky said that several of Ukraine’s partners had sought Kyiv’s guidance, with the United States requesting “specific support” from his country to help combat drones.
“I gave instructions to provide the necessary means and ensure the presence of Ukrainian specialists who can guarantee the required security,” he wrote Thursday on social media. “Ukraine helps partners who help ensure our security and protect the lives of our people.”
Ukraine produces large numbers of small interceptor drones intended to defend against Shaheds. Mr. Zelensky has floated the idea of trading such interceptors for the more powerful Patriot missile systems that Ukraine badly needs to defend against Russian ballistic missiles.
“Any assistance we provide is only on the condition that it does not weaken our own defense in Ukraine and that it serves as an investment in our diplomatic capabilities,” Mr. Zelensky said. “We help protect against war those who help us — Ukraine — bring the war to a dignified conclusion.”
Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting from Brussels, and Nataliia Novosolova from Kyiv.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain has announced that four fighter jets were being sent to Qatar to “strengthen our defensive operations” across the region, while military helicopters with counter-drone capabilities are due to arrive in Cyprus tomorrow.
Mr. Starmer said in a news conference that he stood by his decision not to support the initial U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, which angered President Trump, but that “when Iran started attacking countries around the Gulf and the wider region, the situation changed.”
British planes have shot down “multiple drones” and assisted air-to-air refuelling over Jordan, Qatar and other countries, he said.
Iranian Kurdish forces, based in Iraq, are preparing armed units that could be sent into Iran, potentially with U.S. support, in an insurgency that would open a new front against the Iranian government.
Though the White House has denied that it agreed to any plan for the Kurds to launch an insurgency in Iran, the United States has a long history of working with Kurdish militias around the region.
It also has a reputation for abandoning them: After the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the United States encouraged a Kurdish uprising in Iraq then stood by as the Iraqi army slaughtered Kurdish forces.
Who are the Kurds?
The Kurds are an ethnic group of roughly 40 million people spread largely across four countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. They have long sought either a state of their own or greater autonomy, and are often considered to be the largest contiguous ethnic group in the world without an independent state.
In the aftermath of World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Kurds across the Middle East were promised a nation of their own by world powers, but it never came to be.
Many Kurds blame the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 — a secret deal between Britain and France that carved up the Middle East along often illogical boundaries — for denying them a country of their own and dividing them among states that have, at times, proved hostile.
Since then, Kurdish people have faced varying degrees of discrimination, including bans on speaking their own language, celebrating their culture or even receiving citizenship.
Those measures fueled calls for greater Kurdish autonomy. Some countries saw the rise of armed groups, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and other countries.
How big is Iran’s Kurdish minority?
Kurds make up 10 percent of Iran’s population and are concentrated in the northwest, along its border with Iraq. They have at times been at the forefront of protest movements against Iran’s theocratic government.
In 2022, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, died after she was arrested by the country’s morality police, accused of violating the country’s strict codes on modest dress for women. Her death sparked a nationwide protest movement, which was centered around women’s rights and freedoms in Iran but also touched on longstanding grievances held by the Kurdish minority.
At one point, Kurdish protesters seized control of Oshnavieh, a city in the Kurdish region of Iran, though it was soon retaken by government forces.
TURKMEN.
Ankara
TURKEY
Oshnavieh
SYRIA
Erbil
Tehran
IRAQ
IRAN
ISRAEL
SAUDI
ARABIA
EGYPT
400 miles
“This is not all about the head scarf,” Hana Yazdanpana, a spokeswoman for the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian paramilitary group based in Iraq, said at the time. “The Kurds want freedom.”
Some Iranian Kurdish armed groups are based in Iraqi Kurdistan, a region in the north of Iraq that broke away from the central government’s control in 1992 with U.S. support. It is recognized as a semiautonomous region by the United Nations and the United States, among others.
Will the Kurds join the fighting in Iran?
Kurdish militias have previously crossed borders to aid one another, most notably in Syria’s civil war. Kurds from Turkey, Iraq and Iran came together to fight there alongside Syria’s minority. It is unclear to what extent an armed uprising in Iran’s Kurdish region would galvanize other Kurds around the region.
For more than a decade, Kurdish forces were the United States’ closest allies in Syria, fighting against ISIS, guarding American bases and running internment camps and prisons that held tens of thousands of ISIS fighters and their relatives.
That alliance has been disintegrating, however, as the United States has thrown its support behind the new government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.