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Article: A New England Patriots plane brought Americans back from the Middle East.

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President Trump demanded Iran's unconditional surrender while Israel intensified military strikes, including on a leadership bunker in Tehran and Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, causing significant displacement. The conflict has driven up global oil prices, and Iran has both launched retaliatory attacks and engaged in backchannel communications regarding potential negotiations.

Main Topics Covered:
1. Escalating military actions between Israel and Iran, including strikes in Tehran and Lebanon.
2. Diplomatic stance and demands from the U.S., specifically President Trump's call for Iran's surrender.
3. Economic impact of the conflict, notably rising oil and gas prices.
4. Conflicting signals regarding potential negotiations to end the war.

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https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/06/world/iran-war-trump-israel-lebanon/a-new-england-patriots-plane-brought-americans-back-from-the-middle-east

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NYT > World News

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2026-03-06 18:32

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2026-03-06 16:00

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2026-03-06 16:01

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Tel Aviv/Beirut9:00 p.m. March 6
Tehran10:30 p.m. March 6
Live Updates: Trump Says There Will Be ‘No Deal’ as Israel Unleashes Wave of Attacks on Iran
President Trump repeated his call for the “unconditional surrender” of the Islamic Republic. Israel said it had struck a leadership bunker in Tehran, and sent thousands fleeing a bombardment in Lebanon.
- Reuters
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
- AFP
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Agencia EFE, via Associated Press
- By Reuters
- Mahmoud Zayyat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Mahmoud Zayyat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press
President Trump on Friday demanded “unconditional surrender” by Iran, the most uncompromising goal he has set so far for the war, while Israeli officials said their forces had destroyed a bunker that had been used by Iran’s supreme leader, in a fresh wave of heavy strikes on Tehran.
The Israeli military also pounded the southern outskirts of Beirut and issued more evacuation warnings in Lebanon as it intensified its campaign there against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. About 300,000 people in Lebanon have fled their homes since the bombing began, the Norwegian Refugee Council estimated.
Gas prices in the United States jumped again as the effects of the war rippled through the oil industry, with the U.S. benchmark crude oil price rising to above $90 a barrel. The average price of unleaded gas hit $3.32 per gallon on Friday, according to the AAA motor club.
Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that there “will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” — a stance that, if it holds, could signal a lengthy conflict. The comment highlighted Mr. Trump’s shifting stance in the war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran six days ago. Days earlier, Mr. Trump had told The Atlantic, “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.”
In his post on Friday, Mr. Trump said that after Iran’s surrender would come “the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s),” and the United States and its allies would “work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction.” But officials of his administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have dismissed the idea of engaging in “nation-building” in Iran.
The president made the post after Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, said that some countries had begun what he called “mediation efforts,” without elaborating on who was involved. Iran’s intelligence ministry has reached out to the C.I.A. through intermediaries to discuss terms for ending the war, according to officials briefed on the outreach.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps launched a wave of drones and missiles at Israel, according to a statement from the force reported by IRNA, the country’s state news agency. Air-raid sirens went off in Tel Aviv, and the Israeli military said that it had detected missile launches from Iran, though there were no immediate reports of major damage.
The Israeli military said it had struck more than 400 targets in western Iran on Friday, including missile launchers and drone storage sites.
Iranian state television reported attacks on a compound in Tehran where the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lived until he was killed in the initial bombing on Saturday. Hours later, Israel published video showing a series of airstrikes in roughly the same area as the compound, saying that the military had destroyed an underground bunker that had been used by Ayatollah Khamenei and other senior officials. It was unclear whether anyone was killed in the attack.
The New York Times reviewed satellite imagery taken on Friday and published by Planet Labs showing fresh damage to buildings around the leadership compound, in addition to impacts from the Saturday strikes.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Gulf nations: As Iran’s retaliatory strikes hit U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, Qatar’s foreign ministry said Tehran had carried out an attack on buildings in neighboring Bahrain where members of the Qatari Navy were, but reported no injuries. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said that it had intercepted and destroyed three ballistic missiles launched toward a military complex south of the capital, Riyadh, while the United Arab Emirates said it had intercepted nine ballistic missiles and more than 100 drones on Friday.
Oil and the economy: Stocks fell sharply as trading opened in New York as the surge in oil and gas prices driven by the conflict set off fears of resurgent inflation. A senior official in Qatar warned in a Financial Times interview of lengthy disruptions to energy production, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed because of attacks.
Evacuations: The State Department is battling accusations from diplomats and travelers who say the Trump administration endangered U.S. citizens by beginning a war without adequate plans for helping Americans leave the Middle East.
Death toll: Hundreds of 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, many of them children, who died in the bombing of a girls’ elementary school. More than 200 people in Lebanon have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
As of March 6, much of the airspace in the Middle East remains closed or subject to restrictions. The bulk of the closures have been in effect since the fighting broke out last Saturday, leading to tens of thousands of flight cancellations. The latest restriction came on Thursday when Iranian drones fell in Azerbaijan, prompting that country to close part of its airspace.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had hit an underground bunker in Tehran located beneath the compound of Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a statement, the Israeli military said the bunker had been intended to serve as an emergency command center for Ayatollah Khamenei. He was killed on Saturday while above ground at the compound after Israel and the United States launched a wave of strikes inside Iran. Those strikes, now in their seventh day, have triggered a rapidly escalating conflict across the Middle East and beyond.
The underground bunker, the military said, had continued to be used by senior Iranian officials since the initial strike. It spanned multiple streets, with several entrances and meeting rooms. The Israeli military released video that it said showed the strike, which it said involved about 50 fighter jets, along with graphics that it said showed the layout of the facility.
The New York Times reviewed satellite imagery taken on Friday and published by Planet Labs showing fresh damage to buildings around the leadership compound, in addition to impacts from the Saturday strikes that killed Ayatollah Khamenei.
The Times also verified photos that were shared on Telegram channels on Friday morning showing dark columns of smoke rising from the same location, as well as a video showing explosions in the area.
One of the buildings that appeared to have been damaged in Friday’s satellite image was labeled an entry point to the underground bunker on the Israeli military’s graphics.
Two Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, confirmed the bunker had been used by Ayatollah Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials.
It was unclear whether anyone was killed in Friday’s attack.
Major developments — March 6
President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon said on Friday that an Israeli strike had injured an unspecified number of U.N. peacekeepers from a Ghanaian battalion positioned in the south of the country, where fighting continues to rage between Israeli ground forces and Hezbollah. Lebanon’s state-run news agency said a peacekeeping base had been struck by two artillery shells, causing a fire. At least one peacekeeper was seriously injured and was being airlifted by helicopter, according to a U.N. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, has monitored the Israel-Lebanon border for decades and was preparing to wind down its mission when the conflict restarted this week.
Dylan Johnson, the assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, shared a photograph on social media on Friday, saying it depicted “Americans boarding one of the many State Department charter flights leaving the Middle East to the U.S.”
The incongruity in the image was this: It was a New England Patriots plane.
It turns out that, when it is not in use during the N.F.L. season, the plane is operated by a charter company, which uses it for various flights, according to a Patriots spokesperson.
Mr. Johnson said the plane landed safely Friday morning in Washington. The flight was paid for by the State Department, according to a senior department official, who said the department had been chartering flights from several Middle Eastern countries for American citizens looking to return home.
The United States has urged Americans in 14 Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to leave the region. Some Americans are choosing to remain, the State Department official said.
The State Department official did not say which country the team’s plane had flown to.
👀 Americans boarding one of the many State Department charter flights leaving the Middle East to the U.S.
— Dylan Johnson (@ASDylanJohnson) March 6, 2026
This plane landed safely this morning in Washington. pic.twitter.com/2vYUK0Rmwg
Evacuations began Wednesday. But some diplomats and travelers have faulted the government for not doing enough for stranded Americans.
Officials would not say exactly how many planes were being used to airlift Americans from the region, but they said the flights would continue.
It was not the first time that a Patriots plane had been observed flying internationally in the football offseason. Flight tracking data showed that it flew from Texas to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and back last April, WBUR reported. The team said at the time that it was not a deportation flight and that “there were no detainees on the plane.”
A Patriots plane was also used to bring masks from China during the Covid-19 pandemic and to fly students and families from Parkland, Fla., site of a school shooting, to Washington, D.C., for a march against gun violence in 2018.
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.
President Trump declared on Friday that he would settle for nothing short of “unconditional surrender” by Iran, the latest and broadest expansion of his goals for the conflict, and one that could portend a much longer conflict if he persists in that aim.
Six days into the Israeli and American bombing campaign, Iran has shown no interest, at least publicly, in surrendering. Instead, it has done the opposite, expanding the war to Arab states that host American bases, attacking them with missiles and drones, though in diminishing numbers in recent days.
Mr. Trump’s statement came in a social media post, in which he said that after the country’s surrender would come “the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s),” and promised that the United States and its allies “will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction.”
His statement was the latest in the shifting goals Mr. Trump has laid out for the war, leaving his aides, and congressional allies, struggling to keep up and at times contradicting the president.
Mr. Trump declared on Saturday, in the opening hours of the U.S. attack, that Iran’s people should rise up and overthrow their government.
But in the following days, both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pivoted away from the emphasis on regime change, saying that the United States was simply focused on assuring that Iran’s nuclear program was permanently destroyed, and that it no longer had the missile capability to attack Israel, its Arab neighbors, and perhaps someday America.
Mr. Hegseth went further on Wednesday, telling reporters there would be no “nation-building,” and spoke dismissively of the Bush administration’s efforts to build new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But Mr. Trump keeps returning to exactly that goal. He has repeatedly cited the model of the American action in Venezuela, where U.S. forces removed Nicolás Maduro and sanctioned the ascension of his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, saying she could run the country as long as she complied with American demands, particularly access to oil.
Mr. Trump has resisted suggestions that Iran — a country with 92 million people, nearly three times the size of Venezuela’s population, and a government run by clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — differs in every respect from Venezuela.
“It’s going to work very easily. It’s going to work like in Venezuela,” he told CNN in a brief telephone conversation Friday.
He said he was not concerned about whether there was a democratic government elected in Iran, saying he was willing to work with moderate Shia religious leaders.
“I don’t mind religious leaders,” he said. “I deal with a lot of religious leaders.”
As long as they were “fair” to Israel and to the United States, he said, he was willing to keep a clerical government.
Mr. Trump went on to say he expected Cuba to fall soon, which would give him a trifecta: a change in leadership in three countries that have been American adversaries.
The surge in oil prices is picking up speed. The U.S. crude benchmark, called West Texas Intermediate, is up nearly 14 percent right now at around $92 a barrel. That’s the highest its been since September 2023. Back then, gasoline averaged about $3.80 a gallon, well above where it is now. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline has climbed about 34 cents since the start of the war, to about $3.32, according to AAA.
Price of Oil
Across Beirut, dozens of families from Dahiya, the Hezbollah stronghold that was ordered to be evacuated by Israel, remain displaced. “Look at my eyes,” said Sameer Hjoula, 50, who fled with his four children to Beirut’s waterfront promenade. “I have not slept since I left home. We have nothing.” Many said they fled with nothing, embarking on a hurried exodus from a busy commercial and residential area late on Thursday. Some said they were unable to afford food, water, or even milk for their children.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian agency, estimates that 300,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon since Israel began carrying out airstrikes targeting Hezbollah. Israel’s evacuation orders affect hundreds of villages in South Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut. The aid group estimated more than a million people could be displaced.
The Israeli military said Friday that 50 fighter jets had targeted the underground bunker of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader killed in an Israeli airstrike last Saturday. The bunker, the military said, was located in the center of Tehran and was used by Khamenei as a “secure emergency command center.” The military said the bunker had meeting rooms for senior Iranian officials and many entrances.
Iranians trickling across the border into Turkey this week painted a picture of destruction and fear hanging over their cities under U.S.-Israeli bombardment.
Hasan Sadrae, a 55-year-old retired airport worker from Tabriz, a city in the northwest of Iran, arrived on Friday with his wife and two children in the Turkish city of Van, near the 300-mile-long border between the countries. “They hit day and night,” he said at the border crossing of Kapikoy. “It felt like a big earthquake in all of Tabriz.”
The family planned to stay with a friend in Van for a few days.
Hazal Alizade, 31, fled after her city, Urmia, was bombed earlier this week.
“We are scared of everything,” Ms. Alizade, a pharmacist, said. “I am in constant fear.”
Ms. Alizade said she plans to stay with an aunt who lives in Western Turkey until hostilities abate. She has closed her pharmacy for now. “Most of the pharmacies are shut down,” she said.
The drug distribution centers are closed too, disrupting the supply chain. “People are scared to go out,” she said.
Turkey has sought to stay out of the widening conflict in the Middle East but has not been entirely spared. Turkey’s defense ministry said a ballistic missile had been launched from Iran this week and intercepted by NATO forces. Iran denied firing the missile at Turkey. U.S. and other NATO forces are stationed at an air base in Incirlik, Turkey.
Iranians living in Turkey were also going back home to be with their families.
Leyla Rabet Nejad Saed, 27, was among them. She had been living in Istanbul and planning her wedding there later this month. The war has canceled those plans. On Friday, she said she was heading back to her family in Shiraz. “How can I be safe when my family is in danger,” she said.
“After peace, I will come back to Istanbul and marry.”
Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany appeared to distance himself from the ongoing war with Iran on Friday, just days after offering his support to President Trump during a visit to Washington. In a statement released on Friday afternoon, Merz said that he was worried about the risks to Israel and other partners in the Gulf as combat operations continue. “An endless war is not in our interest,” he said, according to the statement.
Israel issued an evacuation warning on Friday for an industrial area in Iran’s Qom region, about 10 miles from the Fordo nuclear site, a heavily fortified uranium-enrichment facility that is key to the country’s nuclear program.
Signaling imminent airstrikes, the warning urged civilians to “immediately leave” a small cluster of buildings marked in red on a map posted to the Israeli military’s Persian-language social media account.
“Your presence in this area endangers your lives,” the statement said.
It was not immediately clear why Israel was targeting the area.
The Fordo site itself was attacked in June during the 12-day war involving Israel, Iran and the United States. At the time, American B-2 bombers dropped bunker-busting bombs in an attempt to penetrate the facility, which is built deep inside a mountain to withstand attacks.
The Qom region has been largely spared compared with Tehran and other parts of western Iran since the United States and Israel launched a sweeping military offensive against Iran last week.
The evacuation area is just north of the city of Qom, one of the most important cities in Shiite Islam and a center of religious learning for Shiite clerics. The city is home to the shrine of Fatima Masoumeh, a revered figure in Shiite tradition whose tomb draws pilgrims, and it hosts Iran’s most influential religious seminaries.
There has been no confirmed strike on the Fordo nuclear site since the current round of fighting erupted. An Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan, south of Tehran, that is suspected of storing a cache of enriched uranium, has also appeared to have avoided direct strikes.
Israeli leaders have long said that Iran’s nuclear program posed an existential threat. The Trump administration has offered varying explanations for the decision to attack Iran last week, but it has said that preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was a major objective.
While Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, Israel argues that sites like Fordo could give Tehran the capacity to move quickly toward a bomb if it chose to do so. In 2023, nuclear inspectors from the United Nations detected uranium enriched to levels close to weapons-grade at the site.
Johnatan Reiss and Samuel Granados contributed reporting.
Strikes in the Iranian capital on Thursday battered the iconic Azadi sports complex, home to a stadium that has hosted Frank Sinatra concerts, historic soccer matches and one of the most memorable moments of the women’s rights struggle in the Islamic Republic.
The Azadi is one of three sports centers in Tehran, the capital, that the municipality said were bombed, state media said. The strikes occurred on the sixth day of a U.S.-Israeli attack on the country that has killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials.
Any damage to Azadi, among the largest stadiums in Asia, will hit Iranians especially hard. It is the home of the national soccer team in a country that is passionate about the sport. The Azadi stadium was the site of the 2025 match that clinched Iran’s trip to the World Cup in North America this summer.
For decades, women living under Iran’s theocratic rulers have sought access to the stadium, which was only ever granted grudgingly. The Azadi was where a young woman, Sahar Khodayari, was arrested after sneaking into a match in 2019. Ms. Khodayari came to be known as “Blue Girl” — a reference to the jersey color of the team she supported — after she killed herself through immolation when she was sentenced to prison. Her death sparked protests in Iran.
The Azadi’s history dates back to the days before the revolution of 1979 that toppled Iran’s shah and brought the Islamic Republic to power. In 1974, Frank Sinatra crooned his beloved hits in front of tens of thousands of people at the stadium, in a performance remembered as part of a time when Iran was less isolated from the world than it has become after decades of authoritarian clerical rule and international sanctions.
Photographs and video showed the smoking wreckage of the stadium’s indoor complex.
It was not immediately clear who had targeted the arena complex. Asked whether the U.S. military had bombed the arena complex, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, Capt. Tim Hawkins, said, “Unlike Iran, we don’t target civilians but instead take all precautions available to minimize the risk of unintended harm.” Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ahmad Donyamali, Iran’s sports minister, called the attacks on sports facilities a “war crime.” The strikes on Thursday are among several that have hit sports and youth centers in Iran since the Israeli and U.S. assault began.
On Saturday, the first day of the war, the authorities said that an attack on a sports hall had killed 18 boys and girls as they were playing a volleyball match, according to the state news outlet IRNA.
A video of that apparent attack verified by The New York Times showed smoke rising out of the blackened exterior of a sports hall in the town of Lamerd, in the province of Fars in southwest Iran.
Sanjana Varghese, Helene Cooper and Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting
More than 200 people have now been killed in Lebanon since Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah escalated on Monday, and more than 700 others injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. After the last conflict between Israel and Hezbollah ended with a fragile cease-fire in November 2024, around 4,000 people in Lebanon were dead, marking the country’s bloodiest conflict in decades. Many here now fear a repeat of that devastation.
The chief executive of United Airlines, Scott Kirby, said that the price of jet fuel, one of the biggest operational costs for airlines, has risen 58 percent since before the start of the war. As a result, ticket prices may soon start to rise, Kirby warned.
Five Israeli soldiers were severely wounded by projectile fire near the Lebanese border on Friday, the Israeli military said. Three additional soldiers were lightly injured in the same incident. Hezbollah has so far claimed a string of attacks on Friday against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and across the border into Israel, using rockets and drones.
Stocks fell sharply as trading opened in New York. The S&P 500 sank 1.3 percent as investors grappled with weak labor market data, which would typically lead to interest rates being lowered by the Federal Reserve, while a sharp rise in oil prices intensified concerns about rising inflation, which would typically result in the Fed keeping interest rates elevated.
S&P 500
President Trump posted to social media that there “will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction.” He signed off with “MIGA!,” for “make Iran great again.”
Some of Trump’s former allies, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, have been sardonically throwing around the term “MIGA” (sometimes to mean “Make Israel Great Again”) during discussions about how the president has betrayed their isolationist world view. The cover of Time magazine this week is a photo illustration of a red hat that says “Make Iran Great Again.”
International oil prices touched $90 a barrel on Friday morning, putting them up about 24 percent since the war started. It’s a sign that traders are increasingly concerned about the near closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is severely restricting the flow of energy from the Persian Gulf.
At the Grand Mosalla of Tehran, a mosque in Iran’s capital, pro-government supporters gathered for the first Friday prayers since the start of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, which killed the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Crowds of people were seen marching through the streets of Tehran, carrying portraits of Mr. Khamenei and the country’s flag.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview on Fox News that the U.S. military would “escort ships through the straits and get the energy moving again” as soon as it was “reasonable” to do so. Oil prices have been climbing as the flow of ships and tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has plummeted, and U.S. crude futures rose to their highest level in almost two years.
Nine ballistic missiles and more than 100 drones were intercepted over the United Arab Emirates on Friday, according to a statement from the Emirati defense ministry. Iran has been targeting the Emirates since Saturday, and the ministry said that, so far, almost 1,200 Iranian drones and over 200 ballistic missiles had been detected and mostly intercepted. The statement said that three people – nationals from Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh – had died as a result of those attacks.
Several airlines in the Middle East restored flights on a limited basis Friday but air travel across the region remained severely disrupted, as fallout from the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran kept airspaces closed.
Over 20,000 flights to or from the Middle East have been canceled since Saturday, seriously disrupting global aviation. The region accounts for about 5.5 percent of all flights worldwide, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.
Here is what to know about passenger flights in the region on Friday:
United Arab Emirates: Etihad Airways, a major airline based in Abu Dhabi, announced that it would organize a limited flight schedule from its hub to several “key destinations,” including New York City. Emirates, the other major carrier based in the Emirates, resumed some flights from its Dubai hub on Monday. Traffic at Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, remains far below its normal capacity, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking website.
Qatar: Qatar Airways, another major carrier in the region, said its operations remained on pause, with the country’s airspace closed to civilian air traffic.
Saudi Arabia: Saudia said that flights to and from regional destinations like Amman, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Bahrain were still canceled. Several airports across the kingdom appeared to be operating at diminished capacity, according to Flightradar24.
Airspaces in Bahrain, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait remained closed as of late Thursday, according to Flightradar24.
Israel: El Al, the country’s flag carrier, resumed a limited number of flights to bring back Israelis who were stranded abroad. But not all has gone smoothly. A flight from Geneva circled in midair for about half an hour Thursday night before landing at Ben Gurion Airport while air-raid sirens sounded in the area warning of imminent strikes, according to a spokeswoman for the airline. Israel’s transportation minister said on Friday that FlyDubai, an Emirates-based budget carrier, would operate several flights to return Israelis stranded there.
Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, said in a post on social media that some countries had begun what he called “mediation efforts,” without elaborating on who was involved in those efforts. He said that Iran was committed to “lasting peace in the region” but that mediation should “address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict,” likely referring to the United States and Israel.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of Lebanon said Friday that the country was being “dragged further into an abyss” and had been drawn into a conflict that “we did not seek and did not choose.” Although he did not name the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, it attacked Israel earlier this week, and the Israeli military responded by bombarding Lebanon. Salam warned of a looming humanitarian disaster as hundreds of thousands flee under Israeli evacuation orders in Beirut and southern Lebanon.
European stock indexes were in the red early Friday at the end of a tumultuous week for markets, as a surge in oil and gas prices driven by the Middle East conflict set off fears of resurgent inflation.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index has fallen by nearly 5 percent this week, the steepest weekly decline since last April when President Trump announced sweeping tariffs. The S&P 500 was also set to open about 0.3 percent lower when trading begins on Friday in New York, according to futures markets.
Oil and gas prices were rising further after Qatar’s energy minister warned of lengthy disruptions to energy production as the conflict roiled Persian Gulf nations. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose by 2 percent on Friday to $87 a barrel. The price has risen nearly 20 percent this week. European natural gas prices have surged by 60 percent this week.
Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi of Qatar, a major exporter of liquefied natural gas, told the Financial Times that even if fighting stopped immediately, it would take the country “weeks to months” to resume normal deliveries.
The increase in energy prices raised expectations of higher inflation. One of the clearest signs of those concerns is in the government bond market, where prices are falling. That pushes bond yields higher, reflecting investor expectations that interest rates might need to rise. Traders are now betting that the European Central Bank will likely raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point by the end of the year to combat higher prices.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said Iran had carried out an attack on buildings in neighboring Bahrain, where members of the Qatari Navy were present. It said no injuries were recorded among the members of the Qatari navy, who were participating in a joint operations center associated with the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Iran did not immediately comment on the statement.
Avichay Adraee, an Arabic language spokesman for the Israeli military, ordered on Friday several villages in the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah bastion in Lebanon, to evacuate to the north. On Thursday, the Israeli military ordered three other villages in the Bekaa Valley to evacuate.
Four men were arrested in Britain on Friday on suspicion of spying for Iran on locations and individuals linked to the Jewish community in the London area.
One Iranian and three dual British-Iranian nationals were arrested shortly after 1 a.m. in areas north of the capital as part of a preplanned operation, counterterrorism police said.
The men were detained on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service. “The country to which the investigation relates is Iran,” the police said in a statement.
“Today’s arrests are part of a long-running investigation and part of our ongoing work to disrupt malign activity where we suspect it,” Cmdr. Helen Flanagan, the head of counterterrorism policing in London, said in the statement.
“We understand the public may be concerned, in particular the Jewish community, and as always, I would ask them to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that concerns them, then to contact us.”
The four men arrested included a 40-year-old and a 55-year-old arrested at addresses in the Barnet area, police said. Searches continued at those locations and another address in the area. The other two were a 52-year-old arrested in Watford, northwest of London, and a 22-year-old arrested in Harrow. Both locations were being searched, as was a location in the Wembley district.
Six other men who were not targeted in the operation were detained in the Harrow area on suspicion of trying to assist one of the men who was being arrested.
Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer offered his thanks to “the police, the security services, and everyone involved in keeping Britain safe.” In a statement on social media he added: “People will be worried after today’s arrests, especially those in our Jewish community. Our world-leading security services will not hesitate to protect you.”
Despite the outbreak of war in the Middle East, there has been no change to Britain’s national terror threat level, which stands at “substantial” — meaning an attack is probable. (There are two higher levels — “severe” and “critical.”)
On Sunday, the British defense secretary, John Healey, highlighted the increased risk of indiscriminate retaliatory attacks by Iran and its proxies, adding that the domestic threat assessment was under review and that vigilance in Britain was high.
Britain’s intelligence services have previously named Iran among the three countries posing the greatest threat to the country, alongside Russia and China.
Iranian reporters and broadcasters based in Britain have suffered physical attacks, threats and surveillance. In October Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, the domestic security service, said his organization had “tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in just the one year.”
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, told a news conference last year that Iran had been “relying on criminal proxies” — a network of groups and individuals paid for their services — to target people in Britain.
“Iran really does continue to project a very real physical threat to individuals in this country,” he said. “We know that they are continuing to try and sow violence on the streets of the United Kingdom.”
The U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, called Friday for restraint, de-escalation and a return to negotiations to contain the fighting in the Middle East. “It’s uncontrollable, it’s chaos, it’s disarray, disorder and the world absolutely cannot afford it,” he said urging government leaders to defend international law and the U.N. charter. In particular, he pointed to Israel’s mass displacement orders affecting hundreds of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and called for an investigation into the deadly strike on a school in southern Iran.