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Article: Can we say senior UN official? he is the head of an agency

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The Israeli military launched a broad wave of airstrikes on Tehran, with strikes reported near the city's Mehrabad Airport. The conflict is expanding, with Russia accused of sharing intelligence with Iran and Israeli operations also intensifying against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The war has driven up global oil prices and led to significant civilian displacement.

Main Topics Covered:
- Israeli airstrikes on Tehran and Iranian infrastructure
- Regional escalation, including Israeli operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah
- International involvement, specifically Russian intelligence sharing with Iran
- Economic impact, notably rising oil prices
- Civilian displacement and humanitarian consequences

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https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/06/world/iran-war-trump-israel-lebanon/developing-humanitarian-crisis-in-the-mideast

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NYT > World News

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2026-03-07 00:35

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2026-03-06 22:00

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2026-03-06 22:00

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Tel Aviv/Beirut3:00 a.m. March 7
Tehran4:30 a.m. March 7
Live Updates: New Wave of Airstrikes Batters Tehran
The Israeli military said it had sent a broad wave of strikes at the Iranian capital early Saturday. Some strikes hit an area near the Mehrabad Airport, a busy civilian airfield. Footage shared on state media showed multiple explosions and columns of smoke.
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- UNHCR, via Reuters
- By Reuters
- Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
- Reuters
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press
- Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- AFP
- Agencia EFE, via Associated Press
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Mahmoud Zayyat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Mahmoud Zayyat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Israeli military said it had launched “a broad-scale wave of strikes” on Iranian government infrastructure in the early hours of Saturday morning. Soon after, Iranian state media said Israeli strikes had hit the area near Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, a busy civilian airfield.
Two Tehran residents who live near the airport said in text messages that it appeared to have been badly damaged and that they could see what looked like commercial planes burning on the tarmac. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions about whether it had struck the airport.
The new wave of strikes in Tehran came hours after it emerged that U.S. officials believe Russia has provided intelligence to Iran during the U.S.-Israeli war, including satellite imagery showing the locations of warships and military personnel. The involvement of Russia was the latest indication that the Middle East conflict was expanding.
The information sharing by Russia could complicate relations between Washington and Moscow, even though some of the officials played down its importance, pointing out Russia has long provided similar information to Iran and it was unclear if Tehran could act on it.
Bombing in Iran and Lebanon continued unabated on Friday, as oil and gas prices surged upward again, in another sign of how the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, now nearly a week old, was having economic ramifications around the world.
President Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” by Iran on Friday in a social media post, the most uncompromising goal he has set so far for the war, and one that could portend a much longer conflict in the Middle East.
On Friday afternoon, Israeli officials said their forces had destroyed an underground bunker that had been used by Iran’s supreme leader before he was killed last week.
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.
“We civilians are paying for the price of war,” said Mohamed Hjoula, 35, who had taken refuge with about 40 family members on Beirut’s waterfront promenade after leaving their homes.
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.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Israeli attacks: The Israeli military said it had struck more than 400 targets in western Iran on Friday, including missile launchers and drone storage sites.
Oil and gasoline prices: The price of the U.S. domestic benchmark crude soared by almost $10 a barrel in a single day, closing near $91 on Friday, the highest price since 2023. The average price of unleaded gasoline in the United States reached $3.32 per gallon, up 11 percent since the war began. The concurrent increases could be a serious shock to an already-slowing world economy.
Bunker strike: Iranian state television reported attacks on a compound in Tehran where the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had lived, and Israel published video showing a series of airstrikes in roughly the same area, saying that its military had destroyed an underground bunker in the compound. The New York Times reviewed satellite imagery showing fresh damage to buildings at the site.
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.
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.
Tehran’s landmark Mehrabad Airport appears to have been struck tonight, exploding into a giant ball of fire and smoke, according to two Tehran residents who live near the airport. The residents said in text messages that they saw what looked like commercial planes parked on the tarmac burning, adding that smoke is filling the air.
The United Nations humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said on Friday that the Middle East was in “grave peril,” with tens of millions of civilians caught in the crossfire on multiple fronts of the escalating war, which was brewing into a sprawling humanitarian crisis.
Mr. Fletcher, speaking to reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York, warned that the United States and Israel’s war with Iran, along with the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, a major maritime corridor for energy, food and other goods, could affect supply chains and prices.
“When maritime corridors, such as the Strait of Hormuz, are disrupted, food prices will rise, health systems will be squeezed, and basic commodities, including our humanitarian supplies, will become much harder to access,” he said.
The U.N.’s humanitarian agency was fully mobilizing to assist civilians as the crisis unfolded, Mr. Fletcher said. In Iran, at least 1,000 people had died and attacks had targeted over 100 civilian sites, with some 100,000 Iranians internally displaced in the past week alone, Mr. Fletcher said, citing figures from the U.N.’s refugee agency and the Iranian authorities. He said Iran’s government had not asked for U.N. humanitarian assistance.
Mr. Fletcher said that U.N. relief workers were mounting a response that included positioning supplies, scaling up staff, identifying alternative logistical routes and preparing rapid-response sources of humanitarian aid, including the U.N.’s Central Emergency Response Fund.
He had sharp words for the politicians waging the war, calling for an immediate de-escalation of the conflict and the resumption of diplomacy.
“We’re seeing staggering amounts of money, reportedly $1 billion a day, funding this war, spent on destruction, while politicians continue to boast about cutting aid budgets for those in greatest need,” Mr. Fletcher said. “So too many warning lights are flashing on the dashboard right now.”
The American-Israeli campaign against Iran began on Saturday, killing the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and pounding the country with airstrikes. Iran has retaliated with a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones targeting Israel, U.S. interests in the region and Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.
Lebanon has also been drawn into the conflict, with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacking Israel. Israel bombed Shiite strongholds in Lebanon, where more than 100 people have been killed and around 100,000 people were seeking shelter this week.
Across the region, the U.N. refugee agency reported that hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, and the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, said over 190 children had been killed since Saturday, including over 180 in Iran, seven in Lebanon, three in Israel and one in Kuwait.
“Homes, hospitals and schools are being hit,” Mr. Fletcher said.
Major developments — March 6
An Israeli strike hit the area near Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, the country’s primary international hub, according to Iranian state media. Footage posted online by the news agency showed multiple explosions and pillars of smoke rising into the night sky.
Large explosions are rocking Tehran in the middle of the night, residents said in text messages and in an online town hall where the sounds of booms could also be heard. Photos on Iranian media showed a huge ball of fire and smoke billowing from the direction of the Mehrabad airport and behind a high-rise apartment complex in northern Tehran.
The Israeli military said early on Saturday that it had begun “a broad-scale wave of strikes” on Iranian government infrastructure in Tehran.
Trump was holding yet another sporting event Friday afternoon at the White House, trying to set policy for college sports, when he was asked by a Fox News reporter about reports that Russia may be passing along intelligence to the Iranians to help them fight the Americans. Trump turned it into a punchline: “That’s an easy problem compared to what we’re doing here,” he cracked, but then he turned on the reporter and said: “What a stupid question to be asking at this time.”
Russia has provided intelligence to Iran during the U.S.-Israeli war, including satellite imagery showing the locations of warships and military personnel, according to U.S. officials.
The information sharing could complicate relations between the United States and Russia, given that President Trump has often taken a more conciliatory stance toward Moscow than his predecessors.
But some of the officials played down the partnership, saying Russia has long provided similar intelligence to Iran. And it is not clear how much Tehran has been able to use the new intelligence, if at all. Iran has advanced missiles, but they lag far behind Russia’s and it is not clear Iran could use the intelligence to target a ship.
Furthermore, given the immense pressure of the combined U.S.-Israeli assault, which began last Saturday, Iran’s ability to launch missiles has been degraded, officials said.
But officials confirmed that Russia has provided updated intelligence on the position of U.S. assets since the beginning of the war, information meant to help Iran target the assets.
So far Iranian forces have not hit any U.S. warships, but they have struck at U.S. military bases, killing six service members in Kuwait and damaging facilities in Bahrain. Iranian drones have also struck a building housing the C.I.A. station in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, though no one was injured in that attack, officials said.
The Russian intelligence sharing was reported earlier by The Washington Post.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran on Friday to discuss the U.S.-Israeli campaign. In a statement, the Kremlin said that the two leaders agreed to continue contacts and that Mr. Putin expressed condolences for the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader.
Mr. Putin also called for hostilities to stop and urged “a swift return to the path” of a diplomatic resolution.
The statement made no direct mention of the intelligence sharing, but said that communication through “various channels” would continue.
In its initial barrage, Iran launched thousands of attack drones and hundreds of missiles at U.S. bases throughout the Middle East. But the Iranian response has begun to lessen, according to the Pentagon, as U.S. bombers place more pressure on Iranian launchers and command and control centers.
As part of a defense partnership, Iran has been a crucial supplier of attack drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine. In return, Russia has supplied technology and intelligence to Iran, according to U.S. officials. Throughout the Biden administration, the White House regularly declassified information about Iranian drone shipments to Russia, as it tried, unsuccessfully, to pressure Tehran to stop supporting its partner.
The U.S. military’s Central Command and the C.I.A. both declined to comment on the classified intelligence sharing. In a statement, Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, noted that the pace of Iranian retaliation had slowed.
“The Iranian regime is being absolutely crushed,” she said. “Their ballistic missile retaliation is decreasing every day, their navy is being wiped out, their production capacity is being demolished and proxies are hardly putting up a fight.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview on the Fox Business Network on Friday that the U.S. “may unsanction other Russian oil,” effectively lifting legal and financial restrictions on the sale of Russian fossil fuels. He noted that there are hundreds of millions of barrels of sanctioned crude oil at sea and that the Treasury Department can give buyers permission to purchase it. The United States on Thursday night granted India permission to purchase Russian oil that is stranded at sea for 30 days.
A U.S. Central Command statement said Friday that the U.S. had carried out 3,000 airstrikes against Iran since operations began Saturday, up sharply from 2,000 strikes earlier this week. U.S. forces had also damaged or destroyed 43 Iranian naval vessels, the statement added, including ships and submarines. The day before, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had said more U.S. assets were being brought to bear for the joint Israeli-U.S. strikes, including fighter jets and Reaper drones.
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, a government agency that invests and lends billions each year to companies and projects overseas, announced that it will insure losses of up to $20 billion through a new plan to provide maritime insurance to ships operating in the Gulf region. The move is intended to keep oil, gas, jet fuel and fertilizer moving on tankers during the war with Iran. The conflict has disrupted maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
A roller-coaster week in the stock market left the S&P 500 in negative territory for the year, compounding investor worries stemming from the Iran war. The S&P 500 fell 1.3 percent on Friday, taking the index’s losses for the week to 2 percent, its worst week of the year so far. It came after data showing weakness in the job market Friday.
An Iranian naval ship has been docked at an Indian port for two days, the Indian foreign ministry said Friday. The ship had been sailing with the Iran vessel, the IRIS Dena, that was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka on March 4. India granted the ship, known as the IRIS Lavan, permission to dock in Kochi, on India’s southwestern coast. It had been sailing with the Dena and another Iranian naval ship after conducting naval exercises as part of a multi-country exercise hosted by India. India is hosting the ships’ crews onshore.
Macron speaks with Lebanon’s leader, as France seeks to broker a truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
President Emmanuel Macron of France spoke on Friday to President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon, both presidencies confirmed, as the French government deepened its efforts to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia.
The call followed days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which responded to Israel’s attacks on Iran on Saturday by firing rockets into northern Israel on Monday. Israeli jets have since pummeled Lebanon from the air as Israeli troops have advanced on the ground, ending a fragile cease-fire since November 2024.
France has strong ties to Lebanon, a former French mandate, and Mr. Macron has attempted to use that influence to forge a new truce.
In recent days, Mr. Macron has reported that he has spoken to President Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, as well as Mr. Aoun, to broker an agreement. Lebanese media reported that Mr. Macron also spoke with Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, who often acts a conduit between foreign officials and Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist group by many Western countries.
“Everything must be done to prevent this country, so close to France, from once again being drawn into war,” Mr. Macron wrote on social media Thursday night.
Mr. Macron also offered French military support to the Lebanese Armed Forces, notably through armored vehicles, as well as operational and logistical support.
“The Lebanese authorities have given me their commitment to take control of the positions held by Hezbollah and to fully assume responsibility for security across the entire national territory. I give them my full support,” he wrote on X.
President Trump is hosting a meeting at the White House with defense contractors amid concerns a long war could deplete U.S. stockpiles. The companies attending the meeting are Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, Boeing, Honeywell and L3Harris Technologies. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump would ask the companies to build more weapons.
“The U.S. military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and weapons stockpiles to continue demolishing the Iranian regime and achieve the goals of Operation Epic Fury,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Nevertheless, President Trump has always been intensely focused on strengthening our military, which is why this meeting with defense contractors was scheduled weeks ago.”
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the Trump administration would consider Iran in a state of “unconditional surrender” once President Trump determines the country no longer poses a threat to America.
“When he as commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces determines that Iran no longer poses a threat to the United States of America and the goal of Operation Epic Fury has been fully realized, then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional surrender,” Leavitt said.
When Israel abruptly ordered people to evacuate from Beirut’s southern outskirts on Thursday, a bustling district of markets and apartment towers was transformed into a scene of mass exodus.
Residents of the area known as Dahiya, a Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered to move east and north. Soon after, the neighborhood endured a night of heavy Israeli bombardment, with blasts that shook the walls and jolted residents across the city, continuing through Friday.
The evacuation order had rippled through Dahiya like a shock wave on Thursday, causing businesses to shutter and sending families into the streets with armfuls of hastily gathered belongings.
Many were unsure where they would end up that night, and some strapped mattresses to their car roofs. Residents streamed between the dense traffic, carrying plastic bags bulging with clothes, documents and mementos of home.
“We civilians are paying for the price of war,” said Mohamed Hjoula, 35, standing on Beirut’s waterfront promenade, where he had taken refuge with about 40 members of his family, including his ailing parents.
Mr. Hjoula said he learned on Friday afternoon that his home in Dahiya had been destroyed by airstrikes. “We are feeling so much pain,” he said.
Hezbollah fired rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel on Monday, and Israel retaliated with full force, attacking what it said were Hezbollah targets around the country as the hum of its drones filled the daytime skies.
The nights have been shattered by relentless bombardments, and more than 200 people have been killed in Lebanon so far, with almost 800 others wounded, the local health ministry said Friday.
An estimated 300,000 people have been displaced in the country since Israel began carrying out strikes and ordering mass evacuations this week, the Norwegian Refugee Council said.
The evacuation orders for Dahiya were followed by similar orders for parts of the eastern Bekaa Valley, another bastion of Hezbollah.
For many in Dahiya, the evacuation order upended their observance of the holy month of Ramadan, tearing them abruptly from the daily rhythms of breaking the fast and prayer.
Some said they had been displaced before, during clashes between Israel and Hezbollah more than a year ago. The two sides had agreed to a cease-fire in November 2024, but that broke down this week.
On Friday, many families had strung sheets together to pitch makeshift tents along the roadside. Some said they were turned away from government-run shelters because they were already full, and they did not know where to find food, water or diapers for their children.
Shefgar Othman, 32, said his brother had ventured back to Dahiya on Friday in order to retrieve some belongings from their home. Shortly after he got there, however, the bombing started again, and he had to flee, he said, returning empty-handed to their family of 10.
“We are stranded in the streets,” Mr. Othman said. Like many who had fled Dahiya, he said he and his family felt abandoned by the government, left to fend for themselves amid the bombardment.
Mr. Hjoula, on Beirut’s corniche, was particularly critical of Hezbollah, saying the group had drawn Dahiya into a war with little regard for the people living there.
Before fighting erupted on Monday, he said, he had hoped to support his parents and save enough money to buy his own apartment and find a bride — plans that now felt impossibly distant.
“My life here has failed,” Mr. Hjoula said, turning his ire on both Israel and Hezbollah. “They have taken us back a thousand years. They have taken us back to the Stone Age.”
For others fleeing the strikes, the worry extended beyond their own safety.
On Friday afternoon, Dahiya resident Zeinab Srour was in Martyrs’ Square, in downtown Beirut, carrying her two cats, Tuti and Virus, in separate pet carriers, and waiting to meet a contact from a pet shelter that would take them in.
One of the cats gave her an infectious kind of joy, Ms. Srour said, but with her family displaced, she could no longer care for them both, and hoped to find a safe place for them until she could return home.
“The sounds of bombings disturb them as much as they do us,” Ms. Srour, 23, said. “We hope this war won’t last long.”
Hwaida Saad and Sarah Chaayto contributed reporting.
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.
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 representative.
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 the country to which the team’s plane had flown.
👀 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.
President Trump has had a long friendship with the Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Mr. Kraft sat next to Mr. Trump at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in January for the premiere of “Melania,” the Amazon documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump.
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 war 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 and attacking them with missiles and drones, though in diminishing numbers in recent days.
But Mr. Trump demanded in a social media post that the country capitulate, after which he said 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.”
The president’s bellicose statement reflects how he has melded his longtime vision of a powerful America that makes maximum use of its military might with his new confidence in his ability to decapitate hostile governments, and personally install a new generation of leaders who he believes will bend to American will.
It was also the latest in a series of ever-shifting goals Mr. Trump has laid out for the war in Iran, leaving his aides, and congressional allies, struggling to keep up and at times contradicting the president. In fact, just hours after Mr. Trump made his demand, his press secretary tried to couch his demand, at least in part, suggesting that the surrender would “essentially” occur when Mr. Trump concluded his war objectives have been met.
Throughout the week, those objectives have changed. In the opening hours of the U.S. attack on Saturday, Mr. Trump declared that the goal of the attack was to destroy the existing order so that Iran’s people could emerge from their homes, 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, or perhaps some day the United States.
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 earlier this year 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.
The president said he was not concerned 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. But he made no threats of invasion, and in the past has suggested that, cut off from fuel and support from Venezuela, the Cuban government might just collapse.
During the 2016 campaign, and episodically ever since, Mr. Trump has lamented that America doesn’t win wars anymore, with big surrender announcements, like the one Japan issued after the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“We won World War II,” he said last year, when he signed an executive order informally renaming the Defense Department the “Department of War,’’ wording which now appears on the entrance to the Pentagon. In more recent times, he added, “we were very strong, but we never fought to win. We just didn’t fight to win.”
Mr. Trump’s demand now that Iran issue an “unconditional surrender” — an unlikely scenario — immediately raised questions about how long the U.S. would be forced to stay in the fight, and at what cost.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters that Mr. Trump would be the judge of whether the country has achieved victory, not actions by Iran.
“When he, as commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces, determines that Iran no longer poses a threat to the United States of America and the goal of Operation Epic Fury has been fully realized, then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional surrender,” Ms. Leavitt said.
But under such a scenario, surrender is in the eyes of the combatants. And already there are signs that Mr. Trump’s objectives and those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel may overlap, but do not completely align.
The Trump administration’s goal — or goals, since there have been about a dozen variations — seemed to be close to what happened in Venezuela, what Mr. Trump described to The New York Times in an interview Sunday as a “perfect scenario.” He appears comfortable with installing a leader, or leaders, drawn “from within” the existing regime, as he said earlier this week.
The next day, the No. 3 official in the Defense Department, Elbridge Colby, described a limited set of military objectives in testimony on the Hill. Mr. Trump, he said, had ordered the U.S. military to “focus on degrading and destroying the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ability to project military power in the region and potentially beyond.” But he made no mention of regime change, even when pressed on the subject.
In contrast, Mr. Netanyahu had made clear, as Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution noted on Friday, that Israel’s goal is “not merely to remove Iran’s supreme leader, but to dismantle the regime entirely.” In Israel’s view, Mr. Wright continued, that is the only way to assure that the nuclear program is not restarted, the missile arsenal is not restocked, and that Iran would be deprived of its most powerful weapons forever.
Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Netanyahu has explained what happens if the Iranian government does collapse, and it is unclear how willing Mr. Trump is to send American combat troops into Iranian territory.
The cases of “unconditional surrender” that Mr. Trump appears to have in mind from a previous generation — notably Japan and Germany during World War II — were followed by yearslong occupation by American forces. The U.S. occupation of Japan, led by General Douglas MacArthur, lasted seven years, during which time the United States wrote a constitution for Japan, dismantled and rebuilt the military and created entirely new government institutions.
That was difficult enough in a largely homogeneous society. It has never been attempted in a place like Iran, with its Shia Muslim majority, but with nearly 10 percent of its population believed to be Sunni. And then there are many other ethic minorities: Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Baluchis, among others. In that regard, the better comparison may be to Iraq — the example of nation-building that Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Mr. Hegseth have all cited as a huge error that depleted American strength.
While Mr. Trump on Friday asserted that he would settle for nothing less than surrender, other leaders touted efforts to mediate a cease-fire. President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran said Friday that many countries had offered to host peace talks, though he did not name them. Oman sought a diplomatic offramp before the war, and Egypt and Turkey might also play a role. according to Mideast diplomats.
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