Democracy Dies with Dictatorship
NY Times
Mar 25, 2026
Iran War Live Updates: Israel Strikes Tehran After Pakistan Offers to Host U.S.-Iran Talks
The Pentagon said it was sending 2,000 airborne troops to the Middle East, even as President Trump seemed to endorse Pakistan’s offer to broker negotiations. It was unclear whether Iran and Israel supported a U.S. peace plan.
by Eric SchmittElian PeltierAdam Rasgon and Abdi Latif Dahir
Israel’s military said it had launched a new wave of strikes on Wednesday in Tehran, the Iranian capital, even as President Trump appeared to support Pakistan’s offer to broker talks between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan was said to have delivered a 15-point peace plan from the United States to Iran, according to two officials briefed on the matter. But it is unclear whether Iran would accept the U.S. plan as a basis for negotiations to end the war, now in its fourth week, or whether Israel supports it. Iran has publicly denied President Trump’s claims that negotiations with the United States were underway.
And there were mixed signals from Washington over a winding down of hostilities, as the Pentagon ordered the deployment of about 2,000 more soldiers to the Middle East, two officials said on Tuesday. Their arrival, scheduled for later this week, would bring the number of additional U.S. ground troops deployed to the region to nearly 7,000.
Last month, Mr. Trump sent troops and military assets to the region even as his envoys held indirect talks with Iranian officials, and he eventually ordered the strikes alongside Israel that started the war with Iran on Feb. 28.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, acknowledged in a statement on Tuesday that despite the ongoing diplomacy, the U.S. operation “continues unabated.”
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, said on social media on Wednesday that Iran was “closely monitoring all U.S. movements in the region, especially troop deployments.” He added: “Do not test our resolve to defend our land.”
Iran’s military said Wednesday it fired cruise missiles at the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, according to the Iranian semiofficial Mehr news agency, hours after an Iranian naval commander warned it would strike if the vessel came within range. Mr. Trump said Tuesday that more than 100 missiles had been launched at the carrier but “every single one of them was knocked down.”
The latest fledgling diplomatic efforts came amid fresh attacks across the region, with Israel’s military saying on Wednesday that it had targeted production industries for the development of submarines and was intercepting Iranian missiles launched toward Israel.
In the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said at least 30 drones had been intercepted over the kingdom since Tuesday evening. Kuwait’s defense ministry said at least six drones had been intercepted, and a fire erupted overnight at Kuwait’s international airport after drones hit a fuel tank, according to the country’s civil aviation authority. In Bahrain, air-raid sirens sounded early Wednesday.
The prospect of an off-ramp from the war sent oil prices down sharply on Wednesday morning. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 6 percent, to $94 a barrel. Stocks in Asia, which buys about 80 percent of the oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, opened higher as investors reacted to signals of a possible de-escalation.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
U.S. proposal: The Trump administration’s peace plan is said to address Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs, which the United States and Israel have targeted, according to two officials who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
Strait of Hormuz: The U.S. proposal also discusses maritime routes. Iran has told the United Nations’ maritime organization that “non-hostile” ships may pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran defined nonhostile vessels as those that “neither participate in nor support acts of aggression against Iran” or belong to the United States or Israel. Shipping analysts said Iran’s offer is unlikely to persuade major tanker operators to enter the waterway.
Fighting in Lebanon: Israeli warplanes roared low over Beirut, the capital, early Wednesday, continuing until dawn, as Israel continued its offensive against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli military struck the southern suburbs of the capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, as well as several towns in the south, Lebanon’s National News Agency said. Israel also said it targeted gas stations tied to Hezbollah’s financial network.
Tension in Iraq: Iraq’s prime minister instructed the country’s foreign ministry to summon the U.S. Embassy’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad and deliver a “strongly-worded letter of protest.” It came after a strike that the defense ministry said killed seven soldiers and injured 13 on Wednesday at a site in western Iraq belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella organization for militias that include Iran-backed brigades. The groups have attacked U.S. forces in the region, prompting retaliatory U.S. strikes.
Death tolls: Iran’s U.N. ambassador has said that at least 1,348 civilians have been killed in the country since the start of the war — a toll that has not been updated since March 11. The Human Rights Activists News Agency has reported that more than 1,440 civilians have been killed in Iran. More than 1,000 people in Lebanon have been killed, the authorities there said on Thursday. At least 15 people were killed in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials said. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
Ephrat Livni, Isabella Kwai and Meaghan Tobin contributed reporting.
March 25, 2026, 8:33 a.m. ET1 hour ago
Reporting from Geneva
Volker Türk, the U.N. human rights chief, urged international action to end the war, warning that countries were “flirting with unmitigated catastrophe” with missile strikes near nuclear facilities in Iran and Israel.
The conflict has “an unprecedented power to ensnare countries across borders and around the world” he said Wednesday at the start of a debate in the Human Rights Council on Iran’s attacks across the Persian Gulf.
March 25, 2026, 8:27 a.m. ET1 hour ago
Reporting from Jerusalem
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, and its military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, have approved additional targets in Iran and Lebanon, Israel’s defense ministry said in statement on Wednesday. The Israeli military has fired more than 15,000 munitions across Iran since the war started on Feb. 28, more than four times the number fired during the 12-day war against Iran in June, the statement added.
The military said after midday on Wednesday that it had completed several waves of strikes against infrastructure in Tehran belonging to the government. The military added that on Tuesday, its warplanes had struck Iranian production industries in Isfahan, including what it said was responsible for the development of submarines and support systems for the Iranian Navy.
March 25, 2026, 8:03 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Jerusalem
Iran’s military said Wednesday that it had fired cruise missiles at the Abraham Lincoln, an American aircraft carrier, according to Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency. Minutes before that was reported, a commander of the Iranian navy warned that the force was monitoring the movements of the U.S. carrier, and would strike if it came within range, comments that were carried by another Iranian news outlet, Fars. President Trump said on Tuesday that Iran had fired more than a hundred missiles at the Abraham Lincoln and that “every single one of them was knocked down.”
March 25, 2026, 8:01 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Jerusalem
In a sign of rising tensions between Iraq and the United States, a spokesman for Iraq’s military said that the country’s prime minister had directed the ministry of foreign affairs to summon the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and hand over a “strongly worded letter of protest.” The spokesman’s statement was posted on the social media account of Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani of Iraq.
The announcement followed a strike that killed seven soldiers on Wednesday morning at a site belonging to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces in western Anbar, according to Iraq’s Defense Ministry. It was the second deadly strike in two days on military infrastructure in western Iraq. Iran-aligned groups have been attacking U.S. forces in the region, prompting U.S. retaliatory strikes against the Popular Mobilization Forces, which are nominally under the control of the Iraqi government.
March 25, 2026, 7:55 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Jerusalem
The United Arab Emirates said its air defenses had intercepted nine drones on Wednesday.
March 25, 2026, 6:28 a.m. ET3 hours ago
The European Central Bank is prepared to raise interest rates if the energy shock spurred by the war significantly pushes up inflation, its president, Christine Lagarde, said at a conference in Frankfurt. “We will not act before we have sufficient information on the size and persistence of the shock and its propagation,” she said. “But we will not be paralysed by hesitation.” Last week, the central bank held interest rates at 2 percent but warned that higher energy prices would spur inflation. The bank’s next policy meeting is at the end of April.