Iran War Live Updates: Tensions Rise as Iran Threatens to Retaliate Against U.S. Strikes

The threat came hours after American military forces renewed attacks in southern Iran, even as fragile diplomacy efforts to end the war continued.

by Leo SandsErika Solomon and Eric Schmitt

Here’s the latest

Tensions remained high between Iran and the United States on Tuesday, threatening to upend fragile diplomacy efforts as Iranian officials warned of retaliation after American strikes overnight.

Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a written statement on Tuesday that the war with the United States had shown that American military bases in the Middle East are no longer safe, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it would respond forcefully to any U.S. strikes.

The comments were released hours after American military forces conducted what U.S. Central Command said were “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran.

The hostilities have added to the uncertainty surrounding a potential peace deal, with President Trump and his administration offering conflicting signals about the state of play. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said talks to end the war were continuing, and a deal could take “a few days.”

Iranian officials sought to project a position of strength, with Mr. Khamenei saying in a written statement that “the hands of time do not turn backward, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases.”

During the war, Iran bombed U.S. bases across the Middle East in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes, forcing many American troops to relocate to hotels and office spaces, military personnel and American officials said.

Mr. Khamenei, who succeeded his father after he was killed by U.S.-Israeli strikes on the opening day of the war in late February, also called for greater cooperation among Muslim countries in his statement, which marked the start of the Hajj pilgrimage, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

U.S. forces on Monday struck missile launch sites in Iran and boats that were trying to place mines, American officials said. U.S. Central Command said they were intended “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”

In recent days, Mr. Trump has threatened a return to hostilities while also pushing a potential path to peace. He has focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which was effectively blockaded by Iran in the early days of the war, disrupting energy markets worldwide.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• Enriched uranium: Mr. Trump said on Monday that he expected Iran either to hand over its enriched uranium or to destroy it in front of neutral witnesses. It is unclear whether Iran has agreed to that.

• Conflict in Lebanon: Israel’s military told residents to evacuate from one of southern Lebanon’s largest cities, Nabatieh, on Tuesday. The warning was issued a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled a wider intensification of his country’s fight with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. Hezbollah and Israel exchanged new strikes on each other overnight.

• Abraham Accords: Mr. Trump called on Monday for Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, among other predominantly Muslim countries, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several states. But that is highly unlikely, according to analysts.

• Internet in Iran: Iranian state media and online monitors observed an uptick in internet connectivity levels in Iran on Tuesday, a day after Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency, reported that President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran had ordered the country’s communications ministry to end its near-total internet blackout. Read more ›

May 26, 2026, 9:57 a.m. ET23 minutes ago

Aaron Boxerman

Reporting from Jerusalem

Trump’s Iran proposal has echoes of a half-finished peace deal for Gaza.

The negotiations between the United States and Iran to end their war are following President Trump’s familiar playbook for resolving a Middle East crisis: agree to a cease-fire and deal with the toughest problems later.

Analysts say the approach has had mixed results in the Gaza Strip, where Mr. Trump brokered a truce last year between Israel and Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group. Plans for a so-called Phase 2 agreement — under which Hamas was to lay down its arms and Israel would allow Gaza to be rebuilt after a devastating war — have stalled. A similar approach in U.S. talks with Iran would run the same risks.

Officials say the Trump administration’s latest proposal focuses on ending Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway that is a key transit route for oil and gas shipments. Iran imposed a near blockade on the strait after the United States and Israel attacked the country in late February, causing energy prices to soar and increasing pressure on Mr. Trump at home as voters endured rising costs.

Discussions to resolve some of the president’s stated goals for launching the war — far more contentious issues like ending Iran’s nuclear program, and dealing with its missile stockpiles and its support for militia groups across the Middle East — would be pushed off for later.

Taking a phased approach to complicated negotiations can be beneficial, said Michael Koplow, the chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum, a New York-based research group. But in Mr. Trump’s case, it could also be as a way for the president to claim victory while leaving the core issues unsolved, he added.

Iran’s leaders have also been emboldened by the military conflict, making them less likely to compromise in future talks, analysts say.

In Gaza, U.S. negotiators initially made good progress. The first part of the agreement last October secured the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, a partial Israeli military withdrawal, and a surge in shipments of food and medicine into the territory for desperate Palestinians.

But the Trump administration has hit a wall in resolving the tougher questions that were delayed to the second phase of discussions. Hamas has not laid down its weapons, an international force is not about to be deployed to Gaza, and a new Palestinian administration has not taken charge of rebuilding the enclave’s devastated cities.

Instead, Israel continues to bombard Gaza on a near-daily basis, and Hamas is consolidating its power in the half of the territory that it controls. A committee of Palestinian technocrats that was supposed to take charge of governing the territory has remained in Egypt. And rather than rebuilding Gaza, aid groups say many Palestinians there are still living in rat-infested tent camps amid rubble.

Nickolay Mladenov, a former U.N. envoy to the region who is now effectively the Trump administration’s point man on Gaza, conceded in a news conference this month that “for all Palestinians in Gaza, the war does not yet feel fully over.”

The Trump administration has yet to crack “how you complete phase one, then get to phase two” in Gaza, said Mr. Koplow. Instead, it announced “a series of flashy things that then were never implemented,” he said.

“Iran is going to be far tougher, because it’s a much bigger conflict, and the issues are harder and far more complicated,” he added.

May 26, 2026, 9:54 a.m. ET25 minutes ago

Leily Nikounazar

Iran’s vice president, Mohammad Reza Aref, confirmed on Tuesday that the authorities were loosening restrictions on internet access, following a months-long shutdown.

The government said the measures were implemented because of national security concerns during the war with the United States and Israel. “The first step toward free and regulated access to cyberspace has been taken,” he said on social media.