Iran War Live Updates: Trump Berates Allies While Offering Conflicting Signals About the War

President Trump said that he was considering leaving NATO over allies’ failure to support his Iran offensive. After suggesting that the U.S. war would end in weeks, he threatened Iran with more attacks. He was scheduled to deliver an address on the war at 9 p.m. Eastern.

By Abdi Latif Dahir Megan Specia Erika Solomon and Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Here’s the latest

President Trump said that he was considering pulling the United States out of NATO over the war with Iran, as he heaps pressure on allies to manage the fallout of a conflict he signaled he would wind down in two or three weeks.

In an interview with Britain’s Telegraph newspaper published on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he thought that U.S. membership in the military alliance was “beyond reconsideration.”

The president continued to give conflicting signals about the war, writing on Truth Social that he would not consider a cease-fire until the Strait of Hormuz was open, a day after he said that the U.S. military campaign would be over “very soon” and that Iran’s closure of the strait was for other countries to resolve.

He claimed in the post that “Iran’s New Regime President” had asked for a cease-fire, without saying who he was referring to, and despite Iran’s repeated denials that it is negotiating with the United States.

Mr. Trump was scheduled to deliver “an important update” on the war in a national address at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Trump told reporters that he had achieved his primary goal of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, though there is no evidence that the United States or Israel has destroyed the country’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel.

Earlier Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the U.S. had achieved such control of Iran’s skies that it was flying B-52 bombers directly over Iranian territory. But Mr. Hegseth acknowledged that Iran retained the ability to retaliate with missiles and drones targeting U.S. allies in the region. On Wednesday morning, the authorities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar all reported missile or drone attacks from Iran.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had carried out strikes against Iranian government infrastructure in Tehran, the capital. Iranian state television reported that three locations were hit, including an area northeast of Tehran with military buildings and housing. On Tuesday, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran had crushed its capacity to produce weapons.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• Strait of Hormuz: An Iranian official emphasized on Wednesday that the United States would not regain access to the waterway, a crucial conduit for the world’s oil and gas supply, saying in a social media post: “The Strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you.”

• NATO: Mr. Trump’s comments about the trans-Atlantic military alliance plunged leaders in Europe — which has relied for decades on American military power — into another cycle of anxious deliberations, similar to when he mused last year about invading Greenland before ultimately backing off. Read more ›

• American kidnapped: A journalist, Shelly Kittleson, was kidnapped in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, on Tuesday evening, the country’s Interior Ministry said. The ministry said that security forces had pursued the kidnappers, arrested one suspect and seized a vehicle used in the abduction. The suspect is a member of the Iranian-allied paramilitary group Kataib Hezbollah, two senior Iraqi security officials said.

• Houthis: In Yemen, the Iran-backed Houthi militia said it had launched ballistic missiles at Israel on Wednesday. Israel said it had detected a missile launch from Yemen toward its territory. The Houthis entered the war on Saturday by launching a missile attack on what they said were Israeli military targets.

• Lebanon: Israeli strikes in Beirut killed at least seven people and wounded 24 others early Wednesday, Lebanon’s national news agency reported. And there were more Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon, a day after Israel said it planned to occupy and control a large swath of the region and demolish entire towns.

• Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,598 civilians had been killed, including 244 children, in Iran since the war began. Lebanon’s health ministry said that more than 1,260 Lebanese had been killed as of Tuesday, with more than 3,750 others wounded, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In Iran’s attacks across the Middle East, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.

April 1, 2026, 11:39 a.m. ET20 minutes ago

Erika Solomon and Sanam Mahoozi

Heavy bombings across Tehran jolt its war-weary residents

Iranians in Tehran were jolted awake early Wednesday as fighter jets dropped powerful bombs on the capital, shattering windows, shaking buildings and sending people racing for cover.

Some residents said the blasts were among the most powerful they had felt in more than a month of war. Many compared the experience to an earthquake.

“If things continue like this, I think World War III is not far away from happening,” one resident, Saeed, said in a voice note. Like others who spoke to The New York Times, he asked not to be identified by his full name to avoid repercussions.

“This war has become exhausting — and to be honest, very, very scary, ” he added.

Videos and photographs posted by residents showed gray columns of smoke hovering over Tehran’s skyline. Local news outlets reported that seven districts of the densely packed city had been struck, and that at least 16 residential buildings were damaged.

In a video posted to social media on Wednesday, filmed amid the rubble of a collapsed building, a man in a Red Crescent uniform said he had come to help search for families who might be trapped.

The Iranian government has not regularly updated the death toll from the war. But the Washington-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which focuses on Iran, said  Tuesday that 1,598 civilians had been killed, including at least 244 children.

Lili, another Tehran resident, said in an interview that the arrival of spring had made her realize how much the U.S.-Israeli bombardment had marred the beauty of her city.

Snowcapped mountains in the distance are now regularly shrouded by smoke, she said. And windows shatter so often that trucks loaded with glass panes have become a daily sight in the city streets.

“I actually go and visit the places that have been hit, as if I am going to visit a patient,” she said.

Yet through it all, Lili said, daily life goes on, and after the heavy explosions that morning, she had gone into the city for breakfast with friends.

“We have become used to this situation,” she added. “It’s like you go out, and everyone you see talks about what else has been hit.”

Sanjana Varghese contributed reporting.

April 1, 2026, 10:21 a.m. ET2 hours ago

Jenny Gross

Reporting from Washington

Why reopening the Strait of Hormuz matters for the U.S. economy.

President Trump has suggested that reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was a problem for other countries to resolve.

America produces “plenty” of its own energy to use and sell, Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday, addressing countries that are having trouble securing jet fuel because of Iran’s blockade on the strait that carries a quarter of the world’s oil. These nations, he wrote, should “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.”

He later told CBS News that the U.S. military was “not yet” ready to pull back from the effort to reopen the strait, while reinforcing that other countries were “going to have to come in and do their own work.” Early on Wednesday he posted that he would consider a cease-fire only when the waterway was “open, free, and clear.”

Although the United States imports very little oil and gas via Hormuz, the interconnectedness of global energy markets means that any restrictions on traffic through the waterway creates economic shocks felt around the world.

Economists warn the effects on inflation and growth, in the United States and elsewhere, will compound if disruptions persist, making the reopening of the strait a key issue for the global economy.

Even though the United States is the world’s largest oil producer and a significant exporter, oil is priced largely on supply and demand globally. When there’s a supply disruption, like there has been for the past month in the Persian Gulf, the price of oil and gas rises everywhere.

Not all American-produced oil can be easily used by U.S. refiners, since supplies produced in the United States tend to be higher-quality, so-called sweet oil, but domestic refineries are set up to handle largely imported heavy and sour oil. The United States imports millions of barrels of this type of crude oil, and fuel made from it often ends up in U.S. gas stations.

In the United States, gasoline prices have surged 36 percent since the war began to an average of more than $4 a gallon. The price of diesel, which fuels many trucks, has jumped more sharply. In Europe, which also imports little oil and gas from the Middle East, energy costs are soaring, on top of already high prices because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The effects of the strait’s closure also extend beyond energy markets. A third of the world’s supply of fertilizer is shipped through the strait, leading to a bottleneck that has not only raised prices for farmers but also threatens food security around the world. The blockade has also restricted supplies and pushed up the prices of aluminum, sugar and helium, a vital gas for semiconductor manufacturing.

An Iranian official on Wednesday said that Iran’s position was the strait would open, but not to the United States. “The Strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you,” Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission, wrote on social media. But even a partial reopening to ships that comply with Iran’s rules will continue to send ripples through the U.S. economy and around the world.

Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, said on Wednesday that Britain’s foreign secretary would host counterparts from nearly three dozen countries this week to discuss diplomatic efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

April 1, 2026, 9:40 a.m. ET2 hours ago

Adam Rasgon

Reporting from Tel Aviv

Netanyahu makes the case that wars on Iran have succeeded.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran had crushed its industrial capacity to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, removing “two existential threats” to Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu addressed Israel on Tuesday night, hours before President Trump signaled that he would soon wind down the joint war against Iran. The Israeli leader made his case to the public that the two wars against Iran in 2025 and 2026 had been successful.

“Before these two operations, Iran sought to suffocate us,” he said.

“Today, we are suffocating them,” he added. “The ayatollah regime in Iran is weaker than ever, and the state of Israel is stronger than ever.”

In the current war, which began on Feb. 28, U.S. and Israeli attacks have targeted Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers, production facilities and nuclear program. Iran, in turn, has continued firing missiles at Israel and Arab countries in the Persian Gulf that are U.S. allies.

And in February, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog reported that Iran had an estimated 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium as of June 2025.

Mr. Netanyahu said the two wars had left Iran’s governing system in a vulnerable position.

“We have shaken this regime,” he said. “And I tell you, sooner or later, it is destined to fall.”

Earlier in the war, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel would create “optimal” conditions for Iranians to oust their government, but some current and former Israeli officials have expressed skepticism about that idea.

Speaking a day before the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel had dealt “10 plagues” to Iran and its network of proxies across the Middle East since the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas led the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

In the Passover story, God cast 10 plagues on the Egyptians to force them to free the Israelites from slavery.

“The plague to Hamas in Gaza, the plague to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the plague to Assad in Syria, the plague to terrorist organizations” in the West Bank, he said. “The plague to the Houthis in Yemen and five more plagues to Iran.”

Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the former Assad regime in Syria have been backed by Iran.