4h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 4:12pmWelcome to the blog
Thank you for joining us today as we bring you the latest on the unfolding events in the Middle East.
Here’s what we know:
The US military has struck an Iranian warship located off Sri Lanka’s coast. Sri Lankan police say they have recovered the bodies of 87 Iranian sailors. The first commercial flight out of the Middle East since hostilities began landed in Sydney overnight. There were emotional scenes as Australians were reunited with friends and family. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the US and Israel will have complete control of Iranian airspace within a week. He also said the US had killed an Iranian official who headed a unit behind an alleged assassination plot against Donald Trump. Türkiye says NATO air defences have destroyed a ballistic missile Iran fired towards its airspace. It is the first time the alliance member has been drawn into the expanding conflict. Israeli forces are reported to have entered southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government says Israeli strikes hit a hotel and residential building near Beirut. Syria has closed its border crossing with Lebanon. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has urged de-escalation and diplomacy while speaking at an event in Sydney. He says action against Iran appears to violate international law.4m agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 8:41pmTrump: ‘Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end up dead’
The US president says Iran’s leadership is “just rapidly going”.
“Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end up dead,” he says.
“It’s an amazing thing that’s taking place before your eyes.”
He says the US is making “tremendous progress”.
“Their missiles are being wiped out rapidly, their launchers are being wiped out; they’re attacking their neighbours, they’re attacking their allies — their not-so-long-ago allies.”
9m agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 8:37pmTrump says Iran would have nuclear weapons if nuclear deal still existed
Donald Trump says if he hadn’t terminated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action during his first term, Iran would have developed nuclear weapons.
“If we didn’t terminate the worst deal — one of the worst deals ever made — the Obama nuclear deal, I call it the Obama nuclear deal, where he gave everything to Iran, including a nuclear weapon, it was a road to a nuclear weapon.
“Bad things would’ve happened four years ago ’cause they would’ve had a weapon four years ago if I didn’t terminate that deal.
“So we’re in a very strong position now.”
The JCPOA (as others know it) required Iran to downscale its nuclear activity — inhibiting its capacity to develop nuclear weapons — and to allow inspections of its facilities.
Iran stopped cooperating with watchdog inspections after the deal was torn up.
Here’s a look back at what the JCPOA involved.
18m agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 8:28pmTrump says US ‘doing very well on the war front’
Over in Washington, US President Donald Trump is hosting a roundtable on energy prices.
But he acknowledges focus might be divided right now.
“These are exciting times,” he says. “I think you probably want to speak about war rather than this, but this is very important, this is very important,” he says of the roundtable.
He is offering some comment on the war.
“We’re doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly, I would say,” he says.
“Somebody said, ‘On a scale of 10, where would you rate it?’ I said about a 15.
“And we’re going to continue to do well. We have the greatest military in the world by far and that was a tremendous threat for many years.”
He said he thinks the US has “great support”.
“And I think if we didn’t do it first, they would’ve done it to Israel and give us a shot if that was possible.”
22m agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 8:24pm
Khamenei funeral postponed
Iran has postponed the funeral of its late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
The ayatollah’s body had been expected to lie in state in a Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening, but state media reported a farewell ceremony had been postponed.
30m agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 8:15pm
Three flights to depart today from the UAE carrying stranded Australians
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says there are three flights due to depart today that will bring more Australians back home.
“This could move very quickly if there is further military activity that makes it unsafe for people to fly. Obviously these flights would not procced [in the case],” she told ABC News Breakfast.
“We have some 24,000 Australians in the UAE. That’s why this consular crisis is larger in numbers than anything we have dealt with [before].”
Wong could not say how many people had so far registered on the Smarttraveller portal to return to Australia.
“We are still working through that because thousands have registered but we have to work through who is eligible, so I am not in a position to give you a number on who has formally registered.”
38m agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 8:07pmStranded Australians arrive home
Australians who were stranded in the Middle East have begun to arrive back in Australia.
Last night, about 200 Australians landed safely in Sydney after flying out of Dubai.
Former triathlete Emma Carney also made her way home after flying from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia.
She then arrived in Melbourne last night.
(ABC News)
She was working with the Saudi Triathlon Association and had travelled with athletes to Bahrain last week.
“It all sort of kicked off on Friday and things got a little bit hectic. There were alarms and you could tell missiles were going off and we were evacuated,” she said.
Carney had a Saudi visa that enabled her to drive out of Bahrain, across the series of bridges which connects the island state to Saudi Arabia.
After several days in Saudi Arabia, she was able to fly out via Malaysia, back to Australia.
She said she was “a little apprehensive” flying over the Middle East.
“The most unnerving thing about it was the turbulence. When you hear a thud in a plane over a warzone, [it’s] not a good feeling. That was the worst bit,” she said.
(ABC News)50m agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 7:56pmIsrael launches strikes on Tehran
The Israeli military says it has launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran.
AFP journalists in the city said a short while ago that they heard a powerful explosion, while state media is reporting multiple blasts in the west of the capital.
Iranian media also reported explosions in several other cities, including the southern port of Bandar Abbas on the Gulf and Tabriz in the north-west.
1h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 7:45pm
French president calls for de-escalation in Lebanon
French President Emmanuel Macron says he has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
In a post on X, Macron called on Hezbollah to immediately cease its attacks on Israel, saying its strategy of escalation puts the entire region in danger.
“Similarly, I called on the Israeli prime minister to preserve Lebanon’s territorial integrity and to refrain from a ground offensive,” he said.
“It is important for the parties to return to the ceasefire agreement.
“France will continue, with its partners, to support the efforts of the Lebanese Armed Forces, so that they can fully assume their sovereignty missions and put an end to the threat posed by Hezbollah.”
1h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 7:26pm
📹US military releases vision of torpedo strike on Iranian warship
The US military has released more vision that appears to show the sinking of IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka.
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That’s the Iranian warship that was carrying 180 people. Sri Lankan authorities said they had recovered 87 bodies, while about 60 sailors are still missing. 32 people have been rescued.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said it was the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.
1h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 7:18pm
Information on Iranian school strike remains murky
The US is still saying it doesn’t know how a girls’ school in Iran was bombed on day one of the war.
The primary school, in Minab in Iran’s south, was hit during the first wave of attacks, killing more than 150 people – mostly children.
Earlier today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would not say whose missiles hit the school when asked — only that Washington was “investigating”.
“All I know, all I can say is that we’re investigating that. We, of course, never target civilian targets, but we’re taking a look at investigating that.”
People and rescue forces work following the reported strike on the school on Saturday. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA (West Asia News Agency))
Just now, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked outright:
“Did the United States air strike a girls elementary school and kill 175 people?”
“Not that we know of,” she said.
She repeated that the Defense Department was investigating the strike and “cautioned” reporters against “pointing the finger at the United States of America”.
The UN demanded a prompt, impartial investigation with findings to be made public.
Iran has accused Israel and the US of the strike. Israel also says it’s investigating and claims it is not aware of operations in that area.
Open-source investigators have geolocated and verified video of the destroyed school next to what appears to be an IRGC naval base, raising questions about whether the school was mistakenly hit.
So far, there’s been no indication the school was being used by the military.
1h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 7:10pmTrump ordered strikes because he had ‘a feeling’ Iran would attack
Throughout this White House press conference, Karoline Leavitt has attacked media reports that point out the changing rationales given by the Trump administration for the strikes.
At different times, Donald Trump and his top officials gave a different reason for the strikes, including:
that Iran was getting close to building a nuclear weapon.that it could soon have ballistic missiles that could reach the US.that Israel was preparing to strike Iran, so the US had to attack Iran to prevent American assets being hit by counterstrikes.that Iran was negotiating with the US solely to buy time, so it could retain its nuclear program until Trump was out of office.
Today, Leavitt has repeatedly referred to Trump’s “feeling” that Iran was about to attack US assets in the Middle East. That’s why he made the decision to strike, she said.
“This decision to launch this operation was based on a cumulative effect of various direct threats that Iran posed to the United States of America and the president’s feeling, based on fact, that Iran does pose an imminent and direct threat to the United States of America …
“… The president had a feeling, again, based on fact, that Iran was going to strike …”
“… He made a determination to launch Operation Epic Fury based on all of those reasons.
“And I would like the media to actually report on all of them, rather than just picking soundbites from one person in this administration and saying: ‘Oh, they’re contradicting the other person.’
“No. Again, these decisions are not made in a vacuum. They are made by the president’s feeling that Iran was going to strike the United States and our assets in the region, and he was not going to sit back and watch that happen.”
The press conference has now ended.
1h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 6:52pmNetanyahu’s call to Trump was ‘important to the timeline’
The White House spokeswoman appeared to confirm a phone call between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump, first reported by US outlet Axios.
According to the report, the Israeli PM informed the US president that Iran’s supreme leader and his top advisers were all gathering in Tehran on Saturday morning.
That meant they could all be killed in a single strike, Netanyahu reportedly told Trump.
Leavitt was asked:
“How important was that information in the president making the decision to strike where and when he did?”
She said:
“I think it was important with respect to the timeline. But I think the president, prior to that phone call, had a good feeling that the Iranian regime was going to strike United States assets and our personnel in the region.”
2h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 6:44pm
‘Holding these monsters accountable’
So far in this press briefing, Karoline Leavitt has repeated a lot of Donald Trump’s previous characterisations of the “terrorist Iranian regime”, and his criticisms of the Obama administration’s defunct nuclear deal with Iran.
“President Trump is finally the man of action. President Trump is holding these monsters accountable and permanently extinguishing their nuclear ambitions.”
She also stepped through the four US objectives that Trump laid out earlier in the week.
And she repeated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s prediction that US and Israeli forces would soon have complete control of Iranian airspace. “Within hours,” Leavitt said.
2h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 6:26pm
White House press briefing begins
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is giving her first media conference since the strikes.
“Under the leadership of President Donald J Trump, the rogue Iranian terrorist regime is being absolutely crushed,” she said.
And, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this morning, she criticised media that has questioned the Trump administration’s official lines about the war.
“There’s been a lot of misreporting and intellectual dishonesty from the American media on why President Trump decided to launch this operation.”
“Iran has pursued this path of war and violence,” Leavitt said.
“The world knows this president’s preference is always peace and diplomacy.”
2h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 6:15pm
Israel releases images of IDF soldiers in Lebanon
The Israeli military has released a statement and images of troops’ operation in southern Lebanon.
The IDF says the deployment “consists of infantry, armoured and engineering troops” and “was made in order to provide an additional layer of defense” for people in northern Israel.
2h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 5:55pm’Direct’ clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah
Hezbollah says its fighters were engaged in “direct” clashes with Israeli forces in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, 6 kilometres from the border.
This is the first claim of a direct confrontation between the two sides since the war started on Monday.
The pro-Iran group said in a statement: “After monitoring the movements of an Israeli enemy army force that tried to advance,” inside the town of Khiam, “the fighters of the Islamic Resistance detonated an explosive device and engaged in direct clashes with the force”.
Reporting with AFP
3h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 5:29pm
UK withdraws some embassy staff from Bahrain
Britain has temporarily withdrawn some staff and their dependents from its embassy in Bahrain.
The country’s foreign office said this was a precautionary measure and that the the embassy would continue to operate.
Reporting with Reuters
3h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 5:17pm
Senate to vote on Trump’s war powers
The US Senate will vote later today on a resolution to block US President Donald Trump from using further military action against Iran without congressional approval.
The US Constitution states only Congress has the power to declare war.
So, many Democrats, and a few Republicans, have questioned whether Trump has exceeded his authority by ordering “Operation Epic Fury” without congressional approval.
The resolution would “direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress”.
Democratic senator Tim Kaine, who co-sponsored the resolution, called on his colleagues to not give the president “an easy pass laying around the Constitution”:
“Any member, Democrat or Republican, who thinks war is a good idea, let them stand up and vote for an authorisation of war. Don’t hide under your desk and just let the president do it on his own.”
This war powers resolution is widely expected to fall short of the votes required. It would also need to get through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Even if it did, the outcome would be largely symbolic as the president would almost certainly veto it.
Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, various administrations have relied on a law called the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to justify military actions in the Middle East without requiring congressional approval to declare war.
3h agoWed 4 Mar 2026 at 5:15pm
Iran’s president says Tehran respects neighbours’ sovereignty
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has posted on X, saying to the leaders of Gulf countries that Iran respects its neighbours’ sovereignty.
Countries close to Iran, including the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia, have spent the conflict intercepting Iranian missiles and drones.
The UAE has said it has been exposed to more than 1,000 attacks from Iranian forces since hostilities began.
Pezeshkian said Iran had wanted to “avoid war” and that US and Israeli attacks “left us with no choice but to defend ourselves”.