The US and Israel have continued to pound Iran since killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday, while Tehran and its allies have hit back against Israel, neighbouring Gulf states and targets critical to the world\u2019s production of oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia\u2019s Defence Ministry said early on Tuesday that the embassy in Riyadh came under attack from two drones, which caused a \u201climited fire\u201d and minor damage.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military on Tuesday said it has deployed additional soldiers to southern Lebanon as part of the Israeli Defence Forces\u2019 efforts to provide additional security for the residents of northern Israel, the IDF said on Telegram.<\/p>\n
According to Reuters, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told an online briefing of reporters that troopers are \u201conly at the borderline area in a defensive manner to prevent attacks against civilians and very strategic important points\u201d.<\/p>\n
The AFP reports that Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Tuesday he has instructed the military to take control of more positions in Lebanon following an attack from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the Israel Defense Forces to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities,\u201d Katz said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that the entrance buildings of Iran\u2019s Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant sustained some damage in the recent strikes.<\/p>\n
However, there was no additional impact detected at the nuclear facility itself, nor were any radiological consequences expected, said the IAEA, which made its assessment based on the latest available satellite imagery.<\/p>\n
The underground nuclear facility had been \u201cseverely damaged\u201d in the June strikes, the IAEA said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in a post on X, the US Mission to Saudi Arabia asked American citizens in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran to immediately shelter in place.<\/p>\n
The US Embassy in Kuwait was targeted on Monday in an attack, and the State Department on Monday evening urged US citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries because of safety risks.<\/p>\n
US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar posted on X that Americans in countries including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel, should \u201cDEPART NOW\u201d using any available commercial transportation.<\/p>\n
Sirens sounded in Bahrain early on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said as it called for people to head to the nearest safe place.<\/p>\n
Iranian drones struck an Australian military facility in the United Arab Emirates, but there were no injuries, Australia\u2019s defence minister Richard Marles said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The US state department has reportedly ordered the departure of non-emergency government personnel and family members from Qatar and Kuwait.<\/p>\n
The move came after the department said earlier on Tuesday it had ordered non-emergency personnel and their families to leave Bahrain and Jordan.<\/p>\n
It also announced it had ordered staff in Iraq to leave a day earlier, amid Iran\u2019s retaliation over US-Israeli strikes.<\/p>\n
The department said in a post on X before the latest order that it had updated travel advisories for Bahrain and Jordan \u201cto reflect the ordered departure of non-emergency US government personnel and family members of government personnel\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an updated travel advisory on Iraq, the department said it had on Monday \u201cordered non-emergency US government employees to leave Iraq due to security concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f48bd889a1a34740a65329701779e93d.jpg\" "\\"Trump\\"")
President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on Monday (Mark Schiefelbein\/AP)<\/p>\n
The death toll in Iran has risen to 787, according to information from the Iranian Red Crescent, the report said. On Monday, the death toll stood at 555. More than 130 cities across the country have come under attack. In Israel, 11 people have been killed, with 31 in Lebanon, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
The US military announced on Monday that two previously unaccounted-for service members were confirmed dead, bringing the total American casualties during the operations against Iran up to six.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump said on Monday that the operation was \u201csubstantially ahead of schedule\u201d and would take four to five weeks, but added: \u201cWe have capability to go far longer than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said US forces were determined to destroy Iran\u2019s missile capabilities, wipe out its naval capacity, stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that Iran cannot continue to support allied groups such as Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was our last, best chance to strike, what we\u2019re doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,\u201d Mr Trump said.<\/p>\n
Defence secretary Pete Hegseth insisted \u201cthis is not endless\u201d while US secretary of state Marco Rubio said regime change in Iran was not the objective of the attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would love for there to be an Iran that\u2019s not governed by radical Shia clerics,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not the objective.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fe05e127982f47fd8fe5f330ffc33c69.jpg\" "\\"Saudi")
This satellite image provided by Vantor shows damage after a drone attack at Ras Tanura oil refinery, in Saudi Arabia, Monday, March 2, 2026 (Satellite image \u00a92026 Vantor\/AP)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can\u2019t rebuild it, and make sure that they can\u2019t hide behind that to have a nuclear programme.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration and its allies in Congress presented a shifting new justification for the attack on Iran on Monday, with House Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting the White House believed Israel was determined to act on its own, leaving the president with a \u201cvery difficult decision\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking late on Monday after a classified briefing at the Capitol, Mr Johnson said the attack on Iran was a \u201cdefensive operation\u201d because Israel was ready to act against Iran, \u201cwith or without American support\u201d, and Mr Trump and his team determined that Iran would immediately retaliate against US personnel and assets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commander in chief has said this is going to be an operation that is short in duration,\u201d Mr Johnson said. \u201cWe certainly hope that\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that Iran was rebuilding \u201cnew sites, new places\u201d that would make \u201ctheir ballistic missile programme and their atomic bomb program immune within months\u201d.<\/p>\n
He did not offer evidence to support his claim.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign minister Abbas Aragchi said on Tuesday the US had entered \u201ca war of choice on behalf of Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n
After Mr Trump called on Iranians to seize control of their country, Mr Araghchi wrote on X: \u201cAmerican people deserve better and should take back their country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the US military said Kuwait had \u201cmistakenly shot down\u201d three American F-15E Strike Eagles while Iran was attacking with aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones.<\/p>\n
US Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in a stable condition.<\/p>\n
With world markets already\u00a0rattled by the fighting, QatarEnergy said it would stop its production of liquefied natural gas, taking one of the world\u2019s top suppliers off the market.<\/p>\n
It offered no timeline for restoring its production. European natural gas prices surged by 40% in response.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under attack from drones, with defences downing the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency.<\/p>\n
\n – Additional reporting from The Guardian and Reuters\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli military issued evacuation orders for residents of more than two dozen towns in southern Lebanon. Israeli…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,11829,1196,43,6514,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-326603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-place-international","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}