{"id":320459,"date":"2026-03-04T00:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/320459\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T00:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:39:07","slug":"middle-east-attacks-intensify-as-trump-says-he-rejects-irans-attempt-to-talk-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/320459\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East attacks intensify as Trump says he rejects Iran\u2019s attempt to talk | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel and the US intensified their attacks on Iran on Tuesday, launching waves of strikes targeting command and control facilities, strategic state offices and missile launch sites as Donald Trump<\/a> said he had rejected what he claimed was an attempt by Tehran to restart negotiations.<\/p>\n

Iran retaliated with hundreds of missile and drone attacks against Israel<\/a> and across the Gulf region, targeting US military bases, embassies and civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Despite acute international fears, there appeared little chance of any de-escalation of the conflict as violence and chaos continued across a fast-widening swathe of the Middle East for a fourth day.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people have been killed, mainly in Iran<\/a> where the Red Crescent said 787 were dead and thousands injured. Billions of dollars of damage has been inflicted on oil refineries, tankers, airports, luxury hotels and much else, with the world economy threatened with a severe crisis as energy prices soar.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir air defense, Air Force, Navy and Leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said \u2018Too Late!\u2019,\u201d the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform, saying the US was prepared \u201cto go far longer\u201d than a four to five-week war against Iran.<\/p>\n

In later comments at the White House with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, he said: \u201cJust about everything\u2019s been knocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump denied Israel had forced his hand into launching the war, while conceding he feared a \u201cworst-case scenario\u201d in Iran where \u201csomebody takes over who\u2019s as bad as the previous person\u201d.<\/p>\n

map<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s ambassador to the UN in Geneva denied on Tuesday that Tehran had approached the US for negotiations.<\/p>\n

Among targets hit in new waves of US and Israeli airstrikes in Tehran and other main Iranian cities was a building used by the committee of senior clerics who will choose a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose assassination by Israeli planes on Saturday opened hostilities. It was not clear if the building was occupied at the time of the strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American-Zionist criminals attacked the Assembly of Experts building in Qom,\u201d south of Tehran, Tasnim, an official Iranian news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign ministry said the UN security council had a duty to act to stop the war, while its military remained publicly defiant.<\/p>\n

map<\/a><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guards threatened that \u201cthe gates of hell will open more and more\u201d on the US and Israel.<\/p>\n

The US embassy in Riyadh, which was damaged and briefly caught fire overnight in an Iranian drone strike, warned on Tuesday of an imminent attack in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, site of most of the kingdom\u2019s oil and gas installations along the Gulf coast.<\/p>\n

Economic targets came under fire elsewhere in the Gulf as Iran continued to launch volleys of retaliatory drones and missiles at its neighbours.<\/p>\n

Qatar said it had downed missiles targeting Hamad international airport in Doha, while Oman reported several drones attacking the port of Duqm, and in the UAE falling debris from an intercepted drone caused a fire at an oil storage and trading zone, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The Fujairah oil facility in the UAE was hit by debris from an intercepted Iranian drone. Photograph: Altaf Qadri\/AP<\/p>\n

On one newly opened front of the expanding conflict, Israel said ground troops had entered southern Lebanon to protect people living in northern Israel. In response, the deputy head of Hezbollah\u2019s political council, Mahmoud Qamati, declared \u201copen war\u201d with Israel.<\/p>\n

The pro-Iran group continued to target Israel, saying it had launched two missile salvoes overnight towards military bases in northern Israel, and shelled a military base on Tuesday morning. Israel carried out strikes and issued evacuation orders for villages in southern Lebanon, emptying out the country south of the Litani River and turning the southern suburbs of Beirut into a ghost town.<\/p>\n

The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Tuesday he had instructed Israeli troops to \u201chold and advance\u201d into areas of south Lebanon to prevent further Hezbollah fire on northern Israel. It was the first acknowledgment that Israel\u2019s campaign against Hezbollah would involve ground forces.<\/p>\n

Israeli airstrikes have killed 52 people and displaced at least 29,000 in Lebanon so far.<\/p>\n

US officials maintained their bellicose rhetoric. The defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, raised the possibility of US troops on the ground in Iran, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that the \u201chardest hits are yet to come\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump said on Tuesday that successive waves of US-Israeli attacks on Iran had killed figures he had considered could be new leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the people we had in mind are dead \u2026 I guess the worst case would be, we do this, and then somebody takes over who\u2019s as bad as the previous person, right? \u2026 We\u2019d like to see somebody in there that\u2019s going to bring it back for the people,\u201d he said as he met Merz.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump and Friedrich Merz in talks at the White House on Tuesday. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein\/AP<\/p>\n

US officials offered varying justifications for launching a war on Iran, with Rubio saying the US\u2019s hand had been forced by Israel<\/a>. Trump has at times said the goal was regime change in Iran, and at others that he was solely trying to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and to curb its ballistic missile programme. Iran has consistently denied it is developing nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Netanyahu was more plain in his objectives, saying the US and Israel were \u201ccreating the conditions\u201d for the Iranian people to topple their government. Israeli analysts suggested<\/a> the Iran campaign came at a good time for the Israeli prime minister and would boost flagging poll numbers before legislative elections.<\/p>\n

Israeli authorities said 12 people had been injured on Tuesday in three Iranian missile attacks on southern Israel, some of which contained cluster munitions, a weapon banned by most countries.<\/p>\n

Officers from Israel\u2019s home front command inspect a building damaged by an Iranian missile strike in Petah Tikva. Photograph: Ohad Zwigenberg\/AP<\/p>\n

The US said six soldiers had died<\/a>, seemingly killed while stationed in Kuwait. Three F-14 fighter jets were shot down by accident by the kingdom\u2019s air defence systems on Monday.<\/p>\n

Trump criticised some allies on Tuesday for their lack of support for the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran, saying Spain had been \u201cterrible\u201d and that he was \u201cnot happy with the UK either\u201d. Referring to Keir Starmer, he said: \u201cThis is not Winston Churchill that we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s strikes against energy infrastructure have paralysed the resource-rich Gulf states. Qatar announced a halt to its largest liquid natural gas production facility, and Saudi Arabia ceased operations at its Ras Tanura oil refinery.<\/p>\n

Global energy prices jumped further<\/a> after Iran closed the strait of Hormuz, a global choke-point for hydrocarbons, attacking several ships that attempted to pass through the narrow waterway.<\/p>\n

Brig Gen Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, said continued US-Israeli attacks would bring Iranian reprisals against \u201call economic centres\u201d in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have closed the strait of Hormuz \u2026 The price of oil \u2026 will soon reach $200. We are saying to the enemy that if it decides to hit our main centres, we will hit all economic centres in the region,\u201d Jabbari was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Isna.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday Trump said the US navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz \u201cif necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

He has also instructed a federal agency to provide \u201cpolitical risk insurance and guarantees for ALL Maritime Trade\u201d through the Gulf. \u201cNo matter what, the United States will ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the World,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Loud explosions were heard in Qatar, Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel and the US intensified their attacks on Iran on Tuesday, launching waves of strikes targeting command and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-320459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}