President Trump said on Saturday that the United States was close to reaching an agreement toward ending the war with Iran, though there was no immediate public confirmation from Iran or Israel. The announcement came nearly three months after the United States and Israel began strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump provided few details about the preliminary agreement, which he said was \u201clargely negotiated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talks between U.S. and Iranian negotiators had been deadlocked over Iran\u2019s nuclear program and control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which passes a significant portion of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas supply. Despite a cease-fire that began on April 7, inflation<\/a> and wholesale prices<\/a> in the United States have risen sharply as the war\u2019s ripple effects continued to take a toll on the economy.<\/p>\n Cast by Mr. Trump in part as an effort to encourage Iranians to topple their theocratic leadership<\/a>, the conflict \u2014 the second time in less than a year that Mr. Trump directly involved the United States in attacks on Iran \u2014 became a regional war in February that resulted in thousands of deaths, mostly in Iran and Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes, and the global economy has been badly rattled.<\/p>\n Here are some key moments in the war:<\/p>\n Feb. 28: The United States and Israel launched<\/a> strikes across Iran, hitting a government compound in Tehran and military targets. The blasts killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation\u2019s supreme leader for almost 37 years, as well as other high-level military and intelligence leaders.<\/p>\n At least 175 people, most of them likely children, were killed in a strike on a girls\u2019 elementary school<\/a> in southern Iran, health officials and Iranian state media said. The strike was a targeting mistake by the U.S. military<\/a>, according to U.S. officials familiar with a military investigation.<\/p>\n Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones at Israel and at U.S. military bases in the region, including in Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n March 1: An Iranian drone attack killed six U.S. soldiers in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait<\/a>, the first Americans to die in the war. <\/p>\n Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, dragged Lebanon into the conflict, firing rockets toward Israel<\/a> in retaliation for the killing of Iran\u2019s supreme leader.<\/p>\n In a brief telephone interview<\/a> with The New York Times, Mr. Trump offered several seemingly contradictory visions of how a new government could take shape in Iran and how the conflict would unfold. Asked how long the United States and Israel intended to sustain their assault on Iran, Mr. Trump said \u201cfour to five weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n March 8: With several top Iranian leaders killed in airstrikes, Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a>, a son of the slain supreme leader, as his father\u2019s successor. Ayatollah Khamenei, 56, was appointed by a committee of senior Shiite clerics, signaling continuity and defiance after Mr. Trump called him an \u201cunacceptable\u201d choice. <\/p>\n March 11: Iran escalated its attacks in and around the Strait of Hormuz, striking at least three ships<\/a>, according to a British maritime agency. Iran claimed responsibility for one assault on a bulk carrier from Thailand. The attacks sent oil prices surging and the Trump administration scrambling to pacify global markets.<\/p>\n March 12: Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first written statement<\/a> as supreme leader, directing the military to continue choking off the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n A woman holding a photo of Iran\u2019s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, at a funeral for high-ranking military officials in Tehran in March.Credit…Arash Khamooshi\/Polaris for The New York Times<\/p>\n Six American crew members died<\/a> after a KC-135 military refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq, bringing the number of U.S. service members killed in the war to at least 13.<\/p>\n March 13: The U.S. military conducted a large bombing raid on Kharg Island<\/a>, Iran\u2019s main oil export hub. Mr. Trump said the raid had targeted military infrastructure but did not hit oil facilities on the island, which is responsible for about 90 percent of Iran\u2019s oil exports.<\/p>\n March 17: The Israeli military killed two of Iran\u2019s top leaders<\/a>: Ali Larijani, the head of the country\u2019s National Security Council, and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij, a militia aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The deaths represented the biggest blows to Iran\u2019s leadership since Feb. 28.<\/p>\n March 18: Iran and U.S. allies traded attacks on key energy infrastructure in the Gulf. Israel attacked Iran\u2019s South Pars gas field<\/a>, which accounts for about 70 to 75 percent of its natural gas production. Qatar, a U.S. ally, said Iran had struck its Ras Laffan Industrial City,<\/a> which is the world\u2019s largest liquefied natural gas export plant.<\/p>\n March 23: Mr. Trump said<\/a> that the United States and Iran were discussing an end to the war. It was the first public indication of diplomatic talks since the war began.<\/p>\n March 27: An Iranian strike injured<\/a> 12 U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia on the Prince Sultan Air Base, one of the most serious breaches of U.S. air defenses in the war.<\/p>\n April 3: Iran shot down a U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter jet carrying two crew members, one of whom was recovered safely that day. The risky search-and-rescue operation<\/a> for the second airman lasted two days and took commandos deep inside Iran. The downing of the F-15E was the first time that a U.S. combat aircraft was shot down in the war.<\/p>\n April 7: Mr. Trump announced a two-week cease-fire with Iran. Iran\u2019s National Security Council confirmed the agreement, casting it as a victory.<\/p>\n April 8: Israel launched its heaviest bombardment<\/a> of Lebanon since the start of the fighting, with more than 100 airstrikes in the space of just 10 minutes targeting Hezbollah. Israel said the U.S.-Iran cease-fire did not include Lebanon. On the same day, Iran publicly released a 10-point framework<\/a> for talks, which included some maximalist demands.<\/p>\n April 11: Vice President JD Vance traveled to Islamabad for peace talks with Iran, brokered by Pakistan. Mr. Trump\u2019s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, joined him. The Iranian delegation<\/a>, led by the speaker of Iran\u2019s Parliament, Gen. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, included top diplomats, top military brass and finance experts.<\/p>\n April 12: The talks ended with no agreement<\/a> as the two sides failed to compromise on major points, including Iran\u2019s uranium stockpile and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n April 16: Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a 10-day cease-fire in Lebanon in a deal brokered<\/a> by U.S. diplomats, removing a major stumbling block to the talks between Iran and the United States.<\/p>\n April 17: Iran and the United States released statements declaring the Strait of Hormuz open<\/a> to commercial vessels, following the Lebanon cease-fire agreement. Less than 24 hours later, Iranian officials closed the waterway and maritime officials recorded two incidents<\/a> of vessels being hit.<\/p>\n April 19: American Marines fired on and seized<\/a> an Iranian cargo ship that tried to evade the U.S. naval blockade.<\/p>\n April 21: Mr. Trump announced that he was extending the cease-fire<\/a> with Iran, hours before it was set to expire, saying he would give Tehran time to come up with a new proposal to end the war.<\/p>\n May 1: Mr. Trump rejected Iran\u2019s latest proposal<\/a> to end the war. On the same day, the president sent letters to Congress<\/a> saying that hostilities with Iran \u201chave terminated.\u201d The letters argued that the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which requires a president to seek congressional authorization to continue military operations after 60 days, did not apply because of the cease-fire.<\/p>\n