{"id":499541,"date":"2026-03-02T16:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/499541\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:13:07","slug":"u-s-israeli-strikes-on-iran-where-things-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/499541\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S., Israeli strikes on Iran: Where things stand"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States and Israel targeted Iran in coordinated attacks over the weekend that killed\u00a0Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a>\u00a0and dozens of other senior figures and kicked off a furious Iranian response that was expanding into a\u00a0wider regional war<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Allies of the U.S.\u00a0pledged to help stop<\/a>\u00a0Iran\u2019s missile and drone strikes. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed strikes on Israel for the first time in more than a year, and Israel fired back.\n<\/p>\n

The first\u00a0U.S. military deaths<\/a>\u00a0have been reported. Other deaths have been confirmed in Israel and Gulf nations, while Iran has said several hundred people have been killed there.\n<\/p>\n

With Khamenei\u2019s death, the Islamic Republic must now choose a supreme leader for the first time since 1989.\u00a0U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0has urged Iranians to seize the moment and\u00a0overthrow<\/a>\u00a0the theocracy that cracked down on nationwide protests early this year. There was no sign that was happening.\n<\/p>\n

Around the world, some protested. Others cheered.\n <\/p>\n

The attacks came two days after the latest U.S.-Iran talks aimed at putting controls on Tehran\u2019s nuclear program. They echoed the events of last year, when talks were cut short by an Israeli attack that led to a 12-day war and U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. Washington has claimed that Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program in recent months.\n<\/p>\n

Iran has said it hasn\u2019t enriched since June<\/a>, but it has blocked inspectors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog from visiting the sites America bombed.\n<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where things stand.\n<\/p>\n

Iran<\/p>\n

The 86-year-old Khamenei was killed when his compound was bombed Saturday morning. Iran\u2019s ballistic missile sites, navy headquarters and warships were attacked as well. Iran said strikes also targeted the Natanz nuclear enrichment site. Israel and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, though Israel has said it is targeting the \u201cleadership and nuclear infrastructure.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Khamenei had no\u00a0designated successor<\/a>. Iran has set up a three-member leadership\u00a0council<\/a>, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said a new supreme leader would be chosen in \u201cone or two days.\u201d On the streets, there have been\u00a0scattered celebrations<\/a>\u00a0over Khamenei\u2019s death. Internet restrictions in Iran have complicated efforts to monitor what\u2019s happening.\n<\/p>\n

In retaliation, Iran\u2019s military has struck Israel, where several people have been killed. Iran has also targeted U.S. bases in the region. The U.S. military said four service members were killed, the first known U.S. casualties. Other Iranian strikes have killed a handful of people in Gulf nations including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and hundreds of flights have been affected at\u00a0some of the world\u2019s busiest airports<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

What to watch for: further military strikes, the selection of a new supreme leader, and reactions from the Iranian people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States and Israel targeted Iran in coordinated attacks over the weekend that killed\u00a0Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-499541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}