It added that he had decided to focus on battering Iran\u2019s missiles and navy, before looking to pressure Iran diplomatically to reopen the Strait.<\/p>\n
Tehran has largely blocked the vital Strait of Hormuz oil route in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks, pushing up global energy prices. The US national average retail price of gasoline crossed $4 a gallon for the first time in more than three years on Monday, data from price-tracking service GasBuddy shows, as the US-Israeli war with Iran rages on.<\/p>\n
Trump on Monday touted<\/a> \u201cgreat progress\u201d in negotiations for a deal to end the war, but warned that if a deal isn\u2019t reached and the Strait of Hormuz isn\u2019t \u201cimmediately \u2018Open for Business,\u2019\u201d then the US would move ahead with \u201cblowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet \u2018touched.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition \t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n Despite Trump\u2019s insistence that a deal would likely be reached, the US has been deploying thousands of troops to the region over the past week in preparation for a potential ground operation.<\/p>\n \t Reports have suggested that the preparations for a ground operation may be an attempt to pressure Tehran into acquiescing to American terms to end the war.<\/p>\n Further complicating efforts to end the war, he New York Times reported<\/a> on Monday that the US-Israeli decapitation of Iran\u2019s leadership since the outbreak of the war has hampered Tehran\u2019s ability to make decisions.<\/p>\n The killing of dozens of Iranian leaders also complicates Washington\u2019s efforts to negotiate with the officials in Tehran who remain, The Times reported, adding that Iran\u2019s negotiators may have little knowledge about what their government is willing to concede.<\/p>\n However, the targeting of the leadership has also hampered their ability to coordinate major retaliatory attacks, the report said citing unnamed officials familiar with US and Western intelligence assessments.<\/p>\n American officials told The Times that the assassinations have led to the further empowering of hardliners from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n The report came after Trump confirmed that the person the US was engaging with was, in fact, hardline Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. He earlier declared that the US was negotiating with a \u201cnew and more reasonable\u201d leadership in Iran.<\/p>\n Ghalibaf has maintained a combative personality through his X account in the war, mocking the Americans and issuing threats. The former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander has seen his profile rise as senior members of the theocracy have been killed.<\/p>\n \t PM: No timeline on when Iran war will end, but over half our missions achieved<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the war on Iran has achieved more than half its aims, without putting a timeline on when it would end.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely beyond the halfway point. But I don\u2019t want to put a schedule on it,\u201d Netanyahu told the conservative US broadcaster Newsmax.<\/p>\n He added that he meant the war was more than halfway \u201cin terms of missions, not necessarily in terms of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Netanyahu said the war has achieved goals, including killing \u201cthousands\u201d of members of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards.<\/p>\n Israel and the United States are also \u201cclose to finishing [Iran\u2019s] arms industry,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cJust the whole industrial base \u2014 wiping out\u2026 entire plants, and the nuclear program itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Netanyahu also voiced confidence that the Islamic Republic would fall.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this regime will collapse internally. But at the moment, what we\u2019re doing is just degrading their military capacity, degrading their missile capacity, degrading their nuclear capacity and also weakening them from the inside,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n \t Hegseth\u2019s broker looked to buy defense fund before Iran attack \u2014 report<\/p>\n Amid the ongoing war, controversy emerged over reports that a broker for US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to make a big investment in major defense companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran.<\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in the asset manager\u2019s Defense Industrials Active ETF, shortly before the US launched military action against Tehran, the Financial Times reported<\/a>, citing three people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cThis allegation is entirely false and fabricated,\u201d chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell tweeted in response to the story.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tShips sail through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz as the sun sets in the United Arab Emirates, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26088470462585-1-e1774932863703-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tMembers of the Basij paramilitary force stand at a checkpoint in Tehran, Iran, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F260319SSPOOL03-e1774933038901-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem, March 19, 2026. (Shalev Shalom\/POOL)<\/p>\n
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