Trump says war is moving ‘very rapidly’ and insists Iran is ‘paying a big price right

Iran’s deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi has insisted the country’s armed forces have not been laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

It comes after Iran warned the world to prepare for oil to hit $200 a barrel, after it attacked three cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The country has all but cut off access to the waterway, a chokepoint in global trade that ordinarily sees around 20 per cent of all oil pass through daily.

Since the start of the war in the Middle East, however, it has established a domineering presence in the Strait, leading to oil prices hitting a peak of nearly $120 a barrel, before dropping to its price at time of publication of $87.

The deputy foreign minister told AFP: ‘Some countries have already talked to us about passing the Strait and we have cooperated with them.’

But he issued a warning to nations which ‘joined the aggression’, arguing they should not expect to ‘benefit from safe passage’.

He added: ‘When the war started last June, after 12 days there was so called cessation of hostilities… but after eight or nine months, they regrouped and they did it again.’

The US military has said a refuelling aircraft has crashed in Iraq with rescue efforts currently underway.

A second plane involved in the incident is understood to have landed safely.

‘One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely. This was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,’ US Central Command, which is responsible for American forces in the Middle East, said in a statement.

The KC-135 is at least the fourth US military aircraft lost during the war in the Middle East, after three F-15s were shot down by friendly fire over Kuwait.

By Chris Pollard

Outdated targeting data may have led to a deadly US missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school, a preliminary inquiry has found.

The Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in the town of Minab was struck by a Tomahawk missile on February 28, killing 175. The victims were mainly children aged seven to 12.

It’s understood the building may have been part of a neighbouring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Navy compound at one time but was converted into a school a decade ago.

Read the full story below:

At least six French soldiers have been wounded in a drone attack targeting a joint Peshmerga-French base in the Makhmour area or Iraq, Erbil Governor Omed Koshnaw has said.

The strike involved two drones, the governor added, and no Peshmerga personnel were at the site at the time.

‘This is all the movement of the terrorist militias in Iraq and we reiterate that the Iraqi government are not taking it seriously,’ Xoshnaw said.

‘If these outlaws are part of the Iraqi government, then they are responsible. If they are not, then their security apparatus has a duty of reining these groups in.’

Speaking at the White House this evening, Donald Trump has once again touched on the Iran War, describing his opponents as ‘a nation of terror and hate’ and suggesting the country is ‘paying a big price right now’.

It echoes remarks he made at a rally in Kentucky yesterday, where he stated his administration had already ‘won’ the conflict in the Middle East.

‘Let me say we’ve won,’ he said. ‘You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won, in the first hour it was over, but we won.’

Adding how the US did not want to ‘leave [the conflict] early’, he said: ‘We’ve got to finish the job.’

Earlier, a shooter drove a truck carrying explosives into a Michigan synagogue with an attached preschool.

The truck caught fire after ‘something ignited’ when the gunman smashed into the Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township.

A man armed with a rifle was found dead inside the vehicle.

US President Donald Trump has now paid tribute to those affected and offered his support to the families.

He told a White House event: ‘I want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community and all of the people in the Detroit area following the attack on the Jewish synagogue early today.

‘I’ve been fully briefed, and it’s a terrible thing, but it goes on.We’re going to be right down to the bottom of it. It’s absolutely incredible that things like this happen.’

He then gave an update on the war with Iran, insisting it is going ‘very well’ and ‘moving along very rapidly’.

Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani has claimed Tehran is not planning to close the vital Strait of Hormuz, but adds it is the country’s inherent right to preserve the peace and security of the waterway.

He made the comments while speaking to reporters at the United Nations.

The IDF has revealed it has killed four ‘terrorists’ who crossed the yellow ceasefire line in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today.

A statement on X said: ‘IDF forces eliminated terrorists who violated the agreement and crossed the yellow line in northern Gaza Strip.

‘Combat teams of the “Iron Fist” Brigade (205) operating in northern Gaza Strip identified earlier today four terrorists who crossed the yellow line and approached the forces in a manner that posed an immediate threat.

‘Immediately after the identification, the forces eliminated the terrorists in order to remove the threat.

‘IDF forces under Southern Command are deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat.’

Discussing further his hope that the Iranian population will overthrow the regime, Benjamin Netanyahu evoked a proverb, saying:

You can lead someone to water, you cannot make him drink.

We will create optimal conditions to do this, including airstrikes as we did yesterday, as we are doing these days, to try to give them the space needed to take to the streets.

Asked whether he would pursue Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, Netanyahu replied: ‘I wouldn’t take out a life insurance policy on any of the leaders of the terror organisations.’

After discussing the progress of the war in Iran, and then urging the Iranian people to act against the ruling regime, Benjamin Netanyahu is now discussing his friendship with US President Donald Trump.

He says:

We have created an alliance unlike any before with the United States – an alliance with our great friend, my personal friend, President Trump.

We speak almost every day. We speak freely, exchange ideas and advice, and make decisions together.

Netanyahu adds he and Trump spoke a short time ago and the president told him: ‘Our relationship is one hundred times stronger than any relationship that has existed between an American president and an Israeli prime minister.’

He continues:

We are not thinking only about our countries, or only about this generation. We are thinking about future generations – about the future of humanity.

In these days, my team and I are weaving additional alliances with countries in the region – alliances that only a few weeks ago would have seemed imaginary.

Iran has threatened to wreak havoc on the region’s oil and gas industry if its own energy infrastructure is targeted during its war with the US and Israel.

‘We will set the region’s oil and gas on fire with the slightest attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure and ports,’ a spokesman for the Iranian military’s central operational command, known as Khatam al-Anbiya, said.

More from Benjamin Netanyahu as he addresses both the Israeli population and the Iranian people.

We are working to advance another objective: to create the conditions that will allow the Iranian people to remove the cruel tyrannical regime that has oppressed them for nearly fifty years.

We are delivering crushing blows to the Revolutionary Guards, their bases, their street forces, their checkpoints – and more is yet to come.

I say to the Iranian people: The moment when you will be able to embark on a new path of freedom is approaching. That moment is drawing closer. We stand with you. We are helping you. But in the end — it depends on you. It is in your hands.

If we had not acted immediately, within a few months Iran’s industries of death would have become immune to any strike. Therefore, we went out together to battle — the United States and Israel — to continue what we began and to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

To prevent Iran from developing ballistic missiles that threaten Israel, the United States, and the entire world. That is our objective.