President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “extremely hard over the next two or three weeks” and bring the country “back to the Stone Ages,” even though he argued that all of his administration’s military objectives have been met or exceeded.
Trump didn’t say anything in his Wednesday night address about negotiations with Iran or mention his latest deadline of April 6 for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway
for global oil and gas transport. He has threatened to attack Iran's energy infrastructure if the strait was not reopened.
Trump also did not offer a clear path to end the supply disruptions that have sent energy prices soaring around the world. Instead, he urged countries dependent on supplies that normally move through the strait to go out and “grab it” themselves.
Oil rose more than 7% and stocks fell in Asia and Europe after the comments. U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday, as higher fuel prices raise food costs worldwide.
Here is the latest:
Stocks recovered most of their earlier losses as volatility returned to Wall Street after two days of solid gains. The S&P 500 was down 0.1% after slumping as much as 1.5% in early trading Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 87 points, or 0.2% as of 11:08 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%. Stocks in Europe pared their losses.
Oil prices remained elevated although down from earlier highs. The price for a barrel of U.S. crude rose to nearly $114 a barrel at one point.
The unsettled trading follows Trump’s failure in his national address to offer a clear timetable for ending the war. His comments appeared to dim the hopes for a near-term conclusion that had pushed stocks higher through most the week.
Days of closed-door consultations and high-level talks between Chinese, Russian and Bahraini officials have not yet resulted in a breakthrough on a draft proposal to open the critical waterway.
Moscow and Beijing objected to the latest draft Thursday despite some minor changes, arguing that language authorizing “all necessary means” to protect commercial shipping still goes too far.
That is according to a U.N. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic conversations.
“Actions by the UN Security Council should help ease tensions and bring about a ceasefire and the resumption of talks, rather than endorse illegal acts of war, still less add fuel to the fire,” China’s mission to the U.N. posted on X.
— By Farnoush Amiri and Edith M. Lederer
Argentina on Thursday declared Iran’s chargé d’affaires, Mohsen Soltani Tehrani, persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours.
The decision followed a statement from Iran’s foreign affairs ministry accusing President Javier Milei and Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno of acting under “the influence of the occupying and genocidal Zionist regime and the United States,” and of being complicit in U.S. attacks on Iran.
In late March, Argentina designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. The designation allows authorities to freeze its assets, funds and property and bars it from operating within the country’s financial system.
Argentina has long said that the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association “were planned, financed and carried out with the direct participation of the Iranian regime and operatives of the Revolutionary Guard.”
The 1992 bombing killed 29 people and injured more than 200. The AMIA attack killed 85 and wounded more than 300 in Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack.
The U.K. has been at the forefront of Trump’s ire since the onset of the Iran war on Feb. 28, when British Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to grant the U.S. military access to British bases. He has repeatedly lashed out at Starmer and branded the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers as “toys.”
For numerous reasons, the Royal Navy is, and has no reason to be, as big as it used it to be. But it’s not as feeble as Trump implies.
In the wake of Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and with another Middle East war underway, there’s a growing understanding across the U.K’s political divide that defense spending needs to be ramped up.
▶ Read more
Israeli strikes on March 28 killed Ali Shoeib, a correspondent with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar; and two journalists with Al-Mayadeen, the Lebanese pan-Arab television network: reporter Fatima Ftouni and her cameraman brother Mohammed, as they covered the war in southern Lebanon.
The UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday that the killings must be “promptly, fully and independently investigated by an international body.”
Israel’s military said without providing evidence that it had targeted Shoeib for being a Hezbollah intelligence operative. The U.N. experts said working for an outlet an outlet linked to an armed group does not constitute direct participation in hostilities.
“We denounce strongly what has now become a standard, dangerous practice of Israel to target and kill journalists and then claim, without providing any credible evidence, that they were involved with armed groups,” the UN experts said in a press release. “The only ‘evidence’ … is what they themselves admit is a photoshopped image of Ali Shoeib … a blatant demonstration of their disdain for international law.”
Israel has killed at least 259 journalists across regional conflicts since the Gaza war began in 2023, with at least 64 of them appearing to have been directly targeted, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says Beijing is willing to work with the European Union to end the war in Iran as soon as possible.
He made the comments in a phone call Thursday with Kaja Kallas, EU’s foreign policy chief. Wang said similar in a separate call with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
Wang also told Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan that the most urgent matter is halting the fighting.
Kallas said on social media that the EU “supports all diplomatic efforts” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and “calls for de-escalation and restraint.”
The Chinese foreign ministry statement said Kallas praised a five-point proposal from China and Pakistan urging hostile acts to end, peace talks to start and the strait to be secured.
Trump used his first major address since launching his war in Iran to assure Americans that all of his military objectives will soon be completed. But Trump finds himself facing both an enemy that refuses to throw in the towel and an increasingly skeptical electorate whose tolerance for the conflict is being stretched.
Most Americans believe recent U.S. military action against Iran has gone too far, and many are worried about affording gasoline, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in mid-March, a couple of weeks after the war started. While Trump is deploying more warships and troops to the Middle East, about 59% of Americans say U.S. military action in Iran has been excessive.
Meanwhile, 45% are “extremely” or “very” concerned about being able to afford gas in the next few months, up from 30% in an AP-NORC poll conducted shortly after Trump won reelection with promises that he would improve the economy and lower the cost of living.
▶ Read more
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the United States and Israel to stop the war and Iran to stop attacking its neighbors hours after Trump, in his address to Americans, said U.S. air strikes would intensify and gave no clear date for ending the conflict.
Guterres told U.N. reporters Thursday that Iran’s strangling of the Strait of Hormuz is impacting the daily lives of people around the globe who are now facing rising food and energy costs.
The secretary-general said diplomatic efforts are underway, but conflicts only end “when leaders choose dialogue over destruction.”
“Many aspects of the conflict may be uncertain but one thing is not: If the drums of war keep beating, escalation will only make all of this worse,” Guterres warned.
The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group fired some 80 rockets at Israel on Thursday, including one barrage that damaged an empty kindergarten in the northern town of Nahariya, causing no injuries, Israel’s military said. Images released by Israeli police and rescue services showed blown out windows, mangled metal and a large teddy bear strewn across the yard.
The escalated fire began as many Israelis prepared to celebrate the first night of Passover, and amid simultaneous fire from Iran.
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, warned Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem on Thursday that he and the militant group will “pay a very heavy price for the intensified firing toward Israeli citizens as they sit to celebrate the Passover Seder.”
“You will not get to see it, because you will be deep at the bottom of hell,” Katz said. His video statement was released by his office following an assessment with military officials.
Medical and nursing staff were evacuated on Thursday from Salah Ghandour Hospital in the southern province of Bint Jbeil as a precaution over fears of an Israeli ground advance at the western entrance of the city, where the hospital is located, Lebanon’s state news agency said.
The move comes as additional waves of Israeli airstrikes hit multiple areas across Bint Jbeil province, including the city and several nearby towns.
Israeli forces have continued widening their invasion along the southern border, pushing deeper into Lebanese territory.
The evacuation adds up to five hospitals now closed, according to the Health Ministry. Nine hospitals have been targeted by Israeli strikes so far, the ministry has said.
Over the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes killed 27 people and wounded 105, the Lebanese health ministry said Thursday.
The ministry said that overall, strikes have killed 1,345 people, including 125 children and 91 women, since Israel launched intense airstrikes across Lebanon after the Hezbollah militant group fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran on March 2. The strikes have also wounded 4,040 others.
Among those killed are 53 health workers, while Israeli strikes have targeted 82 emergency medical service facilities, the health ministry said.
So far, more than one million Lebanese have been displaced as Israeli ground forces continue their invasion into southern Lebanon.
An engineer living in Tehran said Trump’s threats to bring Iran back to the Stone Ages show he doesn’t care about the Iranian people.
The engineer, who has been in touch with The Associated Press before, said Thursday that Trump’s comments left him feeling “disgusted” and enraged, as it shows intent on destroying not the Islamic Republic regime but the country’s infrastructure and culture.
“He really doesn’t care about the people of Iran. He really doesn’t care about the future,” said the engineer, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals from Iranian authorities for speaking to foreign media.
The engineer said he for one is taking the threats seriously, anticipating a ground invasion that will be a “bigger predicament” for the invading troops and will set Iran back years.
— By Sahar Ameri
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group, said Thursday that his group took part in joint operations against the U.S. and Israel by launching missile and drone strikes this week.
“We will not stand idly by while the enemy achieves its goals, nor will we leave all the burdens on others as if we are not concerned,” he said during a televised speech.
Al-Houthi praised Iranian attacks that targeted U.S. and Israeli interests in the region such as crucial military bases and operations, saying joint operations would continue. He also expressed support for the Islamic Republic’s regime, and called for solidarity rallies in Sanaa on Friday.
Stocks are dropping and oil prices are soaring as the world reacts to Trump’s vow to continue attacking Iran without a clear timetable for ending the conflict.
The S&P 500 fell 1.2%, the Dow sank 600 points and the Nasdaq dropped 1.7% after U.S. markets opened Thursday. The price of U.S. crude oil jumped more than 10% to above $110.
In his first national address since the Iran war began, Trump did not mention the looming deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for global oil and gas transport. Thursday is the last day of trading on Wall Street this week with with the stock market closed on Good Friday.
▶ Read more
Iranian state television aired video Thursday showing members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard putting messages denouncing Trump on missiles they prepared to launch.
One of the messages read, in part: “Thank you to all those who, even in America itself, condemn the war wage by the CRIMINAL GANG IN THE WHITE HOUSE.”
Another referenced Jeffrey Epstein.
“We will spare no effort to mobilize Arab and international support,” Nawaf Salam said Thursday, calling for intensified diplomatic efforts to stop the war.
Beirut has sought to implement provisions of the U.S.‑brokered ceasefire of November 2024 requiring the Lebanese state to have a monopoly on arms and prevent Hezbollah and other non-state armed groups from conducting military operations. Lebanon’s cabinet in March 2026 banned Hezbollah’s military activities and demanded it hand over its weapons, and Lebanese authorities and the army said they completed a first phase of disarming Hezbollah south of the Litani River.
But that hasn’t stopped Hezbollah from repeatedly firing into Israel from southern Lebanon in the month since Israel began its latest attacks on Iran.
“Nothing reinforces linking the conflict on our land to the wars of others” more than reports of “joint and simultaneous operations,” he said, referring to the cross-border fire, supported by Iran, that provoked Israel’s overwhelming response. Salam said Lebanon is “the victim of a war whose outcomes or end date no one can predict.”
Nawaf Salam warned Thursday that Israeli statements and military actions point to “a significant expansion in the occupation of Lebanese territory, dangerous talk of establishing buffer zones or security belts, and displacement that has exceeded more than one million Lebanese.”
“It has become clear that the Israeli aggression against Lebanon will not be limited” to ongoing operations since the November 2024 ceasefire,” Salam said in a public statement following a cabinet session.
Israel, for the past 16 months, even before the renewed conflict with Hezbollah, struck southern Lebanon almost daily, targeting what it says were Hezbollah members and infrastructure.
Israel announced last week that it would enlarge a “buffer zone” up to the Litani River, effectively occupying an estimated 10% of Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he ordered Israel’s military to “further expand the existing security zone” to counter Hezbollah rocket fire.
As diplomats from more than 40 countries met to discuss ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the talks show “the strength of our international determination” to reopen the vital oil route.
She told officials attending the virtual meeting that “we have seen Iran hijack an international shipping route to hold the global economy hostage.”
Thursday’s talks are focusing on political and diplomatic measures, but Cooper said military planners from an unspecified number of countries will also meet to plot ways to ensure security once the fighting ends, including potential mine-clearing work and “reassurance” for commercial shipping.
The U.S. is not attending the meeting, which comes after Trump made clear that he thinks securing the waterway is not America’s job.
A famous Iranian human rights lawyer has been detained by authorities without any explanation, her daughter said Thursday.
Nasrin Sotoudeh was detained in Iran Wednesday night, her daughter Mehraveh Khandan wrote on Instagram. She said authorities also seized electronic devices in their raid.
Sotoudeh received the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Union in 2012. Her previous clients include Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi.
Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO and again raised the idea of leaving the alliance during a private lunch Wednesday. But any withdrawal would require congressional approval — a prospect Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday would be difficult.
“We got an awful lot of people who think that NATO is a very critical, incredibly successful post-World War II alliance,” Thune said of past conversations among Republicans about the move.
“I think in the world today, you need allies,” he added.
Emmanuel Macron said the United States cannot complain about a lack of support from allies after deciding to launch the Iran war without consultation.
“They can hardly complain afterward that they are not being supported in an operation they chose to undertake alone. This is not our operation,” Macron told reporters Thursday in Seoul, South Korea. “What we want is for peace to be restored as quickly as possible.”
Macron also addressed criticism of NATO by Trump, who has said he’s considering pulling the United States out of the alliance.
“When you have committed to an alliance, you live up to those commitments. You do not comment on them every morning. And the day there is a problem, you are there,” Macron said.
Iran’s parliament speaker claimed Thursday that 7 million Iranians stand ready to fight any U.S. ground invasion of the Islamic Republic.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has been discussed as a possible negotiating partner with the U.S., has offered a series of online posts challenging America since the war’s start.
“Right now, in less than a week, a powerful national campaign sweeping the country has brought forward around 7 million Iranians who have already stepped up and declared they’re ready to pick up arms and stand in defense of our nation,” he wrote on X.
This claim has been circulating on social media accounts for days. Qalibaf is the first high-ranking official to mention it in Iran, a nation home to some 90 million people.
It is unclear where this figure comes from, but state media and text message campaigns have urged people to volunteer. The government has also called on retired soldiers to express their interest in fighting, while the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force has begun accepting children as young as 12 into its ranks.
Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains a trickle compared to before the Iran war, with remaining tanker traffic dominated by sanctions-evading tankers carrying Iranian oil, according to the Lloyd’s List Intelligence shipping data firm.
Traffic through the Strait is down 94% compared to a year ago.
Iran is enforcing its so-called “toll booth” screening system in which vessels must deviate from the usual shipping channel in the middle of the strait and detour north around Iran’s Larak Island.
Vessel operators are being asked to contact approved intermediaries of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and provide information on ownership, cargo and crew before being allowed to pass.
Despite the nickname, only two of the at least 63 ships that have taken the Larak Island route are confirmed to have paid, while others appear to have passed based on diplomatic intervention from home governments.
In Iran’s capital, Tehran, people told The Associated Press on Thursday they remain concerned about Trump’s threats to bomb power plants.
“I see darker and bitter days if there is no electricity, then gas stations and water supply will stop,” said 33-year-old taxi driver Hassan Ramati. “I think daily needs like bread will not be available easily too.”
Mahmoud Zarei, a 49-year-old teacher, said the loss of electricity would exacerbate the problems Iranian face.
“This makes us, the people, weaker and I remember many governments continued their ruling for long time under similar situation like (Bashar) Assad in Syria and Iraq under Saddam Hussein,” he said.
Azita Mottaghi, a 43-year-old mother of two, darkly joked: “Is the outage a bonus after a month of war?”
“So far, we have suffered a lot,” she said. “Many lost their beloved ones and belongings, bombings abound, things like airports and bridges have collapsed and there’s a spike in prices.”
Barber Hamid Hassanzadeh, 27, joked: “I see Trump does not care about his haircut style but how can I run my haircutting machine without electricity?”
