Iran vowed to continue missile attacks and ruled out negotiations with the United States on Tuesday, minutes after President Donald Trump predicted the war would be “over very soon,” underscoring a widening gulf in messages as strikes rippled across the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz remained largely closed to oil tankers.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told PBS News the country is prepared to sustain its campaign “as long as necessary” and that talks with Washington are “no longer on the agenda.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards added that they, not the United States, would “determine the end of the war.”
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Trump, speaking at a news conference in Florida, said the conflict would be a “short term excursion” and warned that if hostilities resumed after a pause, Iran would “be hit even harder.” Markets swung with the rhetoric: stocks initially sank and oil prices jumped as missiles flew, but Wall Street rebounded on the president’s signals of a short war. Tokyo and Seoul also opened higher.
The exchanges came as Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, son of assassinated former leader Ali Khamenei, took power as Iran’s new supreme leader. Iranian forces launched fresh waves of missiles and drones toward Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Israel on his first day in office, according to regional officials. A missile fired toward NATO member Turkey was intercepted by alliance air defenses, the second such attempt in five days.
Diplomatic attention centered on the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for nearly 20% of global crude shipments. French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris and partners are developing a “purely defensive” mission to help reopen the waterway and escort ships “after the end of the hottest phase of the conflict,” a move that would place naval vessels within range of Iran’s coast. Kamal Kharazi, a foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN that Tehran calculates economic pressure will push other countries to intervene to end the war.
Shipping disruptions mounted. Roughly 10 vessels in or near Hormuz have come under attack since Iran blocked the strait in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes, according to maritime experts. Global carrier MSC said it is halting some export shipments from the Gulf, meaning cargo already at sea will be unloaded and held.
Energy infrastructure remained under fire. After strikes ignited a blaze at Bahrain’s Al Ma’ameer oil facility, state-owned Bapco declared force majeure, joining Qatar and Kuwait in warning they may miss export targets due to events beyond their control. Saudi Arabia said it thwarted a drone attack near an oil field in the east, close to the Emirati border.
Civilian tolls ticked up. Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said an Iranian strike on a residential area in Manama killed one person and injured others. In Israel, at least one person was killed by shrapnel after about 10 explosions were heard in Tel Aviv as the military reported missiles inbound from Iran. Israel said it struck an Iranian missile launcher shortly afterward.
The war’s northern front also intensified. Israeli-Hezbollah fire across Lebanon’s border since March 2 has killed at least 486 people and wounded more than 1,300, local authorities say. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Hezbollah of working to “collapse” the state; the group’s parliamentary bloc said it had “no other option … than the option of resistance.”
Inside Iran, state media showed tens of thousands celebrating Mojtaba Khamenei’s selection in central Tehran, with loyalist groups across the region — including Yemen’s Houthis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — pledging allegiance. Russian President Vladimir Putin promised “unwavering support,” Iranian outlets reported. Trump said he was “disappointed” by the appointment but remained open to a replacement from within Iran, likening it to Venezuela’s transition model. Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at the University of St Andrews, described the new leader as a hard-liner involved in “the most violent repressions” of the past 15 to 16 years.
At home, the United States marked another casualty. Vice President JD Vance attended the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base for Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, 26, who died March 8 of injuries from a March 1 strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The remains of six other U.S. service members have been returned.
With energy markets rattled, naval risk rising and combat still widening, the gap between Washington’s timeline for de-escalation and Tehran’s vow to fight on left no clear path to an immediate endgame in the Gulf.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
