President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran on the first day of strikes, with his son Mojtaba Khamenei later chosen to succeed him. Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations. Iran is also attempting to block some shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and expanding its ground operations in the south of the country.
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Iran says attack on facilities 'contradicts' Trump's promise
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. is contradicting its extended deadline for diplomacy after Israel claimed it struck infrastructure, including two of Iran’s largest steel factories and a civilian nuclear power plant, in coordination with the U.S.
Araghchi said a “heavy price” will be paid for "Israeli crimes."
President Donald Trump on Thursday agreed to cease attacks on Iran's power grid while negotiations continue.
Mar 27, 2026, 2:23 PM EDT
Israel says it struck Iranian nuclear facilities
The Israel Defense Forces said it has struck facilities linked to Iran's nuclear program on Friday.
The IDF said it struck the heavy water plant in Arak, central Iran, and struck a uranium extraction plant located in Yazd, central Iran.
The IDF's statement described the plant in Yazd as "the only one of its kind in Iran, where raw materials mined from the earth undergo mechanical and chemical processing so that they can later be used as raw materials for uranium enrichment."
Earlier, Iranian state media reported that nuclear facilities, including a heavy water plant and yellowcake production plant, had been targeted.
These strikes comes hours after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said IDF attacks in Iran would "escalate and expand."
-ABC News' Dorit Long
Mar 27, 2026, 2:22 PM EDT
Rubio declines to say if US plans to send ground troops in Iran
Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to answer questions about whether the U.S. planned to deploy ground troops in Iran.
"I don't think anyone in our system is going to talk to you about what we have planned or what we intend to do, and there's obvious reasons for it," Rubio told reporters Friday.
On the 15-point plan sent by the U.S. to Iran to end the war, Rubio said they hadn’t yet received a response from the country.
"We've had an exchange of messages and indications from the Iranian system, whatever is left of it, about a willingness to talk about certain things. We're waiting for further clarification about who will we allow--who is it that we would be talking to, what will we be talking about and when will we be talking,” Rubio said, adding they could move forward “at any moment.”
Mar 27, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT
Rubio warns G7 that Iran may try to toll Strait of Hormuz after conflict ends
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned G7 countries of the possibility that Iran may try to set up a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz after the end of the war, he told reporters Friday.
Rubio told reporters the administration’s goals for the conflict against Iran, insisting again "we are on or ahead of schedule in that operation, and expect to conclude it at the appropriate time here, in a matter of weeks, not months."
Fishing boats dot the sea as cargo ships, in the background, sail through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz off the United Arab Emirates, March 27, 2026.
AP
"I did describe to our allies, however, that immediately after this thing ends and we're done with our objectives, one of the immediate challenges we're going to face is an Iran that may decide that they want to set up a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz. Not only is this illegal, it's unacceptable, it's dangerous to the world and it's important that the world have a plan to confront it," Rubio said.
The secretary said that the U.S. was "prepared to be a part of that plan,” but it did not “have to lead that plan.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press before his departure following a G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting with Partner Countries before his departure at the Bourget airport in Le Bourget, outside Paris, March 27, 2026.
Brendan Smialowski/Pool via Reuters
"These countries have a lot at stake—not just the G7 countries, but countries in Asia and all over the world have a lot at stake, and should contribute greatly to that effort to ensure that neither the Strait of Hormuz or frankly any international waterways should never be something that's controlled or tolled by a nation state or by a terroristic government like the one that exists in Iran today,” Rubio said.
