Trump calls Strait of Hormuz 'something that we don't need'

Trump told reporters that he is talking to countries about policing the Strait.

Last Updated: March 15, 2026, 9:09 PM EDT

President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israel strikes attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.

Iranian state television confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran on the first day of strikes. His son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen on Sunday to succeed him.

Iran is responding to the operation with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations. Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

(Read previous Iran live updates here.)

Watch special coverage on Nightline, "War with Iran," each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Mar 09, 2026, 2:31 PM EDT

At least 486 killed in Lebanon

At least 486 people have been killed and another 1,313 have been wounded amid Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli air strike in the Bir al-Abed neighbourhood of the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut on March 9, 2026.
Ibrahim Amro/AFP via Getty Images

The Israel Defense Forces has been issuing evacuations as it continues strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Mar 09, 2026, 2:16 PM EDT

36,000 Americans have returned from Middle East, State Department says

The State Department says it’s aware of 36,000 Americans who have returned to the U.S. from the Middle East via commercial and charter travel options since Feb. 28.

Americans board a U.S. Department of State flight on a plane chartered from a company that manages the New England Patriots team plane that left the Middle East bound for Washington, Mar 5, 2026.
U.S. Department of State/X

Assistant Secretary Dylan Johnson said that while the department has carried out over two dozen charter flights and that its evacuation operations continue, “most” Americans who had asked for help were now declining assistance and the availability of seats on charters has outpaced demand.

The State Department also said its 24/7 task force had provided some level of assistance to over 23,000 Americans abroad.

-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston

Mar 09, 2026, 1:23 PM EDT

Trump says he's 'nowhere near' decision on ground operation in Iran

President Donald Trump told the New York Post on Monday that he was “nowhere near” a decision on potential ground operations in Iran.

“We haven’t made any decision on that. We’re nowhere near it,” Trump said.

Trump also reiterated to the Post that he was “not happy” with the newly selected Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei.

Asked what his plans were for Iran’s new leader, Trump told the Post, “Not going to tell you. I’m not happy with him,” he said.

Mojtaba Khamenei the son of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, participates in an annual rally on Enghelab Street, celebrating the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran, Iran, on February 11, 2020.
Rouzbeh Fouladi/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Trump also waived off concerns about spiking oil prices.
“I have a plan for everything, okay?” Trump said in the interview.

“I have a plan for everything. You’ll be very happy,” he said.

-ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr

Mar 09, 2026, 11:27 AM EDT

France preparing 'defensive' 'escort mission' for Strait of Hormuz

French President Emmanuel Macron said he’s working with partners to prepare a "purely defensive" mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by escorting ships, once the "most intense phase of the conflict" in the Middle East has passed.

France is deploying eight warships, two amphibious helicopter carriers and the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and off the coast of Hormuz.

Macron said a coalition of partners -- coordinated by and headquartered in Greece -- had already been formed.

“We are in the process of setting up ...a purely defensive, purely escort mission, which must be prepared together with both European and non-European states, and whose purpose is to enable, as soon as possible after the most intense phase of the conflict has ended, the escort of container ships and tankers to gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is essential to international trade, but also to the circulation of gas and oil which must be able to be transported out of this region again,” Macron said.

Ali Larijani, head of Iran's supreme national security council, said in a post on X on Monday that it's "unlikely any security will be achieved in the Strait of Hormuz amid the fires of war ignited by the United States and Israel."

Larijani also implied that France has been supporting the war and "contributing to fanning it."

-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge

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