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 11, 2026, 11:41 AM EDT

Iran says its national football team will not attend World Cup

Iran's national football team will not take part in the upcoming World Cup, due to the current situation following recent U.S.-Israeli attacks, Iran’s Sports and Youth Minister Ahmad Donyamali said Wednesday.

Donyamali added that recent developments show “the conditions are not suitable” for Iran’s national team to participate in the tournament, the official state Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Wednesday.

"Our team members have no security at all to attend the World Cup," he said, as the semi-official ISNA News Agency reported Wednesday.

-ABC News' Maryam Moqaddam and Somayeh Malekian

Mar 11, 2026, 10:27 AM EDT

Largest-ever release of oil reserves in IEA history

Oil-rich countries agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market in the largest-ever release of oil reserves in International Energy Agency history.

The 32 IEA member countries unanimously agreed to the decision, aiming to address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East.

“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA Member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol on Wednesday.

Mar 11, 2026, 10:22 AM EDT

Trump says there’s ‘practically nothing left to target’ in Iran

President Donald Trump told Axios in a phone interview Wednesday that there is “practically nothing left to target” in Iran and that he’ll end the war “any time I want,” according to a report.

The president said Iran “will not get off that easy” after targeting several countries in the Middle East.

"They were after the rest of the Middle East. They are paying for 47 years of death and destruction they caused. This is payback. They will not get off that easy," the president reportedly said.

Trump also repeated that the war is going well.

“The war is going great. We are way ahead of the timetable. We have done more damage than we thought possible, even in the original six-week period," he told Axios.

-ABC News' Fritz Farrow

Mar 11, 2026, 9:06 AM EDT

US-Israeli operation to continue 'as long as necessary,' Israeli minister says

The joint operation against Iran being carried out by the Israel and United States will continue for "as long as necessary," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday.

"This operation will continue Without any time limit, as long as necessary, until we achieve all the objectives and win the campaign," Katz said at a meeting with military leaders in Tel Aviv.

Smoke rises from a building following a reported strike, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran in this screen grab obtained from social media video released March 11, 2026.
Social Media/via Reuters

"We will continue to act and crush the regime and also the strategic objectives of this regime in Tehran and throughout Iran day after day, target after target," Katz said. "We will continue to do this also to enable the Iranian people to rise up and act and overthrow this regime. Ultimately, it depends on them."

Katz described what's left of the Iranian leadership as "cowards" that "flee like mice into the tunnels."

-ABC News' Jordana Miller

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