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.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran on the first day of strikes and his son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to succeed him. Iran is responding 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.
Watch special coverage on Nightline, "War with Iran," each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a call with French President Emmanuel Macron that the Iranians are not prepared for talks to end the war, saying there needs to be assurances that there would be no more attacks on Iran.
"I emphasized [in the call with Macron] that Iran did not begin this atrocious war,” Pezeshkian said, according to a readout released by Iran.
“Speaking of ending the war, is meaningless, until we ensure there will be no more attacks in our land in the future," he said.
Mar 16, 2026, 12:37 PM EDT
Trump says countries 'on the way'
President Donald Trump, who has called on other nations to help protect the Strait of Hormuz, told reporters on Monday that “numerous countries have told me they’re on the way.”
“Some are very enthusiastic about it and some aren’t, some are countries we’ve helped for many, many years,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump speaks during a lunch with the Kennedy Center board members in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 16, 2026.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The president did not name countries that he says do not want to be involved, but he said, “We're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that is very minor. Very few shots are going to be taken because they don't have many shots left. But they said we'd rather not to get involved.”
The president went on to call Iran a “paper tiger.”
“I'd like to say their names,” he said of the countries, “but frankly, I don't know if they would want me to or not, because, maybe they don't want to be targeted, but I say wouldn't matter if you targeted or not, because this is a paper tiger that we're dealing with now.”
Later in the press conference, Trump said he does not need help from other countries.
Asked if he was confident that France would help with the re-opening of the Strait, Trump said, “Yeah. I mean, sure, he's going to," referring to French President Emmanuel Macron.
“I think he's going to help. I mean, I'll let you know. I spoke to him yesterday. I don't do a hard sell on them because my attitude is, 'We don't need anybody,” Trump said.
“We're the strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military by far in the world. We don't need them," Trump said. "But it's interesting. I'm almost doing it in some cases, not because we need them, but because I want to find out how they react. Because I've been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won't be there. Not all of them, but they won't be there."
Mar 16, 2026, 12:22 PM EDT
Trump: Iranian regime 'literally obliterated'
President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that the Iranian regime has "been literally obliterated.”
Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026.
Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via Reuters
“The Air Force is gone, the Navy is gone, many, many ships have been sunk. ... Anti-aircraft is decimated. Their radar is gone, and their leaders are gone,” he said.
“They’ve been a terror for 47 years, and now, I guess, the world or the United States, with the help of Israel, is doing what should’ve been done many years ago,” Trump said.
Trump also said the U.S. has attacked Iran’s manufacturing plants for missiles and drones, noting, “We just hit three of them today."
Mar 16, 2026, 10:11 AM EDT
Leavitt calls on other nations to secure Strait of Hormuz
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt talked about President Donald Trump’s call for other nations to help protect the Strait of Hormuz in a gaggle with reporters and an appearance on Fox News on Monday.
Leavitt said Trump wants allies to "step up" and do more for the security of the Strait of Hormuz “because these other countries are benefiting greatly from the United States military taking out the threat of Iran.”
Oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Mina Al Fajer, United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026.
Altaf Qadri/AP
"These countries are absolutely benefiting from ensuring that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon,” Leavitt told reporters.
"So I think the president is absolutely right to call on these countries to do more to help the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, so that we can stop this terrorist regime from restricting the free flow of energy, and the fact that they are doing so just underscores why President Trump needed to take this action in the first place," she told reporters.
Leavitt also provided an update on the current state of the war, saying the U.S. “continues to totally decimate the rogue Iranian terrorist regime.”
“We've now hit more than 7,000 targets. We've sunk more than 100 of their naval vessels. We are completely annihilating their Navy ,and their ballistic missile and drone strikes against the United States are down 95%,” she told Fox News.
