Live Updates: Trump Says Strikes Killed Leaders U.S. Saw as Successors in Iran

 

Live Updates: Trump Says Strikes Killed Leaders U.S. Saw as Successors in Iran

President Trump rejected suggestions that Israel forced his hand in attacking Iran, and said that it was unclear who would take over the country because likely candidates were dead. Global stock and oil markets are in turmoil.

Updated

March 3, 2026, 2:39 p.m. ET45 minutes ago

Jim Tankersley Shawn McCreesh Anton Troianovski and Joe Rennison

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/03/world/iran-war-israel-lebanon-trump

 

Here’s the latest.

President Trump said on Tuesday that officials the United States had eyed as potential new leaders of Iran had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign. As the war in the Middle East widened, he said that the worst outcome would be that whoever takes over Iran could be “as bad” as their predecessors.

 

Speaking to reporters at the start of a White House meeting with Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, Mr. Trump claimed that Iran had been about to attack its neighbors and Israel, and he made the decision to go to war to pre-empt that action. Officials with access to U.S. intelligence have said that Mr. Trump has exaggerated the immediacy of any threat Iran posed to the United States.

 

When asked about a worst-case scenario for the future of Iran, Mr. Trump said that it would probably be “you go through this and in five years you realize you put somebody in who’s no better.”

 

In a legally mandated notification to Congress sent later on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the strikes on Iran were carried out to protect the homeland and U.S. forces in the region, advance U.S. national interests and “in collective self-defense of our regional allies, including Israel.” He also said “it is not possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that may be necessary.”

 

The prospect of a widening conflict in the Middle East saw global stock markets tumble and the price of oil surge, sending a shudder through the world economy. With Iran retaliating for ongoing strikes by the U.S. and Israel, the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia warned of imminent drone and rocket attacks in Dhahran, the eastern city that is home to Saudi Aramco, the government-controlled oil producer, threatening to put more pressure on global oil supplies.

 

More than 800 people have been killed in the conflict across the Middle East since Saturday, when the United States and Israel launched their opening attacks on Iran and killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 

Here’s what we’re covering:

 

Hezbollah attacks: Fighting escalated between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said that it had targeted weapons storage facilities in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, as Hezbollah said it had fired attack drones at Israel. Israel’s advance in southern Lebanon prompted fears that it could be weighing a wider ground assault there. Read more ›

 

Iran succession: Asked who he would like to take over Iran, Mr. Trump gave a strikingly blunt answer. “Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”

 

U.S. advisory: The State Department urged Americans to depart immediately from 14 Middle East countries. The advisory cited “serious safety risks” and included Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, along with Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories. The U.S. embassies in Riyadh, Kuwait City and Beirut were closed until further notice.

 

Death toll: Iran’s Red Crescent Society, the country’s main humanitarian relief organization, said on Tuesday that the death toll had risen to 787 since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Saturday. The Pentagon said that six U.S. service members had been killed in the conflict and the Lebanese health ministry said that at least 31 people had been killed in fighting. In Israel, at least 10 people have been killed, and in the Gulf, there have been six deaths since Saturday, according to the authorities.