Iran live updates: Japan, 5 European countries condemn Iranian attacks on vessels
The nations also called for Iran to stop blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
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.
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US expedites over $16B in arms sales to Middle East countries
The U.S. State Department has green lit and fast-tracked more than $16 billion dollars’ worth of arms sales to the UAE, Jordan and Kuwait, according to the government.
The UAE has been cleared to purchase 10 Site- Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat Systems, which are used to detect, track and neutralize hostile drones; long-range discrimination radar integrated with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense for missile defense; F-16 munitions and upgrades; and 400 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles. The estimated cost for these sales is just under $8.5 billion, according to the department.
Kuwait is seeking to buy Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor Radars for an estimated cost of $8 billion, while Jordan is looking to make a smaller purchase of aircraft and munitions support and related equipment for an estimated cost of $70.5 million, according to the department.
All sales are being fast-tracked due to an emergency declaration made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, waiving congressional review requirements, according to the department.
The UAE is a designated “major defense partner” of the U.S., and at the beginning of this year, it was the 11th largest U.S. defense customer by value. Kuwait, a major non-NATO ally, has also purchased numerous large arms packages from the U.S. in recent years, according to the department.
'War needs to stop immediately,' Qatar PM says
Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called for an immediate end to the war during a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
"Everyone knows who benefits from this war and from dragging the region into this conflict. Unfortunately, what is happening now is in service of these agendas," he said.
Qatar reserves the "right to respond to this attack through all available legal means and for these attacks there will be a cost according to international law," he said.
Qatar ordered Iranian embassy officials to leave the country on Wednesday over the repeated targeting of its territory after Iran struck the world's largest liquified natural gas terminal in Qatar.
US might lift sanctions on Iranian oil already at sea, Bessent says
In the latest effort to ease spiking oil prices, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. might lift sanctions on Iranian oil that's already out at sea.
"In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that's on the
water. It's about 140 million barrels," Bessent said in an interview
Thursday on Fox Business.
This would be a major reversal in U.S. policy, which has sanctioned
Iranian oil for decades. And, in the middle of the war, it would mean
Iran stands to make more money by selling its oil to the highest bidder.
Analysts say Iran has actually increased its own volume of oil exports
since the start of the war, because Iranian tankers have been able to
pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Bessent said the Iranian oil would have been going to China. He
suggested the sanctions waiver would reduce oil prices because it could
go elsewhere and add more global supply to the market. ABC News has
asked the Treasury Department for more clarity on how exactly that would
work.
"In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians
to keep the price down for the next 10 or or 14 days as we continue this
campaign. So we have, we have lots of levers. We've got plenty more
that we can do," Bessent added.
-ABC News' Elizabeth Schulze and Michelle Stoddart
F-35 stealth fighter jet makes emergency landing during combat mission in Iran
A U.S. F-35 fighter jet had to make an emergency landing in the Middle East just before midnight on Wednesday while flying a combat mission over Iran, according to Capt. Tim Hawkins, a Centcom spokesperson.
The aircraft landed safely at a U.S. base in the region and the pilot is in stable condition. It’s unclear if the stealth fighter was hit by Iranian fire.
This was first reported by CNN.
-ABC News' Steven Beynon
Iran says it showed restraint in response to infrastructure attacks
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that Iran’s response to attacks on its infrastructure has so far reflected only a “fraction” of its full capabilities.
He added that Iran’s restraint was intended to "respect requested de-escalation," but cautioned that if such attacks continue, Tehran would no longer hold back.
"ZERO restraint if our infrastructures are struck again. Any end to this war must address damage to our civilian sites," Araghchi wrote in a post on X.
IDF says journalists wounded on camera by Israeli strike in south Lebanon were in area warned about strikes
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it struck a river crossing in southern Lebanon on Thursday, after video widely circulated on social media purportedly shows the Israeli strike hitting just meters away from British journalist Steve Sweeney, a Beirut-based correspondent for state-run Russia Today, while he was was speaking on camera.
RT's editor-in-chef, Margarita Simonyan, who shared the video online, said in social media posts that Sweeney and his cameraman were wounded in the Israeli strike and are both conscious in a hospital.
Simonyan said an IDF aircraft fired on the car carrying the two journalists as they were crossing a bridge in southern Lebanon.
"War journalists are not legitimate targets," Simonyan wrote in a post on X on Thursday.
The IDF said it has targeted Litani River crossings in recent days "that Hezbollah used for both terrorist movement and to transfer thousands of weapons."
"In footage released in the past few hours, a journalist is seen at the 'Qasmiya' crossing," the IDF added in its statement. "An explicit warning had been issued regarding this area. The crossing was struck after sufficient time had passed since warnings."
"The IDF calls on the residents of Lebanon to heed the warnings published on various platforms," the IDF said. "The IDF does not target civilians or journalists and operates in accordance with international law."
Death toll in Lebanon now exceeds 1,000 people, Health ministry says
More than 1,000 people have now been killed and 2,584 others injured in Lebanon amid ongoing Israeli strikes, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Of those killed were 118 children, 79 women and 40 health care workers, the ministry said.
-ABC News' Ghazi Balkiz
Gabbard says US has less clear picture of Iranian leaderships' intentions, positions
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified to Congress that the U.S. has a less clear picture on the intentions and positions of Iranian leadership now in power, telling members of Congress that the intelligence community believes Iran’s new supreme leader is more hardline than his father, who was assassinated by Israel.
Gabbard testified that the intelligence community assesses that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is so hardline, some of Iran's leaders thought he was too aggressive. He was also involved in ordering the killing of Iranian protesters in recent waves of protest across the country, Gabbard said.
Asked if the U.S. is "less certain" of the positions of Iranian leadership now than it was 60 days ago, Gabbard said "yes."
Gabbard also said it was “unknown at this time” whether Mojtaba would uphold or lift a fatwa issued by his father in 2003 which barred Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons.
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