President Trump said negotiations with Iran were going well and that Tehran, “out of a sign out of respect,” would allow 20 oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. But speaking to reporters on Air Force One Sunday night, he added, “you never know with Iran, we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.”
In an interview with The Financial Times published Monday, Trump said the U.S. could “take the oil in Iran” and that he was considering sending U.S. forces to seize the Kharg Island oil terminal. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” he told the British paper. “It would also mean we had to be there (on Kharg Island) for a while.”
Day 31 of the Iran war — key developments:
Regime change
On Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Trump said the US-Israeli campaign in Iran has, to some extent, produced regime change. He claimed “the one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead,” referring to senior officials killed during the conflict, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Khamenei was replaced earlier this month by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been publicly seen and may be wounded; the son is widely viewed as continuing Iran’s hardline theocracy. “So I think we’ve had regime change, I mean you can’t do much better than that,” Trump said.
Outrage over Patriarch
War restrictions and religious tensions collided as Israeli police barred the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to hold private Palm Sunday prayers, citing limits on gatherings in the Old City. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and another church leader were stopped; public gatherings in Israel are capped at 50 because of the war and threats from Iranian missiles, with tighter controls around holy sites. World leaders and the pope criticized the closure, and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee spoke out against it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said the Cardinal would be given full and immediate access.
Strikes and exchanges
Despite Trump’s upbeat words on talks, fighting continued. The Israel Defense Forces said it had struck weapons-production facilities in Tehran overnight, including a site used to assemble long-range anti-aircraft missiles, and continued bombing southern Beirut suburbs as part of its Lebanon campaign. Hezbollah said it fired rockets at bases in northern Israel and at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. The IDF reported two soldiers seriously wounded by anti-tank fire in southern Lebanon; the casualties follow the death of a Connecticut-born Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon the prior day.
Israel said it had hit about 140 targets in Iran over the weekend. Iran reported several strikes hit universities and has threatened to target U.S. campuses in the Middle East in retaliation. Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom warned the strikes are worsening conditions at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, which it helped build and which has been hit multiple times during the war. Separately, the International Atomic Energy Agency said bombing had rendered an Iranian heavy water production plant at Khondab inoperable; the IAEA confirmed satellite analysis showed the installation had sustained severe damage and contained no declared nuclear material.
Iran struck back over the weekend, attacking an industrial zone in southern Israel and starting a fire at a chemical plant that raised fears of a leak. Iranian forces also hit a power and desalination plant in Kuwait overnight, killing a worker from India, the Kuwaiti ministry of water and electricity said. Desalination plants are crucial in Gulf Arab states, which rely on them for drinking and basic needs. After Israeli strikes severely damaged two of Iran’s largest steel plants, Iran attacked aluminum factories in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain over the weekend; Emirates Global Aluminum reported significant damage to its facility in Abu Dhabi.
Oil prices and market effects
Markets reacted sharply to Trump’s comments about seizing Iranian oil and Kharg Island. Oil rose to $116 a barrel on Monday. Brent crude has climbed more than 50% since the start of March, surpassing the previous monthly surge of 46% during Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Asian stock markets tumbled on the spike. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was holding talks with energy industry leaders, including BP and Shell, while Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to push for accelerated clean-energy measures to insulate the U.K. from global price shocks. In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a temporary cut to fuel and diesel taxes for at least four months to ease pressure on consumers.
Attacks on infrastructure
Iran reported its electricity grid remained stable after weekend attacks caused localized power cuts. Iranian state media said shrapnel from strikes damaged power equipment in Tehran and nearby Karaj, producing hours-long blackouts. The IAEA noted the heavy water plant at Khondab was no longer operational after reported attacks. Russia warned about damage at the Bushehr nuclear plant. Authorities also reported damage at water and industrial facilities across the region as cross-border strikes targeted critical infrastructure.
Reporting contributions were made by Carrie Kahn in Jerusalem, Emily Feng in Van, Turkey, Aya Batrawy in Dubai, and Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg.