President Donald Trump says he is not ready to make a deal with Iran because “the terms aren’t good enough yet”, according to a new interview with NBC.
The US leader said American forces had “totally demolished” military targets on Iran’s critical Kharg Island but suggested he might continue bombing it “just for fun”.
It comes as Israel launched “wide-scale” strikes on Iran overnight as the raging war between the countries entered its third week.
Residents of several neighbourhoods in southern Lebanon and Beirut were also ordered to evacuate by Israel on Sunday ahead of the latest wave.
An Israeli attack on a factory in Isfahan killed 15 workers, according to Iranian media.
On Saturday, the US-backed country targeted heavily armed checkpoints across Iran, according to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Writing on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump called for “many countries” to send warships to the area to help end the blockade and listed the UK, China, Japan, France and South Korea among them.
The route has been under siege after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to take "complete control" of the waterway through which one fifth of the world's oil and liquefied gas passes.
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Iranian missile fragment hits US consul in Israel, says Israeli media
A fragment of an Iranian missile struck a residential building used by the U.S. consul in Israel, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
The reports did not immediately provide further details on the incident.
Iran arrests dozens of people accused of being informants for Israel
Dozens of people have been accused of sharing sensitive information with Israel, local media reported on Sunday.
In northwestern Iran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that 20 people were arrested on accusations by the provincial prosecutor's office of sending location details on Iran's military and security assets to Israel.
Northeastern Iran, which has remained relatively untouched by air strikes, saw the arrest of 10 people on Sunday, with some accused of collecting information on sensitive locations and economic infrastructure.
“As the Zionist enemy (Israel) and the U.S. are attempting to invade Iran, they simultaneously activate mercenaries and spies to carry out riots as the next step,” a provincial branch of the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence organisation said, according to Tasnim.
The Student News Network also reported on Sunday that three people were detained in the western province of Lorestan for "seeking to disturb public opinion (…) and burn mourning symbols."
Israel has begun attacking checkpoints on the ground using information from local Iranians.
In pictures: Aftermath of Israeli strikes on Beirut
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Norway PM hits out at US-Israel war in Iran: 'Plan seems pretty unclear'
Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre has expressed his concern about a lack of strategy in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
“The plan over the Iran war seems pretty unclear,” he said on Sunday.
He added that he was “concerned that there seems to be an escalation.”
After attacks on Iran's oil facilities, toxic black rain endangers the public
Clouds of toxic smoke unleashed into the atmosphere by US-Israeli airstrikes on Iranian oil facilities made a dangerous return to Earth in the form of “black rain,” prompting international health officials to warn of serious risks to the public.
Residents in Tehran complained last week of burning eyes and difficulty breathing when the dark and oily precipitation fell near the Iranian capital after several fuel oil depots and a refinery were struck.
Plumes of dark smoke have also been seen across other parts of the region over two weeks of war, as Iran retaliates against US-Israeli airstrikes by firing drones and missiles at the oil and natural gas facilities of its Persian Gulf neighbors.
Rain washes hazardous chemicals out of the atmosphere in a relatively short period of time, experts said, but people exposed to black rain should take precautions to avoid short- and long-term health risks.
After attacks on Iran's oil facilities, toxic black rain endangers the public
Black rain fell in Iran's capital after airstrikes on oil facilities sent up dark clouds of toxic smokeMaira Butt15 March 2026 10:45
Watch: 'Black rain' falls in Iran as toxic smoke billows from bombed oil depots
Israel does not plan to hold talks with Lebanese government in coming days
Foreign minister Gideo Saar has said that Israel is not planning on holding any talks with the Lebanese government in the coming days as it continued to bomb southern Lebanon and Beirut.
It had previously threatened to take over parts of the territory due to what it said were threats from Hezbollah and the government’s inability to deal with the group.
He added of the ongoing conflict: “We share a decisiveness with the US to continue the war with Iran until we achieve our goals.”
Despite refusing to talk to the Lebanese government, he said Israel expects the government to “take serious steps to stop Hezbollah from shooting at Israel.”
On Sunday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to several neighbourhoods in southern Lebanon and Beirut.
Health officials say at least 826 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since 2 March.
Iran's supreme leader is in 'good health' says foreign minister
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said that the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is in “good health” and “fully controlling the situation” according to an interview with Alaraby Aljadeed.
He welcomed any attempts to end the war but said “there is no particular initiative on the table so far to end the war".
The second-oldest son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed on 28 February was appointed new supreme leader after his death. He has not appeared in public since the appointment and his first state broadcast was read by a presenter on 12 March.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the leader was “not alive” while US secretary of war Pete Hegseth said he had been “disfigured”.
‘There is nothing, no one left’: Inside Lebanon’s destroyed south where Israel threatens ground invasion
Against the intermittent thump of distant Israeli airstrikes, the elderly couple sit on the floor of a brightly coloured classroom, sobbing.
Today they have fled their village in southern Lebanon under bombing, to this absurdly purple room covered in children’s scrawls. Neither of them can walk. They carry only a few bags between them.
Early this morning their youngest son, Mohamed, 38, a father of three and their carer, had been shredded in an Israeli airstrike on his car between Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre, where we are sitting, and their village.
The part-time electrician had been shuttling between his wife and three children, who were staying in a displacement camp in the coastal city, and his elderly parents, who, too old and infirm to move, were sheltering in their village of Chaatiyeh. Both are in Israel’s evacuation zone.
The Independent’s chief international correspondent Bel Trew reports:
Inside Lebanon’s destroyed south: ‘There is nothing, no one left’
For nearly two weeks Israel has been pounding swathes of Lebanon. Bel Trew and Rana Najjar report from Tyre, in the south of the war-ravaged country, as it is locked in a fierce battle with the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group HezbollahMaira Butt15 March 2026 09:47
Israel orders evacuation of parts of southern Lebanon and Beirut
Israel has warned several neighbourhoods in southern Lebanon and the capital Beirut to evacuate “immediately” as it vowed to unleash “wide-scale” attacks on the country.
Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the warning applies especially to residents of Haret Hreik, Ghobeiry, Lilaki, Hadath, Burj al-Barajneh, Tahwitat al-Ghadir and Chiyah.
Adraee warned that Israel will not hesitate to target “anyone found in the vicinity of Hezbollah operatives”.
“You are putting yourselves and your lives at risk… evacuate the area immediately,” he writes on X.
