Trump says we're 'blowing up the whole country' if Iran doesn't make deal in 48 hours
Two C-130 aircraft were lost during the operation, an official said.
President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.
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Key Headlines
Bessent says US will 'retake control' of Strait of Hormuz either through US or multinational 'escort'
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on "Fox and Friends" that the U.S. will “retake control” of the Strait of Hormuz either through a U.S. or multinational escort.
Bessent, who was responding to a question about the impact of roughly 30 ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz Sunday and Monday, attempted to quell fears about the state of the global oil trade and the current supply.
“The market is in deficit about 10-to-12 million barrels a day. And we're making up for that deficit,” Bessent said, citing the release of 400 million barrels of oil from the International Energy Agency’s strategic reserve and the U.S. easing sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil already on the water.
“The market is well supplied, and we are seeing more and more ships go through on a daily basis as individual countries cut deals with the Iranian regime for the time being,” Bessent said. “But over time, the U.S. is going to retake control of the Straits and there will be freedom of navigation, whether it is through U.S. or a multinational escort.”
-ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr
IDF hits university in Tehran
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a university in Tehran, Imam Hossein University. The IDF said one of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' "central military infrastructure sites" is within the compound of the university, with the IDF calling the school "an emergency asset for the regime’s military bodies."
This comes after the IRGC warned that it now considers American universities in the region legitimate targets, saying if any more of its universities are hit, it will retaliate.
The American University in Beirut has moved all classes online as a precaution.
-ABC News’ Zoe Magee
Rubio: There are 'fractures' inside Iranian leadership
George Stephanopoulos asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio on "Good Morning America" about President Donald Trump’s assertion on Truth Social that the U.S. was "in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME” about ending the military operation against Iran.
Rubio responded, "Well, I'm not going to disclose to you who those people are, because it probably would get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside of Iran.”
Rubio did say that “there's some fractures" within Iranian leadership.
"And if there are new people now in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the entire world,” he continued. "But we also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even the probability that that is not the case.”
When Stephanopoulos pushed Rubio for more clarity, he responded, "you have people there that are saying some of the right things privately.”
"But at the end of the day, we have to see if these people end up being the ones in charge, seeing if they're the ones that have the power to deliver. We're going to test it. We are hopeful that’s the case,” he went on. "There are clearly people there talking to us in ways that previous people in charge in Iran have not spoken to us in the past. ”
Rubio also said that Trump’s comments indicated that he “prefers diplomacy,” despite his threats of repercussions if the talks failed.
-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston
Trump threatens broad strikes on Iran infrastructure if talks fail
President Donald Trump said in a post to social media on Monday morning that the U.S. is currently engaged in "serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran," but threatened to expand U.S. strikes if the negotiations fail.
"Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately 'Open for Business,' we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet 'touched,'" Trump wrote.
"This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime's 47 year 'Reign of Terror,'" Trump added.