Iran war latest: Fighting continues across the region as Strait of Hormuz remains a focal point

Trump threatens expanded strikes on Iran

President Trump is threatening to expand strikes on Iran. He says the U.S. has not even started to destroy what's left of Iran. Here is what he had to say via Truth Social: ""Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants! New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST! President DONALD J.TRUMP""

Iranian missile strikes on Friday ignited a refinery and damaged a desalination plant in Kuwait, while U.S. and Israeli forces continued targeting sites inside Iran. 

As the conflict entered its sixth week, Israel, Bahrain and Kuwait activated air-defense systems amid reports of explosions near Tehran and the city of Isfahan. Oil prices kept climbing as tensions further disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. 

President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will continue hitting Iran "very hard" over the next several weeks. The Navy also confirmed the largest U.S. aircraft carrier had departed Split, Croatia, and is ready for full mission tasking. The USS Abraham Lincoln remains in the Arabian Sea, while the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier departed Norfolk heading for the Middle East. 

Smoke rises from an oil warehouse on the outskirts of Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, following a suspected drone strike on April 1, 2026. (Photo by Gailan Haji / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Here’s the latest from Friday: 

Former Iranian diplomats suggest conditions for ceasefire

6:35 a.m. ET: Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's former top diplomat, told Foreign Affairs magazine of a potential path for a ceasefire in the with the war with the United States and Israel. 

Zarif insisted Iran is still "clearly winning" the war, but Tehran "should offer to place limits on its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions — a deal Washington wouldn’t take before but might accept now."

Zarif, who currently does not hold any official position in Iran's theocracy, previously helped reach the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. 

He also would likely have had to run this position past senior members of the country's theocracy in order to publish such a piece. 

 

War in Iran

The backstory:

The United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran’s supreme leader, as well as a dozen other leaders, were killed in a matter of days following the surprise attack.

By the numbers:

Thousands of U.S. service members have been sent to the Middle East and 13 have been killed. 

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. 

More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank. More than 1,300 people have been killed in Lebanon, in addition to 10 Israeli soldiers.