Middle East crisis live: Trump claims Iran has agreed ‘never’ to have a nuclear weapon as he reportedly approves sending more troops to region | US-Israel war on Iran
Trump approves deployment of more than 1,000 extra soldiers to Middle East – reports
We’re getting more reports now of Donald Trump approving the deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.
Sky News and NBC News are reporting that Trump approved the deployment last night and the orders are being written today for the headquarters, staff, and some ground forces, but not the full brigade.
The full brigade consists of over 3,000 troops, but this deployment will be fewer than half that — under 1,500 soldiers, which clears up earlier reports that thousands of additional troops would be sent.
The extra troops have not yet left the US, but could be sent overseas in the coming days.
The 82nd airborne is an elite infantry division specializing in forcible entry parachute assaults.
Key events
IDF issues evacuation threats for Beirut’s southern suburbs
The Israeli military issued a fresh warning to residents in Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs to evacuate on Tuesday night.
In a social media post, IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the military is continuing its operations and attacks on what it describes as “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the region.
Residents in seven neighbourhoods including Haret Hreik, Laylaki, Haddad and Borj el-Branjeh, must “evacuate immediately” to avoid harm, he said.
The day so far
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Donald Trump claimed negotiations to end the Iran war are happening “right now” and that Tehran had agreed to “never” have a nuclear weapon. “We can say this is regime change,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, adding: “We’ve won this war.” He also said members of his administration are negotiating with Iran and claimed that Tehran gave him a “gift” which was “oil and gas related” and related to the strait of Hormuz, without giving any further detail.
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A reminder that Trump’s claims come a day after Iranian officials denied that any contact with the US had taken place, and called such claims of talks “fake news” designed to “manipulate” oil markets.
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Indeed, Iran’s military today vowed to fight on until it had achieved “complete victory”. Major general Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi mocked the United States as a “hollow” nation that has been “brought down in front of the world”, with Trump left “trying to escape from the war” it started.
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Further undermining Trump’s repeated claims that there are talks happening and that they are pointing towards a possible peace, the US is sending more than 1,000 extra troops to the Middle East, multiple outlets reported. Trump approved the deployment last night, and the extra troops, from 82nd Airborne Division, have not yet left the US, but could be sent overseas in the coming days. The elite infantry division specialises in forcible entry parachute assaults.
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Meanwhile, Lebanon faces an “existential crisis” after Israel announced plans to seize and occupy swathes of the country’s south to create a so-called “security zone”, officials warned. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, had earlier said he had instructed the IDF to establish control over a so-called “buffer” south of the Litani River, about 20 miles from the current Israel-Lebanon border – and the remaining bridges it hadn’t yet destroyed. Many Lebanese fear that the Israeli occupation of a large part of southern Lebanon could become long-term. Indeed, Katz said the hundreds of thousands of south Lebanon residents who were displaced by the war this month “will not return south of the Litani River until security is guaranteed for the residents of the north” of Israel. On the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people who have had to flee the south, one Lebanese politician said:
For the first time, there is no more life. There’s no more human presence. So, it’s much more dangerous than occupation. It’s really the destruction of an entire area.
Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani thanked Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a phone call for efforts aimed at regional de-escalation, according to a statement from the emir’s office on Tuesday.
Erdoğan said earlier in the day that Turkey would continue working with all its resources to establish peace in the US-Israel war on Iran, which he said has hit the Turkish economy and the whole world.
The Turkish president also said his government is considering a number of measures to protect the economy, as the war has engulfed the region and sent energy prices soaring.
IAEA confirms projectile struck Iran’s Bushehr plant and no harm reported
Since my last post on this, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that it has been informed by Iran that a projectile struck the premises of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
The IAEA said in a post on X that according to Iran there was no damage to the facility or injuries to staff and that conditions at the plant remain normal.
The UN watchdog’s director general Rafael Mariano Grossi reiterated the call for maximum restraint to avoid nuclear safety risks during conflict.
Trump approves deployment of more than 1,000 extra soldiers to Middle East – reports
We’re getting more reports now of Donald Trump approving the deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.
Sky News and NBC News are reporting that Trump approved the deployment last night and the orders are being written today for the headquarters, staff, and some ground forces, but not the full brigade.
The full brigade consists of over 3,000 troops, but this deployment will be fewer than half that — under 1,500 soldiers, which clears up earlier reports that thousands of additional troops would be sent.
The extra troops have not yet left the US, but could be sent overseas in the coming days.
The 82nd airborne is an elite infantry division specializing in forcible entry parachute assaults.
Iran says US and Israel attacked Bushehr nuclear power plant site
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization has reported that a projectile hit the grounds of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, following what it described as continued hostile actions by US and Israeli forces, in a statement published by Iranian news outlets.
The incident, which took place on Tuesday night, caused “no financial or technical damage, and no casualties”, and “no part of the facility” was affected, it said.
The AEOI said the same nuclear power plant was hit on 17 March, with that incident also resulting in no casualties or damage.
It stated that attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities constitute a “clear violation of international regulations regarding the immunity of such centers from military action”, and warned of “dangerous consequences for regional safety, particularly for countries along the Persian Gulf”.
Donald Trump also said that his defence secretary Pete Hegseth was “quite disappointed” by the prospect of the US negotiating a ceasefire with Iran.
“Pete didn’t want it to be settled,” he said, adding that Hegseth and General Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, were the “only two people that were quite disappointed”.
Trump called it a “good attitude” to have – which doesn’t really make sense given his repeated claims that the US and Iran are talking and it’s going very well.
They were not interested in settlement,” he said of Hegseth and Caine. “They were interested in just winning this thing.”
He had just moments ago said that negotiations with Iran to end the war were under way “right now”, claiming Tehran wants to make a deal “so badly”.
“We’re in negotiations right now,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner were involved, Trump said.
‘We’ve won this war,’ Trump claims
Speaking at the White House earlier, Trump was asked how hopeful he is that a peace deal with Iran will work. He responded:
This war has been won.
He claimed that if he wanted to take down something like “that very big powerful power plant” – referring to Iran’s South Pars gas field, which he has previously threatened to attack – “they can’t do a thing about it”.
Iran is “wiped out militarily”, he claimed, adding:
They are dead.
There was, however, very little in Trump’s remarks that gave any sense of how the war could actually end.
Trump has stopped taking questions from reporters.
Trump: Iran has given US gift ‘worth a tremendous amount of money’ related to strait of Hormuz
Trump says Iran has given the US a gift “worth a tremendous amount of money” related to oil and gas.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the President didn’t specify what the gift was but said it was related to the strait of Hormuz.
He said Iranian negotiators “did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present.”
He continued: “It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money ….so that meant one thing to me. We’re dealing with the right people.”
Trump claims Iran ‘want to make a deal so badly’
Trump has claimed Iran badly wants to make a deal.
Speaking in the Oval Office, he said: “We’re actually talking to the right people and they want to make a deal so badly, you have no idea how badly they want to make a deal,” Trump said of the Iranians.
Trump claims Iran has ‘agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon’
Donald Trump has claimed Iran “agreed they will never have a nuclear weapons”.
Speaking to reporters while swearing in Markwayne Mullin as new Homeland Security Secretary, he said Iran was “talking to us and they’re talking sense.”
He continued: “It all starts with they cannot have a nuclear weapon,” adding: “I don’t want to say in advance, but they’ve agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon. They’ve agreed to that.”
Axios is reporting the US and a group of regional mediators are discussing the possibility of holding high level peace talks with Iran.
Donald Trump is due to hold a swearing-in ceremony for his new homeland security secretary at the White House shortly. I’ll bring you any relevant lines here if he makes any comments about his war on Iran.
US to send thousands more soldiers to the Middle East – reports
The Pentagon is expected to send thousands of troops from the elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, two people familiar with the matter have told Reuters, adding to the massive military buildup even as the Trump administration apparently seeks talks with Iran.
The Wall Street Journal hears similar, and puts the number of additional troops at 3,000.
A written order to send the soldiers from the US army’s 82nd airborne unit is expected to be released in the coming hours, two US officials told the paper.
It’s unclear where in the region the troops would be sent to and when they would arrive there.
The US military referred to the White House, which did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
It follows reports on 13 March of 5,000 US marines and sailors, along with an amphibious assault ship, being sent to the region.
Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that he doesn’t want to US boots on the ground in Iran – but also hasn’t ruled it out.
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