Dubai, United Arab Emirates- Three weeks after the war escalation in Middle East, Iran threatened on Friday to expand its retaliatory attacks on tourist and recreational sites around the world, while USA announced the sending of more warships and marines to the region.
Hours later, the president Donald Trump He said on social media that his administration was considering “winding down” military operations in the region. Its publication came after another rise in oil prices caused a sharp drop in the US stock market.
The conflicting messages came at a time when the war shows no signs of abating.
As Israeli airstrikes landed in Tehran, Iran launched more attacks against Israel and energy facilities in neighboring Gulf Arab states, and the region celebrated one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar. Iranians also celebrated the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normally festive holiday.
With little information coming out of Iran, it was unclear how much damage its weapons, nuclear or energy facilities had suffered in the punishing US and Israeli attacks that began on February 28, or even who was actually in charge of the country. But Iran’s attacks continue to choke off the supply of oil and affecting the global economy, raising food and fuel prices beyond the Middle East.
The United States and Israel have offered varying reasons for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that will overthrow Iran’s leaders to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of such an uprising and no end to the war in sight.
1 / 9 | The third week of war in the Middle East, in images. Volunteers clear debris from a residential building damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli attack in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) – Vahid Salemi
The United States close to meeting its objectives
In his message on social media, the president stated: “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider concluding our major military efforts in the Middle East.”
The position seemed at odds with his administration’s move to bolster its firepower in the region and request another $200 billion from Congress to fund the war.
The United States is deploying three more amphibious assault ships and about 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. Two other US officials confirmed the ships’ deployment but did not say where they were headed. The three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
News of the deployment comes just days after the United States redirected another group of amphibious assault ships carrying another 2,500 Marines from the Pacific to the Middle East. The Marines will join the more than 50,000 U.S. troops already in the region.
Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces to Iran, but has also said he retains all options.
American and Israeli leaders say weeks of attacks have decimated the Iranian military. In addition to the Iranian supreme leader, airstrikes have also killed the head of the Supreme National Security Council and other senior military and political leaders.
Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, spokesman for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, was quoted by a state newspaper on Friday as saying that Iran continues to make missiles despite Iran’s claim Israel that it had destroyed Iranian production capacity. Iranian state television later said Naeini had been killed in an airstrike.
Attacks beyond the Middle East
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised the steadfastness of Iranians in the face of war in a written statement read on Iranian television on the occasion of Nowruz. He claimed that the US and Israeli attacks were based on the illusion that killing Iran’s top leaders could bring about the overthrow of the government.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since he became supreme leader after the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Israeli strikes at the start of the war that reportedly also wounded him.
General Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran’s top military spokesman, warned Friday that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” around the world will not be safe for the country’s enemies. The threat renewed concerns that Iran could once again use militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.
Withdraws its mission from Iraq
The top commander of the I’LL TAKEGeneral Alexus Grynkewich, confirmed on Friday that the alliance has withdrawn several hundred troops from Irak and has relocated them to Europe. They were part of the NATO security advisory mission established in 2018 to advise Iraqi defense and security officials.
The measure was adopted after a series of Iranian attacks against other troops at British, French and Italian bases in the country.
Iran has stepped up its attacks on energy facilities in the Arab Gulf states after Israel bombed Iran’s massive South Pars natural gas field earlier this week.
Two waves of Iranian drones attacked a Kuwaiti oil refinery early Friday, causing a fire. The Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, which can process about 730,000 barrels of oil a day, is one of the largest in the Middle East.
Bahrain said a fire broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile fell on a warehouse, and Saudi Arabia said it had shot down several drones targeting its oil-rich eastern province.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure, along with its control of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that transports a fifth of the world’s oil and other essential products, have raised fears of a global energy crisis.
Brent crude, the international standard, has soared during the fighting and was around $108 a barrel on Friday, up from about $70 a barrel before the war began. Another rise in oil prices shook stock markets.
In his social media post, Trump also left a confusing picture about whether the United States would police the strait, saying that other nations using it would have to do so but that it should not be necessary once the threat from Iran “is eradicated.”
Trump has called NATO partners “cowards” for not directly joining the operations to secure the sea route.
British ministers said on Friday they had agreed to allow the United States to use UK bases in operations to prevent Iran from attacking ships in the strait.
They celebrate the end of Ramadan
Strong explosions shook Dubai when air defenses intercepted gunfire over the city, where many were celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Loud explosions were also heard in Jerusalem after the Israeli army warned of the arrival of Iranian missiles. The Israeli military said missile fragments hit the edge of Jerusalem’s Old City, where holy sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims are located.
More than 1,300 people have died in Iran during the war. Israeli attacks on Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have displaced more than a million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people have been killed. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missiles and another four in the occupied West Bank. At least 13 US service members have died.
On Friday, Israel expanded its strikes into Syria, saying it had attacked infrastructure there in response to what it described as attacks against the Druze minority. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Israel had acted under “flimsy pretexts and fabricated excuses.”
