President Trump said negotiations with Iran are going well and that Tehran, “out of a sign out of respect,” would allow 20 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One Sunday night, he added, “you never know with Iran, we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.”
In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said the U.S. could “take the oil in Iran” and that he was considering sending U.S. forces to seize Kharg Island’s oil terminal. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” he told the paper. “It would also mean we had to be there (on Kharg Island) for a while.”
Here is coverage from day 31 of the Iran war.
Regime change
On the flight to Joint Base Andrews, Trump said the US-Israeli campaign had achieved regime change to some extent. He claimed the “one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead,” referring to senior officials killed during the conflict, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Khamenei was replaced earlier this month by his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen publicly and may be wounded; Mojtaba is widely viewed as a continuation of Iran’s hardline theocracy. “So I think we’ve had regime change, I mean you can’t do much better than that,” Trump said.
Outrage over Patriarch
War restrictions and religion collided when Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to hold private Palm Sunday prayers. Authorities cited war limits on gatherings in the Old City; public gatherings in Israel are restricted to 50 people because of the war and incoming missile threats from Iran. World leaders and the pope condemned the closure, and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee publicly rebuked Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said the Cardinal would be granted full and immediate access.
Israel strikes Tehran, exchanges fire with Hezbollah
Fighting continued despite Trump’s comments. The Israel Defense Forces said it struck weapons production sites in Tehran overnight, including a site used for assembling long-range anti-aircraft missiles, and Israel continued bombing in Lebanon, targeting Beirut’s southern suburbs. Iran-backed Hezbollah said it fired rockets at bases in northern Israel and at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. The IDF reported two soldiers were seriously wounded in southern Lebanon after anti-tank fire; a Connecticut-born Israeli soldier was killed in a separate operation in southern Lebanon the previous day.
Oil prices surge
Oil jumped to $116 a barrel Monday after Trump’s comments about potentially seizing Iranian oil and Kharg Island, and Asian stock markets tumbled. Brent crude has risen more than 50% since the start of March, exceeding the previous monthly surge seen during Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held talks with energy industry leaders including BP and Shell, while Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to push faster clean-energy measures to shield the UK from global price shocks. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a temporary cut to fuel and diesel taxes for at least four months to ease pressure on consumers.
Attacks on infrastructure
Iran reported its electricity grid remained stable after strikes caused power cuts in parts of the country. State media said shrapnel from weekend strikes damaged power equipment in Tehran and nearby Karaj, producing hours-long blackouts. Israel said it had hit about 140 targets in Iran over the weekend; Iran says some strikes hit universities and has threatened to target U.S. campuses in the Middle East in retaliation.
Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom warned that strikes are worsening conditions at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, which it helped build and which has been struck multiple times. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said bombing had rendered Iran’s Khondab heavy water production plant inoperable, confirming severe damage though noting the installation contains no declared nuclear material.
Iran retaliated with strikes across the region over the weekend, hitting an industrial zone in southern Israel and starting a fire at a chemical plant that raised leak concerns. Iranian forces also attacked a power and desalination plant in Kuwait, where authorities said an Indian worker was killed. Desalination plants are critical for Gulf states’ water supply. After Israeli strikes damaged two of Iran’s largest steel plants, Iran attacked aluminum factories in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain; Emirates Global Aluminum reported significant damage to its Abu Dhabi facility.
Reporting contributions came from Jerusalem, Van (Turkey), Dubai and Johannesburg.