Eight months after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, the United States and Israel struck Iran on February 28, 2026, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran retaliated across the Gulf and its Revolutionary Guards declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, and oil prices rose to four-year highs. A Pakistan-brokered ceasefire and a June interim deal both broke down, and by late October 2026 Trump had ruled out strikes before the November 3 midterm elections while Qatar and other mediators sought a new agreement.
No US strike on Iran had been reported since early September as of October 28, the Associated Press said, and Trump has said the US will not attack before the November 3 midterm elections. Two diplomats told AP that US officials have told allies to prepare for possible strikes after the vote, Iran has called a new Qatari draft deal unacceptable, according to Reuters, and Mojtaba Khamenei warned on October 31 against renewed attacks. The US naval blockade of Iranian ports remains in place, CBS News reported.
US forces struck Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites, joining strikes Israel had been carrying out for more than a week, the Associated Press reported. Trump said the sites were "completely and fully obliterated." Iran's nuclear agency confirmed the attacks but said its work would not be stopped.
On the 12th day of the Israel and Iran war, Trump said a ceasefire was in effect, while saying both sides had violated it. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said Israeli strikes had killed at least 974 people in Iran, and at least 28 people had been killed in Israel, the Associated Press reported.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and an Iranian team held a second round of Oman-mediated talks at the Omani embassy in Geneva, after an earlier round in Muscat, The National reported. Araghchi said the sides agreed on "general guiding principles." Washington wanted Iran to end uranium enrichment, while Tehran wanted to keep it.
The United States and Israel struck Iran. US Central Command said operations began at 1:15 a.m. Eastern time, and Trump said US forces had begun "major combat operations" in a "massive and ongoing" operation to stop Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, Reuters reported. Iranian media citing the Red Crescent reported 201 people killed and 747 injured on the first day.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they fired missiles and drones at Israel, and Iran attacked US-linked sites in the Gulf. Bahrain said a US Fifth Fleet service centre was hit, and the UAE Defence Ministry said one person was killed by shrapnel in Abu Dhabi, Reuters reported. An Iranian drone strike on a port in Kuwait killed six US soldiers, the Associated Press later reported.
Iranian media first reported the strike on a school in Minab citing the local governor, and state media later reported funerals for at least 165 people including students, AFP reported. The New York Times, citing US officials, reported preliminary findings that a US Tomahawk missile hit the school because of a targeting error, and Israel's military said it found no connection to the strike. AFP said it could not independently verify the toll.
Trump said in a social media post that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been killed, hours before Iranian state media confirmed it, the Associated Press reported. Israeli officials also confirmed the death. Trump called it the greatest chance for Iranians to "take back their Country."
Iranian state media confirmed Khamenei's death early on March 1, dpa and the Associated Press reported. The Revolutionary Guard promised "a severe, decisive and regret-inducing punishment", and Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said Israel and the United States would "regret their actions."
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the Strait of Hormuz was "closed" and threatened to attack any vessel trying to pass, with a commander saying ships would be set "ablaze", according to remarks carried by Reuters and reported by MercoPress. Khaleej Times cited maritime data showing traffic fell by as much as 80 percent, with about 150 vessels stranded.
Brent crude rose 7.8 percent to $83.79 a barrel after touching $85.12, its highest since July 2024, Khaleej Times reported. The paper cited the US Energy Information Administration as saying the strait carries about 20 to 21 million barrels a day of crude and refined products, roughly one fifth of global consumption.
Iran's Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 clerics, met on March 8 and announced shortly after midnight Tehran time that it had appointed Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader's son, Reuters reported. AFP also dated his appointment to March 8. The armed forces' leadership pledged allegiance to him, and before the announcement Trump told ABC News that Washington should have a say in the choice.
Iranian officials said Mojtaba Khamenei was injured in the February 28 strike that killed his father. Tehran's ambassador to Cyprus told The Guardian he "was injured in that bombardment", and the president's son said he was "safe and sound", Al-Monitor reported. On May 25 Iran's Health Ministry spokesman said the wounds were only "superficial", AFP reported. He has issued only written statements since his appointment.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that a whole civilisation would die unless Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. Washington time, Al Jazeera reported. Dawn reported he threatened to "entirely decimate" Iran in one night. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked him to extend the deadline by two weeks.
Less than 90 minutes before his deadline, Trump announced a two-week ceasefire after talks with Sharif and Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir, saying Washington had received a "workable" 10-point proposal from Iran, Al Jazeera reported. Araghchi said Iran would abide by it if attacks on its territory stopped. Pakistan announced the ceasefire early on April 8 and said it included Lebanon, Dawn reported.
Vice President JD Vance led the US delegation and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf the Iranian side at Pakistan-hosted talks that ended without agreement, AFP reported. Vance called the US offer Iran's "final and best offer." Ghalibaf said the US side was "unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation." AFP said Iran sought frozen assets and an end to Israel's war against Hezbollah.
US Central Command announced a blockade of maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports, which the US military said would begin at 6 p.m. UAE time on April 13, AFP reported.
Iran's Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs put the war dead at 3,468, AFP reported. AFP said Iran's Legal Medicine Organization had counted 3,375 dead by April 12, and Asharq Al-Awsat reported that 383 of them were children, while the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency counted at least 3,636 dead by April 7, including 1,701 civilians. AFP said it could not independently verify tolls in Iran.
Brent crude briefly reached $126.41 a barrel, a four-year high, as talks stalled and the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively shut, CNN reported. AAA put the US average gasoline price at $4.30 a gallon. Euronews reported that the US and Iran were both maintaining their blockades of the strait.
In a written statement read on state television, Mojtaba Khamenei said Iranians would protect the country's nuclear and missile capabilities as national assets, the Associated Press reported. He said foreigners had no place in the Gulf "except at the bottom of its waters."
The US launched new airstrikes that ended before sunrise on June 11, after Trump warned Iran would "pay the price" for stalled negotiations, and Iran struck at Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, the Associated Press reported. India's shipping minister said three Indian mariners were killed after a US attack on a tanker that Central Command said had violated the blockade. A Qatari delegation negotiating in coordination with the US left Tehran after talks, AP reported, citing an official.
Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian digitally signed a 14-point memorandum extending the April ceasefire by 60 days, including in Lebanon, AFP reported, and AP said Trump signed during a dinner at Versailles. Reported terms included reopening the Strait of Hormuz with no charge, lifting the US blockade, unfreezing Iranian assets and a $300 billion reconstruction fund, and Iran pledged not to build nuclear weapons. The National named Pakistan and Qatar as mediators.
Citizen Digital (AFP)The NationalAM 920 The Answer (Associated Press)The US launched several days of airstrikes in response to Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran fired back at Arab countries hosting US troops, and the US reimposed its blockade of Iranian ports, the Associated Press reported on July 16. The Daily Aus reported Trump notified Congress that hostilities had resumed and said the US would impose a 20 percent toll on ships, which the International Maritime Organization opposed.
In a written statement carried by state television as hostilities resumed, Mojtaba Khamenei said continued US attacks showed the president's signature was "utterly worthless and devoid of credibility", Reuters and AFP reported. He said Iran and its allies had "unforgettable lessons to offer."
Two US service members were killed while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in Jordan, US Central Command said, bringing the Associated Press count of US military deaths in the war to 16. Iranian authorities said US strikes over the previous three weeks had killed at least 50 people.
US strikes targeted Iranian rocket launchers that Central Command said would launch sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz, ending a month without military action, the Associated Press reported.
Central Command said it had completed a barrage against Iranian air defence sites, radar systems and maritime assets, citing Iranian attempts to hit commercial ships and US forces. A Hormozgan deputy governor said a strike on a house hosting a wedding killed five people, including a child. Central Command said the reports came from Iranian state media, the Associated Press reported. AP later said the US had not struck Iran since early September.
The Revolutionary Guards said they targeted a US base on Jordan's Gulf of Aqaba coast. Jordan said it shot down 10 ballistic missiles, and Kuwait and Bahrain said they intercepted drones, the Associated Press reported. Iran's armed forces vowed "crushing and devastating blows" against the US.
Trump said the war would end after the midterm elections and that oil prices would then fall. Brent crude passed $100 a barrel for the first time since July, and AAA put the average price of regular gasoline at $4.22 a gallon, the Associated Press reported.
The US said indirect talks with Iran were held through Qatari mediators, while Oman separately discussed the management of shipping traffic with Iran, the Associated Press reported.
Araghchi said Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks seven days later if the US lifted its blockade of Iranian ports, waived sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observed a ceasefire including Lebanon, the Associated Press reported. At the UN, Pezeshkian said Iran would fight "until our last breath" but remained open to diplomacy.
Trump rejected the Iranian proposal in remarks to reporters outside the White House, and posted a map labelling the strait "Trump Strait", the Associated Press reported.
In a social media post, Trump said the US would not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections and that his team was having productive discussions with Iran, the Associated Press reported. AP said Iran had lost its near chokehold on the strait, with Central Command guiding tankers through the strait at night, while a US Navy blockade was shutting down Iran's own oil exports.
Iran had said the previous week that it received a US counterproposal, and Araghchi said Tehran expected to send a formal reply in the coming days, the Associated Press reported.
Updated Defense Casualty Analysis System data put US service members who died in connection with operations against Iran at 21, including two newly added non-hostile deaths, with 865 wounded since February 28, Task and Purpose and Shafaq News reported.
Qatari mediators presented Iran with a draft deal setting a seven-day timeline of daily confidence-building steps by both sides, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on October 28 that Qatar had brought "unacceptable ideas and not an offer", and that Tehran's nuclear position had not changed.
Two diplomats told the Associated Press that US officials had told several Middle East countries to prepare for possible renewed US military action against Iran after the November 3 elections, and for Iranian retaliation. The White House declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported the US urged Gulf states to prepare for "a short but intense military campaign", Ynet reported.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, a senior Iranian security official, to try to restart negotiations, citing a person who said it was sent at Trump's direction, according to Raw Story and ANSA. A week earlier Trump had told reporters the US was not negotiating with Iran, Ynet reported. On October 30 CBS News reported that Trump described the letter as outreach to help get medical supplies into Iran.
Araghchi said Iran was working with mediators on ideas from its September proposal, the Associated Press reported. Roya News, citing the Journal, reported that Rezaei said formal negotiations could not begin until Washington addressed Iran's core preconditions, and that Tehran has insisted the US recognise its right to enrich uranium.
In a statement posted on his Telegram channel, Mojtaba Khamenei warned that if Iran's enemies launched new military attacks, Iran's armed forces and people would decide when and on what terms the fighting ended, CBS News reported, citing AFP. Khaleej Times also reported that he warned the US against resuming attacks.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead”
“great crime will never go unanswered”
“We're going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement.”
“It's action in return for action.”
“We're not negotiating with them”
“continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed”
| War began | February 28, 2026, with US and Israeli strikes on Iran |
| Iran's leader | Mojtaba Khamenei, appointed by the Assembly of Experts in March 2026 after his father was killed |
| Deaths in Iran | 3,375 by April 12, per Iran's Legal Medicine Organization. At least 3,636 by April 7, per the Human Rights Activists News Agency |
| US military casualties | 21 dead and 865 wounded, per Pentagon data released October 9, 2026 |
| Oil peak | Brent briefly reached $126.41 a barrel on April 30, 2026, CNN reported |
| US cost | $47.1 billion, per the latest Pentagon estimate to Congress reported by AP in October 2026 |
| Mediators | Pakistan, Qatar and Oman |
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Dawn · dawn.com
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CBS News · cbsnews.comLast updated 1 November 2026. Spotted an error? See corrections. Every event links to the record it comes from. Allegations are attributed to whoever made them.