Iran war grinds on amid conflicting messages from Trump and Tehran

Iran named a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander as the new secretary of the country's Supreme National Security Council on Tuesday, replacing Ali Larijani, who was killed in an airstrike.

Iranian state television identified the new secretary as Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr.

Zolghadr reached the rank of brigadier general in the Guard. He had been serving as the secretary of Iran's Expediency Council.

Ali Larijani was killed in strikes last week by Israel, marking a significant moment for the Islamic Republic in the conflict.  

Bets on the oil market worth half a billion dollars were made by traders about 15 minutes before President Trump posted on social media Monday declaring "productive conversations" with Iran, the Financial Times newspaper reported. After Mr. Trump's post, the price of crude oil tumbled.

"It's hard to prove causality . . . but you have to wonder who would have been relatively aggressive at selling futures at that point, 15 minutes before Trump's post," a market strategist at a U.S. brokerage firm told the FT.

The timing of the trades echoed large, profitable bets made on the prediction market Polymarket around the timing of the U.S. strikes on Venezuela and Iran, the FT reported.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said "the White House does not tolerate any administration official illegally profiteering off of insider knowledge, and any implication that officials are engaged in such activity without evidence is baseless and irresponsible reporting."

The price of Brent crude crept back above $100 a barrel early Tuesday after plunging on President Trump's claim the previous morning of advanced talks with Iran - which Tehran quickly denied.

Brent crude, referred to as the international standard in oil pricing, traded at $104 a barrel early Monday morning but later eased to $100.94, still a significant course reversal after it plummeted 10% on Mr. Trump's remarks the previous day. At over $100 a barrel, the price represents an increase of at least 40% since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran on Feb. 28.

Stock markets appeared more optimistic after Mr. Trump's remarks. Global benchmarks mostly rebounded Tuesday, with France's CAC 40 gaining 0.4% in early trading, the German DAX edging up 0.2% and Britain's FTSE 100 inching up less than 0.1%. 

In the U.S., Dow futures were up less than 0.1% at 46,536.00 and S&P 500 futures were also virtually unchanged, declining less than 0.1% to 6,634.50.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 added finished up 1.4%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% and South Korea's Kospi got a significant bump to close up 2.7% along with Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which rose 2.8%.

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Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement Tuesday accusing Israel of "taking advantage of the regional war environment and the media's focus" on Iran to ramp up its attacks against alleged Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The IRGC accused Israel of "widespread war crimes against civilians in Lebanon and Palestine, crossing all red lines in genocide."

The Israeli military acknowledges ongoing operations in Gaza, where a ceasefire technically ended the three-year war with Hamas late last year, though there are routine accusations that the agreement is being violated.

Israel has announced multiple expansions of its operations in Lebanon since the Iran war began, including airstrikes across the country and ground forces seizing ground in the south and ordering tens of thousands of civilians to flee. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the assault will continue until the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah no longer poses a threat to communities in northern Israel. 

The Israel Defense Forces says it takes all possible measures to avoid harming civilians, including evacuation orders, though residents have reported multiple strikes near the Lebanese capital that came without warning.

In its statement Tuesday, the IRGC said unless Israel changes its tactics, "enemy gathering points" in northern Israel and Gaza "will be targeted without hesitation by heavy missile and drone attacks."

A missile slammed into a street in central Tel Aviv as Iran kept up its barrages targeting Israel and Gulf Arab states on Tuesday, hours after President Trump said the U.S. was in talks with Tehran to end the war.

Iran dismissed the claim of ongoing negotiations as "fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets," and Israel's leader vowed to continue striking Iran and Lebanon regardless of diplomatic forays, to "protect our vital interests, in any case."

Iran fired multiple waves of missiles at Israel early Tuesday, with reports of an impact in the country's north. In Tel Aviv, a missile with a 220 pound warhead slipped through Israeli defenses and slammed into a street, blowing out the windows of an apartment building and sending smoke billowing.

"We saw destruction, smoke, and chaos," rescue service worker Yoel Moshe told reporters at the scene minutes after the missile struck. Four people suffered minor wounds, he said.

Israeli emergency service personnel gather at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, March 24, 2026. Jack GUEZ /AFP/Getty

In Kuwait, power lines were hit from air defense shrapnel, causing partial electricity outages in several hours. Missile alert sirens sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 19 Iranian drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.

Earlier in the day, Israel pounded Beirut's southern suburbs again, saying it was targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group. A strike on a residential apartment southeast of the Lebanese capital killed at least two people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

While President Trump said Monday that he was extending his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic for five days to allow for talks, postponing his threat to attack Iranian power plants, the Israeli and U.S. militaries have said strikes will continue against Iranian military targets.

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The head of the International Energy Agency says the global economy faces a "major, major threat" because of the Iran war.

Fatih Birol told Australia's National Press Club in Canberra the crisis in the Middle ⁠East has had a worse impact on oil than the two oil shocks of the 1970s combined, and a worse effect on gas markets than the Russia-Ukraine war.