Iran war updates: Tehran says ready for long war, Israel expands strikes

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In the meantime, here are some of today’s top developments:

• Ongoing US-Israeli attacks on Iran have killed at least 202 children and 223 women, including three pregnant mothers, Iran’s Health Ministry reported.
• Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 850 people have been killed and 2,105 have been wounded since Israel escalated its attacks on the country on March 2. More than 830,000 have been displaced by the war, fleeing Israeli attacks and threats on their homes.
• Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters has accused the US and Israel of using a replica of the Iranian Shahed drone, the Lucas drone, for regional attacks and attributing these to Iranian forces.
• Israel’s Health Ministry says at least 108 people have been wounded as a result of its war on Iran in the past 24 hours.
• US Energy Secretary Chris Wright says he expects the war on Iran to end “in the next few weeks”, while National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett says the Pentagon estimates it would take between four and six weeks.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has insisted that Tehran has not requested a ceasefire or sought negotiations with Washington, saying the country will continue defending itself.

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry says it has intercepted and destroyed six drones in the Eastern Province.

Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has held a phone conversation with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

According to a statement from Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, the top officials discussed the military escalation in the region and its serious repercussions on regional and international security and stability.

“Both sides reiterated their condemnation of the unjustified Iranian attacks on the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and a number of other sisterly countries,” the statement said.

“They stressed, in this context, the need for an immediate cessation of all escalatory actions, a return to the negotiating table, the prioritization of reason and wisdom, and working to contain the crisis in a way that preserves the security of the region.”

IRGC naval commander Alireza Tangsiri has warned that a US attack on Iran’s Kharg Island will create a new and harsh equation for energy prices and distribution around the world.

His comments in a social media post come after Trump yesterday threatened more attacks on the island – home to the main terminal handling Iran’s oil exports – after previously saying the US had bombed military installations on it.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities. He also took exception to the US president’s comments.

“This is an illegal war with no victory. There are people being killed only because President Trump wants to have ‘fun’. This is what he has said,” Araghchi told CBS.

A site belonging to the Iranian Kurdish opposition party Komala has been struck by three missiles in the Zrgwez area of Sulaimaniyah in the Kurdish semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq, Rudaw news reports.

Ali Ranjbari, a senior member of the party, told the Rudaw news platform that the strike has caused no damage to the site.

As we reported earlier, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has held a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.

The French president has now released a statement in which he said that freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz “must be restored as soon as possible”.

Macron also argued that peace and security can only be achieved through a new political and security framework.

“Such a framework must guarantee that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, while also addressing the threats posed by its ballistic missile programme and its destabilising activities regionally and internationally,” he said.

Macron warned that the current “unchecked escalation” is plunging “the entire region into chaos, with major consequences today and for the years to come”.

He said he had called on Pezeshkian “to put an immediate end to the unacceptable attacks Iran is carrying out against countries in the region, whether directly or through proxies, including in Lebanon and Iraq”.

“I reminded him that France is acting within a strictly defensive framework aimed at protecting its interests, its regional partners, and freedom of navigation, and that it is unacceptable for our country to be targeted.”

A security source has told Al Jazeera that a logistics support camp near the Baghdad international airport complex has been struck by a drone attack and five Katyusha rockets.

A similar attack earlier left five people injured.

A fifth member of the Iranian women’s football team who had accepted a humanitarian visa to remain in Australia has now left the country, according to the Australian government.

The player departed shortly before midnight on Sunday, leaving two of the original seven squad members who had initially stayed behind still in Australia, the office of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.

Burke said that two players and a member of the team’s support staff had already left Sydney for Malaysia on Saturday.

Iran’s team travelled to Australia last month for the Women’s Asian Cup, arriving before the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28.

Initially, six players and a member of the support staff from a 26-player squad accepted humanitarian visas to remain in Australia, while the rest of the Iranian delegation flew from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on March 10. One of those players later reversed her decision and left Australia.

The rest of the team has remained in Kuala Lumpur since leaving Australia.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that the three who left Australia on Saturday were “returning to the warm embrace of their family and homeland”.

The Bahrain Defence Force says its air defence systems have successfully neutralised 125 missiles and 212 drones since the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran two weeks ago.

In a new statement, Qatar’s Ministry of Interior says the security situation in the country is “stable”.

It also stresses “the importance of obtaining information exclusively from official sources and refraining from circulating rumours or publishing unverified information”.

The Ministry of Interior emphasises the importance of obtaining information exclusively from official sources and refraining from circulating rumours or publishing unverified information.#MOIQatar pic.twitter.com/IOuhH405lf

— Ministry of Interior – Qatar (@MOI_QatarEn) March 15, 2026

The French have been trying to offer mediation between Israel and Lebanon, but Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, has said a flat no; there are no plans for that to happen.

Certainly, Lebanon would like [talks] to happen, because they’ve put together a team in readiness should they happen, and Lebanon wants them to happen because of this humanitarian crisis, this 830,000 internally displaced Lebanese who need to be able to go back to their homes.

Long-term, there’s an enormous amount of damage in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in southern Lebanon, which will take a very long time to rebuild.

Lebanon wants to be able to let those people go home as soon as possible so that they can start doing that, because, otherwise, it’s facing a long-term crisis in providing for the needs of these displaced people.

So, for the Lebanese, they want these talks. Israel has said no. It wants Lebanon to first disarm Hezbollah, a very tricky and challenging prospect for the Lebanese government that risks sparking sectarian conflict here.