Iran Watch

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said that the most intense day of strikes in Iran will be coming on Tuesday. This comes as the war in Iran has entered its tenth day after the US and Israel conducted strikes in Iran on February 28. “Today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran, the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligent, more refined and better than ever,” Hegseth said in a press briefing Tuesday morning.

“On day 10 of Operation Epic Fury, we are winning with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus on our objectives, which are the same as the day I gave my first briefing here on Operation Epic Fury. They’re straightforward, and we are executing with ruthless precision. One, destroy their missile stockpiles, their missile launchers and their defense industrial base, missiles and their ability to make them. Two, destroy their navy. And three, permanently deny Iran nuclear weapons, forever,” Hegseth added.

“Absolutely, we are not seeking a ceasefire; we believe we must strike the aggressor in the mouth so that it learns a lesson and never again even thinks of aggressing against our dear Iran,” Ghalibaf said on X. “The Zionist regime sees its ignoble existence in perpetuating the cycle of ‘war-negotiation-ceasefire and then war again’ in order to consolidate its domination. We will break this cycle.”

Ghalibaf, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, is a longtime leader of Iran’s conservative faction, known as the “principlists.” He has consistently advocated for hardline policies against the U.S. and Israel, and played a central role in ordering the massacre of tens of thousands of protesters in January.

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Arena,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) said that Iran was building up the means to protect its enrichment work and the choice was to wait until it was built or hit now “while they’re weak” and “I would have said, yeah, go now. We don’t want to have to get to a point where we have a larger, more complicated, more expensive, more deadly war. So, the strikes make sense.”

Host Kasie Hunt asked, “Where are you on the success or failure of what we’ve seen here? Do you think the world is currently better off today than it was before this started?”

Landsman answered, “We don’t know yet, right? The decision was, look, the Iranian regime wants to enrich uranium. They want to do it underground. We can stop that. But they were building up this shield to protect the enrichment work. At what point do you go in? Do you wait until it’s already up and running, this shield, which makes it difficult to penetrate, if not impossible? Or do you go now and do it while they’re weak? I would have said, yeah, go now. We don’t want to have to get to a point where we have a larger, more complicated, more expensive, more deadly war. So, the strikes make sense. But they need to get in, get them done, and then get out.”

The president is optimistic. Our joint operation is ahead of its own projected timelines. Wall Street Journal: President Trump said the Iran war will be over “very soon,” but that the U.S. military campaign still has further to go. At a Monday press conference, he said: “We’re achieving major strides toward completing our military objective. We could call it a tremendous success right now,” he added, “or we could go further, and we’re going to go further.” Earlier, he signaled in an interview with CBS News that the Iran war is “very complete, pretty much,” a sign that he may soon call an end to the bombing campaign (Wall Street Journal).

PRESIDENT TRUMP on when the war in Iran will end: “I think soon, very soon. Look, everything they have is gone, including their leadership.” pic.twitter.com/ke0omxUETI

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 9, 2026

The news that Iran’s Assembly of Experts named Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader of Iran appeared on Iranian state media Sunday afternoon, as relayed by the Jerusalem Post. Mojtaba was only a mid-ranking Islamic cleric before now, according to the Israeli outlet, but as the son of the decades-long dictator of the nation he had many powerful ties, including to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the terrorist group that acts as the government’s enforcers and helps orchestrate overseas terrorism. Israel has vowed to eliminate any supreme leader of Iran going forward.

Notably, it was the IRGC that slaughtered 40,000+ protesters in Iran during the recent mass protests against the Islamic regime. The new boss is the same as the old boss.

The Jerusalem Post explained:

Although Iran’s ruling ideology frowns on the principle of hereditary succession, he has a powerful following within the IRGC, including close ties to IRGC chief Ahmad Vahidi, former head of IRGC intelligence Hossein Taeb, and political figures, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as well as his dead father’s still-influential office.

Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has haunted the U.S. with its hostage-taking, support of terrorism around the globe, threats to acquire nuclear weapons and vaporize Israel, and attempts to assassinate Donald Trump.

Despite decades of presidential talking, the current commander in chief is the first one to really make a serious move to neutralize the threat posed by Iran, and Operation Epic Fury has wiped out virtually their entire leadership structure. The final outcome is as yet unknown, but I think it’s safe to say that “action has been taken.”

But there’s another country that’s bedeviled us even longer: the República de Cuba.

Sitting just 90 miles off our shores, the communist regime was birthed by the late dictator Fidel Castro in 1959 following a revolution, and it almost brought us a nuclear-infused World War 3 with the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1980, meanwhile, Castro sent some of the Caribbean country’s most violent, depraved criminals to Florida in the Mariel Boatlift.

BREAKING: Israel strikes the Shahr Rey oil refinery in Tehran for the first time.

Direct pressure on the Iranian regime that funds terrorism and threatens Israel. pic.twitter.com/8l9CAhNhuH

— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) March 7, 2026

The Israeli Air Force is striking Iranian oil infrastructure in Tehran, footage posted to social media shows.

It apparently marks the first time since the start of the current war that Israel is striking national infrastructure in Iran.

The IDF said a short while ago that it… pic.twitter.com/NKqFUQdqQ7

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 7, 2026

President Donald Trump is refusing to rule out the possibility of deploying U.S. ground forces in Iran as the ongoing military operation against the regime enters its second week.

The question of ground troops comes amid ongoing airstrikes that have significantly degraded Iran’s military capabilities, though Tehran continues to launch retaliatory attacks. The conflict, dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the U.S. and Operation Lion’s Roar by Israel, began on February 28, 2026, with coordinated strikes aimed at destroying Iran’s military infrastructure and prompting regime change.

Administration officials have stated that Tehran continued to enrich uranium and threatened to build upwards of 11 nuclear weapons, which prompted the military action. President Trump has stated that completely eliminating Iran’s nuclear program is a stated goal of the operation.

While speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump was asked about the possibility of deploying ground troops as part of the operation. After emphasizing the success of current aerial operations, Trump did not rule out boots on the ground in the future. “I would say if we ever did that, they would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight at the ground level,” he said.