Iran…Israel…Trump Evening 3/20/2026…..Trump ‘Winding Down ‘ his War with Iran?…*Breaking

Later he posted on social media, “we are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down” the war. But the president has said multiple times that the war was nearly over, only for U.S. attacks to intensify.

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran approaches the three-week mark, American commanders are still trying to eliminate Iran’s ability to choke off the strait, the critical passageway in and out of the Persian Gulf. It has used a lethal combination of mines, missiles and armed drones — or the threat of using them — to all but shut down shipping through the strait, through which passes a large part of the world’s oil and natural gas.

“I think we’ve won,” Mr. Trump said, saying of Iran that “all they’re doing is clogging up the strait.”

Iran still continues to strike out at its Persian Gulf neighbors, shaking the world’s energy supplies and the global economy.

The price of oil rose once again on Friday, the global benchmark crude settling for the day around $112 a barrel, up more than 50 percent since the war began. The S&P 500 Index fell about 1.5 percent, losing ground for the fourth straight week.

The state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said a drone attack had caused fires at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, for the second consecutive day. Israel said it had launched targeted attacks on Tehran after Iranian missile fire set off sirens in Jerusalem and northern Israel overnight.

In a morning post on social media, the president lashed out once again at NATO allies for not joining in the fight against Iran, or heeding his call to send warships to escort shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. “COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!” he wrote.

Mr. Trump said earlier this week that the United States did not need foreign help to clear the strait, and that he had asked for it only to test the loyalty of U.S. allies. But on Friday he said, “You need a lot of help, in the sense of, you need ships, you need volume.”

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• Israeli strike: The Israeli military said it had killed the spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Ali Mohammed Naini, in a strike on Friday. A statement from the Guards Corps carried by Iranian state television confirmed he was killed, but did not offer details. The statement said the longtime general had led the force’s “cognitive war” against adversaries. The Israeli military described him as the group’s “main propagandist.”

• New attacks: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates said on Friday they were intercepting drone and missile attacks, which Emirati and Bahraini officials said were coming from Iran. The authorities in Bahrain said that falling shrapnel had started a fire at a warehouse.

• Weapons sales: The Trump administration is bypassing Congress to push through more than $23 billion in weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan. It’s the second time since the start of the war the administration has circumvented the normal congressional approval process.

• Death tolls: Iran’s U.N. ambassador said last week that at least 1,348 civilians had been killed since the start of the war. On Thursday, a Washington-based human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, reported that at least 1,394 civilians had been killed. The number of Lebanese killed rose tomore than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday. At least 14 people have been killed in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials have said. The American death toll stood at 13….

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The Guardian…

• Donald Trump continued to make his disappointment with the British government known, saying the UK “should have acted a lot faster” in allowing the US military to use its bases in the Middle East. “I was a little surprised at the UK, to be honest with you. They should have acted a lot faster,” he told reporters as he departed the White House.

• Earlier, Downing Street approved US use of its bases “for the collective self-defence of the region”, including “defensive operations” degrading Iranian missile sites targeting ships in the strait of Hormuz. Britain had previously only allowed US forces to use its bases for operations to prevent Iran firing missiles that put British interests or lives at risk. Downing Street maintained that the UK will still not be directly involved in the strikes and insisted that “the principles behind the UK’s approach to the conflict remain the same”.

• Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the British prime minsiter Keir Starmer “is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran”. “Iran will exercise its right to self-defense,” he added.It followed the UK’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper saying she warned Araghchi in a phone call on Thursday “against targeting UK bases, territory or interests directly”. Iran’s foreign ministry had earlier said the US use of British military bases for attacks would amount to the UK’s “participation in aggression”.

• Araghchi also accused the Trump administration of being “detached from reality” as it continues to insist that it is winning the war against Iran. Comparing Washington’s rhetoric to that of the US government during the Vietnam war, he said: “US government says one thing, reality says another.”

• Donald Trump also ruled out a ceasefire with Iran, after claiming the war was “militarily won”. “You don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side,” he said. He also said the US was “roaming free” in Iran, adding, “they’re finished” militarily.

• Asked if he thinks Israel will be ready to end the war when he’s ready, Trump said: “I think so, yeah.” The relationship is “a very good one”, he said, adding that, “more of less, we want similar things. We want victory, both of us, and that’s what we’ve got.” It comes amid increasing evidence that the US and Israel aren’t aligned on their war aims and how to proceed with their operation against Tehran.

• Trump also reiterated his criticism of Nato – whose members he earlier branded “cowards” – adding that “a lot of help” would be needed to secure the strait of Hormuz and that “it would be nice” if countries that use the strait, like China and Japan, would “get involved” in reopening the vital waterway.

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ISW...Iran Update Special Report, March 20, 2026

1. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is still badly injured or otherwise incapacitated. The regime could easily dispel these rumors with a simple video but has not, despite having many incentives to do so. This comes as US officials have stated that Mojtaba was seriously wounded.
2. Iranian leaders have said that they will continue to impede international shipping around the Strait of Hormuz after the war ends. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X on March 17 that “the Strait of Hormuz situation won’t return to its pre-war status.”
3. Hezbollah claimed 55 attacks targeting Israeli forces and positions in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, as well as targeting northern Israeli towns between 3:00 PM ET on March 18 and 3:00 PM ET on March 19. Most of Hezbollah’s claimed attacks targeted Israeli forces and military sites in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.