‘Will Determine End Of War,’ Says Iran Guards As Trump Vows Conflict Will End ‘Very Soon’

Washington/Tehran, March 10: US President Donald Trump said Monday that the war with Iran began because that country was starting work on a new site for developing material for nuclear weapons. Trump also told reporters at a news conference that Iran was “going to take over the Middle East” if he hadn’t acted and that he was disappointed with the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s supreme leader. Ali Khamenei was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes. Trump also had a call on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war and other issues. The Kremlin says the two leaders had a “frank and businesslike” conversation that lasted about an hour.

Heavy U.S. and Israeli bombardment of Iran has been going on for more than a week, while Iran has launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf countries. Israel is striking Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, while the militant group fires rockets into Israel. Iranian state TV announced early Monday that Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was named supreme leader, in defiance of threats by Trump. Khamenei is seen as even harder-line than his father, the supreme leader killed on the first day of the war. He will now be in charge of Iran’s armed forces and any decision about Tehran’s nuclear program.

US stocks closed higher following a remarkable reversal as oil prices fell from nearly $120 per barrel to below USD 90. A 26-year-old Army staff sergeant from Kentucky was identified as the seventh U.S. service member killed during the Iran war, after being wounded on a base in Saudi Arabia on March 1. The first six deaths were Army reservists killed the same day at a Kuwaiti port. New footage has raised the likelihood that the U.S. military struck an Iranian elementary school where a blast killed at least 165 people, mostly children.