President Donald Trump boarding Air Force One to head to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on March 20, 2026 (AFP / SAUL LOEB)
Three weeks of war in the Middle East and no immediate end in sight: cross-border strikes continue on Saturday, with Donald Trump suggesting a gradual reduction in military operations against Iran.
While he has made conflicting statements recently about the potential duration of the conflict, the American president hinted at a potential end to the conflict for the first time on Friday.
“We are about to achieve our objectives as we consider gradually reducing our significant military efforts in the Middle East against the Iranian terrorist regime,” the American president wrote on his Truth Social network on Friday evening.
However, he had also ruled out a ceasefire at this stage a few hours earlier, while several American media outlets suggest the deployment of additional military forces in the region.
The White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt highlighted that the president and the Pentagon anticipated it would take between four and six weeks to complete the mission.
Israeli Strikes on Tehran and Beirut
In the ongoing conflict, attacks have continued since Saturday morning, marking the fourth week of the conflict.
The Israeli army announced strikes against “regime targets” in Tehran after reporting several Iranian missile salvoes directed at Israel.
Israeli forces also launched strikes in Beirut targeting the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement, which dragged Lebanon into the war to avenge the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the American-Israeli offensive on February 28.
In southern Lebanon, the main area of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, at least one person was killed and two others injured on Saturday morning in a “heavy Israeli strike” on a house in the Bint Jbeil district, according to the official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA).
Sale of Iranian Oil
In an attempt to curb the surge in oil prices, the United States authorized the sale and delivery of Iranian oil on ships for a month on Friday. However, Tehran claimed to have no excess crude oil at sea.
Still unseen since his appointment, the new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei spoke in writing on Friday.
Khamenei, the successor to his father and reportedly injured according to American and Israeli officials, stated that “the enemy has been defeated.”
The Iranian people have “delivered a staggering blow to him, to the point where he now speaks contradictory and absurd words,” added the figure targeted by Israel after the elimination of numerous officials of the Islamic Republic.
On Friday, the Israeli army claimed to have killed the intelligence chief of the paramilitary Bassij force in a strike in Tehran.
In Iraq, also embroiled in the conflict, a fighter was killed late Friday in a strike targeting an alliance of former paramilitaries that also includes pro-Iranian armed groups at a military airport in the north of the country.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, Sirwa and Kwestan, two women who fled Iran in 2018, celebrated Norouz, the Persian New Year, despite the conflict and rain, with hopes of returning to their homeland “next year.”
“No one likes war, but we know that without this radical option, the regime will not fall,” said 32-year-old Sirwa Mustafazada.
