Iran-US battle newest: US warns ‘hardest hits yet to come’ as its embassy in Riyadh struck by drones

Iran is continuing to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Perisan Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes.

Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, issued the threat on Iranian state television on Monday.

“The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Anyone who wants to pass, our devotee heroes in the IRGC navy and the army will set those ships on fire,” he said. “Don’t come to this region.”

In a new statement, Donald Trump declared that the United States’ munitions stockpiles at the medium and upper-medium levels are “higher or better” than ever before, describing the supply as “virtually unlimited”.

He asserted that, if necessary, wars could be fought “forever” and “very successfully” using these reserves, which he claimed surpass the finest arms of other nations.

Trump acknowledged that while high-end weapons supplies are strong, they are “not where we want to be,” noting that additional top-tier weaponry is stored in allied countries abroad.

He criticized Joe Biden for sending what he described as hundreds of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, accusing the administration of giving away advanced weapons without adequately replenishing U.S. stockpiles.

In the statement, he also likened Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to P.T. Barnum – the fabled American showman and huckster, who popularized the three-ring circus.

Trump credited his first term with rebuilding the U.S. military and said those efforts continue. He concluded by asserting that the United States is fully stocked and prepared to “win, big,” emphasizing confidence in the nation’s military readiness.

Iranian state TV said strikes caused two explosions early Tuesday at a broadcasting facility in Tehran, but said no one was injured.

Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that airstrikes targeted the Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Sunday.

“Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie,” he said.

Israel and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the U.S. bombed in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. Israel has said it is targeting the “leadership and nuclear infrastructure”.

Donald Trump said the military campaign’s objectives are to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel on Monday.

Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, though it has maintained its right to do so and says its nuclear program is peaceful.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained, however, that Iran was rebuilding “new sites, new places” underground for making atomic bombs in an interview broadcast late Monday on Fox News Channel’s Hannity.”We had to take the action now and we did,” said Netanyahu, who offered no evidence to support his claim.

Satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press showed limited activity at two nuclear sites in Iran before the war. Analysts said Tehran was likely assessing damage from the 2025 U.S. strikes and possibly salvaging what remained.

The U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital with hit with a drone early Tuesday.

This comes as the U.S. and Israel pounded Iran with airstrikes in what President Donald Trump suggested was just the start of a relentless campaign that could last more than a month.

The attack from two drones on the U.S. embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire” and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry, which did not release further details. It follows an attack the day before on the U.S. embassy in Kuwait.

The expansion of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the intensity of the Israeli and American attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the lack of any apparent exit plan portend a possible prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.

Many countries deemed safe havens in the Mideast have been hit by Iran in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli strikes, with recent targets including two Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates and a drone impact near another in Bahrain that caused damage, the company said Tuesday.

Iran has also hit energy facilities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and attacked several ships Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes, sending global oil and natural gas prices soaring.

The U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks, as have many other countries, though with much of the airspace closed, many remain stranded.

Taiwan supports the international community’s efforts to help Iran’s people pursue freedom and democracy and hopes that they can enjoy these rights soon, the island’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, offering its backing to the US and Israel.

Taiwanese leaders, including president Lai Ching-te, have drawn parallels between Israel’s security situation and Taiwan’s own, given the stepped-up military pressure the Chinese-claimed island has faced from Beijing in recent years.

Taiwan views Israel as an important democratic partner and offered strong support to the country after the October 2023 Hamas attack in southern Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. Since then, there has been an increased level of engagement.

Asked whether Taiwan’s government supported the US and Israeli attack on Iran, foreign ministry spokesperson Hsiao Kuang-wei said that Taiwan is a member of the international democratic community.

“We support the international community’s efforts to help the Iranian people pursue freedom and democracy, and we hope the Iranian people can soon enjoy freedom, democracy and human rights,” he said.

Taiwan also condemns Iran’s recent “indiscriminate military attacks,” Hsiao added, referring to Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries.

Speaking at parliament earlier on Tuesday, Taiwan deputy foreign minister Francois Wu, who made a secret trip to Israel late last year, said the U.S. and Israel wanted to “eliminate terrorism”.

“Of course, the U.S. and Israel are both allies of Taiwan’s,” Wu added.

Taiwan has no formal diplomatic ties with either Israel or the U.S., though Washington has long been Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier.

Taiwan has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since Tehran recognised the People’s Republic of China in 1971.

Cyprus refused to rule out renegotiating Britain’s use of airbases on the island following a drone attack in Akrotiri on Monday.

“There was no clear clarification that the British bases in Cyprus would under no circumstances be used for any purpose other than humanitarian reasons in Sunday’s statement by the UK Prime Minister,” said government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis.

“All necessary steps will be taken to communicate our dissatisfaction, both with the way this message was communicated and the fact that yesterday there was no timely warning to citizens of Cyprus living near the Akrotiri bases,” he told reporters.

The PM said that the UK believes the drone was launched before he allowed the US to use the base for specific, defensive purposes – and that Iran or its proxies did not attack the base in retaliation over the move.

But asked whether Cyprus would seek to renegotiate the status of the bases, Letymbiotis said: “In this context, we are not ruling anything out.”

British broadcaster Piers Morgan took to X Monday to react to remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio concerning the “preemptive threat” that led to US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Rubio argued there had been an “imminent threat” that Iran would be targeted and suggested that, in such a scenario, “they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded”.

Responding online, Morgan wrote: “So the preemptive threat was based on prior knowledge that (presumably) Israel was going to attack Iran? This is nuts.”