Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Wednesday in a written message that the killers of security chief Ali Larijani, who died in an Israeli strike, “will have to pay for it”.

“Without a doubt, the assassination of such a figure attests to his importance and to the hatred that the enemies of Islam harbour towards him,” Mojtaba said, in a message published on his official Telegram channel on the day of Larijani’s funeral in Tehran.

“Every drop of spilled blood comes at a price, and the criminal murderers of these martyrs will soon have to pay it,” added Mojtaba, who has yet to appear in public after taking office following the killing of his father, ex-supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the war.

Loud explosions heard over Saudi capital Riyadh after Iran warns targeting Gulf fuel facilities

Earlier, Saudi Arabia said its air defences were countering ballistic missiles after AFP journalists heard loud explosions echoing over the capital Riyadh as Iran’s Gulf campaign ground on.

Residents also received a phone alert warning that “the area is under hostile aerial threat”. “Air defences are dealing with a ballistic threat in Riyadh,” the Saudi defence ministry said, quoting a spokesperson in a statement on X.

Later, the civil defence reported on X that “the danger has passed in Riyadh”.

Earlier, Iran ‘promised’ oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar to be targeted in the coming hours, Al Jazeera reported.

NATO allies in talks on ‘best way’ to re-open Hormuz strait

NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Wednesday that the military alliance’s members were discussing the “best way” to open the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large chunk of the world’s oil supply normally passes.

“I have been in contact with many allies. We all agree, of course, that strait has to open up again. And what I know is that allies are working together, discussing how to do that, what is the best way to do it,” Rutte told a news conference during a visit to a NATO exercise in northern Norway.

“They are working on that collectively, to find a way forward,” he added.

US President Donald Trump has urged other global powers to send warships to escort convoys of tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

Iran has effectively closed the strait since the US and Israel began a war on the Islamic republic last month, sending global oil prices up by more than 40 per cent.

On Tuesday, Trump said “NATO is making a very foolish mistake” by not sending aid. “I’ve long said that I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us. So this was a great test,” he told reporters.

The 79-year-old Republican has long criticised NATO, and since returning to power in January 2025 he has pushed its members into increasing their defence spending.

Asked if he would reconsider the US relationship with NATO as he has suggested in the past, Trump said it was “certainly something that we should think about” but added: “I have nothing currently in mind.”

Iranian president confirms killing of intelligence minister Esmaeil Khatib

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed on Wednesday that Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib had been killed in the war with the US and Israel, blasting a “cowardly assassination”.

In a post on X, Pezeshkian did not say who had carried out the attack but earlier Israel’s defence minister announced that Khatib had been “eliminated”.

“The cowardly assassination of my dear colleagues Esmail Khatib, Ali Larijani and Aziz Nasirzadeh, along with some of their family members and accompanying team, has left us in mourning,” he said, referring to Iran’s recently killed security chief and defence minister.

Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Israeli forces had killed Iran’s Minister of Intelligence Esmail Khatib. “Last night Iran’s Intelligence Minister Khatib was also eliminated,” he said in a statement.

He further said that the military has been authorised to target any senior Iranian official without requiring further approval.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorised the IDF to eliminate any senior Iranian official for whom the intelligence and operational circle has been closed, without the need for additional approval,” Katz said in a statement. “We will continue to thwart and hunt them all down,” he added.

Meanwhile, large crowds gathered in central Tehran on Wednesday for the funerals of Iranian security chief Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij paramilitary force who was also killed in a strike in Iran this week, according to images broadcast by Iranian state television.

They were held alongside the funerals of more than 80 Iranian sailors killed in a US torpedoing of their frigate off Sri Lanka earlier this month.

Trucks carrying coffins draped in Iranian flags moved through the procession, as mourners walked alongside carrying portraits of the slain supreme leader and beating their chests, a sign of mourning in Shia culture.

In contrast to Mojtaba Khamenei, Larijani, 68, had walked openly with crowds at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran. He had “effectively been the figure in charge of the regime’s survival, its regional policy and its defence strategy,” David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, told AFP.

Israel has pursued what analysts have described as a policy of decapitation against Iran and the militant movements it backs in the region.

It killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, in 2024 as well Hamas’s top figures since the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza war.

Despite losing its supreme leader of nearly four decades and now Larijani, a key pillar of the Islamic republic, the powerful Revolutionary Guards and the leadership as a whole have remained defiant.

US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard to a senate hearing that Washington “assesses the regime in Iran to be intact but largely degraded due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities”.

The Guards, the ideological arm of the military, said they had launched missiles at central Israel in retaliation for Larijani’s death and warned of more to come.

The “pure blood of this great martyr… will be a source of honour, power and national awakening against the front of global arrogance,” they said.

Three private planes at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport damaged by Iran missile debris

Three private planes parked at Ben Gurion ​Airport near Tel Aviv suffered “severe” damage ‌after being hit by debris from Iranian missiles that were intercepted by Israeli ​air defence systems, the Israel ​Airports Authority said on Wednesday.

The authority ⁠said the damage occurred over ​the past few days. It did ​not provide details on the aircrafts’ owners.

Since the US-Israeli led air strikes on Iran began ​on February 28, triggering missile fire ​at Israel from Iran, commercial flights have ‌been ⁠halted at the country’s main air gateway. However, Israeli carriers have operated flights to repatriate citizens stranded abroad.

There ​have also ​been ⁠limited outbound flights, with Ben Gurion also used by ​the Israeli and US militaries. Half ​of ⁠Iranian missiles entering Israeli airspace are said to be cluster munitions, which open ⁠in ​mid-air and scatter as ​many as several hundred “bomblets” over a wide area.

UAE condemns targeting of South Pars gas field, after Iran blames US, Israel

The UAE condemned the targeting on Wednesday of Iranian facilities in a gas field shared with Qatar, calling the attack attributed by Iran to the US and Israel a “dangerous escalation” in a rare rebuke.

“The United Arab Emirates affirmed that targeting energy facilities linked to the South Pars gas field in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is an extension of the North Field in the sisterly State of Qatar, constitutes a dangerous escalation,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Targeting energy infrastructure poses a direct threat to global energy security… It also entails serious environmental repercussions and exposes civilians, maritime security, and vital civilian and industrial facilities to direct risks,” it added.

Trump temporarily waives maritime shipping law to ease energy costs

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday temporarily waived a century-old shipping law to help ease energy costs that have surged since US-Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the Middle East into war.

Trump’s move to issue a 60-day Jones Act waiver would lift a ban on foreign-flagged vessels transporting cargo between US ports over this period.

The 1920 law was aimed at promoting American shipbuilding, but critics argue that it hampers free trade and has raised costs for consumers.

Trump’s latest move is “just another step to mitigate the short-term disruptions to the oil market as the US military continues meeting the objectives of Operation Epic Fury,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement.

She was referring to the joint US-Israeli offensive launched against Iran on February 28. “This action will allow vital resources like oil, natural gas, fertilizer and coal to flow freely to US ports for sixty days,” Leavitt added.

She vowed that the Trump administration “remains committed to continuing to strengthen our critical supply chains.”

According to AAA motor group data, US gasoline prices have risen more than 27 per cent since the start of the war.

Kremlin condemns ‘murder’ of Iranian leadership

The Kremlin on Wednesday condemned what it ‌called the ‘murder’ of Iran’s leaders ‌in US-Israeli airstrikes, ⁠a day ​after ​Iran’s ‌semi-official Fars news agency confirmed ​that Ali Larijani, chief of Iran’s national security council and advisor to the late supreme ‌leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been killed in Tehran.

“We ⁠unequivocally ⁠condemn any ​actions aimed ‌at harming the health of, or indeed murdering or eliminating, members of the leadership ⁠of sovereign and ⁠independent Iran, as well as those of other countries. We condemn such actions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov ⁠told reporters when ​asked about Russia’s reaction to Larijani’s death.

Russia, which built and helps run Iran’s only nuclear power station, has strongly criticised the US-Israeli air strikes ​against Iran, a close partner, and has called for an ​immediate ceasefire and negotiations.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, ‌reported ⁠on Tuesday that Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Tehran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Iran’s targeting of US forces in the ​region.

Asked about the ​media report, ⁠Peskov suggested it was fake news: ‘As you know, there are currently a great many different reports ​circulating about this war. The vast majority are ​nothing more ⁠than disinformation, so we do not consider it necessary to comment on each and every one of them.”

Iran FM Araghchi says nuclear doctrine unlikely to change after Larijani’s assassination

Iran’s stance against the development of nuclear weapons will not significantly change, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera in remarks relayed by Iranian media on Wednesday, cautioning that the new supreme leader is yet to publicly express his view on the matter.

Araghchi said fatwas depend on the Islamic jurist issuing them and added he was ⁠not yet in a position to judge the jurisprudential or political views of Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader.

Iran’s foreign minister said he believed that after the war comes to an end, countries that border the Gulf should draft a new protocol for the ⁠Strait of Hormuz to ensure that safe passage through the ⁠narrow waterway is carried out under certain conditions aligned with Iranian and regional interests.

Iran shut the vital energy gateway, through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied gas passes, saying it “won’t even allow a litre of oil” to reach the US, Israel and their partners. On Tuesday, Iran’s parliament speaker tweeted that the Strait of Hormuz’ situation won’t return to its pre-war conditions.

The US has sought to build a naval coalition to escort vessels navigating ⁠the strait, with most NATO allies saying they don’t want to get involved in military operations against Iran. NATO-member France said ⁠it would only consider a joint international coalition to secure passage through the strait following a ceasefire and prior negotiations with Tehran.

Araghchi said an end to the war was only conceivable if the conflict was permanently over throughout the region and Iran received compensation for damages incurred.

When asked about Iranian strikes in the Gulf not only targeting US military bases but also impacting residential or commercial areas, Iran’s foreign ⁠minister said this was because US forces relocated to urban areas. “Wherever there were American forces gathering, wherever there were facilities belonging to them, they were targeted. It is possible some of these places were near urban areas,” the top Iranian diplomat said.

Araghchi acknowledged that regional countries are “upset and their people have been harmed or bothered” by Iranian strikes, but added that the blame lay entirely with the US for starting the war on February 28.

Iran hits Tel Aviv with cluster missiles after security chief assassination

Iran targeted Tel Aviv with missiles carrying cluster warheads in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday.

Israel has said that Iran has repeatedly used cluster warheads, which disperse into ​multiple smaller explosives mid-air and spread over a wide area, making them difficult to intercept. The attack on densely populated Tel Aviv overnight on Tuesday killed two people, bringing the death toll in ‌Israel from the war to at least 14.

Israeli security forces and rescue workers gather at a train station that was hit by shrapnel after an Iranian strike in Tel Aviv on March 18, 2026. PHOTO: AFP

An apartment damaged by a missile strike is seen in Ramat Gan, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, March 18, 2026. PHOTO: AFP

Iran will hold funerals on Wednesday for Larijani and another powerful figure killed Tuesday by Israel, Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij paramilitary force, according to the Fars and Tasnim news agencies.

Larijani is the most prominent figure of the Islamic Republic killed since Israel and the United States launched their attacks on Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and igniting a war in the Middle East.

Iran’s ​Supreme National Security Council, which Larijani led as secretary, said Larijani’s son and his deputy, Alireza Bayat, were also killed in an Israeli attack on Monday night.

“Iran’s response to the assassination of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council will be decisive and regrettable,” Iranian army chief Amir Hatami said in a statement.

Read: Iran says Larijani killing will not weaken system as tensions rise after targeted strike

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan lashed out at Israel, condemning its “political assassinations” of Tehran’s leaders as “illegal activities outside the normal laws of war”.

But Israel vowed also to target Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since the ruling clerics chose him to succeed his father.

“We don’t know about Mojtaba Khamenei, we don’t hear him, we don’t see him, but I can tell you one thing: we will track him down, find him, and neutralise him,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again called for the end of the Islamic Republic, although he and Trump have stopped short of saying that is their goal.

The overthrow of Iran’s authorities by the people “will not happen all at once, it will not happen easily. But if we persist in this — we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement.

Besides sending missiles and drones into Israel and Gulf nations, Iran has sought to extract a heavy toll on the global economy, including by driving up the cost of oil by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for crude.

With oil still hovering around $100 a barrel, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Wednesday that the global repercussions of the war “has only just begun and will hit all”.

As part of an effort to reopen Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s crude transits, the US military said it brought out some of the heaviest bombs in its arsenal to penetrate adjacent missile sites.

The United States dropped several 5,000-pound (2,250 kg) bombs — estimated to cost $288,000 each — on “hardened Iranian missile sites” near the coast that posed a threat to international shipping, Central Command said.

US President Donald Trump earlier Tuesday fumed that American allies, which have largely distanced themselves from his war, were not lining up behind the United States to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

But Trump also boasted that the US military did not need its allies, writing on his Truth Social platform: “WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

Trump Truth Social post. PHOTO: X

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in an interview that nobody was ready to risk the lives of their people in protecting the strait.

“We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertiliser crisis, energy crisis as well,” Kallas said.

Read More: Trump begs global help against Iran

The US has given ​shifting rationales for joining Israel to attack Iran and ​struggled to explain the legal basis for starting a ⁠new war, underscored by the Tuesday resignation of the head of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, Joseph Kent. Kent wrote in his resignation letter to Trump that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation.”

In Iran, a projectile hit an area near the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening. It caused no damage or injuries, Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call for maximum restraint during the conflict to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident.

Israel and the US have said preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons programme was one of the goals of the attacks they launched more than two weeks ago.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has rejected proposals conveyed to Iran’s Foreign Ministry for “reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States,” according to a senior Iranian official ​who asked not to be identified.

Khamenei, attending his first foreign-policy meeting since his appointment, said it was not “the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation,” according to ​the official.

The official did not clarify whether the younger Khamenei, who has not yet appeared in photos or on TV since being named last week to replace his slain father, had attended the meeting in person or remotely.

Iran has responded to the Israeli-US attacks with wide-ranging strikes on its Gulf neighbours, some of which host US bases.

Gulf Arab states have faced more ​than 2,000 missile and drone attacks on US diplomatic missions and military bases as well as oil infrastructure, ports, airports, ships and residential and commercial buildings, and most ​of them aimed at the ⁠United Arab Emirates.

The war has taken a particularly heavy toll on Lebanon, where Israeli strikes early Wednesday again hit the heart of Beirut.

At least six people died, Lebanese authorities said, with media reporting that a strike hit an apartment.

First aid responders inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an apartment in the al Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, on March 18, 2026. PHOTO: AFP

According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli strikes have killed 912 people since March 2, while more than one million people have registered as displaced, with more than 130,000 staying in official shelters.