Live updates: U.S. Central Command leader says Iran campaign is ‘ahead or on plan’

The top commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command said the campaign against Iran is “ahead or on plan,” as the Israeli military began what it called “a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting Iranian terror regime infrastructure” early Monday.

U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper gave his first one-on-one interview of the war to the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International, which aired it early Monday. Iranian media reported new airstrikes targeting Tehran without identifying the sites being hit.

The previous day, Tehran warned it could attack U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets if Israel or the U.S. attempt to follow through on President Donald Trump ‘s threat that the U.S. would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump — who is facing increasing pressure at home to secure the strait as oil prices soar — issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend at his Florida home.

The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 U.S. military members, as well as a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.

Here is the latest:

Iran’s Defense Council threatens to deploy naval mines across the ‘entire Persian Gulf’ if a land invasion happens.

Iran’s Defense Council threatened Monday to deploy naval mines across the “entire Persian Gulf” if a land invasion happens.

The council issued the statement as concern in Tehran grows about the potential arrival of U.S. Marines to the region.

“Any attempt by the enemy to target Iran’s coasts or islands will, naturally and in accordance with established military practice, lead to the mining of all access routes … in the Persian Gulf and along the coasts,” the council said.

The U.S. has been trying to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, to energy shipments. The Marines could come ashore to seize either islands or territory in Iran to support that mission. Israel also has suggested a ground operation could take part in the war.

Head of National Iranian American Council says striking Iran’s energy plants is collective punishment

Jamal Abdi, head of the National Iranian American Council, described President Donald Trump’s threat to strike Iran’s energy facilities as a “collective punishment.”

“Threatening to bomb Iran’s power plants is a threat to millions of civilians,” he said. “This is not a ‘targeted’ strike. This is collective punishment.”

Iran war has ‘far reaching’ impact on millions in Africa and Asia, UN official says

A senior United Nations official said the war in the Middle East has “far reaching” impact on millions of people particularly in developing countries in Asia and Africa.

In a Monday statement, Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the U.N. Office for Project Services, detailed the ripple effects of the war, now in its fourth week, including “exponential price hikes in oil, fuel and gas.”

“Our world is the most violent it has been since the Second World War,” he said.

He warned that the number of hungry people is likely to increase by tens of millions over the course of the year, as the widening war threatens remittance flows.

The war also displaced 3.2 million people in Iran and 1 million in Lebanon, he said.

He called for diplomacy to end the conflict, saying: “There is no military solution.”

Trump threat likely would target natural gas electricity generation sites

As Trump’s 48-hour deadline to bomb power-generation sites in Iran over the opening of the Strait of Hormuz approaches, there are several electrical sites that could be targets in the Islamic Republic.

Some 80% of all power generated in Iran is created at plants powered by natural gas.

Those plants have continued working, even after Israel last week bombed Iran’s South Pars offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf.

Among the top natural gas plants are Damavand Power Plant, Shahid Salimi Neka Power Plant and Shahid Rajaee Power Plant – all around Iran’s capital, Tehran.

Knocking those plants offline could affect businesses and homes in Tehran, as well as halt gas stations and other crucial sites.

By Jon Gambrell

UAE presidential adviser criticizes Arab and Islamic response to Iranian attacks

An adviser to the UAE has criticized Arab and Islamic organizations’ response to Iran’s continued attacks in the Arab Gulf countries.

“Where are the joint Arab and Islamic labor institutions,” Anwar Gargash said in a social media post Monday, naming the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Gargash, who is a former state minister for foreign affairs, said it will be “unacceptable” after the war to talk about “the decline of the Arab and Islamic role or to criticize the American and Western presence” in the Gulf region which hosts U.S. and Western bases.

The UAE, which has close ties with Israel and the U.S., has been the hardest hit by Iranian missiles and drones since the war in the Middle East began on Feb. 28.

Iran issues indirect threat as media list Mideast electrical, water stations, and UAE nuclear plant

After Iran threatened power plants across the Mideast, news outlets published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant.

The report by the semiofficial Fars news agency, close to its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, appeared to be an indirect threat to the sites, including desalination plants in the Middle East. The list also included the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant, which has four reactors out in the western deserts of the country near its border with Saudi Arabia.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency also published the list.

The threat by Tehran puts at risk both electrical supplies and water in the Gulf Arab states, particularly as the desert nations commingle their power stations with desalination plants crucial for supplying drinking water.

Trump’s self-declared 48-hour deadline expires just before midnight GMT Tuesday, further raising the stakes of the ongoing war with Iran that has disrupted global energy supplies, sending natural gas and gasoline prices soaring.

Trump reiterates his ‘peace through strength’ slogan

U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social website early Monday: “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, TO PUT IT MILDLY!!!”

US Central Command’s Cooper says Iran ‘operating in a sign of desperation’

The head of the U.S. military’s Central Command says Iran is “operating in a sign of desperation” by targeting civilian sites in the war.

In an interview with the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International aired early Monday, U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper said: “They’re operating in a sign of desperation. … In the last couple of weeks, they’ve attacked civilian targets very deliberately, more than 300 times.”

Cooper also noted the slowdown in Iranian incoming fire across the Mideast as the war has entered its fourth week.

“At the beginning of the conflict, you saw large volumes in the dozens of drones and missiles,” Cooper said.

“You no longer see that. It’s all one or two at a time.”

US Central Command leader says campaign is ‘ahead or on plan’

The top commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command said the U.S. campaign against Iran is “ahead or on plan.”

U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper gave his first one-on-one interview of the war to the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International, which aired it early Monday.

Cooper said Iran’s continued attacks on Gulf Arab states and the wider Mideast put civilians at risk.

He added that the U.S. and Israel were targeting missile and drone manufacturing sites as well.

“We’re also going after the manufacturing,” he said. “So it’s not just about the threat today. We’re eliminating the threat of the future, both in terms of the drones, the missiles, as well as the navy.”

Cooper also said it isn’t time for the Iranian public to come to the streets, although both Israel and the U.S. have said they hope the Iranian public would topple the country’s theocracy as a result of the strikes.

“They’re launching missiles and drones from populated areas and you need to stay inside for right now,” Cooper said. “There will be a clear signal at some point, as the president has indicated, for you to be able to come out.”

Latest reports of live fire

1. An Indian national living in the United Arab Emirates was hurt by falling shrapnel after the interception of a ballistic missile over an industrial area near Al Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, authorities said Monday.

2. Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said Monday it intercepted a ballistic missile targeting the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh, while another struck an “uninhabited area.”

3. The United Arab Emirates said its air defenses were working to intercept incoming missiles from Iran early Monday, without elaborating.

4. Both Bahrain and Kuwait sounded missile alerts early Monday over incoming Iranian fire, though it wasn’t clear if there was any immediate damage from the barrages.