Iran Strikes Back as Mideast Conflict Widens

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0:32Luke Vargas:Iran strikes back following the killing of its supreme leader. We'll get the latest as conflict spreads across the Middle East. Combat operations continue at this time in full force,

0:44Sune Rasmussen:and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved.

0:48Luke Vargas:Plus, we'll take a look at the economic impact as fighting sends oil prices surging and upends global supply chains. It's Monday, March 2nd. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. 48 hours after launching major combat operations against Iran, the U.S. and Israel are keeping up the fight. We report that they have collectively struck more than 2 ,000 targets inside Iran. And speaking last night, President Trump pledged to push on, saying the U.S. would avenge the death of three American troops killed over the weekend.

1:27Sune Rasmussen:We grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives.

1:40Luke Vargas:Meanwhile, the U.S. is far from alone in coming under fire as Israel, a number of Gulf states, and even the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, home to a British military base, find themselves on the receiving end of Iranian counterattacks. Here to make sense of what's going on is Wall Street Journal Middle East editor Andrew Dowell. Drew, 2 ,000 targets struck within Iran. Do we know what those are? Can we start to sort through what has actually been achieved here? How are we measuring progress in this campaign?

2:10Giulia Petroni:It's difficult from the outside to measure that progress just because the goals that he'd set are pretty expansive and difficult to track. So the administration's made clear they want to make sure that Iran doesn't ever get a nuclear weapon. And they've also talked about limiting their production of ballistic missiles and even make clear that they want the people of Iran to rise up and overthrow the regime. So the U.S. and Israel went hard at Iran's leadership at the beginning of the conflict. They've killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a number of other top military and political figures. They've hit missile sites around the country.

2:44Giulia Petroni:They've claimed to have sunk a number of Iranian naval ships. And they've been pounding away with sort of increasing ferocity on the structures of the regime's control, namely like DRGC and other security services facilities that are needed to keep the population in line.

3:02Luke Vargas:Drew, we should probably add that in addition to those targets, the Associated Press is reporting that according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, these attacks from the U.S. and Israel so far have killed 555 people in Iran. We don't know how many of those are members of the military versus civilians, but that's a factor here as well. Let's talk about how Iran is fighting back. We have seen attacks using drones and missiles against military bases, but also civilian facilities, hotels, airports. And these attacks occurring in places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi and now affecting hundreds of thousands of civilians who are all getting caught up in this.

3:39Giulia Petroni:Yeah, Iran had made clear going into this that if they were attacked even in a small way, that they would immediately regionalize the conflict. And they're delivering on that. The UAE in particular has come under a heavy bombardment. Last night they were saying some maybe 700 drones and missiles have been fired at the UAE in just the first 36 hours of conflict. Dozens to hundreds more have been fired at Kuwait and Bahrain. Even Oman got hit a couple of times and then as far away as Cyprus. And it seems clear from the types of targeting that it's not just military targets. The U.S. does have military bases in a lot of these places.

4:14Giulia Petroni:But yeah, they're also aiming at cultural symbols like the Borg al-Arab building in Dubai, the Palm in Dubai, and hotels and other economic infrastructure elsewhere. So it's an enormous problem for the Gulf, honestly. These countries, particularly the UAE, have built themselves as an oasis, calm in the middle of, you know, a very turbulent and violent Middle East. The UAE is a commercial hub for the world. Dubai is a, you know, massively international city. The airport is the busiest one in the world for international travelers, second busiest in the world, period. And it's been hit. And overwhelming percentage of the population is expatriate.

4:52Giulia Petroni:So there's a real risk to these countries that people's opinions could change, their reputation could change, and they could start being seen, like a lot of the Middle East, as a place to be avoided as opposed to one to flock to and bring money to.

5:03Luke Vargas:You indicated earlier the intention here, bringing the fight to these countries, maybe an effort on Iran's part to draw this to a close. But at least our chief foreign correspondent, Yaroslav Trofimov, reporting sort of overnight, perhaps it could have the opposite effect, kind of deepening the resolve of these countries to fight back against Iran, maybe put this nuisance to bed once and for all. Is that possible?

5:23Giulia Petroni:Yeah, I think he's definitely on to something there. You know, now that Iran has shown a willingness to attack the Gulf and now that Iran has shown a willingness to do that, even though the Gulf publicly denied the U.S. access to its bases and airspace in order to conduct the attack, they're very likely thinking now that this is a threat that they can't live with and that will pose an existential threat to their own economies and economic plans if it persists.

5:48Luke Vargas:A lot to watch. And that's not all of it, because we finally have to mention there is now a battle rapidly escalating between Iran's proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel. A very fragile ceasefire had been in place between those two sides dating back to the end of 2024. And now it seems the lid is fully come off and fighting, picking up very rapidly there.

6:10Giulia Petroni:Yeah, that's right. I mean, the ceasefire has existed, but it's only really been a ceasefire in name, and it's been pretty one-sided. Israel's military has attacked Hezbollah targets, or what they've said is Hezbollah targets, in Lebanon more than a thousand times. During that period, the Lebanese army has been working to disarm Hezbollah with limited success, and Israel has been sort of waiting for a chance to go back in and finish the job, and Hezbollah just gave them one. So Hezbollah, as a group aligned with Iran, is under a lot of pressure internally to react, especially to the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

6:44Giulia Petroni:And they have, but they've opened themselves up now to a pretty significant attack by Israel.

6:49Luke Vargas:Andrew Dowell is The Wall Street Journal's Middle East editor. I have a feeling we'll be back on with you as the week progresses. Drew, thank you so much for the update. Thanks. Well, away from the battlefield, this conflict is also leading to major political changes in Iran. Journal correspondent Suna Rasmussen has been monitoring who in the Iranian leadership has been taken out by these U.S. and Israeli strikes. And he joins me now with more. Suna the Ayatollah is dead. The killing of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday definitely dealing a blow to Iran's ruling structure. And yet I think a lot of people are asking at this point if this is actually changing anything.

7:28Luke Vargas:What can you say? How is the Iranian establishment reacting here?

7:31Sune Rasmussen:I think it would be a bit cavalier to say that the killing of Khamenei doesn't change anything. But the Iranian system has been built to sort of not rely on one person, even if that person like Khamenei, like the supreme leader, has the final say on all matters of national security. He always surrounded himself with a lot of advisors and relegated decision-making to a lot of people around them, military commanders, but also political civilian officials, and probably in preparation for something like this.

8:01Luke Vargas:I mean, are we seeing signs that this is proceeding in an orderly fashion, or are there, I don't know, indications of some sort of destabilizing power vacuum that someone else might try to sweep into?

8:11Sune Rasmussen:Yeah, actually, it's happening according to the Constitution in what I guess you would call an orderly fashion, considering the circumstances. So, the first step is to form a three-man council, and that council consists of the president, the head of the judiciary, and then a member of what's known as the Guardian Council, which is a powerful clerical council. That has been formed, and they are now sort of the interim leadership council. Then what's known as the Assembly of Experts will select a new supreme leader. How long that's going to take, we don't know.

8:42Luke Vargas:I mean, we've seen the CIA had assessed that a hardliner could take power in the Ayatollah's absence. I mean, is it safe to say we're not seeing regime change per se? The regime is just finding someone new to take the place of the Ayatollah?

8:57Sune Rasmussen:I think the nature of what we call the regime or the Islamic system in the Islamic Republic will be different because Ayatollah Khamenei was so powerful and he kind of weeded out all clerical rivals. We should say that the supreme leader has to be a cleric and he has to be a cleric of a certain rank as well, has to be an ayatollah. But there is no immediate successor here. And that is partly by design, because he also didn't want anyone to challenge his authority while he was alive. I think the next supreme leader is going to be a person that has a much more ceremonial role in Iran. I think we'll see more sort of a collective leadership working behind the scenes.

9:32Sune Rasmussen:It's a lot of people and it's a lot of different bodies. It's clerical bodies, is also the military, especially the Revolutionary Guard, which is a political and economic behemoth. And all these people, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people who are either in the regime or dependent on the regime. So a regime change, like we saw, for example, in Iraq, that would mean uprooting this whole structure in the system.

9:59Luke Vargas:President Trump said last night that Iran's entire military command is gone, adding as well that many of them want to surrender. Those are Trump's words there. Do we see any indication of that? I mean, just at least in terms of the pace of attacks that we've been witnessing, clearly someone is making military decisions still, and a lot of them.

10:18Sune Rasmussen:Yeah. And I think in brief, no, we're not seeing any signs of defections or people laying down arms yet. He is right that a lot of senior commanders have been killed in this wave of strikes. And a lot were killed last year during the war with Israel. I think 30 top commanders were killed last year. But that didn't slow the pace of Iran's retaliation. It didn't slow its ability to respond to Israeli strikes. And we've seen the same thing now. Iran is bombing almost every country in the Gulf. It's striking back against Israel. It's caused a few fatalities among US soldiers. Question is, of course, how long it can keep this up.

10:56Sune Rasmussen:But it is designed, And the Iranian system is designed to continue fighting even if top commanders are killed.

11:04Luke Vargas:I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal correspondent Suna Rasmussen. Suna, thank you as always. Thanks for having me. Coming up, we'll look at the market impact of the conflict as some investors predict we could see$100 a barrel oil this week. That and the rest of the day's news after the break.

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11:58Luke Vargas:Oil prices are surging as strikes on ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz have thrust one of the world's key choke points for energy into the crossfire. Natural gas prices have also jumped, and investors wary of a wider conflict in the Middle East are flocking to safe havens like gold and the dollar. Iranian officials and media have shared conflicting statements about whether Tehran intends to block sea traffic through the strait, but Dow Jones commodities reporter Julia Petroni says the uncertainty is already having a major market impact.

12:28Andrew Dowell:20 million barrels of crude oil and refined products pass through this strait each day, meaning that even limited delays can have significant impacts for supply chains. Now, what we know is that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned ships to avoid this passage, and this has obviously prompted many vessels to turn back and reroute. It's not just commodities. Container shipping companies, including Maersk, Al-Pakloid, are rerouting vessels around the southern tip of Africa, trying to avoid the Suez Canal and the Strait of Ormus. We have other pipelines bypassing the strait, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

13:06Andrew Dowell:However, these cannot fully compensate for the strait's capacity in the event of a complete closure. So that would have a major, major impact for supply chains.

13:15Luke Vargas:Should Iran shut the strait, several banks are predicting$100 a barrel oil could be in play, a type of price jump that would push up the cost of fuel for cars, power plants, and more the world over.

13:30U.S.

13:30Luke Vargas:forces reportedly used Anthropics AI to coordinate airstrikes in Iran, defying a White House order to stop working with the company. The move underscores how deeply embedded the technology remains in military operations in spite of growing tensions between the Pentagon and the tech firm. Anthropics CEO Dario Amadei addressed the friction in an exclusive interview with CBS this weekend. We wanted to stand up for American values. And when we were threatened with Supply Chain Designation and Defense Production Act, which are unprecedented intrusions into the private economy by the government, we exercised our classic First Amendment rights to speak up and disagree with the government.

14:15Luke Vargas:Despite the federal blacklist, Anthropics AI bot Claude has surged the top of the Apple App Store, outperforming rivals ChatGPT and Google Gemini. The rise follows a public backlash against OpenAI after its recent government partnership. Meanwhile, NVIDIA says it plans to release a new processor designed to help OpenAI and other customers to build faster and more efficient tools. People familiar with the details say the company is creating a system for so-called inference computing, a form of processing that allows AI models to respond to queries. And EV sales in China dropped sharply last month, highlighting a tough road ahead for Chinese carmakers after years of rapid growth and aggressive expansion.

14:59Luke Vargas:Sales of BYD vehicles, the world's biggest EV seller, were down 41 % from a year earlier. The data comes ahead of one of the year's biggest policy events for China watchers. This week's National People's Congress is expected to approve a five-year economic blueprint that will prioritize turning China into a technological superpower that can rival the U.S. And that's it for What's News for this Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer and Daniel Bach. Our supervising producer is Sandra Killhoff, and I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show.

15:34Luke Vargas:So until then, thanks for listening.

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