Iran warns US ground invasion would lead to ‘second Vietnam’ as war drives up energy prices
US President Donald Trump has criticized allies who have rebuffed his demands to assist Washington in fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz. No countries have yet committed to sending warships to the key waterway, which Iran claims is closed to its enemies, meaning the US and Israel.
A German government spokesperson said this morning that “this war has nothing to do with NATO” and that “it is not NATO’s war.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer mulled over “a viable collective plan,” while not saying anything concrete.
Meanwhile, global oil prices are trading above $100 per barrel, more than 40% higher than before the Iran War began, stoking fears of a deeper energy crisis.
Here are the latest developments:
- Israel has launched “limited and targeted ground operations” against Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon, according to the IDF. RT's Steve Sweeny reports from a bombed school in the evacuation zone.
- “A missile falling on a civilian vehicle” in Abu Dhabi has reportedly killed one person while Dubai airport was closed after a drone struck an oil storage site.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has responded to speculation that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is being treated in Moscow.
Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.
17 March 2026
00:40 GMTA new video appears to show a strike on the US Embassy in Baghdad.
AP and Reuters reported earlier that a strike on Monday evening hit the top floor of the Al-Rasheed Hotel in the Green Zone, which houses government buildings and the US Embassy.
- 00:18 GMT
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh warned that a potential US ground invasion of Iran would be defeated.
“Just read what happened in Vietnam,” the diplomat told Sky News in an interview aired on Monday. He argued that American troops would face a similar fate in Iran.
“They understand that those who dragged them into this war can also drag them into a quagmire,” he said.
16 March 2026
22:59 GMTVideos posted to social media appear to show an air defense system at the US Embassy in Baghdad firing to intercept an incoming projectile.
- 22:43 GMT
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied reports that he had resumed communications with US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff.
“My last contact with Mr. Witkoff was prior to his employer’s decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran,” Araghchi wrote on X on Tuesday.
“Any claim to the contrary appears geared solely to mislead oil traders and the public,” he added.
Axios earlier cited a US official as saying that a direct communications channel between Witkoff and Araghchi had been “reactivated in recent days.”
- 22:27 GMT
Israeli Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said the Israeli army is “determined to deepen the operation until all of our objectives are achieved.”
Zamir said additional troops have been sent to strengthen Israel’s Northern Command, which is responsible for operations in Lebanon, to “deepen the damage to Hezbollah and push the threat away from the communities in the north.”
- 22:11 GMT
US President Donald Trump has called NATO members unreliable partners after America’s European allies declined to send warships to police the Strait of Hormuz.
“We spent trillions and trillions of dollars on NATO to defend other countries. And I always said, but if it ever comes time to defend us, they are not going to be there. Many of them would not be there,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Iran has closed the crucial oil trade route to Western ships following the start of US-Israeli strikes on February 28.
- 21:43 GMT
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Israeli jets “dismantled” a headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fleet in Tehran last week.
- 21:27 GMT
US President Donald Trump said Monday that his trip to Beijing this month to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping could be delayed by “a month or so.”
“We’re speaking to China. I would love to, but because of the war, I want to be here,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’ve got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here,” he added.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said earlier that the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28 was illegal under international law and called on all sides to end hostilities.
- 20:10 GMT
Trump is being presented with daily military options on how to proceed in the war with Iran – some involving massive strikes on nuclear facilities and regime targets – but has so far rejected the most extreme proposals, NBC News reports. Sources told the outlet that aides and allies are pulling him in different directions, that the White House is favoring a “step‑by‑step” mix of limited strikes, cyber operations and economic pressure, and that the timeline for the war “could change every day.”
- 19:55 GMT
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has praised Iraq’s Kurdistan Region as a “stabilising force” in the Middle East, saying after a call with regional leader Nechirvan Barzani that the EU will “continue supporting the Republic of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.” Her remarks come as Brussels faces growing criticism, including from former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, over what he called the bloc’s selective approach and largely passive stance on the US‑Israeli bombing of Iran, which EU leaders have insisted is “not Europe’s war.”
