USS Gerald R. Ford sails into Middle East amid second week of US-Iran war

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Donald Trump rapidly shifted the stated objectives of the war with Iran—moving from urging Iranians to shape their own future to demanding the regime’s “unconditional surrender” and signaling he may help decide the country’s next leader, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

"Even as the conflict has escalated into a regional crisis involving more than a dozen countries, President Donald Trump appears to be refining the rationale and endgame of the war on the fly, according to current and former US officials and allied diplomats," the report said.

"It will be impossible to replicate the model in Iran, analysts say. Unlike in Venezuela, where the US was dealing with a hollowed-out petrostate, Washington is confronting an entrenched theocracy backed by a vast security apparatus that is built to preserve the system even after the loss of senior leaders," the report added.

President Donald Trump said he will visit Dover Air Force Base on Saturday with the First Lady and members of his Cabinet to pay tribute to fallen US service members returning home.

“I will be going to Dover Air Force Base tomorrow, with the First Lady and Members of my Cabinet, to pay our Highest Respect to our Great Warriors, who are returning home for the last time. God bless them all!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Six US service members were killed on March 1st, when an Iranian drone struck a tactical operations center at Port Shuaiba in Kuwait, a key logistics hub for US forces. The attack, part of the early stages of the Iran conflict, also wounded 18 others. Officials said the strike bypassed air defenses and is under investigation.

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Saudi Arabia’s air defense forces intercepted and destroyed a drone east of Riyadh early on Saturday, the Ministry of Defense said.

The ministry said the military’s readiness in protecting the Kingdom’s airspace as Iranian drone and missile attacks across the region, including strikes on US targets and the US Embassy in Riyadh, continue.

Saudi Arabia invoked its Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement with Pakistan as Iran’s drone and missile strikes on the Kingdom continue, including attacks on oil facilities and the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman said on X on Friday.

Prince Khalid met with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defense Forces, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to coordinate countermeasures under the pact. He warned that Iranian actions threaten regional security and urged Tehran to exercise “wisdom” and avoid further miscalculations.

A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Asif Merchant, a 48-year-old trained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), of murder-for-hire and attempting an act of terrorism in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US government official on American soil, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said on Friday.

Merchant traveled to the United States in April 2024 to meet individuals he believed were contract killers, who were actually undercover US law enforcement officers, according to court filings and a Department of Justice statement. Prosecutors said he was tasked by the IRGC to recruit hitmen to target one of three senior US officials. The plot was disrupted before any attack could occur.

“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in the DOJ statement. Merchant now faces a potential life sentence at a future sentencing hearing.

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