As the war in the Middle East expands, President Trump on Tuesday acknowledged the deep uncertainty about what comes next in Iran, saying that officials whom the United States had eyed as potential new leaders had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign.
“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” Mr. Trump said at the start of a White House meeting with Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany. He said it was possible that whoever takes over Iran could be “as bad” as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, who was killed in a strike on Saturday.
Mr. Trump’s comments came as Israeli troops seized more areas in southern Lebanon and called for the evacuation of at least 80 Lebanese villages. The Israeli military cast the move as an effort to defend Israeli border towns against rockets fired by Hezbollah, the militia backed by Iran.
Israeli warplanes also carried out heavy airstrikes near Beirut, the Lebanese capital, and Tehran, the Iranian capital.
The United States closed embassies that were hit by drones in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and urged Americans to immediately leave 14 Middle Eastern countries. Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, said an Iranian drone had also hit the area of the U.S. Consulate in Dubai. The government-run Dubai media office said that a fire from a “drone-related incident” near the consulate had been contained and that no injuries were reported.
Mr. Trump has offered several rationales for the American military operation. The president said at the White House on Tuesday that he had made the decision to go to war to pre-empt Iran, which he claimed was about to attack. Officials with access to U.S. intelligence have said that Mr. Trump has exaggerated the immediacy of any threat Iran posed to the United States.
“We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,” Mr. Trump said. Asked if Israel had forced his hand, as has been widely reported, he said, “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
In a legally mandated notification to Congress sent later on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the strikes on Iran were being carried out to protect the United States at home, as well as its forces in the Middle East; to advance U.S. national interests; and “in collective self-defense of our regional allies, including Israel.”
He said he had no timeline for the end of the assault.
“Although the United States desires a quick and enduring peace, it is not possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that may be necessary,” Mr. Trump wrote in the letter to Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the president pro tempore of the Senate. The letter, the president wrote, was an effort to “keep the Congress fully informed” of the military operation, as required by the War Powers act.
More than 800 people have been killed — mostly in Iran but across the Middle East — since Saturday, when the United States and Israel launched the attack on Iran, which responded by firing hundreds of drones and missiles.
The war has prompted a sell-off in the European and Asian stock markets. In the United States, the S&P 500 fell more than 2 percent in early trading but recovered some of its losses in the afternoon.
Oil and gas prices have surged amid strikes on production facilities and tankers and Iran’s threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane. Gasoline prices jumped by about 10 cents a gallon on Tuesday, to $3.11, according to the AAA motor club.
Mr. Trump predicted that those prices — a potentially sensitive issue in the midterm elections this year — would drop “as soon” as the conflict is over. Mr. Merz, seated next to him, said that higher oil prices were hurting the global economy — a reason to try to end the war quickly.
“We are really looking forward to find ways how to deal about the day after,” Mr. Merz said.
But there were no signs that the fighting was close to ending.
President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Tuesday that his country was deploying an aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean and a frigate to Cyprus, alongside additional antiaircraft defense resources.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said that his country was deploying a naval destroyer and helicopters with anti-drone capabilities to help defend Cyprus and British military personnel there. The move follows a weekend drone attack on a British base in Cyprus, which did not cause casualties.
Britain, France, the United States and other countries also rushed to evacuate thousands of their citizens from the region on charter and commercial flights, though those seats were limited.
Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, an Israeli military spokesman, said that Israeli forces had taken over “strategic areas” in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel. Israel already controlled five military outposts inside Lebanon, close to the border, from which its forces had refused to withdraw after reaching a cease-fire with Hezbollah in November 2024.
Military analysts said that Israel could be weighing a wider ground assault in southern Lebanon similar to the one it launched before that cease-fire. Once one of the Middle East’s most-feared paramilitaries, Hezbollah was severely degraded by the war with Israel, which assassinated many of its top leaders and killed scores of its fighters.
But Hezbollah insisted on Tuesday that it had no intention of backing down. If Israel wanted an open war, “then let it be an open war,” said Mahmoud Qamati, a senior Hezbollah official.
Israeli forces have also launched waves of airstrikes in other parts of Lebanon, including near the southern edge of Beirut, a traditional bastion of support for Hezbollah.
At least 40 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting there escalated on Monday, according to the country’s health ministry. The strikes — combined with Israel’s evacuation orders — have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. Many in southern Lebanon who lack formal shelters have sought safety in schools and mosques.
The Israeli military said that it was also carrying out more airstrikes in Iran, including on industrial sites used by the Iranian government to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian relief organization, said on Tuesday that the death toll in the country had risen to 787.
One strike in the Iranian city of Qom hit an office of the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that is supposed to appoint Mr. Khamenei’s successor. The Iranian state-affiliated Fars News Agency reported that the assembly was meeting remotely and that no one was in the building when it was hit. The assembly’s compound in Tehran was also bombed on Monday.
Mr. Trump said that many of the people the United States had viewed as potential leaders of Iran have been killed since Saturday. “Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody,” he said.
Asked about a worst-case scenario in Iran, he said: “I guess the worst case would be we do this and somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person. Right? That could happen. We don’t want that to happen.”
He appeared to dismiss Reza Pahlavi, the former crown prince of Iran and son of the deposed shah, who lives in exile and has held himself out as a future leader of Iran. Mr. Trump said that Mr. Palavi “looks like a very nice person” but that “it would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate.”
Iran’s retaliation has hit a growing number of American installations in the region.
On Tuesday, the American Embassy in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, was struck by two drones that started a small fire and damaged the building, the Saudi Defense Ministry said. That strike came a day after a drone hit the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. No one was hurt in either of those attacks, but the U.S. State Department announced that it was temporarily closing both facilities.
The State Department said on Tuesday that it was also shuttering the American Embassy in Beirut because of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The department, citing “serious safety risks” in the region, urged Americans to immediately leave 14 countries in the region, including Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar, through commercial transportation options.
After some Americans said that no flights were available, Dylan Johnson, an assistant secretary of state, said on social media that the department was “actively securing military aircraft and charter flights” for Americans to leave the Middle East.
The German chancellor was the first foreign leader to meet with Mr. Trump since the United States started the war. Mr. Merz and his fellow European leaders have been largely peripheral as Israeli and American officials direct the strikes.
Mr. Trump complained that Spain had not allowed the use of its bases for the attacks on Iran. Trying once again to use commerce as a cudgel, Mr. Trump threatened to cut off trade with it.
The Spanish government responded defiantly, saying its goal was “to work for free trade and economic cooperation among countries, based on mutual respect and compliance with international law.”
“What citizens ask for and deserve is more prosperity,” it said, “not more problems.”
Reporting was contributed by Shawn McCreesh, Gabby Sobelman, Jason Horowitz, Dayana Iwaza, Yan Zhuang, Ephrat Livni, Anushka Patil, Johnatan Reiss and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad.
Jim Tankersley is the Berlin bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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