The #CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of sparking a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told #GlobalNews.

🚨 BREAKING: An Iranian ballistic missile has just struck the LARGEST US military base in the Middle East — Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar

Unknown if there were any casuaIties at this time.

Developing…

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on a potential European cooperation in nuclear security, emphasizing the importance of neighboring states’ attitudes.

"There is one important ‘but:’ as we have just seen, any initiative must be acceptable to the neighboring countries which should not feel threatened by potential newcomers. Otherwise… I think, everyone following the news has realized that, in this matter, not only the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency are important but also the attitudes of the countries bordering the region and beyond," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

On March 2, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that eight #European countries had expressed interest in cooperating with Paris on joint nuclear deterrence, naming Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark. Commenting on the initiative at a press conference on March 3, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned of a growing risk that nuclear proliferation could spiral out of control.

The United States is going to rupture all trade relations with Spain after its refusal to increase defense expenditures to 5% of the GDP, President Donald Trump said.

"They have great people, but they don't have great leadership. And as you know, they were the only country that in NATO would not agree to go up to 5%. I don't think they want to agree to go up to anything," Trump said at the press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the White House.

"They wanted to keep it at 2% and they don't pay the 2% so we're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain," the US leader added.

Has the U.S. ever assassinated a world leader before?

The U.S. government for decades shied away from targeting foreign leaders after embarrassing failures and unintended consequences from covert activities by the #CIA.

The targeting and killing of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which opened an undeclared war with Iran, is the first time in modern history the U.S. — in this case working with Israel — openly killed the leader of a foreign country, according to CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali.

For those keeping track, the U.S. has now decapitated two foreign governments — both U.S. adversaries overseeing vast oil reserves — in the past two months. Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is in New York awaiting trial and Khamenei is dead.

There is actually a ban on U.S. involvement in assassinations in U.S. law – most recently in an executive order signed by Ronald Reagan. It is still technically in effect.

But since 9/11, after which Congress gave presidents broad authority to use force to combat terrorism, there has been a slow but steady move toward this moment. Presidents from both parties have killed leaders of terrorist groups such as Osama bin Laden. U.S. President Donald Trump took another step when he ordered the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani by airstrike in Iraq in 2020. Now the U.S. has killed a foreign head of state.

“You can always come up with an individual who, by their power and their depth of depravity, whose removal benefits humanity,” Naftali said, arguing few will mourn Khamenei’s demise. “But making the decision to wipe out a foreign head of state should not be taken easily or quickly.”

‘I got him before he got me’

Neither U.S. President Donald Trump nor the Trump administration has publicly used that word – assassination – to describe the killing of Khamenei. They have offered multiple reasons for attacking Iran – lack of faith in Iran’s leaders in negotiations over Iran’s plans for a nuclear program; the potential for Iran to develop anti-ballistic missiles; Iran’s sponsorship of terror groups in other countries, the recent killing of protesters in its streets.

When Trump announced the strikes in a video posted to his social media account at 2:30 a.m. ET Saturday, he said, without evidence, that Iran posed an “imminent” threat. But in a phone conversation with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Trump offered a more personal reason for killing Khamenei.

“I got him before he got me. They tried twice, well I got him first,” Trump said, according to Karl.

Trump is likely referring to U.S. intelligence from the summer of 2024 that Iran was plotting to assassinate then-candidate Trump and other officials, around the same time a gunman with no known ties to Iran tried to kill Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Iran denied the claim.

When the U.S. military has been involved, foreign leaders have faced justice in their own countries.

Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was hanged after a trial by authorities in Iraq after the U.S. invaded and toppled his government.

Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi was killed in crossfire after being captured by revolutionary forces, aided by a multinational bombing campaign with allies.

After World War II, allies put Nazi leaders on trial in Nuremberg.

READ MORE: War widens to include Iranian-backed militias as Israeli and American planes pound Iran
CIA involvement in coups and assassinations was previously kept secret

The U.S. was complicit in the overthrow and killing of Vietnamese dictator Ngo Dinh Diem, who previously had been propped up by U.S. support.

The CIA was directly, and secretly, involved in the 1973 ouster of Chilean leader Salvador Allende, which led to his suicide.

The U.S. orchestrated an overthrow in Iran in the 1950s

Other leaders overthrown with help by the U.S., like Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran in 1953, were put in prison rather than killed. The U.S. has since acknowledged its role in the coup, undertaken because the US and Britain feared Iran, and its oil, would fall behind the Iron Curtain. It was Kermit Roosevelt Jr., grandson of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who worked in Iran to help orchestrate the coup.

After Watergate, a special bipartisan Senate committee was convened to assess abuses by the American intelligence community. The Church Committee, named for Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, issued a special report specifically on the issue of assassinations.

Over hundreds of papers, it ticked through U.S. efforts to undermine foreign leaders and assassinate them. Most notable are the failed assassination attempts against Cuba’s Fidel Castro, first ordered by the Kennedy administration.
Today, death is more likely to come from above

During the Obama administration, the U.S. revolutionized the use of covert drone strikes, as CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen has written, to kill suspected terrorists.

Technology has progressed since then. Israel Defence Forces released footage on its social media from a drone of what it said were the last moments of the Palestinian leader Yahya Sinwar, when he was sitting alone in a bombed-out room while the drone hovered nearby.

It’s not clear what technology was used in the strike on Khamenei. Last July, Iran claimed that another Palestinian, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran by a “short-range projectile.”

Tracking his daily moments

Israel appears to have fired the projectile that killed Khamenei and other leaders, but CNN reported Sunday that the CIA provided key intelligence on the Ayatollah’s whereabouts that allowed him to be targeted.
From CNN’s report:

(The CIA was) monitoring for his daily patterns — where he lived, whom he met with, how he communicated and where he might retreat under threat of attack, five people familiar with the matter told CNN. They were keeping tabs, too, on Iran’s senior political and military leaders, who rarely gathered in the same place with the ayatollah, the country’s supreme leader for nearly four decades.

The attacks coincided with an opportunity to take out not only the ayatollah but also other Iranian leaders, who recent intelligence suggested would be at a Tehran compound that is home to the offices of the ayatollah, the Iranian presidency and the national security apparatus.

In other words, the opportunity was there.
When the U.S. decided assassinations were a bad idea

The Church Committee concluded there were at least eight attempts to assassinate Castro between 1960 and 1965, including by mob hit, according to the author Dan Bohning, who wrote for CNN about the assassination attempts in 2008.

Its conclusions express bipartisan opposition to assassinations. It quotes President John F. Kennedy, somewhat ironically given attempts to kill Castro and his own ultimate demise, as saying the U.S. should not be assassinating foreign leaders.

“We can’t get into that kind of thing, or we would all be targets,” Kennedy said, according to the Church report.

More detailed quotes from the testimony of Richard Helms, who was involved in the 1953 Iran coup and also CIA assassination attempts before rising to be CIA director.

In testimony, Helms explained both moral and practical opposition to assassination.

“If you are going to try by this kind of means to remove a foreign leader, then who is going to take his place running that country, and are you essentially better off as a matter of practice when it is over than you were before?”

Helms pointed to the assassination of Diem in Vietnam as an example.

“That whole exercise turned out to the disadvantage of the United States,” Helms said. At the time he made those comments, in the years before the Islamic Revolution, Helms was the U.S. ambassador to Iran.

“It isn’t because I have lost my cool, or because I have lost my guts, it simply is because I don’t think it is a viable option in the United States of America these days,” Helms said of his opposition to assassination.

Three successive U.S. presidents, Republican Gerald Ford, Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican Reagan would each sign executive orders making it illegal for the U.S. government to engage in assassination.

Reagan’s order is still technically in effect, but Trump has been given broad immunity by the Supreme Court for his official acts while in office.

Trump is now seizing his opportunity to remake the geopolitical system, operating without seeking congressional approval in both hemispheres.

🇮🇷 Funeral service for the 150+ Iranian primary school girls murdered by the U.S.

#BREAKING: Newly appointed Supreme Leader of #Iran, Ayatollah Arafi, has reportedly been killed in an airstrike, just hours after being given the role.

#Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth said the US-Israeli operation against Iran will not turn into another United States’ endless war.

He said the United States would go as far as it takes in Operation Epic Fury against Iran.

TASS has compiled the key statements of the head of the Pentagon.
Change of power in Iran

The US-Israeli military operation against Iran is not aimed at a violent change of power in the Islamic republic: "This is not a so called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it today."

The Pentagon hopes that "the Iranian people will take advantage of this incredible opportunity."

The United States does not impose democracy by attacking Iran: "All on our terms, with maximum authority, no stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don't waste time or lives."
US Plans

When conducting a military operation against Iran, the United States is ready to go "as far as we need to advance American interests."

Iran still has long-range weapons, and the United States is focused on them: "They have long-range weapons that we are extremely focused on."

The Pentagon will not discuss further plans of the agency: " But we're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do," he said.
The campaign against Iran

Epic Fury is an air operation against Iran: "Two days ago, under the direction and direct orders of President Donald Trump, the Department of War launched Operation Epic Fury, the most lethal, most complex and most precise aerial operation in history."

The first strike on Iranian territory during the ongoing military operation was carried out by Israel, based on intelligence provided by the United States: "This was a daylight strike based on a trigger event conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces enabled by the US intelligence community."

"More than 100 aircraft" were involved in the initial stage of the operation.

The United States has deployed cyber units and space command: "In support of these kinetic operations, cybercom and spacecom have continuously layered effects to disrupt, disorient and confuse the enemy."

The United States pursues realistic goals that meet its interests: "We set the terms of this war from start to finish. Our ambitions are not utopian. They are realistic, scoped to our interests and the defense of our people and our allies."

The air defense systems of the United States and its partners have so far intercepted "hundreds of ballistic missiles" from Iran.
The work of the American contingent

Fulfilling the goals of the United States during the operation against Iran does not require sending "200,000 people" to the Islamic republic who would "stay there for 20 years": "We've proven that you can achieve objectives that advance American interests without being foolish about it."

Currently, there is no US contingent in #Iran.

More than 85,000 Canadians and permanent residents currently in the Middle East: GAC

On Saturday, the United States and Israel began strikes on Iran, targeting the country’s leadership, and later confirming Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed.

Retaliatory strikes have since widened the conflict in the region.

According to GAC, as of Monday morning, there are 2,932 Canadians and permanent residents in Iran and 6,006 in Israel. GAC says the federal government is not aware of any Canadians who have been injured or killed as a result of the hostilities.

Adding the caveat that these numbers are an estimate, because registration is voluntary and some people may have already left the region, GAC is also listing:

1,438 in Bahrain;
7,238 in Egypt;
943 in Iraq;
4,469 in Jordan;
4,070 in Kuwait;
23,165 in Lebanon;
793 in Oman;
438 in Palestine;
8,234 in Qatar;
10,948 in Saudi Arabia;
1,484 in Syria;
23,064 in the United Arab Emirates; and,
227 in Yemen.

“Canada condemns the strikes carried out by Iran on civilian infrastructure,” reads a statement from the federal government. “These attacks are a dangerous threat to regional stability and civilian safety.”

“They represent an unacceptable escalation and a blatant attempt to further destabilize the region,” the statement continues. “Attacks that endanger civilians and civilian infrastructure are deeply concerning and must cease immediately.”

The statement adds that Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has been in touch with several of her counterparts, including in Kuwait, Israel, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Jordan, the United Kingdom and Qatar.

The federal government is urging Canadians in the Middle East to register with GAC in order to receive updates about travel advisories.

Speaking to reporters in India on Saturday, Anand said non-essential diplomatic staff in Tel Aviv have been asked to relocate, but not elsewhere in the region.

According to GAC, Canadian missions staff in the Middle East are “safe and accounted for.”

The agency is also deploying members of the Standing Rapid Deployment Team — employees on standby to respond to emergency situations — to the region to assist in a handful of countries, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Jordan, Turkmenistan and Türkiye.

She also reiterated the information provided online by GAC, urging Canadians to register with the agency, and warning to avoid all travel to both Israel and Iran.

Canadians are also advised to avoid all travel to several other Middle Eastern countries, including Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Canadians are also being cautioned to avoid non-essential travel to Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

GAC is warning that consular services during “active conflict” is “limited,” and that staff is prioritizing essential services, so Canadians and permanent residents in affected countries should “prepare contingency plans” independently of the federal government.

With files from CTV News’ Abigail Bimman

The United States is sanctioning the Rwandan Defense Force (#RDF) and four senior #RDF officials for supporting M23 and perpetuating the conflict in eastern DRC in violation of the Washington Accords. The United States is resolved to uphold the Washington Accords and ensure all parties deliver on the promises of this historic agreement.

https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/03/sanctioning-rwandan-violators-of-the-washington-accords-for-peace-and-prosperity