5 Things to Know as Iran Conflict Enters Second Week

Iran has, thus far, rejected talk of surrender as fighting has displaced tens of thousands across the Middle East and spooked markets.

Ryan Morgan

Published: 3/8/2026, 3:06:18 PM EDT

5 Things to Know as Iran Conflict Enters Second Week — Smoke rises over buildings following explosions in the central region of the city in Tehran, Iran, on March 6, 2026. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

The joint U.S.–Israeli military campaign against Iran entered its second week on March 7, with U.S. President Donald Trump weighing strikes on a wider range of targets across the Persian state.

Thus far, Iranian leaders have rejected calls for surrender, even after U.S. and Israeli forces killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and numerous other senior Iranian military and intelligence officials, and continued to strike thousands more targets across the country.

Trump has made assurances that U.S. forces can sustain operations for a long time to come, but the fighting has touched countries throughout the Middle East and clogged oil flows through the Persian Gulf, riling markets.

Here’s what to know as the U.S. campaign against Iran—dubbed Operation Epic Fury—runs into a second week.

1. An Air Battle, For Now

The first week of fighting with Iran played out in the air, as U.S. and Israeli forces launched missiles and conducted strikes with aircraft. Iran responded by lobbing salvos of missiles and launching drones across the region.

At a Pentagon news briefing on March 4, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine described a battle plan wherein U.S. and Israeli forces would methodically destroy Iran’s air defenses, gradually increasing their control over Iran’s airspace.

By March 5, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said Iranian missile attacks had fallen by 90 percent from the start of the conflict, while drone attacks had fallen by 83 percent.

No U.S. ground troops have entered the fray, but the Trump administration hasn’t taken that option off the table.

“I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States or the commander-in-chief, and he wisely does not do the same for himself,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on March 4.

Speaking with Reuters on March 5, Trump said he’d “be all for it” if Kurdish fighters launched an incursion into Iran. During a press gaggle aboard Air Force One on March 7, however, Trump said he had ruled out involving the Kurds, stating, “The war is complicated enough."

2. Iran Rejects Surrender

In a March 7 video statement, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian rebuffed the idea of Iran’s surrender.

In a Truth Social post the day before, Trump wrote, “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks at a press conference in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 16, 2024. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images) — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks at a press conference in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 16, 2024. Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

Pezeshkian called surrender a dream that Iran’s enemies “should take to their grave.”

Trump has since threatened to intensify strikes on Iran.

“Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time,” the U.S. president wrote on Truth Social on March 7.

Trump has stated that he needs to be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader.

The U.S. president has expressed a desire for an approach similar to the one he took with Venezuela. After U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, Trump agreed to have Maduro’s second-in-command, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, fill in as the country’s interim leader.

3. Fighting Unsettles Region

While U.S. and Israeli forces continue to strike Iran, Israel has had to divert attention to its northern border with Lebanon. There, Israeli air and ground forces have targeted Hezbollah, a designated terrorist group long considered an ally to Iran’s Shia Islamic leadership.

Israel’s military has reported striking dozens of Hezbollah targets across Lebanon. The Israeli military has reported that several of its troops have been injured in the fighting.

More than 100,000 Lebanese have become internally displaced as Israeli forces have issued evacuation orders throughout parts of the country.

A plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital Tehran, on March 3, 2026. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images) — A plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital Tehran, on March 3, 2026. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images

Iranian drone and missile forces, meanwhile, have also continued to strike countries across the region, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

As of March 6, the U.S. State Department said that about 24,000 Americans have been repatriated from across the Middle East since the fighting with Iran began.

Pezeshkian, in his March 7 remarks, offered apologies to various Gulf States that Iranian forces have struck. He said Iranian forces have since been instructed not to attack neighboring countries “unless those countries are used to attack us.”

4. Bolstering Arms Stockpiles

U.S. forces have used hundreds of long-range strike weapons and missile interceptors over the past week of fighting with Iran. Lawmakers have since begun to raise concerns that the Iran conflict is draining stockpiles of those prized weapons.

“These munitions take a long time to replenish and risk being unavailable for the unforeseen contingencies elsewhere, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, where we face a peer adversary,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said at a March 4 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Amid concerns of shortages, Trump met on March 6 with the heads of arms industry leaders from BAE Systems, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace, L3Harris Missile Solutions, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. In a Truth Social post, Trump said those arms industry leaders had already begun expanding their output three months earlier.

Trump said U.S. forces have a “virtually unlimited supply of Medium and Upper Medium Grade Munitions” and that armsmakers “have agreed to quadruple Production of the ‘Exquisite Class' Weaponry.”

He did not specify which specific weapons systems would quadruple production.

5. Conflict Roils Oil Markets

The rain of missiles and exploding drones over the Persian Gulf in the past week has spooked oil industry traffic through the key waterway.

About 25 percent of the world’s seaborne oil leaves the Persian Gulf through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Energy Agency.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations, a monitoring component affiliated with the British navy, has reported several instances of attacks targeting vessels transiting the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the hostilities.

Stocks fell, and oil prices surged as the U.S. stock market opened on March 2. That same day, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered assurances that the Trump administration was preparing measures to stabilize fuel prices.

Trump has since suggested sending U.S. warships to escort oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

Looking beyond physical protection, the Trump administration has ordered a $20 billion federal reinsurance program to calm shipping operators.

The administration has also issued India a 30-day waiver to purchase otherwise-sanctioned Russian oil.

Sam Dorman, T.J. Muscaro, Savannah Hulsey Pointer, Owen Evans, and Andrew Moran contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times