According to Israel’s Channel 12 television, President Trump is furious about Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for a general insurrection across Iran following the assassination of the lead negotiator, Ali Larijani, and the commander of the Basij public order militia, Gholamreza Soleimani.
Trump allegedly slammed Israel’s PM for telling the US to exhort all Iranians to take to the streets to overthrow the regime, which, according to Israeli intelligence, is cracking up. “Why the hell should we tell people to take to the streets when they’ll just get mowed down?” Trump reportedly told Netanyahu during a phone call.
They agreed to wait to see if Iranians would use the annual festival of fire, Chaharshanbe Suri, for mass street demonstrations. “Our aircraft are hitting the terrorist operatives on the grounds, the crossroads, and the city squares,” Netanyahu allegedly claimed. “This is meant to enable the brave people of Iran to celebrate the Festival of Fire.”
Trump has told Republicans in Congress that his aim was the destruction of Iran’s ballistic missile forces, nuclear arsenal potential, Iranian navy, and support for terrorist proxy groups. He has not mentioned regime change for weeks.
Israel is going for regime change, and that would escalate the war.
Netanyahu is afraid Trump will cut a deal to end the war and is reported to have asked his generals to mount an “all-out blitz on top targets” in Iran over the next 48 hours.
However, the closure of the Straits of Hormuz and the choking of oil and gas exports from the Persian Gulf could prevent Trump from ending the war soon.
Yesterday, President Trump wrote on Truth Social:
As per the Iranian Government’s request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time. Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media and others, they are going very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
The Final Blow If Talks Don’t Yield Peace
Trump is ordering 7,000 more of our elite soldiers to the Gulf.
Axios reports that the Pentagon is developing military options for a “final blow” in Iran that could include the use of ground forces and a massive bombing campaign, according to two US officials and two sources with knowledge.
In interviews with Axios, officials and sources familiar with the internal discussions describe four major “final blow” options Trump could choose from:
- Invading or blockading Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub.
- Invading Larak, an island that helps Iran solidify its control of the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic outpost hosts Iranian bunkers, attack craft that can blow up cargo ships, and radars that monitor movements in the strait.
- Seizing the strategic island of Abu Musa and two smaller islands, which lie near the western entrance to the strait and are controlled by Iran but also claimed by the UAE.
- Blocking or seizing ships that are exporting Iranian oil on the eastern side of the Hormuz Strait.
The US military has also prepared plans for ground operations deep inside the interior of Iran to secure the highly enriched uranium buried within nuclear facilities.
Instead of conducting such a complicated and risky operation, the US could instead carry out large-scale air strikes on the facilities to try to prevent Iran from ever accessing the material.
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Victor Davis Hanson has spent fifty years studying how wars end. When he says the tide is turning, it’s worth listening to why.
His argument isn’t based on what the Pentagon is… pic.twitter.com/pC35L1Hdsu
— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) March 20, 2026
Caveat: This is all coming from the media, which is often wrong.