Make Iran great again. That is what Donald Trump wrote
on Truth Social on Friday, March 6th, 2026.
Four words. A deliberate echo of the slogan
that defined his political career, and a statement that,
more than any press conference or Pentagon briefing this week,
captured the extraordinary ambition at the heart of
Operation Epic Fury. Not just to bomb Iran, not just
to destroy its military, but to remake it entirely in a form
acceptable to Washington. It is Saturday, March 7th, 2026,
day 8 of Operation Epic Fury. The war has entered its second
week. At least 1332 people have been
killed in Iran. More than 200 have been killed
in Lebanon. 11 have been killed in Israel, 6 American service
members are dead, 330,000 people have been displaced across the
Middle East, and the United States military has now struck
more than 3000 targets inside Iran and destroyed 43 Iranian
warships since February 28th. This is episode 8 of Epic Fury,
the US Iran war podcast. There is a great deal to cover.
Let's get into it. Begin with the 2 words that now
define everything about where this conflict is heading.
Unconditional surrender, Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday
in capital letters. There will be no deal with Iran
except unconditional surrender, he elaborated to reporters
throughout the day. He said unconditional surrender
means when Iran can no longer fight.
And he added something that underlined just how total his
vision for this conflict is. He said that after a surrender,
the United States would help select a great and acceptable
leader for Iran, that the country would have a great
future, That he wanted to see Iran become economically bigger,
better and stronger than ever before, he told CNN.
I'm saying there has to be a leader who is going to be fair
and just, do a great job, treat the United States and Israel
well and treat the other countries in the Middle East
well. They're all our partners.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt confirmed on
Friday that American intelligence agencies and the
broader United States government are actively examining a number
of possible replacements for the late Supreme Leader Khamenei.
She declined to name any of them publicly, but the picture that
emerges from Trump's Truth Social post, his media
interviews and Levitt's confirmation is unmistakable.
the United States of America is prosecuting a war with explicit,
stated goal of forcing Iran's unconditional surrender,
selecting its next leader, and rebuilding it in a form that
serves American and Israeli interests.
That is the most expansive public statement of war aims by
any American president since the unconditional surrender demands
of the Second World War. Trump also told reporters
something that provided one of the starkest justifications yet
for the timing of the entire operation.
He said if we did not hit within two weeks, they would have had a
nuclear weapon. Two weeks, not months, not
years, two weeks. And the IEA had independently
confirmed on February 27th, just one day before the strikes
began, that Iran had been secretly stockpiling highly
enriched uranium in an underground facility that had
not been declared to the agency. The combination of that IEA
discovery and the American intelligence assessment that
Iran was two weeks from a functional weapon provided the
final trigger for the operation, understanding that timeline
matters enormously when evaluating the decision that was
made. Iran's response to the
unconditional surrender demand was swift and unambiguous.
President Massoud Posseshkian posted on social media that
unnamed countries had begun mediation efforts, briefly
raising hopes of some diplomatic opening.
But then he made Iran's position on surrender completely clear.
He said Iran would never capitulate.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security
Council, went further. He warned that Iranian forces
are waiting for a potential United States ground invasion
and threatened that Iran would kill and capture thousands of
American troops if they set foot on Iranian soil.
Iran's deputy foreign minister issued a direct warning to
European nations, saying they will become legitimate targets
for Iranian retaliation if they join the United States and
Israel in a conflict. Two sides, 2 positions, both
stated as absolute. Trump demands unconditional
surrender. Iran says it will never
capitulate. There is no diplomatic overlap
between these positions at this moment and that means this
conflict has no visible off ramp on the horizon.
The military intensity on Friday and Saturday was staggering in
its scale. The Israeli military announced
it is now moving to what its chief of staff, described as the
next phase of the war. Israel has carried out 2500
strikes, deploying more than 6000 individual weapons.
It claims to have destroyed 80% of Iran's air defense systems
and achieved near complete air superiority over Iranian
airspace. On Friday alone, Israel struck
more than 400 targets in western Iran, destroying ballistic
missile launchers and drone storage facilities across an
entire belt of Iran's western provinces.
The United States military has now struck more than 3000
targets inside Iran since February 28th.
The Air Wars Monitoring Group, which independently tracks
military strikes and civilian casualties in conflict zones,
said on Friday that the opening days of the United States and
Israeli campaign against Iran hit significantly more targets
than any military campaign in recent decades.
More targets than the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
More targets than the air campaign over Libya in 2011.
More targets than any sustained American drone campaign in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia or Yemen.
The sheer volume of ordnance that has fallen on Iran in eight
days is without precedent in recent military history.
Iran's 23rd wave of strikes was launched on Friday.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the start of the
wave and the Israeli military confirmed its air defense
systems were actively intercepting missiles.
Iran has now fired more than 500 ballistic and naval missiles and
almost 2000 drones since February 28th.
Almost 40% of those launches were aimed at Israel.
Almost 60% were aimed at United States military targets across
the region. Iran launched a hybrid drone and
missile attack at Tel Aviv on Thursday night.
Hezbollah has fired rockets at multiple locations in northern
Israel on a sustained basis, forcing the IDF to fight on 2
fronts simultaneously. 8 Israeli soldiers were wounded by
Hezbollah fire on Friday. Israel's military is
simultaneously conducting major air operations over Iran and a
ground and air operation in southern Lebanon that is an
extraordinary operational burden to sustain.
The Gulf states continue to absorb significant Iranian fire.
On Friday, Qatar's air defense systems intercepted 9 of 10
Iranian drones launched at the country.
On Thursday night, Saudi Arabia intercepted 3 drones east of
Riyadh and three ballistic missiles targeting a military
base South of the capital. Iran struck a state-run oil
refinery on Bahrain's main island, though the resulting
fire was contained. Kuwait has begun cutting
production at some of its oil fields because it has run out of
storage capacity for crude it can no longer export through the
Strait of Hormuz. A major hotel in Erbil, the
capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, was struck by a falling
drone on Friday. Iran backed militias in Iraq
claimed responsibility. The Jordanian armed forces
confirmed they have intercepted 49 drones and ballistic missiles
that enter Jordanian airspace since the conflict began. 49
Jordan is not a party to this conflict.
It has no dispute with Iran. Its air defenses have been
firing almost continuously for eight days to protect its own
population from munitions that pass through its airspace
targeting other countries. The geographic blast radius of
this war continues to expand in ways that no pre conflict
analysis fully anticipated. Russia entered the conflict in a
new and deeply alarming dimension.
On Friday, American officials, speaking anonymously, confirmed
to multiple news organizations that Russia has been providing
Iran with intelligence on the locations of American warships
and aircraft. A private Chinese satellite
company has separately been tracking American military
deployments with remarkable accuracy and sharing that
information publicly, information that Iranian
military planners have reportedly been using for
targeting Vladimir Putin personally spoke with Iranian
President Possesskian, offering condolences for Iranian deaths
and receiving a briefing on the military situation.
And the Russian government publicly acknowledged that the
war has caused a significant increase in demand for Russian
energy products. Russia is not a formal party to
this conflict, but it is providing intelligence that
helps Iran target American ships and aircraft.
It is providing political cover to Tehran at the United Nations
Security Council, and its economy is directly benefiting
from the disruption to global energy markets that this war has
cost. Several American senators
demanded on Friday that the Trump administration formally
respond to the Russian intelligence sharing reports,
with some calling for new sanctions on Moscow.
No formal administration response have been issued as of
Saturday morning. If Russia is telling Iran, where
American aircraft carriers and warships are operating, is
directly enabling Iranian targeting of American military
assets and personnel, that is as close to direct participation in
a conflict as it is possible to get without firing a weapon. the
United Kingdom stepped into a more significant role on Friday.
Prime Minister Kier Starmer spoke with Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman and pledged British military support to
defend Saudi Arabia if necessary, including fighter
jets, helicopters and a Royal Navy destroyer.
Additional Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets are being
deployed to Qatar to assist with defensive air patrols over the
Gulf. Britain entered this conflict in
a purely defensive posture, and that posture has not formally
changed. But the commitment to defend
Saudi Arabia with jet fighters and a warship represents a
meaningful escalation of British involvement.
If Iran strikes Saudi Arabia and Britain responds with military
force in defense, the United Kingdom will be in this war.
The India dimension produced one of the most revealing economic
and diplomatic developments of the week. the United States
Treasury Department issued a 30 day waiver allowing Indian
refineries to purchase Russian oil previously subject to
American sanctions. India is one of the world's
largest oil importers and a major buyer of Persian Gulf
crude. Those supplies are currently
completely cut off by the de facto closure of the Strait of
Hormuz. Trump administration, which
spent months pressuring India to stop buying Russian crude,
reversed course within 72 hours of the war's disruption to Gulf
energy supplies. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson
described the measure as deliberately short term and said
it would not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian
government, noting it only authorizes transactions
involving oil already stranded at sea.
The contradiction at the heart of this decision is impossible
to ignore. The Trump administration is
bombing Iran partly to address threats to regional stability
and the global energy order. And in doing so, it has caused
such severe disruption to that energy order that it is now
forced to grant India a special waiver to buy Russian oil, which
directly generates revenue for the Russian government that is
simultaneously providing targeting intelligence to Iran.
The strategic ironies of this conflict are compounding faster
than they can be processed. Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Al
Qabi issued one of the starkest economic warnings of the entire
conflict on Friday. He said rising oil prices due to
the war against Iran could bring down the economies of the world.
That is not rhetorical excess. That is the energy minister of
one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas exporters
delivering a direct, specific warning about the economic
trajectory of this conflict to the international community.
The economic data on Friday supports his concern.
Brent crude reached $91.00 a barrel at highest level since
October 2023. United States domestic oil
prices have surged 31% in a single week.
Brent crude has surged 24% in a single week.
Qatar Energy has halted liquefied natural gas production
from its plants at Ras Laffin Industrial City and Mesade
Industrial Area. Kuwait has run out of oil
storage capacity and is cutting production.
European natural gas prices nearly doubled following the
strikes on Qatari facilities. The South Korean Kospi stock
index suffered its biggest single day crash since the 2008
financial crisis, dropping up to 12% and triggering a circuit
breaker. Japan's Nikkei dropped more than
2%. Pakistan's KSE 100 index
recorded its largest ever single day decline of 9.57%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen more than 400 points
since the conflict began. The S&P 500 dropped 0.7% on
March 2nd alone, and analysts from multiple institutions are
now warning that if the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively
closed for an extended period, the disruption to global supply
chains, food prices, fertilizer markets and energy costs could
add as much as 0.8% to global inflation in a single year.
British think tank the Food Policy Institute warned of long
term increases in food prices as a direct result of disruption to
fuel and fertilizer markets. These are not abstract financial
statistics. They're the economic mechanism
by which a war being fought by military professionals in the
skies over Iran will arrive at the kitchen tables of ordinary
families in Britain, Europe, the United States, Japan and South
Korea. The humanitarian picture reached
a new threshold of severity on Saturday morning.
The United Nations estimates at least 330,000 people have been
forcibly displaced across the Middle East in eight days.
330,000 people in eight days. The Lebanese government reported
that more than 95,000 people have been displaced by Israeli
strikes in Lebanon alone. Lebanon's Health Ministry
confirmed 217 people killed and more than 600 wounded in Lebanon
since the start of the conflict. Israel issued evacuation orders
for the entire Dahiya district of Beirut's southern suburbs.
Roads out of Dahiya were gridlocked as families fled,
carrying children and whatever belongings they could manage.
Schools in Beirut have been converted into emergency
shelters for the displaced inside Iran.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society confirmed that 6668 civilian
units have been struck, damaged or destroyed by United States
and Israeli strikes since February 28th.
That figure encompasses residential buildings, schools,
hospitals, religious sites, and commercial infrastructure.
One rights monitoring group has reported 742 confirmed civilian
deaths in Iran, a figure significantly lower than the
Iranian government's total casualty count of 1332.
Reflecting the persistent difficulty of independently
verifying casualties in a country where Internet
connectivity and media access have been severely disrupted,
the Minhub school investigation continued to generate
significant international attention.
Iran's Health Ministry now says approximately 180 young children
were killed in the air strike on the elementary girls school in
Minim. the United Nations has formally verified the incident
and described itself as deeply disturbed.
Planet Labs satellite imagery shows the building struck
appears to be within the compound of a known Iranian
military installation. Neither the United States nor
Israel has formally claimed responsibility.
The Pentagon has confirmed an investigation is ongoing.
Whatever the final determination of that investigation, 180
children are dead and their deaths have become the single
most powerful image of civilian suffering in this conflict,
shaping global public opinion in ways that are only beginning to
be fully felt. The stranded Americans crisis
showed no sign of resolution on Friday, 1 American woman
stranded in the region told NPR. My heart just starts racing
every time I hear the booming and see the skylight up.
It is terrifying. Her parents have been protesting
outside Macdill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL, where CENTCOM is
headquartered, holding a sign that reads Bring our daughter
home. The State Department has been
sending emails to stranded citizens.
One recent e-mail noted that the Saudi border was open, but
provided no further guidance on what Americans are supposed to
actually do with that information.
The succession question clarified somewhat on Saturday.
Multiple sources confirmed that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the
late Supreme Leader, has emerged as the strongest candidate among
the Assembly of Expert surviving members.
Other names in serious consideration include Ali Reza
Erifi, Mohammad Mehdi Murbagiri, Hashem Hosseini, Bhushari, Sadak
Larijani, Hassan Khomeini and former President Hassan Rouhani.
Trump has publicly stated that Mojtaba is unacceptable.
Iran's constitution requires the Supreme Leader to be a senior
Shia Muslim religious scholar. The Assembly has not yet
announced the decision, and given that their meeting was
bombed by Israel while it was in session earlier this week, the
conditions under which the remaining members are
deliberating are not normal by any definition of that word.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the United
States and Israeli strikes as squandering an opportunity for
diplomacy and condemn both the initial strikes in Iran's
counter strikes. He restated that Article 2 of
the United Nations Charter requires all member states to
refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any state.
That provision of international law has not prevented this
conflict from happening, and there is no mechanism within the
United Nations system that can compel any of the parties to
stop. Consider the full picture as it
stands on the morning of Saturday, March 7th, 2026 day.
the United States and Israel have destroyed Iran's Air Force,
its Navy, and the majority of its air defense systems.
They have killed its supreme leader, his wife, and forty of
its most senior military commanders.
They have struck more than 3000 targets in eight days.
They have displaced 330,000 people.
They have pushed oil prices to their highest level since 2023.
They have caused South Korea's stock market to suffer its worst
crash since 2008. They have forced the United
States Treasury to reverse its own Russia sanctions policy
within 72 hours. And they have produced a
situation in which the president of the United States is publicly
demanding unconditional surrender and promising to
personally help select the next leader of a nation of 90 million
people. Iran has not surrendered.
Its president says it will never capitulate.
Its security chief is threatening to kill and capture
American ground troops. Its forces have launched 23
waves of strikes. And Russia is helping them
locate American warships. The Strait of Hormuz is
technically open, but Iran says any American or Israeli ship
attempting to transit it will be targeted. 20% of the world's oil
supply is flowing through a waterway that has effectively
become a kill zone. The gap between where this
conflict is and where it needs to be to end has never been
wider. That is episode 8 of Epic Fury,
the US Iran war podcast. The story is moving fast.
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