live US Considers Sending Up To 10,000 Additional Troops To Middle East: WSJ

The Defense Ministry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) says its air defenses intercepted nine drones launched from Iran on March 25.

Since the broader conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran began, UAE air defenses have intercepted a total of 357 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,815 drones launched toward the country, the ministry said in a post on X.

The head of Russia's state nuclear agency, Rosatom, says the situation at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant is still heading toward a "worst-case scenario" and its staffing levels are being reduced to a minimum.

According to Reuters, Aleksei Likhachev said that Rosatom was beginning a third phase of personnel evacuation, with one group departing ‌by road on the morning of March 25 and two more ‌groups set to leave shortly.

A day earlier, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that it had been informed by Tehran that a projectile had hit the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Russia built, fuels, operates, and is currently expanding the Bushehr plant through Rosatom. In 2025, around 20 percent of its staff were Russian.

Likhachev also said Bushehr had been hit, saying the attack caused "no casualties" and hit an area near one of the plant's operational units.

Iranian media reports claimed that the incident did not cause any financial, technical, or human losses, and that no damage was caused to the plant.

This was the second time in the past week that Bushehr was allegedly targeted.

NetBlocks, a web-outage monitor, says that the Internet blackout in Iran has passed the 600-hour mark and has entered its 26th day.

"The measure leaves civilians cut off from international networks, violating their right to access information in times of war," NetBlocks said in a post on X on March 25.

This is Iran's second major blackout in 2026 -- the first one began on January 8 as country-wide protests engulfed the country. Internet traffic is at around 1 percent of normal traffic and isolating the majority of Iran's some 90 million people.

Workarounds such as VPNs or satellite Internet are increasingly restricted and risky for Iranians to use.

Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has warned that the conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran is causing severe civilian suffering across the Middle East.

"Since the start of hostilities, Iran has launched large numbers of drones and missiles against military bases, residential areas and energy facilities across these Gulf States and Jordan. Strikes and interceptions have caused terrible harm to civilians, including dozens of deaths and injuries," Turk said in a statement to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 25.

"Many of the strikes in this conflict raise serious concerns under international law, which prohibits attacks targeting civilians and their infrastructure, and attacks on military targets where harm to civilians is disproportionate," the statement added.

Inside Iran, civilians are seeking shelter from air strikes across all 31 provinces of the country, Turk said, adding that according to Iranian government figures, some 1,400 civilians have been killed and more than 20,000 injured. Human rights groups have made similar estimates. "As Iranians shelter from these strikes, they also face another wave of cruel state repression, including arbitrary arrests, executions, intimidation and censorship," he noted.

Turk highlighted the disruption by Iran of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which is threatening global supplies of food, medicine, and energy, with dire implications for some of the world’s poorest people.

He urged all states to take immediate action to end hostilities, stating, "The only guaranteed way to prevent this is to end the conflict, and I urge all States, and particularly those with influence, to do everything in their power to achieve this."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said late on March 24 that it had been informed by Iran that another projectile hit the premises of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant early the day. The IAEA reported that "according to Iran, there was no damage to the NPP itself nor injuries to staff, and the condition of the plant is normal."

Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with Kuwait's Armed Forces announcing on March 25 that the country's air defense systems responded to incoming missile and drone threats. In a statement posted on X, the Army noted that explosions heard were the result of intercepting hostile targets. Separately, the country's civil aviation authority reported that drones thought to be launched by Iran had struck a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, causing a fire. There have been no reports of casualties.

We are now closing the live blog for the day. We'll be back tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. Central European time to cover the latest events across the Middle East.

Iran has said "non-hostile vessels" can transit the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement released to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

"Non-hostile vessels... may -- provided that they neither participate in nor support acts of aggression against Iran -- and fully comply with the declared safety and security regulations -- benefit from safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with the competent authorities," the statement said.

The IMO said the communique, dated Sunday, March 22, was issued by Iran's Foreign Ministry with the request that it be circulated by the IMO. The IMO says it had shared it with member states and NGOs.

The announcement comes amid US claims that Iran is eager to reach an agreement on how to end the daily US and Israeli airstrikes, to which Iran responded by obstructing the passage of commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz and thus disrupting oil and gas export from the Middle East to world markets, which has brought global energy prices up.

Iran also pointed out that the announcement does not apply to ships and equipment belonging to the United States and Israel, as well as other "participants in the aggression."

US and Israeli media outlets are reporting that the United States has sent Iran a 15-point plan to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, now in its fifth week since the US and Israel launched air strikes against Iran on February 28.

Citing two unnamed officials it said had been briefed on the diplomacy, The New York Times reported on March 24 that the plan had been delivered via Pakistan. The paper said it was “unclear how widely the plan…had been shared among Iranian officials” or whether Israel was on board.

Israel's Channel 12, which cited three sources, said the US was seeking a month-long cease-fire to discuss the plan, which it said included keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, dismantling Iran's nuclear program, ending its backing of proxy groups, and the removal of all sanctions on Tehran, among other things.

US President Donald Trump said on March 24 that the United States is "talking to the right people in Iran" about a deal to end the war and that “we’re in negotiations right now,” but did not provide details. Senior Iranian figures said a day earlier that Iran was not in negotiations with the US.

The Pentagon is reportedly preparing to send about 3,000 soldiers from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, including elements of its Immediate Response Force, to the Middle East.

According to reports by The Wall Street Journal and Fox News, a written deployment order is expected soon. Major Geneneral Brandon Tegtmeier, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, and his headquarters staff have already been ordered to deploy.

The division’s elite paratroopers can deploy rapidly worldwide, often within 18–24 hours. Troops could begin moving within hours or days, although there has been no official confirmation of their departure.