Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace says she will not be supporting the deployment of US troops in Iran after leaving a briefing by the House Armed Services Committee on the conflict.

The representative for South Carolina says in a post on X: "I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing."

She adds in another post that the gap between what was presented to the American public and the military objectives presented today is "deeply troubling".

Image source, Getty Images

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt just spoke extensively about Iran at her regularly scheduled briefing.

Here's what we heard:

• Leavitt claims Trump is still engaged in "productive conversations" with Iran despite Tehran's statement that it has rejected a peace plan from the US
• She says a 15-point plan circulating on social media is "speculative" but with "elements of truth to it", refusing to go further into the "nitty gritty" details of how the talks are unfolding
• Meanwhile in the US, consumers continue to complain about rising gas prices. Leavitt reassures that Trump is keeping them "as low as he can" during the war
• The press secretary also refused to answer questions about the potential for US "boots on the ground" in Iran - but she did say formal authorisation from Congress to do so would not be necessary
• The big recurring question - how close to the end of the war are we? Leavitt repeated the White House line that we are "ahead of schedule" and touted what the administration calls a very successful operation

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has just finished giving a press briefing to journalists in Washington DC.

We'll shortly be providing a round up of key points she made about the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Stick with us.

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC's White House reporter Bernd Debusmann Jr then asks Leavitt whether the president still believes the US should have a role in choosing Iran's new leadership.

"I think the president obviously believes the US wants to have someone in leadership in the Iranian regime that will be favourable" and would work with the US and "no longer chant 'death to America'. That would obviously be good," she says.

Another journalist asks about Trump's recent comments that regime change has been achieved in Iran

"Has it not?" Leavitt responds. "Their entire leadership has been killed, and nobody has really seen or legitimately heard from this alleged new leader, so wouldn't you say there's been a change in the regime?

"There's been a change in the regime leadership, which is what the president said, so thank you for confirming he is right," she says.

Iran's Assembly of Experts earlier this month appointed Mojtaba Khamenei as the country's new supreme leader, after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in US-Israeli strikes.

The White House press secretary is pushed further on the alleged 15-point plan to end the war offered to Iran by the US.

She's asked to clarify information is accurate with respect to nuclear ambitions and the Strait of Hormuz in the plans.

"If you've heard it from the President of the United States, obviously it's true," she says, explaining that the objectives of the war have been repeated many times from the podium.

But, Leavitt cautions again against taking information from anonymous sources and doesn't go into specifics on the reported peace plan.

She's then quizzed on the criticism that Trump's approach has shifted from demanding that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon to tighter restrictions on nuclear enrichment overall.

Leavitt responds that the president has been "quite clear" on what he wants to see from the Iranian regime.

Image source, Getty Images

A reporter asks Leavitt if the US is providing support for Israel's offensive in Lebanon - and if the president is concerned about the hundreds of thousands who have been displaced as a result.

Leavitt says she can't comment on US support, but says "of course" the president is concerned about displacement, and that's why he wants to eliminate the threat of Iran and its proxies like Hezbollah, "who have terrorised Lebanon for far too long".

She is also asked if "boots on the ground" in Iran is the only option given that America's allies won't get involved.

Leavitt again says she cannot comment.

A journalist asks if there is a timeline on when oil can travel freely through the Strait of Hormuz.

There isn't a specific timeline, says Leavitt, but the Trump administration is "working towards" one "as quickly as we can".

She says the US government has taken "a number of actions" - including working with the International Energy Agency (IEA) to coordinate the release of 400m more barrels.

Just today, she adds, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a temporary fuel waiver across the country to provide "additional flexibility".

Leavitt is asked whether the US's war in Iran will be winding down by the time he visits Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, which she just announced will take place on 14 and 15 May.

"As I've said, we've always estimated approximately four to six weeks, so you can do that math on that," she says of the rescheduled meeting between Trump and Xi.

Leavitt is also asked about the potential for face-to-face US-Iran talks in Pakistan.

She says no speculation should be deemed official until there is an announcement from the White House

Image source, Getty Images

Leavitt is next asked about comments from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who suggested the war in Iran is "wrapping up".

She's asked how this aligns with the news that the US is sending ground troops to Iran - does the White House consider this conflict as wrapping up or is it changing shape?

Leavitt says the US is meeting its goals "expeditiously", but stresses that Trump likes to keep his options open.

"It's the Pentagon's job to provide those options to the commander-in-chief," she says, and doesn't elaborate further.

Talks between the US and Iran continue, Leavitt says, responding to a reporter's question that Iranian state TV says the plan has been rejected by Iran.

However, she said, a 15-point plan circulating on social media is "speculative".

"There are elements of truth to it," she says, but some reporting on is has not been "entirely factual".

She adds that she won't get into the "nitty gritty" details of the ongoing talks.

Leavitt is asked about rising gas prices in the US amid the war with Iran.

She says Trump is "doing this for you [Americans]" and that he has the "courage to step up and do what's right" for US security.

Once these combat operations in Iran are over, continues Leavitt, the Trump administration is going to "continue to unleash American energy dominance".

She reassures that the president is keeping these gas costs "as low as he can" during the war.

Image source, Getty Images

Leavitt is now taking questions from reporters in the room.

She is first asked: is there a point - either in terms of timeline or deploying troops on the ground - at which President Trump will consider seeking authorisation from Congress to continue the operation in Iran?

Leavitt says that such a formal authorisation is not necessary at this moment, "because we're currently in major combat operations".

The president and the defence department estimated the operation would take approximately four to six weeks, and it's currently only day 25.

But, she says, the president did notify certain foreign policy leaders in Congress ahead of the war as a "courtesy" and administration representatives have briefed lawmakers on the Hill. The administration will always follow the law, Leavitt adds.

The US constitution requires Congress to formally declare war. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have in recent weeks declined to pass measures that would limit Trump's war powers.

Disconnect remains between US and Iranian negotiation narrativespublished at 17:56 GMT 25 March

17:56 GMT 25 March

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has struck an optimistic tone at the outset of the briefing, praising the US military's operational successes in this war and vowing to "unleash hell" if Iran choosing to continue fighting.

There appears to be something of a disconnect between her remark that the Iranians "want to talk" and what we heard from Iran earlier today.

The US, Iran said, had requested negotiations and presented demands that Iran's government so far sees as unacceptable.

That Iranian statement does not suggest, as Leavitt did in her initial remarks, that the country's remaining leadership is ready to sit at the negotiating table.

One primary question - which no US official has publicly answered - is whom on the Iranian side the US has reached out to, and why the US remains confident that can speak for Iran despite the chaotic picture of internal dynamics in Iran the White House has painted.

Leavitt says that following Trump's threat to bomb Iranian energy sources, it was made clear Iran wanted to talk.

"President Trump is willing to listen," Leavitt adds, describing how Trump has been engaged over the last three days in "productive conversations" with Iran.

She says the president's reference "is always peace", but warns that if Iran fails to accept the current reality, Trump will hit "harder than they have ever been hit before".

"President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell," Leavitt continues, and says Iran's last "miscalculation" cost them their leadership, navy and air defence system.

Image source, Getty Images

Leavitt says "our military efforts grow more successful with each passing day" and that the US is degrading Iran's ability to strike merchant ships.

"For all of these reasons we are very close to meeting the core objectives of Operation Epic Fury," she says, adding that 25 days into the war the US is "ahead of schedule".

Iran's nuclear ambitions have been "crushed", she says, and the regime is looking for an "exit ramp".

Leavitt says the US is continuing to "decimate" Iran's offensive and defensive capabilities, and that it is "abundantly clear" that Operation Epic Fury has been "a resounding military triumph".

She claims the US has hit 9,000 targets to date, and that the US is "annihilating" the Iranian regime's navy - including its minelayers.

Leavitt says this is the largest elimination of a navy over a three week period since World War Two.

The briefing with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has started.

You can watch in the stream at the top of the page and we'll bring you live updates as they come.

Iran is emboldened, and both sides want to end war on their own termspublished at 17:25 GMT 25 March

17:25 GMT 25 March

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent in Doha

The impasse between the US and Iran reminds me of the Russia-Ukraine efforts to end that war, where both sides say we want it to end but on our terms - and those terms are unacceptable to the other side.

Despite the optimism coming out of the White House, I think the two sides are very far apart.

Iran is emboldened now. Yes it's suffered massive military losses, it's lost its supreme leader, it's seen its bases and storage depots and command and control centres decimated.

It didn't have much of an air force to begin with, its navy has largely been taken out and yet it is still surviving. It is resilient.

There is a degree of autonomy and redundancy in the 31 provinces of Iran where revolutionary guards commanders are operating independently, carrying out the orders they received prior to this and these are effective.

They are still firing drones and missiles at the Gulf Arab states and they are controlling the Strait of Hormuz.

They're in a position where they feel they don't need to make any concessions to the US or Israel, or anyone else.

A commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says Iran targeted the Israeli cities of Dimona and Haifa today as a "clear message in response" to Donald Trump's threats to strike power plants in Iran.

Iranian broadcaster Press TV reports the IRGC as saying it has launched strikes against the mentioned cities. Israel's Home Front Command also warned about projectiles from Iran falling in those areas earlier today.

Seyed Majid Mousavi, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, says in a social media post that Trump "must learn that every threat and ultimatum against Iran is part of an act of war".

On the weekend Trump threatened to "obliterate" Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened, but on Monday said he was postponing the threatened action for five days.

We've heard there's a delay to the briefing with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

We'll update you when the media conference is due to begin.