Fresh satellite images give a rare aerial view of the damage across Iran after U.S.-Israeli strikes and what Tehran’s retaliation left behind across the region.

Planet Labs satellite imagery captured burning ships and damaged facilities at the Konarak base in southern Iran, as well as significant destruction at Iran’s naval headquarters in Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf, reflecting the scale of the strikes on military infrastructure.

Imagery from Vantor shows damage to facilities and vessels located in Iran’s Bushehr port in the Persian Gulf.

In addition to naval assets, satellite photos show a bunker at Bushehr air base hit by a strike, leaving a large crater and destroying several nearby small buildings.

More strikes targeted the Choqa Balk drone facility in western Iran.

Radar systems at the Zahedan air base in eastern Iran — near the country’s borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan — were also struck.

The two facilities are about 800 to 900 miles apart, underscoring the broad reach of the coordinated strikes.

Satellite imagery also reveals damage to aircraft on the tarmac at Shiraz air base, including scorch marks and debris around several parking areas.

Satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows thick smoke plumes rising above Tehran, signaling explosions and fires inside the Iranian capital.

The smoke underscores how the conflict has moved beyond isolated military sites and into the heart of Iran’s political center.

Iran has since responded with missile and drone strikes of its own, expanding the conflict across the region. 

Satellite images reveal damage to the port city of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Sharjah is the third most populous after Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The Jebel Ali Port, the region’s largest maritime hub, was also targeted, underscoring how the retaliation extended beyond military sites to key infrastructure.

The new satellite imagery comes on the heels of U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several top members of the regime, triggering a succession crisis.

President Donald Trump warned on Sunday that Iran’s new leader is ‘not going to last long’ without U.S. approval as Operation Epic Fury marches into a third week. 

MCLEAN, Va. – As Americans are stranded in the Middle East amid the U.S. and Israel war with Iran, government and private agencies are working around the clock to conduct evacuations.

In addition to the U.S. Department of State’s 24/7 task force aimed at evacuating Americans, private security firm Global Guardian is also working around the clock to complete the same mission.

As of Friday, Global Guardian has evacuated more than 4,000 people from the Middle East, according to its CEO and President, Dale Robert Buckner.

While operations and logistics teams sit in an office building in northern Virginia, the firm has personnel in more than 140 countries, allowing Global Guardian access to nearly every corner of the world for emergency response or evacuations.

‘We provide medical evac services, we provide kidnap, ransom, extortion negotiation payment if someone is kidnapped or extorted,’ Buckner said. ‘We’re providing about 300 missions a month of executive protection travel, in about 84 countries a month.’

The private security firm also conducts camera surveillance of residences and commercial property and has cyber analysts monitoring mobile devices. 

After the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in a joint attack last weekend, the firm has been coordinating multiple emergency response evacuations — but this isn’t the first time it has assisted Americans out of a crisis zone.

‘That means getting people out of Puerto Vallarta a week ago, and Jalisco, Mexico. That means getting people out of Asheville, North Carolina when it got wiped out by a hurricane,’ Buckner said. 

Logistically, getting tourists out of a war zone and back to safety is a process, but the firm works fast, completing their first border crossing within the first six hours of the missile strikes.

Immediately, the firm received a call from a pair of students studying abroad, Deputy Vice President of Operations Colin O’Brien told Fox News. He said they were trying to leave Dubai.

‘Within about four and a half hours from the phone call, we had our teams in motion to go pick these people up and it was two college-aged women,’ said O’Brien.

‘Put them in the car, we were then able to move from the Omani border and by eight hours we were at the border. Work through the border checkpoint to a hotel in Muscat, where we could stop and give them a short rest while we arrange their transportation home,’ he says. 

The group said it remains active year-round to ensure evacuation plans are in place before disasters strike.

‘There’s a narrative of, here’s the pickup point, here’s the key crossing site,’ Buckner said. ‘This is what you’re gonna need from a paperwork standpoint, legally. And then we’re gonna put you in a hotel or straight onto a commercial flight. Most likely, at this point in the war, we’re gonna put you on a private charter.’

Buckner said most of these missions happening in the region are ground movement, done by locals. He says in the 140 countries the firm is in, they have ground teams working year-round. Consistently training year-round. 

‘We’re communicating, we’re coordinating, we’re executing. Executive protection agents, armed agents, armed vehicles, large-scale event support with medical and security personnel,’ he said, describing the firm’s standard operating capabilities.

‘We’re coordinating whether the firm needs drivers. From Dubai to Oman, Israel to either Oman, Jordan or Egypt. Out of Bahrain into Saudi Arabia,’ Buckner said.

While the firm is coordinating with the State Department, it said it has not yet conducted a flight mission on behalf of the department.

Global Guardian offers these services through what it calls a ‘Duty of Care Membership,’ which Buckner said costs $15,000 per year for a family of five.

‘You are going to sign a contract — whether it’s a family, a family office or typically a large corporate logo. Then we become, at your beck and call,’ Buckner said, describing the emergency response services included in the agreement.

For Americans currently stuck in the Middle East, Buckner said the cost of evacuation using ground and air resources varies depending on the situation and location.

Norwegian police are investigating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Oslo that caused no injuries and only minor damage.

Amid the war on Iran, the Norwegian Justice Minister Astri Aas-Hansen is deploying ‘considerable resources’ to search for potential multiple perpetrators.

‘This is an unacceptable incident that we are taking very seriously,’ she told Norwegian press agency NTB.

A ‘loud bang’ was reported at the U.S. embassy in Oslo early Sunday morning at 1 a.m. local time (Saturday 7 p.m. ET), according to police, and eyewitnesses told Reuters that they saw thick smoke by the entrance of the consular section.

‘There was a very thick layer of smoke on the street,’ said Sebastian Toerstad, 18, a high school student who drove past the embassy at the time of the explosion.

‘There was some damage to the entrance.’

No explosive devices had been found in the area, according to police.

‘Investigations have been carried out at the scene with the aid of dogs, drones and a helicopter, searching for one or more potential perpetrators,’ the Oslo police department said in a statement.

PST, the Norwegian police security service, called in additional personnel following the incident but has not changed the country’s terror threat level, according to communication adviser Martin Bernsen.

PST operations manager Mikael Dellemyr does not ‘connect’ the attack to U.S. bombings in the Middle East or terrorist or Iranian retaliation.

‘It is far too early’ in the investigation, he told Oslo’s TV 2.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

King Charles III will reflect on ‘the increasing pressures of conflict’ across the world in a ‘time of great challenge’ during a speech planned for Monday, according to multiple reports. 

‘We join together on this Commonwealth Day at a time of great challenge and great possibility,’ a preview of the 77-year-old’s Commonwealth Day speech says.

The king’s speech continued: ‘Across our world, communities and nations face the increasing pressures of conflict, climate change and rapid transformation. Yet it is often in such testing moments that the enduring spirit of the Commonwealth is most clearly revealed.’

The speech will come a little more than a week after the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran, which British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom didn’t take part in for the sake of their national interest.

‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with,’ President Donald Trump said earlier this week in a criticism of Starmer amid a perceived lack of support for the U.S. and Israel’s joint military operation against Iran.

‘By the way, I’m not happy with the U.K. either,’ the president said, referring to Starmer blocking the United States’ use of U.K. bases to launch attacks on Iran.

Britain has since allowed the U.S. to use its bases in the region for defensive purposes against Iran’s retaliatory strikes. It has also mobilized fighter jets and plans to send a destroyer and possibly an aircraft carrier. 

The president referenced the Chagos Islands Tuesday, which are British territories in the Indian Ocean, saying it has taken ‘three, four days for us to work out where we can land there.’

‘It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised,’ he said.

Later, the president said the United Kingdom has been ‘very, very uncooperative with that stupid island.’ 

‘It’s a shame,’ Trump said. ‘That country, the U.K., and I love that country, I love it.’

‘This is not the age of Churchill,’ he added.

Trump slammed Starmer again on Saturday, accusing the prime minister of joining the war after the U.S. had ‘already won.’

‘The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!’

Starmer has defended his decision to stay out of the conflict, saying the U.K. was ‘not involved in the ​initial strikes against Iran, and we will not join offensive action now.’

‘But in the face of Iran’s barrage of missiles and ⁠drones, we will protect our people in the region,’ Starmer said in an address Monday to Parliament. ‘President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the ​initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That is what I’ve done, and I stand by it.’

The king and other senior royals will gather at Westminster Abbey on Monday for the annual Commonwealth Day celebration, which recognizes the 56 countries voluntarily connected to the U.K., many of which were once part of the British Empire.

The preview of the speech continues: ‘Working together, we can ensure that the Commonwealth continues to stand as a force for good — grounded in community, committed to the kind of restorative sustainability that has a return on investment, enriched by culture, steadfast in its care for our planet, and united in friendship and in the service of its people.’

Charles’ speech at the abbey will also be the largest gathering of the royal family since former Prince Andrew was arrested on Feb. 19.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump on Saturday slammed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying he was joining the war in Iran after the U.S. has ‘already won.’

‘The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!’

Trump’s statement came after the U.K. Ministry of Defense said that one of the country’s two aircraft carriers had been placed on advanced readiness in Portsmouth, England, for a possible mobilization to the Middle East, according to the BBC.

A British destroyer, HMS Dragon, is also in Portsmouth, waiting to leave for Cyprus after delays.

Starmer said that while the U.K. wasn’t involved in the strikes, they are ‘operating defensively in the region.’

In an address to the British people on Sunday, Starmer condemned ‘indiscriminate’ attacks by Iran following the U.S. strikes, adding, ‘the only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source.’

He added that Britain has agreed to the United States’ request to use British bases for that ‘limited’ purpose.

After the strikes, Trump told the Telegraph in the U.K. that he was ‘very disappointed’ in Starmer, claiming it ‘took far too long’ for the prime minister to allow the U.S. to use British bases in the region. 

British fighter jets are also flying over Jordan, Cyprus and Qatar to strengthen defense in the region, and a Merlin helicopter is on the way for additional airborne surveillance, according to the Ministry of Defense.

‘While the region has been plunged into chaos, my focus is providing calm, levelheaded leadership in the national interest,’ Starmer said this week. ‘That means deploying our military and diplomatic strength to protect our people. And it means having the strength to stand firm by our values and our principles, no matter the pressure to do otherwise. The longstanding British position is that the best way forward for the regime and world is a negotiated settlement with Iran where they give up their nuclear ambitions.’

He said that’s why he made the decision that the U.K. would not join the initial coordinated strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

In Parliament this week, Starmer added, ‘We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons. Any U.K. ‌actions must ⁠always have a lawful basis, and a viable, thought-through plan,’ Starmer said. ‘This government does not believe in regime change from the skies.’

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss reposted Trump’s Saturday Truth Social comments on X, writing, ‘Justified and damning.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to Starmer’s office for comment.

Kristi Noem will reportedly join President Donald Trump and 12 Latin American leaders at his resort in Florida for a ‘Shield of the Americas’ summit Saturday after her ouster as the Secretary of Homeland Security and appointment by President Donald Trump to be special envoy for the new coalition of nations. 

On Thursday, Trump announced Noem would be exiting her role as Homeland Security secretary and would be appointed a Special Envoy for the ‘Shield of the Americas,’ a summit for which will be held at the president’s resort in Doral, Florida, on Saturday. The new coalition of 13 countries has been formed to advance strategies that will tackle mass illegal immigration, narco-terrorist gangs and cartels. 

‘After years of neglect, President Trump established the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere. His efforts have been a tremendous success – our southern border is secure, Latin American countries are working with us to defeat the cartels, and illegitimate dictator Nicolas Maduro is facing justice for his crimes in the Southern District of New York – ushering in historic economic cooperation with Venezuela,’ said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly ahead of the summit. 

‘The President has successfully strengthened our relationships in our own backyard to make the entire region safer and more stable, and this weekend’s ‘Shield of the Americas’ Summit will encapsulate all of his work to Make America, and our partners, Strong Again,’ she continued.

Members of Trump’s Cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, will also be at the Saturday summit. 

The leaders from other nations who will be present are Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Ortez, Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Costa Rica’s Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino Quintero, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Chile’s Jose Antonio Kast, the Dominican Republic’s Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, Ecuador’s Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, Guyana’s Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Honduras’ Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura, and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña.

Noem confirmed Friday, speaking from Nashville, that she will be at the summit, according to the Associated Press. Noem reportedly added that the president will announce ‘a big agreement’ detailing ‘how we’re going to go after cartels and drug trafficking in the entire Western Hemisphere.’ 

On Friday, Hegseth led a strategic conference in Doral with representatives of 17 different Caribbean, Central American and South American countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. During the conference, they signed a joint security declaration, reaffirming their commitment to peace and sovereignty in the region. According to a source familiar with the plans for the summit, the president plans to celebrate this achievement with attendees.

‘Secretary Noem helped usher in the most secure border in history, deported hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens, and executed record-setting counter-drug operations against cartels. All of this great experience positions Noem well to ensure American preeminence in the entire Western Hemisphere in her new role as Special Envoy to the Shield of the Americas,’ White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said. ‘This historic new security initiative, led by Secretary Noem, will advance cutting-edge strategies to defeat narco-terrorist cartels and stop illegal mass migration to make America and the entire Western Hemisphere safer.’

On Thursday, Rubio said he looked forward to working with Noem as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, and echoed the comments from the White House about her experience.

‘Kristi has achieved incredible results as Secretary of Homeland Security and will be a tremendous asset in our effort to promote security and prosperity in the Western Hemisphere,’ Rubio said on X after Trump named Noem to her new post. 

When Benny Sabti was a child growing up in Iran, he remembers receiving an unusual prize at school. ‘For being an excellent student, I received a Persian translation of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler,’ Sabti told Fox News Digital. ‘They translated Hitler’s book into Persian and distributed it to students.’

The experience stayed with him. Looking back, Sabti, now an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel, says it reflected a broader effort by Iran’s ruling clerical establishment to shape how young Iranians viewed politics, religion and the world around them.

Schools, mosques, workplaces and media all became part of an ideological ecosystem designed to reinforce loyalty to the regime. But critics of Iran’s leadership say religion itself was often not the ultimate goal.

‘Faith for them is their tool,’ Banafsheh Zand, an Iranian-American journalist and editor of the Iran So Far Away Substack, told Fox News Digital. ‘It’s not the end all to be all. It’s a tool that they can hide behind so that they can carry out all their criminalities.’

Religion and power

The Islamic Republic was founded on the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, or ‘guardianship of the Islamic jurist,’ which places ultimate political and religious authority in the hands of the country’s supreme leader.

But Zand argues that in practice the system functions less as a purely religious project and more as a mechanism of political control. ‘It’s more like a mafia,’ she said. ‘They use faith in order to keep people down.’

According to Zand, ideology is reinforced through a mix of financial incentives and intimidation. ‘They tried by incentive and money and buying people,’ she said.

Programs tied to the Basij, a militia affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have often provided benefits such as jobs, housing and education to families aligned with the regime.

‘If you are poor and you join the Basij, they give you benefits,’ Zand said. ‘But you have to go along with whatever it is that they offer you.’

Ideology embedded in daily life

Sabti says the Islamic Republic built a vast network designed to reinforce ideology in everyday life. ‘In banks, offices, public spaces and even in the bazaars, regime representatives walk between shops telling people it is time to pray and checking who is not attending,’ Sabti said.

Mosques themselves are closely integrated into the political system. Friday prayer leaders often deliver sermons aligned with government messaging.

‘There are 16 propaganda bodies in Iran,’ Sabti said, describing a network of state institutions responsible for spreading the regime’s interpretation of Islam and the ideals of the Islamic Revolution.

Some institutions also focus on exporting that ideology abroad. ‘There is a university dedicated to converting Sunnis to Shiism,’ he said. ‘They bring people from Africa and South America to Iran, convert them to Shiism and send them back to export the Shiite Islamic revolution.’

Indoctrination in schools

Schools play a central role in the regime’s ideological system.

‘Schools are heavily indoctrinated,’ Sabti said. ‘In civil studies books, Islam was promoted as superior to all other ideologies.’

Religious messaging appears across the curriculum. ‘You cannot separate any school subject from Islam,’ Sabti said. ‘Not history, not geography. Everything is mixed with ideology. The only thing missing was adding it to mathematics.’

For Sabti, the Mein Kampf episode symbolized the ideological environment students were exposed to. The message, he said, reinforced hostility toward perceived enemies and embedded a political worldview from an early age.

Ideology and hypocrisy

Sabti says the credibility of the system is also undermined by the behavior of Iran’s own elites. ‘You can see it in the second generation,’ he said. ‘Their children live abroad while the elites live in palaces in Iran and in other countries. It is hypocrisy.’

Zand says ideology has always been reinforced by intimidation. ‘They make examples out of people in the most vicious possible way,’ she said. ‘It’s fear and manipulation.’

According to Zand, that atmosphere of fear shapes daily life for many Iranians. ‘Everybody is afraid of the police,’ she said. ‘Everybody is afraid of their neighbors.’

An ideology losing its grip

Despite the regime’s extensive ideological machinery, Sabti believes many Iranians never fully accepted the worldview the government tried to impose.

‘Over the years, the indoctrination has stopped working,’ he said. ‘Most of the public does not truly believe it.’

Still, the Islamic Republic remains in power. ‘The regime maintains control through money, weapons and propaganda,’ Sabti said.

Zand agrees the system never fully reshaped Iranian society. Many people, she said, complied outwardly simply to avoid punishment.

‘They won’t have a problem to transfer as long as they realize that the new Iran has no room for the violence and the horrifying characteristics of the Islamist regime,’ Zand told Fox News Digital.

She said that beneath the surface, Iran’s cultural identity remained intact even after decades of pressure from the state.

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. is ‘doing very well’ in Iran, nearly a week after the military coordinated with Israel on airstrikes in Tehran that left its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dead.

‘Somebody said, ‘How would you score it from zero to 10?’ I said, ‘I’d give it a 12 to a 15.’ Their army is gone. Their navy is gone. Their communications are gone. Their leaders are gone,’ Trump said. ‘Two sets of their leaders.’

The president made the remarks after Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked at the end of a White House college sports roundtable what was motivating Trump to hold the roundtable ‘because there is a lot of other stuff going on in the world.’

‘That’s right,’ Trump agreed, adding that Iran’s air force has been ‘wiped out entirely. Think of it. They have 32 ships. All 32 are at the bottom of the ocean. Other than that, they’re doing very well.’

‘Our military is doing phenomenally,’ he said. ‘The situation with a very bad and very sick group of leaders who were killing a lot of people. A lot of our people were being killed or were being maimed. … And we had a choice. We could take it and go on like that for years or do something about it. And we did something about it.’

Trump added that ‘people are very impressed with our military, and they admire our military with what happened in Venezuela, what’s happening now, what’s happened with the B-2 bombers before this, where they took out the nuclear capability or potential of Iran.

‘I think we’re, right now, we’re a country that’s more respected than we’ve ever been respected before.’

Doocy also told the president earlier, ‘It sounds like the Russians are helping Iran target and attack Americans now.’

‘That’s an easy problem compared to what we’re doing here,’ Trump said, referring to college sports, calling it a ‘stupid question to be asking at this time. We’re talking about something else.’

Earlier Friday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the U.S. won’t accept any deal with Iran ‘except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!’

‘After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,’ Trump wrote. 

‘IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. ‘MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).’’

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, announced Thursday evening he will not seek re-election amid a House Ethics investigation into an affair he admitted to having with a former staffer.

Gonzales, a married father of 6, admitted to the affair for the first time on Wednesday – a day after advancing to the GOP primary runoff for his congressional district.

‘At 18, I swore an oath to defend our nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. During my 20 years in the military and three terms in Congress, I have fought for that cause with absolute dedication to the country that I love,’ Gonzales said in a statement.

‘From overcoming the border crisis to taking a stand with my communities after the worst school shooting in Texas’ history, my philosophy has never changed: do as much as you can, and always fight for the greater good,’ he continued.

‘After deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I’ve always had to my district,’ he added. ‘Through the rest of my term, I will continue fighting for my constituents, for whom I am eternally grateful.

Gonzales confessed to the affair during an appearance on a conservative talk radio show one day after advancing to a runoff election in his congressional district’s GOP primary.

The House Ethics Committee also launched an investigation into Gonzales on Wednesday to determine if he engaged in sexual misconduct with a female member of his staff and whether he doled out special favors or privileges as a result.

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 800-273-TALK (8255).

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, announced Thursday evening he will not seek re-election amid a House Ethics investigation into an affair he admitted to having with a former staffer.

Gonzales, a married father of 6, admitted to the affair for the first time during an appearance on a conservative talk radio show on Wednesday – a day after advancing to the GOP primary runoff for his congressional district.

‘At 18, I swore an oath to defend our nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. During my 20 years in the military and three terms in Congress, I have fought for that cause with absolute dedication to the country that I love,’ Gonzales said in a statement.

‘From overcoming the border crisis to taking a stand with my communities after the worst school shooting in Texas’ history, my philosophy has never changed: do as much as you can, and always fight for the greater good,’ he continued.

‘After deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I’ve always had to my district,’ he added. ‘Through the rest of my term, I will continue fighting for my constituents, for whom I am eternally grateful.’

‘I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith, and I take full responsibility for those actions,’ he said on ‘The Joe Pags Show’ Wednesday night. ‘Since then, I’ve reconciled with my wife, Angel. I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has, and my faith is as strong as ever.’

The House Ethics Committee also launched an investigation into Gonzales on Wednesday to determine if he engaged in sexual misconduct with a female member of his staff and whether he doled out special favors or privileges as a result.

The former staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, died after setting herself on fire outside her home late last year.

House GOP leaders called on the embattled representative to drop his re-election bid.

‘The Ethics Committee has announced an investigation into Congressman Tony Gonzales’s conduct, and we urge them to act expeditiously. Congressman Gonzales has said he will fully cooperate with the investigation,’ Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other top Republicans said in a statement this week.

‘We have encouraged him to address these very serious allegations directly with his constituents and his colleagues. In the meantime, Leadership has asked Congressman Gonzales to withdraw from his race for re-election,’ they added.

Gonzales’ departure paves the way for challenger Brandon Herrera to take the nomination. Herrera narrowly edged Gonzales by a 43.33% – 41.73% margin in Texas’ GOP primary for the 23rd congressional district on Tuesday, causing a runoff due to neither candidate earning 50% of the vote.

Herrera called his opponent’s withdrawal from the race the ‘appropriate decision.’

‘I appreciate Tony Gonzales for making the appropriate decision,’ Herrera wrote on X. ‘I look forward to being the voice of TX23 that our district deserves. From the border, to oil theft, water rights, data centers, and many other issues. It’s an honor to be chosen and together we will make Texas proud.’

Gonzales initially said he would not step down in the face of the accusations, telling reporters in late February ‘what you’ve seen is not all the facts.’

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Elizabeth Elkindcontributed to this report.