Israel-Iran live: Donald Trump arriving back at White House as Security Council mulls Iran action

22:23:11
Analysis: Trump facing 'biggest call of his presidency to date'
Donald Trump is preparing to make the biggest call of his presidency to date, US correspondent David Blevins says.
The president is due to arrive back at the White House shortly, where he'll hold a National Security Council meeting to discuss the Israel-Iran conflict.
"It's very unusual for Donald Trump to spend Saturday and Sunday at the White House," says Blevins. "And equally unusual for him to be meeting with his national security team as often as he is."
The US currently has a group of B-2 bombers heading from America towards the Pacific region, which could then potentially head onwards to the Middle East if Trump approves it.
On Thursday, Trump said that he will decide whether the US gets directly involved in the conflict within a fortnight.
In a call on the same day, Israeli officials reportedly expressed their displeasure at such a timeframe (see 21.10pm post).
"All of this speaks to the challenge facing the president right now," adds Blevins.
"With his own base divided, his own administration arguably divided, it's going to be the biggest call of his presidency to date."
22:21:26
Iran launches new wave of attacks on Israel - report
Attack drones have been moving towards Israel "for hours" as part of Iran's latest attack, local media says.
"This operation will be continuous and unsettling," a spokesperson for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is quoted by the Tasnim news agency as saying.
We'll bring you more on this as it develops.
22:07:34
More buildings struck at Isfahan, nuclear watchdog says
The UN's nuclear watchdog has confirmed that several more buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site have been struck amid Israel's ongoing attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The site in central Iran was first hit on 13 June when four buildings were damaged, with six other buildings attacked today, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.
These include a fuel rod production facility, nuclear material storage and laboratory, it added.
21:51:01
Israeli strikes heard in southern Iran - report
Iranian media says that Israel had launched strikes on the southern city of Shiraz, which hosts military bases.
The Mehr news agency says the city's air defences have been activated and have been "engaged in fighting hostile targets and Zionist aircraft".
Air defences are also reportedly being engaged in the southern city of Bandar Abbas. A little earlier, the Israeli military said it was attacking drone and weapons warehouses in the region.
21:34:24
Iran's internet partially restored after 62-hour blackout
Iran's internet connectivity has been partially restored after a widespread 62-hour blackout that began early Wednesday, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks.
The outage was described by NetBlocks as the most severe and extensive internet shutdown in Iran since the November 2019 protests.
In the initial hours of the blackout, only 3% of Iranian users had access to the global internet, NetBlocks reported.
21:10:01
Israel seeks swift action on Iran, sources say
Israeli officials have reportedly told the Trump administration they don't want to wait two weeks to learn if the US will join the Israel-Iran conflict.
Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will decide whether the US gets directly involved in the conflict within a fortnight.
According to the Reuters news agency, citing two unnamed sources, Israel believes it has a limited window of opportunity to move against the deeply buried nuclear site at Fordow, the crown jewel of Iran's nuclear program.
The US is the only country with bombs powerful enough to reach the facility, which is dug into the side of a mountain.
Four sources said it is now increasingly likely that Israel will launch a solo military operation at Fordow. Israeli air superiority over much of Iran makes an operation more feasible, though still risky, said two of the sources.
Benjamin Netanyahu, defence minister Israel Katz and military chief Eyal Zamir reportedly part in the "tense" phone call with Washington on the Israeli side.
JD Vance and defence secretary Pete Hegseth participated in the call on the US side, a security source said.
20:50:01
Watch: How close is Iran to producing a nuclear weapon?
Last night, Donald Trump said US intelligence agencies were "wrong" after they said they had no evidence that Iran was building a nuclear weapon.
Tehran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking a nuclear weapon and the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said this month that it has no proof of a "systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon".
But Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60% - a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
So, how close is it to producing a nuclear weapon? Our US correspondent Mark Stone takes a look...
20:30:01
Palestine a 'central issue' to Iran, supreme leader says
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has this evening shared a message in support of the Palestinian people.
Posting on X, he said the victory of Palestinians "is something that's definite".

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Telegraph

38 minutes ago

• Telegraph

The world is safer without a nuclear-armed Iran

During his first term as president in 2019, Donald Trump pulled back from ordering an attack on Iran even as US warships locked missiles on to their targets and bombers were in the air. The American military was 'cocked and loaded' only to be stood down with just 10 minutes to spare. The abandonment of a major operation at such a late stage was seen as emblematic of the president's deep reluctance to involve his country in another conflict in the Middle East, and what he called the region's 'forever wars'. Yet on Saturday night his reticence evaporated. He sent US stealth aircraft armed with so-called 'bunker buster' bombs to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons programme once and for all. Mr Trump declared the operation a great success, though it will be several days before it is known whether the three sites have been 'obliterated', as the president has claimed. The whole episode has been a classic Trump performance. First he issued the threat to back up Israel's assault on the Iranian nuclear weapons plants, only then appearing to retreat once more by indicating nothing would happen for a fortnight. Whether it was brought forward in order to catch the Iranian regime off guard is not clear. It is more likely that the intelligence reports of the Iranians moving their enriched uranium away from the plants expedited the mission. Dozens of lorries were seen at the Fordow site, which is buried deep in a mountain, probably removing enriched material to another location. The president may have feared that waiting another week or so risked leaving him in the same position as George W Bush, who invaded Iraq to stop Saddam Hussein's arms programme only to find the weapons of mass destruction had gone or were never present. Mr Trump was critical of that decision and his America First doctrine gave the impression he would keep the US out of any foreign conflict unless directly threatened. But he has discovered, as have past presidents all the way back to Woodrow Wilson, that things are not that simple and isolationism is very hard to sustain. As the most powerful defender of democratic values against despotisms, the US cannot, and should not, just depart the scene. The geopolitical ramifications of these strikes on Iran are profound. Mr Trump may perhaps now care to reflect on his ambivalence towards Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where similar criteria apply, of an autocracy threatening the existence of another country. Will he now be more critical of Vladimir Putin and more supportive of Nato, which is holding its annual summit in the Hague this week with an across-the-board promise to increase defence spending dramatically? If Iran has moved its enriched material, is Mr Trump prepared to order further strikes or will it be left to Israel to follow up? The president might well hope the strikes have indeed obliterated the sites and no more US help is required; but once involved in a war, it can be hard for a country to extricate itself easily from it. There is also the threat from Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz through which almost a quarter of the world's oil and gas is shipped. However, this may not be possible for Tehran, both because of the presence of a US carrier group, but also because China relies heavily on energy supplies coming through the Gulf. A blockade would be calamitous for the Chinese economy and for India's. Tehran will be keen to get both these countries into their camp in a stand-off with America. Furthermore, there is a very real risk of terrorist attacks on US assets, which include shipping and some 40,000 troops in the region. Iran will hope its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis will step up their activities against Israel, but their ability to do so has been severely degraded. It will also seek to sponsor violent action abroad. Here in the UK we have already seen how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has targeted émigré Iranian dissidents and engaged in spying and cyber warfare. It is possible that the damage inflicted on Iran and the assassination of some key military figures will hasten the demise of the theocratic rulers and the removal of the zealots who have caused so much trouble in the region and the world for so long. Washington says it is not seeking regime change and the idea that it would be replaced by a benign, Western-style democracy of the sort never seen in Iran is fanciful. More likely is that the IRGC would take over in a military coup with unknown consequences. There are many uncertainties, but one thing is clear. Despite the calls from Sir Keir Starmer and others for 'de-escalation', the world is a safer place without a nuclear-armed Iran. As Benjamin Netanyahu put it: the most dangerous regime in the world has been denied access to the most dangerous weapons. The Israeli prime minister, who scored a diplomatic coup by convincing Mr Trump to act, believed it would usher in a period of 'peace and prosperity' for all in the region and beyond. We can but hope, but history is not a happy guide.

Sky News

38 minutes ago

• Sky News

Five reasons why we may not see anything more than rhetoric from Russia after US attacks Iran

On the surface, at least, Moscow is fuming. Russia's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemns" the US airstrikes on Iran, which it labelled a "dangerous escalation". Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's powerful security council, accused Donald Trump of starting "a new war", and others have called for Moscow to step in. "It's time for us to help Tehran," said Konstantin Malofeyev, a sanctioned Russian businessman who is close to Vladimir Putin. But this was to be expected. Iran has been a vital ally in recent years, selling weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and the two nations signed a strategic partnership deal in January. So a robust verbal riposte was predictable. But the response so far feels more show than substance and if things don't escalate further, I doubt we'll see anything more than rhetoric from Russia. 0:54 There are several reasons why. Firstly, the strategic partnership deal doesn't contain a mutual defence clause. The pact does seek to deepen their defence cooperation, but neither country is obliged to provide military support to the other in the event of an attack. Secondly, if Moscow did want to join the conflict or even supply weapons to Tehran, it would be hard pushed to. Resources are focused on the war in Ukraine. Thirdly, Russia doesn't want to damage its warming relations with the US. Any kind of aid to Iran would likely jeopardise the tentative rapprochement. Fourthly, the Israel-Iran conflict is a helpful distraction from the Kremlin's war against Ukraine. With all eyes on the Middle East, any pressure there was from Washington on Moscow to reach a peace deal seems to have evaporated. Lastly, it's not Vladimir Putin who's spoken out, but the usual attack dogs. 2:02 Dmitry Medvedev, for example, is a senior figure but his fiery rhetoric is generally considered to be part of a Kremlin comms strategy rather than actual policy expression. Having said all that, though, Russia won't want the situation to escalate any further. Its regional influence took a battering when the Assad regime in Syria was toppled in December, and that influence would practically disappear if another Moscow-friendly regime in Iran were to fall. So for now, the Kremlin is frantically trying to find a diplomatic solution. Last week, Vladimir Putin held conversations with the leaders of Israel, Iran, America, China and the UAE, and those efforts continue on Monday when he'll meet Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in Moscow. If the reports are true - that the US forewarned Tehran of the bombings and signalled they'd be a one-off - there's a good chance Moscow had prior knowledge too. Either way, Vladimir Putin's aim here is to play peacemaker, and to turn the situation to his advantage. If he can persuade Mr Araghchi to limit Iran's response to a symbolic one, and to then return to the negotiating table with America, he will have Donald Trump in his debt. The obvious place he'd want that repaid is Ukraine, in the form of withdrawing US support.

The Guardian

39 minutes ago

• The Guardian

‘We weren't expecting it yet': US attack met with panic in Iran

Asal* had been expecting the US to bomb Iran, just not so soon. The 22-year-old Tehran University student had believed Donald Trump when his administration said on Thursday that it would wait up to two weeks before deciding whether to attack Iran, apparently to give diplomacy a chance. And so at 4am when the newscaster announced the bombing on TV, Asal was in disbelief. She rushed to wake her father and the rest of the family, who huddled together in front of the set as the sounds of the news blended with those of bombings elsewhere in the city. 'We weren't expecting it yet. But we knew one way or another the US would take part in it,' Asal told the Guardian from Tehran. 'We are dead worried. You know, sleep doesn't come so easy these past few days.' Iranians woke to the news on Sunday morning that the unthinkable had finally happened: the US had attacked Iran. In the early hours of the morning, American warplanes dropped so-called bunker busters weighing 13,500kg (30,000lb) on the nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The news was met with panic in Iran. It prompted a renewed wave of displacement in Tehran as people feared a more intensified assault on the city now that the US was involved. The question of whether the US would join Israel in its military campaign in Iran had hung over the heads of Iranians since the first Israeli bomb fell nearly 10 days earlier. Iranians watched with worry as Trump played coy with reporters, telling them 'nobody knows what I'm going to do' about Iran. On 13 June, Israel had launched hundreds of airstrikes on Iran, an operation it said was aimed at preventing the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran quickly responded with a barrage of missiles and drones, kicking off an escalating tit-for-tat war. Israel asked the US to join its military campaign as it was the only country with the firepower necessary to penetrate the Fordow nuclear facility, buried up to 100 metres underground. On Sunday, the US granted its request. The Iranian government, incensed by the attacks, said it would do whatever was necessary to retaliate. The president, Masoud Pezeshkian, appeared in front of hundreds of protesters in a square in central Tehran, who raised their fists and chanted 'Revenge, revenge!'. Asal has little appetite for revenge, she just wants the war to be over. To her and her friends, the US attack felt like a betrayal. 'No one is rooting for either side to win. We just want peace. Not even those Iranians who wanted a regime change are happy. They expected Trump to take a different route or at least give us two weeks,' Asal said. Trump's administration has said the strikes were in line with his 'peace through strength' doctrine and has urged Iran not to retaliate but instead to return to the negotiating table. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, flatly rejected the request for talks, telling reporters in Istanbul on Sunday that now was not the time for diplomacy. To Navid*, Trump's claims that the US bombing of Iran was a peace initiative rang hollow. The 28-year-old business owner in Tehran had been following international developments closely over the last 10 days, appointed the unofficial source of news for his family. 'Who, exactly, cares about civilians?' he said. 'The Israelis? Have they ever shown concern for civilian lives in Beirut or Gaza? The Americans? Did they show any in Libya, Afghanistan or Iraq?' Instead, he suggested the attack was less about strategy, and more about Trump's ego. 'He always wants to swoop in like Superman and do the things he claims no one else can.' US officials insisted that the strikes were a one-off and that they had achieved their goals in crippling Iran's nuclear capabilities. Nonetheless, some Iranians feared that the apparent success of the US operation would inspire either Israel or the US to extend its aims and seek to change the regime in Iran – a fight they did not want to be caught up in, whether they support the government or not. Ava*, a 25-year-old accountant in Tehran, said: 'We are angry, scared and frankly disgusted by not only the regime but also each one of you outside Iran who is sitting in the comfort of your homes and calling for US war on us. Who are you to decide for us?' *Names have been changed.