Israel-Iran war live: Trump floats regime change to ‘make Iran great again' as region braces for Iranian response to US strikes
Update:
Date: 2025-06-23T00:32:00.000Z
Title: Opening summary
Content: Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the US and Israeli war on Iran.
US president Donald Trump has brought up the possibility of regime change in Iran following US military strikes against key Iran military sites over the weekend, even as top members of his administration insisted the US was not seeking to topple the Iranian leadership.
'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Earlier, vice-president JD Vance had insisted the US was 'not at war with Iran, we're at war with Iran's nuclear programme' while US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that that the US was 'not looking for war in Iran'.
The world was meanwhile braced for Iran's response after to the US attacks, which saw it joining Israel in the biggest western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
Speaking in Istanbul, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses. There would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated, he said. 'The US showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force,' he said.
He later flew to Moscow to discuss 'common threats' with President Vladimir Putin.
In other key developments:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is very close to meeting its goals in Iran of removing the threats of ballistic missiles and the nuclear programme. Speaking to Israeli reporters, he said: 'We won't pursue our actions beyond what is needed to achieve them, but we also won't finish too soon. When the objectives are achieved, then the operation is complete and the fighting will stop.'
The UK, France and Germany have released a joint statement following American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, saying that they call upon Iran to engage in negotiations leading to agreement that addresses all concerns associated with its nuclear program. The three countries also urged Iran 'not to take any further action that could destabilize the region', adding: 'We have consistently been clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and can no longer pose a threat to regional security.'
Iran's health ministry said that the US strikes on its nuclear facilities had wounded an unspecified number of people but that none 'showed any signs of radioactive contamination'. 'For years, the ministry of health has set up nuclear emergency units in the nearest medical facilities to nuclear sites,' ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said on X.
Israel said that its fighter jets had struck 'dozens' of targets across Iran on Sunday, including a long-range missile site in Yazd in the centre of the country for the first time, Agence France Presse reports. A military statement said that 'approximately 30 IAF (air force) fighter jets struck dozens of military targets throughout Iran' - including 'the 'Imam Hussein' Strategic Missile Command Center in the Yazd area, where long-range Khorramshahr missiles were stored'.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that 'there are no planned military operations right now against Iran.' In a new interview with CBS, Rubio added that 'no one will know for days' whether Iran had moved some of its nuclear materials prior to the strikes.
Iran's parliament has reportedly approved the closing of the key strait of Hormuz shipping lane. Reuters reported Iran's supreme national security council will make the final decision on the move, which could hamstring global trade by shutting the narrow passage between Iran and Oman.
Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, said the impact of the air strikes was still being assessed, but that the bombing had hit the areas that had been identified in the planning of the operation. Hegseth said: 'The battle damage assessment is ongoing, but our initial assessment as the chairman said is that all of our precision munitions struck where we wanted them to strike, and had the desired effect.'
Pete Hegseth praised Donald Trump's leadership, and said he had overseen the 'obliteration' of Iran's nuclear ambitions. Hegseth said: 'Many presidents have dreamed of delivering the final blow to Iran's nuclear program, and none could until President Trump.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Israel-Iran live: 'Bullseye!!!' - Trump claims Iran strikes caused 'monumental damage'; says he's open to 'regime change'
Donald Trump has asked why there would not be a "regime change" in Iran following US strikes, calling to "make Iran great again". Meanwhile, Iran's UN envoy says the current situation provides a "historic test" for the body. Watch and follow the latest below.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Regime change: Is Trump about to 'Make Iran Great Again'?
👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈 The US bombs Iran. Three nuclear sites heavily hit. Cue condemnation from Iran - and promises of retribution. As the Iranian foreign minister heads to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin and discuss what to do next, we ask: what has happened, why did the Trump administration decide to take action, what's the response domestically and internationally - and what on earth could happen next. If you've got a question you'd like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@ Don't forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
ICE detains Marine Corps veteran's wife who was still breastfeeding their child
Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre doesn't know how to tell his children where their mother went after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained her last month. When his nearly 2-year-old son Noah asks for his mother before bed, Clouatre just tells him, ' Mama will be back soon.' When his 3-month-old, breastfeeding daughter Lyn is hungry, he gives her a bottle of baby formula instead. He's worried how his newborn will bond with her mother absent skin-to-skin contact. His wife, Paola, is one of tens of thousands of people in custody and facing deportation as the Trump administration pushes for immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day. Even as Marine Corps recruiters promote enlistment as protection for families lacking legal status, directives for strict immigrant enforcement have cast away practices of deference previously afforded to military families, immigration law experts say. The federal agency tasked with helping military family members gain legal status now refers them for deportation, government memos show. To visit his wife, Adrian Clouatre has to make an eight-hour round trip from their home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to a rural ICE detention center in Monroe. Clouatre, who qualifies as a service-disabled veteran, goes every chance he can get. Paola Clouatre, a 25-year-old Mexican national whose mother brought her into the country illegally more than a decade ago, met Adrian Clouatre, 26, at a southern California nightclub during the final months of his five years of military service in 2022. Within a year, they had tattooed each other's names on their arms. After they married in 2024, Paola Clouatre sought a green card to legally live and work in the U.S. Adrian Clouatre said he is 'not a very political person' but believes his wife deserved to live legally in the U.S. 'I'm all for 'get the criminals out of the country,' right?" he said. "But the people that are here working hard, especially the ones married to Americans — I mean, that's always been a way to secure a green card.' Detained at a green card meeting The process to apply for Paola Clouatre's green card went smoothly at first, but eventually she learned ICE had issued an order for her deportation in 2018 after her mother failed to appear at an immigration hearing. Clouatre and her mother had been estranged for years — Clouatre cycled out of homeless shelters as a teenager — and up until a couple of months ago, Clouatre had 'no idea' about her mother's missed hearing or the deportation order, her husband said. Adrian Clouatre recalled that a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staffer asked about the deportation order during a May 27 appointment as part of her green card application. After Paola Clouatre explained that she was trying to reopen her case, the staffer asked her and her husband to wait in the lobby for paperwork regarding a follow-up appointment, which her husband said he believed was a 'ploy.' Soon, officers arrived and handcuffed Paola Clouatre, who handed her wedding ring to her husband for safekeeping. Adrian Clouatre, eyes welling with tears, said he and his wife had tried to 'do the right thing' and that he felt ICE officers should have more discretion over arrests, though he understood they were trying to do their jobs. 'It's just a hell of a way to treat a veteran,' said Carey Holliday, a former immigration judge who is now representing the couple. 'You take their wives and send them back to Mexico?' The Clouatres filed a motion for a California-based immigration judge to reopen the case on Paola's deportation order and are waiting to hear back, Holliday said. Less discretion for military families Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that Paola Clouatre 'is in the country illegally" and that the administration is 'not going to ignore the rule of law.' 'Ignoring an Immigration Judge's order to leave the U.S. is a bad idea,' U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a June 9 post on X which appeared to refer to Clouatre's case. The agency added that the government 'has a long memory and no tolerance for defiance when it comes to making America safe again.' Prior to the Trump administration's push to drive up deportations, USCIS provided much more discretion for veterans seeking legal status for a family member, said Holliday and Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert. In a Feb. 28 memo, the agency said it 'will no longer exempt' from deportation people in groups that had received more grace in the past. This includes the families of military personnel or veterans, Stock said. As of June 12, the agency said it has referred upward of 26,000 cases to ICE for deportation. USCIS still offers a program allowing family members of military personnel who illegally entered the U.S. to remain in the country as they apply for a green card. But there no longer appears to be room for leeway, such as giving a veteran's spouse like Paola Clouatre the opportunity to halt her active deportation order without facing arrest, Stock said. But numerous Marine Corps recruiters have continued to post ads on social media, geared toward Latinos, promoting enlistment as a way to gain 'protection from deportation' for family members. 'I think it's bad for them to be advertising that people are going to get immigration benefits when it appears that the administration is no longer offering these immigration benefits,' Stock said. 'It sends the wrong message to the recruits.' Marine Corps spokesperson Master Sgt. Tyler Hlavac told The Associated Press that recruiters have now been informed they are 'not the proper authority' to 'imply that the Marine Corps can secure immigration relief for applicants or their families.' ___ Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
