Iran, Israel trade fresh air attacks as Trump weighs US involvement
WASHINGTON/DUBAI/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Iran and Israel traded further air attacks on Thursday as President Donald Trump kept the world guessing about whether the United States would join Israel's bombardment of Iranian nuclear facilities.
A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival has wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed two dozen civilians in Israel.
The worst-ever conflict between the rivals has raised fears that it will draw in world powers and rock regional stability already undermined by the spillover effects of the Gaza war.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday, Trump declined to say if he had made any decision on whether to join Israel's air campaign. 'I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do,' he said.
Trump in later remarks said Iranian officials wanted to come to Washington for a meeting and that 'we may do that.' But he added, 'It's a little late' for such talks.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rebuked Trump's earlier call for Iran to surrender in a recorded speech played on television, his first appearance since Friday.
The Americans 'should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage,' he said. 'The Iranian nation will not surrender.'
Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and says its program is for peaceful purposes only. The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week Tehran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain plan to hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva to urge Iran to return to the negotiating table, a German diplomatic source told Reuters.
But while diplomatic efforts continue, some residents of Tehran, a city of 10 million people, on Wednesday jammed highways out of the city as they sought sanctuary from intensified Israeli airstrikes.
Arezou, a 31-year-old Tehran resident, told Reuters by phone that she had made it out of the city to the nearby resort town of Lavasan.
'My friend's house in Tehran was attacked and her brother was injured. They are civilians,' she said. 'Why are we paying the price for the regime's decision to pursue a nuclear programme?'
The Wall Street Journal said Trump had told senior aides he approved attack plans on Iran but was holding off on giving the final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program.
Senior U.S. officials are preparing for the possibility of a strike on Iran in the coming days, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Drone attack
Early on Thursday, air defences were activated in Tehran, intercepting drones on the outskirts of the capital, the semi-official SNN news agency reported. Iranian news agencies also reported it had arrested 18 'enemy agents' who were building drones for Israeli attacks in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Israel's military said sirens sounded in northern Israel and in the Jordan Valley on Thursday and that it had intercepted two drones launched from Iran.
The Iranian missile salvoes mark the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that a significant number of projectiles fired from Iran have penetrated defences, killing Israelis in their homes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video released by his office on Wednesday, said Israel was 'progressing step by step' towards eliminating threats posed by Iran's nuclear sites and ballistic missile arsenal.
'We are hitting the nuclear sites, the missiles, the headquarters, the symbols of the regime,' Netanyahu said.
Israel, which is not a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.
Netanyahu also thanked Trump, 'a great friend of the state of Israel,' for standing by its side in the conflict, saying the two were in continuous contact.
Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the war to suggesting the United States might join it.
In social media posts on Tuesday, he mused about killing Khamenei.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked what his reaction would be if Israel did kill Iran's Supreme Leader with the assistance of the United States, said on Thursday: 'I do not even want to discuss this possibility. I do not want to.'
Putin said all sides should look for ways to end hostilities in a way that ensured both Iran's right to peaceful nuclear power and Israel's right to the unconditional security of the Jewish state.
A source familiar with internal discussions said Trump and his team were considering options that included joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear installations.
Since Friday, Iran has fired around 400 missiles at Israel, some 40 of which have pierced air defences, killing 24 people, all of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Iran has reported at least 224 deaths in Israeli attacks, mostly civilians, but has not updated that toll for days.
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Like others facing deportation, Khalil has avenues to appeal within the immigration system. Farbiarz is also considering Khalil's challenge of his deportation on constitutional grounds, and has blocked officials from deporting Khalil while that challenge plays out. Earlier this month, Farbiarz ruled the government was violating Khalil's free speech rights by detaining him under a little-used law granting the US secretary of state power to seek deportation of non-citizens whose presence in the country was deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests. On June 13, the judge declined to order Khalil's release from a detention center in Jena after Trump's administration said Khalil was being held on a separate charge that he withheld information from his application for permanent residency. Khalil's lawyers deny that allegation and say people are rarely detained on such charges. On June 16, they urged Farbiarz to grant a separate request from their client to be released on bail or be transferred to immigration detention in New Jersey to be closer to his family in New York. At Friday's hearing, Farbiarz said it was "highly unusual" for the government to jail an immigrant accused of omissions in his application for permanent residency. Khalil, 30, became a US permanent resident last year, and his wife and newborn son are US citizens. Trump administration lawyers wrote in a filing on Tuesday that Khalil's request for release should be addressed to the judge overseeing his immigration case, an administrative process over whether he can be deported, rather than to Farbiarz, who is considering whether Khalil's March 8 arrest and subsequent detention were constitutional. Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Kathleen Flynn in Jena, and Andrew Hay and Kanishka Singh, Angela Christy; Editing by Nick Zieminski, David Gregorio and William Mallard
Business Recorder
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Iran, Israel launch new attacks after Tehran rules out nuclear talks
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Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this. Its air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based human rights organisation that tracks Iran. The dead include the military's top echelon and nuclear scientists. In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, according to authorities. Reuters could not independently verify casualty figures for either side. Guterres urges 'give peace a chance' in Israel-Iran conflict U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he thought Iran would be able to have a nuclear weapon 'within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months'. He told reporters at the airport in Morristown, New Jersey: 'We can't let that happen.' He said his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was wrong in suggesting there was no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon. 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Express Tribune
an hour ago
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Iran-Israel conflict continues to escalate as Geneva talks stall
[1/2] A missile launched from Iran is intercepted as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, June 21, 2025. Photo:REUTERS Listen to article The Israeli-initiated conflict with Iran continued to escalate early Saturday, with both sides exchanging fresh strikes, even as diplomatic efforts in Geneva stalled with no breakthrough on a ceasefire. An Iranian missile triggered a fire in a residential building in central Israel, prompting evacuations and emergency response, though no casualties were reported. The fire, believed to be caused by debris from an intercepted missile, came amid ongoing aerial exchanges. Sirens rang out across central and southern Israel as five ballistic missiles were fired from Iran, according to Israeli officials, with no immediate damage or injuries reported aside from the Holon fire. Iran's missile strikes were in retaliation to Israeli air assaults targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure. 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Fighter jets struck several Iranian missile systems and radar installations in the areas of Isfahan and Tehran, which were intended to target IDF aircraft and disrupt their operations. This… — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 20, 2025 The latest missile attack on Israel, which ignited a fire in Holon near Tel Aviv, is part of Iran's ongoing retaliation. Interceptions over Tel Aviv were visible in the skies, with explosions reverberating across the city as Israel's air defence systems engaged the incoming threats. Israeli defense minister says military killed head of IRGC Palestine Corps Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz announced on Saturday that the military killed Saeed Izadi, a veteran commander leading the Palestine Corps of Iran's Quds Force, in a strike on an apartment in Qom, Iran. The IRGC has not confirmed the report. The Quds Force, known for building the Axis of Resistance network including Hezbollah and Hamas, has faced significant setbacks amid Israeli offensives since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attacks. Geneval talks In Geneva, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with European leaders to address the ongoing conflict. The talks, however, yielded little progress, with Araghchi reaffirming that Iran would not engage in negotiations until Israel ceases its military actions. He expressed concern over Europe's failure to condemn Israeli strikes, suggesting that Tehran would only return to diplomatic talks once "aggression stops." The standoff intensified as US President Donald Trump warned of potential military escalation and set a two-week deadline to decide on possible US involvement. Meanwhile, Israel's military chief Eyal Zamir acknowledged the possibility of a prolonged campaign. "The campaign is not over," he said, pointing to the difficulty ahead despite significant achievements in Israel's air campaign. Hundreds of US citizens have fled Iran in recent days, as tensions mount and the US government works to assist its citizens. However, the evacuation process has been marred by delays and reports of harassment. The US State Department has not provided further details on the situation. Iran FM in Turkey for OIC meeting on Israeli aggression Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Istanbul on Saturday to attend the 51st session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers. The two-day summit is expected to focus on recent Israeli strikes on Iranian territory, which Tehran calls 'unprovoked aggression.' Araghchi said the attacks forced Iran to respond in self-defence. While the conflict rages on, diplomatic efforts continue, with world leaders urging both sides to de-escalate. However, with ongoing missile exchanges and rising casualties—639 deaths reported in Iran by a Washington-based human rights organisations and 24 in Israel—the path to peace remains uncertain. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, has pledged continued military action until Iran's nuclear threat is neutralised, further complicating prospects for a ceasefire. Iranian officials have called for Security Council intervention, while Russia and China have urged a diplomatic resolution. US intelligence community divided The US intelligence community, for its part, remains divided over the status of Iran's nuclear capabilities. Despite public statements, some reports suggest it would take Iran up to three years to build a nuclear warhead. The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the… — DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) June 20, 2025 Many critics have argued the nuclear weapons pretext mirrors the flawed intelligence that led to the Iraq war, raising fears of history repeating itself. The Iraq war, launched on false claims of weapons of mass destruction, unleashed decades of bloodshed and regional instability that still haunt the region today. Similar to the Iraq war, other US-led regime change campaigns in Syria and Libya have sparked widespread violence, fueled the rise of terrorism, caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, and left deep-rooted instability that continues to impact the region. As the situation continues to escalate, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned of a "point of no return," while Russian and Chinese leaders called for a ceasefire and a return to diplomacy. The conflict has reached unprecedented levels following Israel's "Operation Rising Lion" and Iran's retaliatory "Operation True Promise," which has resulted in widespread casualties and damage. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has called on all parties to "give peace a chance."
