Israel and Iran launch new strikes as new diplomatic effort takes shape

The US president has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America's 'bunker-buster' bombs.
He said he will decide within two weeks whether the US military will be directly involved in the war given the 'substantial chance' for renewed negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme.
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to be heading to Geneva for meetings with the European Union's top diplomat and counterparts from the UK, France and Germany.
A plane with his usual call sign took off from the Turkish city of Van, near the Iranian border, flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he met US secretary of state Marco Rubio and envoy Steve Witkoff at the White House to discuss the potential for a deal to cool the conflict.
Israel said it conducted air strikes into Friday morning in Iran with more than 60 aircraft hitting what it said were industrial sites to manufacture missiles.
It also said it hit the headquarters of Iran's Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research, known by its acronym in Farsi, SPND. The US has linked the agency to alleged Iranian research and testing tied to the possible development of nuclear explosive devices.
Israeli air strikes reached into the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea early on Friday, Iranian media reported.
The Israeli military had warned the public to flee the area around Rasht's Industrial City, but with Iran's internet shut off to the outside world, it is unclear how many people could see the message.
In Israel, paramedic service Magen David Adom said missiles struck a residential area in southern Israel, causing damage to buildings, including one six-storey building. Crews provided medical treatment to five people with minor injuries, it added.
It comes a day after at least 80 patients and medical workers were wounded in a strike on the Soroka Medical Centre in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Israel's defence minister threatened Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after the Iranian missile crashed into the hospital. Israel's military 'has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist', said defence minister Israel Katz.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted that Mr Trump would 'do what's best for America'. Speaking from the rubble and shattered glass around the hospital, he added: 'I can tell you that they're already helping a lot.'
The war between Israel and Iran erupted on June 13 with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, senior generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.
Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's air defences, but at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded.
Iran has long maintained its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons programme but has never acknowledged it.
The Israeli air campaign has targeted Iran's enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran, a nuclear site in Isfahan and what the army assesses to be most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers. The destruction of those launchers has contributed to the steady decline in Iranian attacks since the start of the conflict.

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Scottish Sun

23 minutes ago

• Scottish Sun

Iran plots to activate terrorist sleeper cell network across West in desperate last act in face of Israeli destruction

Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A 'VULNERABLE' IRAN may activate a network of sleeper cells across the West in the face of the Israeli bombing campaign, experts have warned. With its military and top Islamist leadership on the ropes, analysts say a weakened Iran could resort to asymmetric terror warfare in a bid to sow chaos against its enemies. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Credit: AFP 4 Iran's murderous terrorist wing, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 4 A view of the damage is seen after a missile launched from Iran reportedly struck the area on June 15 in retaliation for recent Israeli attacks Credit: Getty It has now been more than a week since Israel began pounding Iran's nuclear facilities and other military targets. The goal, as the Israelis say, is to thwart the Iranian regime's efforts to produce nuclear weapons - as well as more ballistic missiles, including long-range weapons that can strike targets far beyond Israel. While Iran has been responding by launching frequent salvos of ballistic missiles, its top military command has been decapitated. And Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been forced to live in underground bunkers. read more on iran GULF WAR III How Iran's Trump assassination plot would trigger full-scale invasion by US Experts now fear that a vicious Iran could awaken its network of sleeper cells to carry out terror plots across the West. Barak Seener, a security and defence expert at Henry Jackson Society and Iran expert, said: "The very fact now that the Iranian regime is volatile, it's targeted, and it's highly vulnerable — that's what actually makes it increasingly dangerous to the West." Iran's murderous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is thought to run an extensive network of sleeper cells across the world. Mr Seener said that these sleeper cells could be regular people living regular lives. But when given the signal, they could carry out terrorist activities targeting the West. These terror operations could target public infrastructure and even civilians, with no weapons off the table, experts warn. Trump is top Iran assassination target - their terror network spreads across Europe & US, warns ex-White House official The sleeper cells could even carry out assassination attempts on top leaders that could throw the world into chaos. Last year, an Iranian agent was charged with plotting to kill Donald Trump in an assassination that would have shaken the world. US prosecutors say the rogue state told ex-con Farhad Shakeri — said to be hiding in Tehran — to devise a seven-day plan to spy on and murder him. Prosecutors said an official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard told Shakeri to devise a plan to eliminate the President elect. They claim the planned hit was an attempt to take vengeance for a US drone strike ordered by Trump that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, then said to be the world's No1 terrorist, in 2020. Trump's former security advisor, John Bolton, said the US President is "at the top" of an 'assassination list' from the Middle East nation. Mr Seener said: "They live amongst us in regular communities, have regular jobs, and they just are awaiting being activated to conduct malign activities, whether it be through a telephone text or a beeper, and then they already know what they are going to be doing. "If the regime feels threatened and on the verge of being toppled, then they may say, 'you're going to go down with us,' and at that point they may unleash their sleeper cells." In an op-ed for The Sun, expert Mark Almond wrote: "Iran's Islamic regime is a dangerous, wounded predator. "It cannot defeat Israel, but it could go mad and unleash terrorism, even using chemical weapons, which its industries can make much more easily than nuclear weapons." 4 Mr Seener said the attacks could range from an attack against a synagogue, an embassy, or blowing up a dirty bomb in Central London. Sir Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, warned back in October that Iran could turn on UK targets if it felt Britain was too enthusiastic in its support for Israel. He said the attacks could increase if the Middle East conflict intensifies. In August, Matt Jukes, the head of Counter Terror Policing, warned that Britain is facing an increase in plots by hostile states. He said Iranian dissidents and diaspora communities have been 'clearly at risk of kidnapping or assassination'. "These are people who are doing it daily. And when you are projecting soft power, you're creating the cultural milieu in which terrorism can be conducted much more readily. Counterterror police have investigated 15 of these cases alongside MI5. MI5 has responded to 20 plots backed by Iran since 2022, it was reported. Mr Seener said: "The reason why the Irgc can act with impunity, and why British citizens are at risk, is because of the British Government's unwillingness and failure to designate the Irgc as a terrorist organisation. "It means that they are able to conduct activities and infiltrate mosques, charities, community centres, cultural centres, and many of them, their directorship has been directly appointed by the supreme leader, Khamenei." "British Shias go on pilgrimages to religious sites in Iran and Iraq. They are targeted by the IRGC and recruited, so that when they return to the UK, they can conduct surveillance on potential targets." Iran's terror on UK street By Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter Iran-fuelled hit squads on the streets of the UK have been linked to at least 15 threats to kill or kidnap detected by authorities. They are all part of a campaign of intimidation aimed at those who speak out against the hardline regime. The MI5 has accused Tehran of more than a dozen assassination and kidnap plots in Britain against dissidents and media organisations in the past two years. Officials have previously warned that the threat against Iranian critics living in the UK has ramped up drastically after the horror October 7 attacks. And given the hostile situation in the Middle East, Iran could ramp up its secret terror activities in the UK, Europe and the US, experts fear. In 2022, Major Gen Hossein Salami, the Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC warned: "You've tried us before. Watch out because we're coming for you." Last year, Iranian TV journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed outside his home in London, sparking an investigation led by counter-terrorism police. The suspects were believed to be proxy agents hired by Tehran. Mr Zeraati works for Iran International, a London-based Persian-speaking channel which has reported on Iran's human rights violations. He said a man approached him and asked for £3 before another man appeared and stabbed him in the leg. The two fled in a car being driven by a third man, leaving Mr Zeraati bleeding in the street. Investigators believed the three culprits were able to flee the country on a flight from Heathrow within hours of the attack. Mr Zeraati, whose organisation has been a vocal critic of Iran, said the attack was a "warning shot" from Tehran. He called on the UK government to declare the IRGC a terrorist group to stop it from spreading its doctrine. He said: "It will also send a clear message to the regime in Iran that enough is enough. "The whole of Western civilisation is in danger because of the threat the IRGC poses." A report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) found almost half of journalists who covered Iran from the UK reported being physically or verbally harassed in the past five years. Individuals have been sent death threats by text and voice notes, with one message noting that the 'water underneath Westminster Bridge was very deep'. One said they were constantly worried about Iran targeting their children, saying: 'I wake up in the middle of the night. I check my son to see if he's there. I won't let him play in the garden on his own. I have to be there. I'm on alert constantly.' Another reporter told the RSF she had a package, which was designed to look like it contained anthrax, hand-delivered to her apartment block. While female TV journalist was approached on a London bus by a man who told her: 'We will kill you. You are a very bad person.' All of them are understood to have voiced their dissent against Tehran. The IRGC is the principal supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are proscribed in the UK. Amid threats of all-out war in the Middle East, officials last year wanted to expedite tightening domestic terror laws to ban IRGC operatives from nurturing Islamist terrorism at home. Current sanctions on Iran do not prevent state-linked organisations spreading jihadi propaganda or carrying out soft-power activities designed to radicalize British citizens. Kasra Aarabi, Director of IRGC Research at United Against Nuclear Iran, said: 'The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the most antisemitic armed Islamist extremist organisation in the world. 'The government needs to proscribe the IRGC as a matter of urgency. 'The failure to proscribe the IRGC is putting British lives at risk, not least those from the British-Jewish community and British-Iranian diaspora —the two primary targets of IRGC terrorism in the UK.'

Daily Mirror

25 minutes ago

• Daily Mirror

Donald Trump slams spy chief and says Iran has two weeks 'to come to senses'

The US President said he had given Iran a 'period of time' to see if its leaders would 'come to their senses' after saying his two week deadline would be the 'maximum' Donald Trump has slammed his former Democrat spy chief in a blistering attack while being questioned about his plans for potential US intervention in Iran. The President has been subject to intense questioning in recent days as he weighs whether or not to involve the US in the ongoing Israeli assault of Iranian nuclear facilities. On Thursday, he decided he would wait two weeks before giving an order on how to precede, before going on today to claim the nation is "within a matter of weeks or months" of acquiring a nuclear weapon. He has now said the country has two weeks "to come to its senses" before slamming his own intelligence chief. ‌ ‌ Speaking to the press this afternoon, Trump was asked by gathered journalists about the intelligence behind his claim that Iran is close to acquiring a weapon of mass destruction. He was asked to respond to claims that members of the US intelligence community has said they had "no idea" when Iran could develop a bomb. In response, he said: "Well then my intelligence community is wrong." He then asked: "Who in the intelligence community said that?" When the journalist informed him that his director of national intelligence, former Democrat turned key Trump ally Tulsi Gabbard, had said so, he curtly responded: "She's wrong." Ms Gabbard told Capitol Hill lawmakers in March that the intelligence community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003". She added at the time that the US was closelt monitoring Iran's nuclear programme, before noting it was actively enriching uranium. She noted, however, that Iran's enriched uranium stockpile "is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons". ‌ The Commander-In-Chief also previously suggested his handpicked national security head was wrong earlier this week, adding fuel to rumours that his fragile MAGA coalition is reportedly fracturing at present. Key factions in the alliance are splitting over the 79-year-old's approach to Israel's recent all-out attack, with a key Trump-Vance campaign plank being no involvement in foreign conflicts. Mr Trump said during his press address earlier today that he has given Iran "a period of time", before adding the two week deadline he had originally given was "the maximum". During those two weeks, he added, the parties involved in the conflict would receive "time to see whether or not people come to their senses". He also said it would be "very hard" to ask Israel to cease attacks on Iran after Iran's foreign minister said Israel must stop its "crimes and aggression", adding that Iran will not negotiate with any parts as long as Israeli attacks continue. "I think it's very hard to make that request right now," Trump said as he was asked whether or not he would speak to Israel about stopping their strikes. "If someone is winning, it's harder to do than if someone is losing. But we are ready and willing and able, and have been speaking to Iran and we will see what happens."

The Guardian

30 minutes ago

• The Guardian

Iran says diplomacy with US only possible if Israeli aggression stops

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said that his country is only ready for more diplomacy with the US if Israel's war on his country is brought to an end 'and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes he committed'. After several hours of talks with European foreign ministers in Geneva on Friday, there was no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough – or a resumption of negotiations with the US. Araghchi said: 'Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again and once the aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed. We support the continuation of discussion with [Britain, France, Germany and the EU] and express our readiness to meet again in the near future.' Araghchi said he was willing to continue talks with his European counterparts since they have not supported Israel's attacks directly. But he said Iran was 'seriously concerned over the failure of the three countries to condemn Israel's act of aggression' and would continue to exercise its right to 'legitimite defence'. He also said Iran's capabilities, including its missile capabilities, are non-negotiable, and could not form part of the talks, a rebuff to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who in an earlier statement said they should be included in the talks. With Israeli diplomats and military commanders warning of a 'prolonged war,' the route to direct talks between the US and Iran remains blocked, leaving the European countries as intermediaries. After Friday's talks between Araghchi and his British, French, German counterparts, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said: 'This is a perilous moment, and it is hugely important that we don't see regional escalation of this conflict.' The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said there 'can be no definitive solution through military means to the Iran nuclear problem. Military operations can delay it but they cannot eliminate it'. The talks are being held against the backdrop of Donald Trump's threat that the US could launch its own military assault on Iran within a fortnight – a step that would probably turn the already bloody war into a full-scale regional conflagration. European diplomats said they came to talks to deliver a tough message from the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and US special envoy Steve Witkoff: that the threat of US military action is real but that a 'diplomatic pathway remains open'. But without US-Iran direct talks it is hard to see how an agreement can be reached to curtail Iran's nuclear programme in a way that satisfies the US headline demand that Iran must never have a nuclear bomb. Late on Friday, Trump suggested that European efforts would not be enough to bring any resolution, telling reporters: 'Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.' The European ministers said they had expressed their longstanding concerns about Iran's expansion of its nuclear programme 'which has no credible civilian purpose and is in violation of almost all provisions in the nuclear deal agreed in 2015'. The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: 'Today the regional escalation benefits no one. We must keep the discussions open.' Earlier on Friday, Macron said that the European offer to end Israel's war would include an Iranian move to zero uranium enrichment, restrictions on its ballistic missile programme and an end to Tehran's funding of terrorist groups. The proposals were surprisingly broad, spanning a range of complex issues beyond Iran's disputed nuclear programme, and appeared likely to complicate any solution unless an interim agreement can be agreed. One proposal recently aired is for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment for the duration of Donald Trump's US presidency. The concept of uranium enrichment being overseen by a consortium of Middle East countries – including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – remains on the table. Macron, already accused by Trump of publicity-seeking this week, set out a daunting agenda. 'It's absolutely essential to prioritise a return to substantial negotiations, including nuclear negotiations to move towards zero [uranium] enrichment, ballistic negotiations to limit Iran's activities and capabilities, and the financing of all terrorist groups and destabilisation of the region that Iran has been carrying out for several years,' he said. In the previous five rounds of talks, the US insisted that Iran end its entire domestic uranium enrichment programme, but said it would allow Iran to retain a civil nuclear programme, including by importing enriched uranium from a multinational consortium. Iran claims that as a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, it has an absolute legal right to enrich uranium, a position neither the European or American powers have ever endorsed. In the past, European negotiators have proved more adept than their US partners in finding compromises, including the temporary suspension of domestic enrichment, a principle Tehran reluctantly endorsed in 2003-4.