Missile strike on central part of Tel Aviv this morning
Paul McNamara, Channel 4 News, reports from Tel Aviv on the Iranian attacks on the city.
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EU foreign ministers to meet over Middle East, Ukraine
EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels at the start of a week of high-level diplomacy on the Middle East and Ukraine, with the NATO summit in The Hague tomorrow and a summit of EU leaders on Thursday. Foreign ministers will give their initial response to an EU report which holds that Israel is in breach of its obligations under its trade arrangements with Europe due the conduct of its war in Gaza and its activities in the occupied West Bank. Ministers are also expected to reiterate calls for a de-escalation of the Israel-Iran crisis following the US bombing of key Iranian nuclear sites. Foreign ministers will begin with a briefing from the EU intelligence and situation centre on the unfolding crisis over Israel's attack on Iran, which has now been joined by the United States. In a statement, Tánaiste Simon Harris said he was deeply concerned by the very real risk of an extremely dangerous spiral of escalation in the Middle East following the US military action. He said the EU had a role in spearheading a diplomatic solution to the crisis. However, US President Donald Trump has made it clear he does not see any role for the European Union. Separately, foreign ministers will give their first assessment of a searing indictment of Israel's policy on Gaza and the West Bank in a report produced by the EU's Special Representative for Human Rights. The review, circulated to member states on Friday, held that Israel is in violation of Article 2 of the EU Israel Association Agreement, which binds both sides to human rights and international humanitarian law obligations. Last night, Israel dismissed the report as a "moral and methodological failure," saying it should be dismissed entirely. EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas will take stock of how foreign ministers view the findings before briefing EU leaders later in the week. It seems likely that a menu of options to hold Israel to account - possibly including trade sanctions - will not be presented to foreign ministers until their next meeting in July.
RTÉ News
24 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Iran weighs retaliation against US for strikes on nuclear sites
Iran and Israel traded air and missile strikes as the world braced today for Tehran's response to the US attack on its nuclear sites and US President Donald Trump raised the idea of regime change in the Islamic republic. Iran vowed to defend itself yesterday, a day after the US joined Israel in the biggest Western military action against the country since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, despite calls for restraint and a return to diplomacy from around the world. Commercial satellite imagery indicated the US attack on Saturday on Iran's subterranean Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged or destroyed the deeply buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but the status of the site remained unconfirmed, experts said. In his latest social media comments on the US strikes, Mr Trump said "Monumental damage was done to all nuclear sites in Iran." "The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!" he wrote on his Truth Social platform. Mr Trump earlier called on Iran to forgo any retaliation and said the government "must now make peace" or "future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier". The US launched 75 precision-guided munitions including bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles against three Iranian nuclear sites, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, told reporters. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the US strikes. Rafael Grossi, the agency's director general, told CNN that it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground. A senior Iranian source said that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim. Tehran, which denies its nuclear programme is for anything other than peaceful purposes, sent a volley of missiles at Israel in the aftermath of the US attack, wounding scores of people and destroying buildings in Tel Aviv. But it had not acted on its main threats of retaliation, to target US bases or choke off oil shipments that pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Attempting to strangle Gulf oil supply by closing the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite conflict with the US Navy's massive Fifth Fleet based in the Gulf. Oil prices jumped today to their highest since January. Iran's parliament has approved a move to close the strait, which Iran shares with Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Iran's Press TV said any such move would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. General Caine said the US military had increased protection of troops in the region, including in Iraq and Syria. The US State Department issued a security alert for all US citizens abroad, calling on them to "exercise increased caution". Yesterday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on China to encourage Iran to not shut down the strait, telling Fox News it would be a "terrible mistake". "It's economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries' economies a lot worse than ours," he said. The Israeli military reported a missile launch from Iran in the early hours of this morning, saying it was intercepted by Israeli defences. Air raid sirens blared in Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel. Iran has repeatedly targeted the Greater Tel Aviv - a metropolitan area of around four million people - the business and economic hub of Israel where there are also critical military assets. Iranian news agencies reported air defences were activated in central Tehran districts to counter "enemy targets", and that Israeli air strikes hit Parchin, the location of a military complex southeast of the capital. In a post to the Truth Social platform yesterday, Mr Trump raised the idea of regime change in Iran. "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!!!" he wrote. Mr Trump's post came after officials in his administration, including US Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, stressed they were not working to overthrow Iran's government. Israeli officials, who began the hostilities with a surprise attack on Iran on 13 June, have increasingly spoken of their ambition to topple the hardline Shi'ite Muslim clerical establishment. As Tehran weighed its options, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today. The Kremlin has a strategic partnership with Iran, but also close links with Israel. Speaking in Istanbul yesterday, Mr Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses and there would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated. Russia's foreign ministry condemned the US attacks which it said had undermined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and warned of the conflict spreading in the Middle East. The UN Security Council met yesterday to discuss the US strikes as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council the US bombings in Iran marked a perilous turn in the region and urged a return to negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme.
Irish Independent
40 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
‘Heightened threat environment' in US as world waits for Iran's response to nuclear sites attack, Tánaiste to attend EU ministers summit today
LIVE | World braced for Iran's response after US attacked key Iranian nuclear sitesTehran approves move to close the Strait of Hormuz, affecting quarter of global oil shipments ©Reuters Today at 00:30
