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Daily Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Telegraph
Israel-Iran conflict live updates: Trump to make decision ‘within the next two weeks'
Welcome to our live coverage of the escalating situation in the Middle East. Israel's Defence Minister warned that Iran's supreme leader 'can no longer be allowed to exist' after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on Thursday, spiking tensions in the week-old war. Israel, fearing Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch enemy last week, triggering a conflict that has left more than 200 people dead on both sides. As President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of US involvement, Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said targeted a military and intelligence base. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would 'pay a heavy price' for the hospital strike, while Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 'Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals,' Mr Katz told reporters. 'He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Trump will make a decision about the country's potential involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict within the next two weeks. But Russia has warned the US not to get involved, stressing it 'would radically destabilise the entire situation'. Follow on for more updates. Originally published as Israel-Iran conflict live updates: Trump to make decision 'within the next two weeks'
Malay Mail
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Strike or talk? Trump sets two-week clock on Iran war decision
WASHINGTON, June 20 — US President Donald Trump said yesterday he will decide whether to join Israel's strikes on Iran within the next two weeks as there is still a 'substantial' chance of talks to end the conflict. Trump's move to hit the pause button could open up space for diplomacy, after days of fevered questions about whether or not he would order US military action against Tehran. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read out a message from Trump after what she called 'a lot of speculation' about whether the United States would be 'directly involved' in the conflict. 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,' Trump said in the statement. Trump has set two-week deadlines that subsequently shifted on a series of other tough topics in the past, including the Russia-Ukraine war — but Leavitt denied he was putting off a decision. 'If there's a chance for diplomacy the president's always going to grab it, but he's not afraid to use strength as well,' Leavitt said. At the same time Leavitt reinforced the sense of urgency, telling reporters that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in the space of a 'couple of weeks.' 'Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the supreme leader to do that, and it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon,' she said. Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, saying that its program is for peaceful purposes. 'Trust in President Trump' Trump said on Wednesday that Iran had asked to send officials to the White House to negotiate a deal on its nuclear program and end the conflict with Israel — although Iran denied making any such request. Washington and Tehran had continued 'correspondence' since Israel first struck Iran last week, Leavitt said. She said however that there were currently no plans for Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff to join European diplomats meeting Iran's foreign minister in Geneva today. Trump met his top national security team in the White House Situation Room for the third day in a row yesterday. He will have similar meetings daily until he leaves for a Nato summit in the Netherlands on Monday, the White House said. His two-week deadline comes after a tense few days in which Trump publicly mulled joining Israel's strikes on Iran and said that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was an 'easy target.' Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path towards a deal to replace the nuclear deal with Iran that he tore up in his first term in 2018. But he has since backed Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and military top brass, while mulling whether to join in. A key issue is that the United States is the only country with the huge 'bunker buster' bombs that could destroy Iran's crucial Fordo Iranian nuclear enrichment plant. 'We have capabilities that no other country on this planet possesses,' said Leavitt. The White House meanwhile urged Trump supporters to 'trust' the president as he decides whether to act. A number of key figures in his 'Make America Great Again' movement, including commentator Tucker Carlson and former aide Steve Bannon, have vocally opposed US strikes on Iran. Trump's promise to extract the United States from its 'forever wars' in the Middle East played a role in his 2016 and 2024 election wins. 'Trust in President Trump. President Trump has incredible instincts,' Leavitt said. — AFP
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
US senator Ted Cruz claims Iran is building missiles that can 'murder Americans'
A senior US senator who supports Donald Trump has told Sky News why he believes the US would be right to intervene in Iran. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas who ran against Mr Trump in 2016 but now backs him, told US correspondent David Blevins that Iran is an "acute threat to the national security of the US". He went on to claim that because "Iran is also building ICBMs (intercontinental ballistc missiles)" and "You don't need an ICBM to go to Israel", it indicated Iran's intention "to take a nuclear weapon to the United States to murder Americans". "Nobody is talking about invading Iran," Mr Cruz added. "We're not going to see boots on the ground." Middle East latest: It comes after the US president said he "may do it, I may not do it" when asked if he would launch a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. So far, Israel has been attacking Iran alone since it ramped up its military action last Friday, launching strikes against what it says are Tehran's facilities for developing a nuclear weapon and also destroying its air defences. Iran has always denied seeking the ability to make a nuclear weapon from its uranium enrichment programme. Blevins's fellow US correspondent Mark Stone says that while figures like Mr Cruz back military action, "a whole host of other figures are saying 'do not do it'". "The social media space is absolutely full of MAGA [Make America Great Again] figures from the right... saying 'we absolutely must not go into Iran'." If the US were to decide to take military action against Iran, it could have implications for the UK, as America may ask to station refuelling aircraft at a British base in Cyprus and B-2 bombers, which could carry the bunker buster bombs required to attack Iran's Fordow nuclear enrichment facility, could launch from the British base of Diego Garcia. Mr Cruz told Sky News that while many of Mr Trump's support base did not want to see the US involve itself in another war, "the overwhelming majority of Americans, nearly 80%, support President Trump, and support President Trump defending us against an Iranian nuclear weapon."
Sky News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Who has been targeted in Israeli strikes on Iran - and what key infrastructure has been hit?
Israel has been targeting specific infrastructure and personnel in Iran since the start of its attacks on 13 June. Israel's president told Sky News that the country's unprecedented attacks, which have killed more than 240 people according to Iranian officials, are necessary because Tehran has been proceeding "dramatically" towards a nuclear bomb. But who and what has been targeted, and what is Israel's strategy? Here is what you need to know. Who has been targeted? High-ranking military leaders Israel hit many of its targets on the first night of the attacks, the most high-profile of them being Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of staff of the armed forces of the Iranian regime. His involvement in the military dated back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Israel has also killed Hossein Salami, who was the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's primary military force, and Mohammed Kazemi, the intelligence chief of the IRGC. The latter was killed in the Israeli strikes along with his deputy, Hassan Mohaqiq. The strikes also killed Gholam-Ali Rashid, who was head of the IRGC's emergency command headquarters. He was replaced by Ali Shadmani, who was killed days later, with Israel's military claiming a "sudden opportunity" arose to attack him. Nuclear scientists Israel says six top nuclear scientists were among those killed in the initial strikes last week. One of the most high-profile of them was Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who was head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation from 2011 to 2013 and a member of parliament from 2020 to 2024. Another was Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was also a theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran. Four other scientists killed in the strikes were Abdolhamid Manouchehr, Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feghi and Motalibizadeh. What infrastructure has been targeted? Israel has hit military, nuclear, government, oil and gas infrastructure and civilian areas across Iran, including in Tehran, Iran's capital, and other major cities. The nuclear sites targeted so far are Natanz, the country's main uranium enrichment facility located 135 miles southeast of Tehran, the nearby Isfahan nuclear facility and the Fordow uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom. It has been speculated that Fordow will require a 'bunker busting' bomb to cause significant damage. A missile airbase in the western province of Kermanshah operated by the IRGC has also been hit. The attacks also targeted the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran. Many of the high-profile targets were killed in their homes or in meetings. What is Israel's strategy? According to Sky's experts, Israel's intentions appear to be to thwart Iran's nuclear efforts, but also to significantly weaken the regime, in the hope of triggering a regime change in the country. International affairs editor Dominic Waghorn says Israel's destruction of Iran's air defences has left the country's skies vulnerable, and that it has allowed Israeli jets to "destroy target after target with pinpoint accuracy". 3:12 He suggests that in order for the attack to be successful long-term, Israel "must destroy both Iran's ability to develop the bomb, but more importantly, its will to do so" - hence its targeting of both nuclear sites and key personnel. He explains that the Iranian nuclear programme is too far developed to be completely destroyed, and that experts and students there have too much knowledge to rule out the country's ability to build a bomb in the future. "Toppling the regime will be the surest way of achieving Israel's aims if it ushers in a replacement not determined to go nuclear," he says. Israel has also been attacking energy infrastructure, which Waghorn says will be aimed at raising energy prices to spark social unrest and dissent. Defence and security analyst Professor Michael Clarke says Israel's strategy appears to be similar to the one it used against the Shia political and military faction Hezbollah in Lebanon last year. The Israeli military carried out several cross-border attacks, killing top senior leaders including the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah. 3:47 Comparing that scenario to Israel's attacks on Iran, Prof Clarke said: "In terms of the Israeli attacks, they very much follow what we might call the Hezbollah playbook. "They've attacked fairly specific targets, coupled with a series of assassinations against senior leaders. "They're trying to decapitate the command structure while they attack air defence to open up Iranian air defence and then attack Iran." Trump calls supreme leader 'easy target' as he considers US strike Israeli intelligence correspondent Ronen Bergman has reported that Israel has developed the ability to monitor Iran's top officials "in real time", allowing them to eliminate many of Iran's military and intelligence commanders quickly. But Iran's long-time supreme leader Khamenei is not among the officials killed. In a Truth Social post on 17 June, US president Donald Trump called the 86-year-old an "easy target" but said the US would not kill him - "at least not for now". "But we don't want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers," he added. "Our patience is wearing thin." 2:56 The comments came days after reports that Mr Trump rejected a plan proposed by Israel to kill Khamenei, who has led the regime since 1989. Mr Trump has called for Iran's 'unconditional surrender' but it is thought that his administration is keen to keep Israel's operation aimed at targeting the nuclear programme rather than at the regime, with fears over further escalation in the conflict. Before Israel's attack began, the US had been negotiating with Iran over a nuclear deal. Mr Trump is now considering a US strike on Iran, according to multiple current and former administration officials. The president is considering a range of options, including a possible strike, following a meeting with his national security team inside the Situation Room, the officials told Sky's US partner network NBC News. How has Tehran responded? Iran, which has always denied it is planning to make a nuclear bomb, has launched sustained retaliatory strikes against Israel since 13 June. In recent days Iran has shot some 370 missiles and hundreds of drones, with the majority being intercepted by the country's defence systems. The attacks have mainly focused on areas around the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, which are densely populated by civilians. At least 24 people are reported to have been killed in Israel and some 500 people injured.
CBC
3 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Here's Donald Trump's endgame in Iran
Social Sharing The United States now appears at the cusp of a development scarcely conceivable just days ago: direct involvement in bombing Iran. President Donald Trump has begun by dropping something else: hint, after unsubtle hint, that the U.S. might assist Israel in attacking unspecified targets in its conflict with Iran. He's told people to flee the Iranian capital; posted an all-caps demand on social media for, "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER"; and said he knows where the supreme leader is hiding but won't kill him — for now. The implied threat is obvious — that the U.S. could send its bombers and bunker-busters to burrow Iran's most secretive nuclear site, the mountain facility at Fordow, into oblivion. There's also a longer-term threat that this conflict could keep escalating until it risks the survival, both literal and figurative, of the Iranian regime. So what is Trump doing? One clue came in an unusually long tweet from his vice-president. JD Vance specifically mentioned uranium enrichment: Iran can end it the easy way, he said, or the hard way, and, if it ends up being the latter, the U.S. military might help. The prevailing consensus among experts interviewed by CBC News is that the current preferred option in Washington is non-participation. That remains Plan A, in the view of a 34-year CIA veteran who spent a decade as the national intelligence manager for Iran at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. "It's clear the Trump administration would prefer to see a situation where Israel's attacks compel Iran to return to negotiations with serious concessions — driven by a desire to save the Islamic Republic," said Norman Roule, now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington. "However, it's not yet clear if Iran's leaders believe their situation is so dire they must do so." WATCH | Trump says he knows location of Iran's supreme leader: Trump calls for Iran's 'unconditional surrender,' says U.S. knows location of Iranian leader 3 hours ago Duration 5:34 U.S. President Donald Trump called for Iran's 'unconditional surrender' and said the U.S. knows the location of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a social media post on Tuesday as the Israel-Iran conflict raged for a fifth day. Plan B: More escalation And that's why the U.S. government is actively seeking to instil a sense of desperation in Tehran, ramping up the pressure on Tuesday, said another analyst. Kamran Bokhari predicted that Israel will hit increasingly vital infrastructure like communications, oil and water supplies. It is also targeting hardline factions of Iran's security establishment — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij — shifting the balance of power to the less-ideological, pre-revolutionary military. "It moves up the escalatory ladder," said Bokhari, a Georgetown University professor and senior director for Eurasian security and prosperity at a Washington think-tank, the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy. Washington's preferred plan, he said, is that Iran end uranium enrichment and fully open the Fordow site to international monitoring. If that doesn't happen, Bokhari said, the U.S. may destroy Fordow, as the Israelis continue targeting the Iranian leadership. "A last resort — that's what it is," he said of using U.S. B-2 planes to drop massive ordnance penetrator bombs on the heavily fortified underground facility. Regime change risks The current message to Iran, he said, is: "We're not trying to bring your regime down. We don't want anarchy in your country." But if this continues, anything is possible. That's the plan, at least. The problem with plans foisted by foreigners in the Middle East is they have a track record of occasionally exploding into uncontrollable chaos. Ali Vaez said the Iranian leadership might see its severely degraded nuclear program and race to build the bomb with whatever assets it has left. WATCH | Iran's new military chief of staff killed, Israel says: Israel says it has killed Iran's new military chief of staff 9 hours ago Duration 6:59 The project director for Iran at the International Crisis Group said he can't imagine the Iranians making major concessions while they're being bombed. It sets a brutal precedent, inviting additional bombing, for additional objectives, whether regime change or ending Iran's missile program. "A regime in Tehran that sees the choice before it as surrender or fight may opt for the latter, expanding the conflict by targeting U.S. interests, assets and allies," Vaez said. Even if the Islamic regime collapses, he said, there's no guarantee which path Iran will take: a swift transition like Syria in 2024, or a deadly, destabilizing power struggle in the heart of a volatile region, à la Libya post-2011 or Iraq post-2003. "It would not be the first time that impressive gains by the U.S. and its allies have eventually ended in grief," Vaez said. How the U.S. got here He blames Trump for what he calls the original sin: withdrawing from the Obama-era Iran deal. That pact allowed some enrichment, but not enough to build a bomb. It's unclear whether Iran was days, or months, or years away from a bomb. It depends who you ask. The Israelis insisted it was potentially imminent; U.S. intelligence less so. One possible source of confusion is the improvement in centrifuges. Newer generations like the IR-7, IR-8 and IR-9, reportedly being tested by Iran, are dozens of times more efficient at enriching uranium than versions being used a few years ago. Meanwhile, in a little-noticed assessment, U.S. intelligence officials recently estimated that within a decade, Iran might have 60 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the continental United States. Needless to say, U.S.-Iranian relations have been perilous for decades. Just last year, the U.S. Department of Justice charged someone with plotting to kill Trump on behalf of Iranian officials. The charges were laid during the Biden administration. Three Iran analysts interviewed for this story agreed that Trump legitimately wanted to negotiate a new nuclear deal in recent months. They agreed that talks had languished. One said it was a stretch to even call them a negotiation — more like meetings to set ground rules for negotiations. Trump grew frustrated. They also agreed that Trump had a shift in posture. For months, he actively pushed back against Israel's desire to strike Iran, then stopped. Where analysts differ is whether Trump explicitly encouraged it. After all, just last week he'd said he didn't want Israel attacking, as he still hoped diplomacy might work. Now he's cheering on the Israelis. Analysts differ on Trump's approach Vaez of the International Crisis Group said he suspects there was an element of miscommunication. The president had told his Israeli counterpart, in April and May, that he was ardently opposed. Then in June, he expressed frustration at the pace of talks. "Netanyahu took that as a green light," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bokhari doesn't share that view. He believes the U.S. president was more explicit, and more hawkish, than that. He said Trump concluded the Iranians were dragging things out, stringing him along, in the belief he was bluffing about real consequences in the absence of a deal. Trump wanted to reassert leverage, Bokhari said, without being directly involved in any attack, as he'd promised his MAGA base to avoid foreign wars. "But you have Israel ready to do it," he said. "[Trump] said, 'OK, and let's see what you can do.' And the idea was, 'Well, if you [Iran] weren't willing to talk, if you weren't willing to compromise, then now are you ready to talk after being hit?' ... That strategy is playing itself out." Trump certainly set some conditions. For example, U.S. officials are telling reporters that the U.S. president nixed an Israel plan to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. WATCH | Tehran residents try to flee capital amid Israeli warnings: People try to flee Tehran as airstrikes continue 21 hours ago Duration 2:26 Panicked residents of Tehran tried to flee the city after warnings from Israel of more airstrikes and some Iranian missiles managed to get through Israel's defence systems. "[Trump would have said to Israel], 'Let's agree on what you're going to hit.' 'This is not open-ended.' 'How much time do you need?'" Bokhari said. "You know, all the logistical stuff that needs to be figured out. Target sets and no-go areas and so on and so forth." Now Trump is warning: This could still get worse.
