Iran Israel War Live News

Alarm grows after the US inserts itself into Israel’s war against Iran with strikes on nuclear sites

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The world grappled Sunday with the United States inserting itself into Israel’s war by attacking Iranian nuclear sites, an operation that raised urgent questions about what remained of Tehran’s nuclear program and how its weakened military might respond.

Experts warned that worldwide efforts to contain the spread of nuclear weapons by peaceful means would be at stake in the days ahead, while fears of a wider regional conflict loomed large. The price of oil rose as financial markets reacted.

Iran lashed out at the U.S. for crossing “a very big red line” with its risky gambit to strike the three sites with missiles and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the U.S. “decided to destroy diplomacy,” and that the Iranian military will decide the “timing, nature and scale” of a “proportionate response.” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi flew to Moscow to coordinate with close ally Russia.Tens of thousands of American troops are based in the Middle East. Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said any country used by the U.S. to strike Iran ”will be a legitimate target for our armed forces,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported.At first, the Trump administration indicated it wanted to restart diplomatic talks with Iran. “Let’s meet directly,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. “does not seek war.”But USA President Donald Trump, who has warned of additional strikes if Tehran retaliates against U.S. forces, later mused about the possibility of “regime change " in Iran.The U.S. strikes, confirmed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, hit the Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities, as well as the Isfahan nuclear site. Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination around them.

Trump asserted on his Truth Social platform that Iran’s nuclear sites sustained “monumental damage” in the attack, though an American assessment on the strikes is still underway.

“The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!” he wrote.Trump previously claimed the U.S. “completely and fully obliterated” the sites, but the Pentagon reported “sustained, extremely severe damage and destruction.” Israeli army spokesman Effie Defrin said “the damage is deep,” but an assessment with the U.S. continued.“We are very close to achieving our goals” in removing Iran’s nuclear and missile threats, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Sunday.U.S. defense officials have said they are working to determine about just how much damage the strikes did. Iran as well has not said how much damage was done in the attack, though Tehran has not offered any details so far on the strikes it has faced from Israel in its war with that country.

The head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told the Security Council that no one was in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordo, which is dug deep into a mountain, but visible craters tracked with the U.S. announcements. He said IAEA inspectors should be allowed to look at the sites. The IAEA’s governing board planned an emergency meeting Monday.

Grossi stressed that a path for diplomacy remained, but if that fails, “violence and destruction could reach unthinkable levels,” and global efforts at nuclear nonproliferation “could crumble.”

Satellite images analyzed Monday by The Associated Press appear to show at least one crater at the Natanz site. A hole of around 5 meters (16 feet) could be seen in images taken by Planet Labs PBC and Maxar Technologies on Sunday after the American strikes. That hole sits directly over the underground portion of the site, which includes centrifuge halls.

Iran has offered no assessment of how much damage has been done at the site. Previous Israeli strikes destroyed an above-ground centrifuge hall, as well as all of the power equipment at the site, likely cutting its electrical supply.With the attack that Washington said was carried out without detection, the United States inserted itself into a war it spent decades trying to avoid. Success could mean ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions and eliminating the last significant state threat to the security of Israel, its close ally. Failure — or overreach — could plunge the U.S. into another long and unpredictable conflict.For Iran’s supreme leader, it could mark the end of a campaign to transform the Islamic Republic into a greater regional power that holds enriched nuclear material a step away from weapons-grade levels. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last spoke publicly on Wednesday, warning the U.S. that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them.”

Iran, battered by Israel’s largest-ever assault on it that began on June 13, has limited options for retaliation, as key allies have mostly stayed out of the conflict. It could attack U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East with the missiles and rockets that Israel hasn’t destroyed. It could attempt to close a key bottleneck for global oil supplies, the Strait of Hormuz, between it and Oman.

Or it could hurry to develop a nuclear weapon with what remains of its program. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said its program will not be stopped.

New questions about Iran’s nuclear stockpile

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program was peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon.Israel has significantly degraded Iran’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities and damaged its nuclear enrichment facilities. But only the U.S. military has the bunker-buster bombs that officials believe offered the best chance of destroying sites deep underground. A total of 14 of the bombs were used on Natanz and Fordo, according to the Pentagon.Experts scrambled to answer the urgent question: What has happened to Iran’s stockpile of uranium and centrifuges?

Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC after the U.S. strikes, analyzed by The Associated Press, show damage to the facility. Other images from Maxar Technologies suggest Iran packed the entrance tunnels to Fordo with dirt and had trucks at the facility ahead of the strikes.

Several Iranian officials, including Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi, have claimed Iran removed nuclear material from targeted sites.

Before the Israeli military campaign began, Iran said it had declared a third, unknown site as a new enrichment facility.“Questions remain as to where Iran may be storing its already enriched stocks … as these will have almost certainly been moved to hardened and undisclosed locations, out of the way of potential Israeli or U.S. strikes,” said Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute focused on nonproliferation issues.Global leaders responded with shock and calls for restraint. Egypt warned of “grave repercussions” for the region. Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Middle East-based 5th Fleet, called on Iran and the U.S. to “quickly resume talks.”The State Department advised U.S. citizens worldwide to “exercise increased caution.”

Trump’s decision and the risks
The decision to attack was a risky one for Trump, who won the White House partly on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts.But Trump also vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. He initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country’s leaders to give up its nuclear program.For Netanyahu, the strikes were the culmination of a decades-long campaign to get the U.S. to strike Israel’s chief regional rival and its disputed nuclear program. Netanyahu praised Trump, saying his decision “will change history.”Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged.

Iran and Israel trade more attacks
Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Amir, called the U.S. attack a key “turning point” but added: “We still have targets to strike and objectives to complete.”

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched a barrage of 40 missiles at Israel, including its Khorramshahr-4, which can carry multiple warheads. Israeli authorities said more than 80 people suffered mostly minor injuries.Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it again struck military infrastructure sites in Tehran and western Iran.

The Israeli military confirmed other attacks on Iran late Sunday which included strikes on Hamedan and Kermanshah in western Iran, as well as strikes in Tehran, Iran’s capital. Israel also hit what its military described as a missile production site in Shahroud.Earlier, explosions boomed in Bushehr, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, three semiofficial media outlets reported. Israel’s military said it struck missile launchers in Bushehr, Isfahan and Ahvaz, as well as a command center in the Yazd area where it said Khorramshahr missiles were stored. Iran has not acknowledged losses of military materiel in the war so far.

Iranian state media reported air defense systems were firing in Tehran early Monday, while explosions could be heard in the nearby city of Karaj.A social media account associated with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published a propaganda post Monday portraying missile strikes on a darkened city with a giant skull bearing the Star of David on it. “The punishment continues,” the poster read.Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group said of those dead, it identified 380 civilians and 253 security force personnel. In Israel, at least 24 people have been killed and over 1,000 wounded.At Turkey’s border with Iran, one departing Iranian defended his country’s nuclear program.“We were minding our own business,” Behnam Puran said.This version corrects that the Strait of Hormuz is between Iran and Oman, not the United Arab Emirates.Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Nasser Karimi, Mehdi Fattahi and Amir Vahdat in Iran; Aamer Madhani in Morristown, New Jersey; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Lolita Baldor in Narragansett, Rhode Island; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Rusen Takva in Van, Turkey; Joah Boak in Washington; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this story.

Israel-Iran conflict: List of key events, June 22, 2025

Fighting
United States President Donald Trump told the world that strikes had been launched by his country’s military against three key Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump claimed in a post that the heavily fortified Fordow nuclear facility was “gone”.
The US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon that the US strikes were an “incredible and overwhelming success”, without providing any evidence or details.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a further threat against Iran, saying any retaliation would be “the worst mistake they’ve ever made.”
During an address to a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Turkiye, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the US crossed “a very big red line” by attacking Iran’s three nuclear facilities.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said the nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were “attacked by enemies of [Iran] in a barbaric act that violated international law, especially the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on a ‘bold decision’ to attack Iran.
Israeli emergency services say Iranian rockets and falling shrapnel hit 10 locations. The latest Iranian retaliation followed the US strikes.
Israel’s military said it carried out more attacks on western Iran against what it claimed are “military targets”.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Iran’s most recent missile strikes targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, along with research facilities.
The IRGC is now deploying one of its most advanced missiles, the Kheibar Shekan, as part of its retaliatory measures. Unveiled in 2022, the missile also known as Khorramshahr-4 is believed to have the heaviest payload of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal.

Casualties and disruptions

The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said that there have been no fatalities in the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.An adviser to Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that Iran had been anticipating the US attack on Fordow. “The site has long been evacuated and has not suffered any irreversible damage in the attack,” the adviser said.The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has said that radiation system data and field surveys do not show signs of contamination or danger to residents near the sites of Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.The Israel Airports Authority says it has closed its airspace until further notice “due to recent developments”, referring to the US attack on Iran.

Airline carriers have continued to steer clear of significant areas of the Middle East following the US strikes, according to Flightradar24.A man convicted of spying for Israel has been executed, the Iranian judicial news outlet Mizan Online reports.At least 27 people have been wounded in Israel after Iran launched 40 missiles shortly after the US attacks. One of the targets hit was Ramat Aviv in Tel Aviv, with missiles tearing holes in the facades of apartment blocks.The semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that Israel bombed the city of Tabriz, targeting the IRGC’s Martyr Madani camp, wounding at least two.

Iranian authorities said nine security personnel were killed after Israeli forces struck two military sites in the central province of Yazd, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported.Gulf states, home to multiple US military bases, are on high alert after the bombardment of Iran raised the possibility of a widening war in the region.Bahrain has told 70 percent of government employees to work from home until further notice.

US opposition to attacks

In one of the first responses to the attack by a Democratic member of the US Congress, Sara Jacobs said: “Trump’s strikes against Iran are not only unconstitutional, but an escalation that risks bringing the US into another endless and deadly war.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Trump did not seek congressional authorisation for the strikes and will bear full responsibility for “any adverse consequences”.
Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American congresswoman, said Trump’s ordering of strikes on Iran without the approval of lawmakers is a “blatant violation” of the US Constitution.
Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has been leading a legislative effort to curb Trump’s ability to attack Iran without the approval of Congress, said the strikes violate the US Constitution, which gives lawmakers the authority over war decisions.
US Senator Chris Murphy joined the Democratic chorus of criticism. “I was briefed on the intelligence last week,” he said. “Iran posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States.”

Global reactions, U.S politics and diplomacy
The United Nations Security Council convened an emergency session following the US-led strikes, prompting sharp rebukes from several member states, and renewed calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East, as allies Israel and the US lauded the attack.UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the region stood “on the brink of a deadly downward spiral.”The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said international law isn’t a choice but an obligation.China “strongly condemned” the US attack, noting its nuclear facilities were under the safeguards of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the “absolute majority” of nations are against “the actions of Israel and the United States”.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian group Hamas and Yemen’s Houthis, all allies of Iran, condemned what Hezbollah called the “barbaric and treacherous” US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Saudi Arabia said that it’s “following with deep concern the developments in the Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly the targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States of America.”
Gulf nations Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all also expressed concern over what the attacks could portend for the region.
Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry warned that the US strikes have made the risk of escalation more likely.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the US military action, saying the attacks “alleviate” the “threat” posed by Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, is calling for a return to dialogue. “Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon,” she said, “as it would be a threat to international security.”

After the U.S. struck Iran’s most fortified nuclear sites, the regime’s clerical leaders are facing a perilous choice: hit back at the U.S. and risk a widening a war with two militarily superior foes, or return to nuclear talks where they would likely have to make concessions on nuclear enrichment and their ballistic-missile arsenal, two pillars of the country’s sovereignty.Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in what appeared to be his first comments since the U.S. attack, didn’t mention the U.S. and instead focused on Israel in a post on X. Israel made a “grave mistake” and “it is being punished right now,” the post said.Israel announced more strikes against Iran’s military infrastructure, while Iran launched another missile barrage toward the Israel. Leaders in Europe urged Iran not to respond in a way that would “destabilize the region,” while President Trump gave no ground on his demand for Iran to agree on the U.S.’s terms for a peace deal. Trump didn’t rule out backing a change in Iran’s leadership on Sunday.Iran’s missile arsenal and military infrastructure have been degraded by Israel’s recent military strikes. But the exact extent remains unclear, and Iran possesses other means to strike back such as cyberattacks and possibly terrorist proxies, or disrupting oil shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Uncertainty over how Iran might respond had stock and oil markets on edge, with U.S. futures moving slightly lower.One factor that might play a role in Iran’s response is the extent of the damage caused by the U.S.’s bunker-busting munitions. Iranian officials said they had minimized the impact of the strikes. Satellite images collected by Maxar Technologies showed several large holes punched in a ridge over the underground Fordow uranium-enrichment complex and entrances blocked with dirt and debris. What happened to the centrifuges and other equipment will likely only be known if international inspectors can access the sites.

What else to know:

Iran’s foreign minister said he planned to fly to Moscow and would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for consultations on how to proceed.Vice President JD Vance signaled Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is still intact and in Iranian control.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was making progress toward destroying Iran’s nuclear threat and ballistic-missile threat. “We are moving step after step to achieve these goals. We are very, very close to completing them,” he said.Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Oman joined the head of the United Nations in condemning the U.S. strikes.

Watch: The US has joined the Iran-Israel war. What happens now?

USA President Donald Trump says the US has carried out a "successful" bombing attack on three nuclear sites in Iran and said they have been "obliterated".Israel says they were in "full co-ordination" with the US in planning the strikes. Iranian officials have confirmed the facilities were struck but denied it had suffered a major blow.

The strikes mark a significant escalation in the ongoing war between Iran and Israel.So what happens now? Here are the key questions, answered by our world news correspondent Joe Inwood.

What we covered here
• Tehran’s message to US: Diplomacy with Iran can “easily” be started again if US President Donald Trump orders Israel’s leadership to stop striking the country, an official with the Iranian presidency told CNN. Trump said Friday it would be “very hard” for him to make that request.

• Talks in Switzerland: Iranian and European officials met Friday in Geneva, for talks which an Iranian source said started out tense but became “much more positive.” Iran has not agreed to end its uranium enrichment capability, the source said, calling it a “bold red line.” Trump has said he will allow up to two weeks for negotiations before deciding whether to launch a strike in Iran.

• Fresh strikes: There have been no signs of de-escalation in the weeklong conflict as Iran and Israel continue to trade strikes, with two people killed in a strike on the Iranian city of Qom and reports of explosions in Isfahan. In Israel, a building in Holon caught fire after shrapnel from a missile interception fell on it.There is “no question” the United States would be plunged into a regional war if it strikes Iran, former CIA director Leon Panetta told CNN.

The former head of the intelligence agency said the US made a “terrible mistake” by going into Iraq two decades ago, starting a war that lasted years.“It’s a lesson that the president needs to learn, because if he goes in and attacks Iran, then there’s no question that the United States would be in a regional war at that point,” Panetta told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.Panetta, also a former defense secretary, warned that Iran is bound to retaliate.

“So make no mistake about it. It may be an airstrike, but it would definitely involve the United States in a war with [Iran],” he said.

Explosions heard in Isfahan, Iranian state media says

Explosions have been heard in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, Iranian state media reports.The news comes shortly after the Israel Defense Forces said it had begun a new wave of attacks in Iran.

Semi-official news agency Fars reported that the air defense system in the city had been activated.Isfahan is the home of Iran’s largest nuclear research complex, which has been previously targeted by Israeli strikes.

killed in strike on residential building in Qom, Iranian state media reports

A strike on a residential building in the central Iranian city of Qom killed two people and injured four others on Saturday, according to reports from state media.The strike, which hit the building’s fourth floor, was reported shortly after the Israel Defense Forces said it had begun a new wave of attacks in Iran.The holy city of Qom is close to Iran’s secretive Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.One of those killed was a 16-year-old, according to a statement from Morteza Heydari, spokesman for the Qom Provincial Administration, made to Iranian media.Video geolocated by CNN shows impact damage to a building in southwestern Qom. In the video a fire can be seen burning on the upper floors of a multistory building.At the same time, semi-official Nour News reported air defenses were active over the capital Tehran, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the north.Iran has filed a complaint with the United Nations secretary-general and president of the Security Council against Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).In his letter, Iranian UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani took issue with Grossi’s “approach regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities” and what he said was a “failure” to condemn Israel’s military action, according to the semi-official Iranian news outlet Fars News.

The complaint comes after Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, on Thursday threatened legal action against Grossi for alleged “inaction” during Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. That threat came after Israel attacked Iran’s Arak nuclear facility in overnight strikes.

“It is necessary to fulfil your constitutional duties by immediately ending this inaction and condemning these actions of the Zionist regime that are contrary to international regulations,” Eslami’s letter read, according to Fars, adding that Iran “will pursue appropriate legal measures, especially in relation to the inactions taken by your Excellency.”The IAEA head said later on Thursday that the agency was continuing to “closely monitor and assess the situation regarding the Israeli attacks on nuclear sites” in Iran and that inspectors will remain in the country, ready to be deployed to nuclear sites when possible.

Israel’s military said it identified missiles launched from Iran and that defense systems are working to intercept them.

The military called on the public to “enter a protected space” and stay there until further notice. Leaving is only allowed after an “explicit directive,” the military statement added.In a separate statement the military said it is working to intercept and “strike where necessary to eliminate the threat.”Hundreds of Americans have fled Iran as the conflict with Israel has escalated, an internal State Department report said.The detail in the Friday situation report underscores that US citizens in Iran are at risk as President Donald Trump weighs US military action.

The exact number of Americans in Iran is not known, and the State Department does not require US citizens to register their presence abroad.Unlike in Israel, where the US is working to establish transportation options out of the country for the estimated hundreds of thousands of Americans there, no such options are available for US citizens in Iran. The US does not have a diplomatic presence there.

Posted on 2025/06/23 02:01 PM