Israel-Iran latest news: countries launch simultaneous attacks

“While the [Israeli military] is operating to intercept missiles launched from Iran, the [Israeli air force] is currently striking military targets in Tehran,” the military said, adding that sirens sounded in several areas across Israel.

Three drones were launched towards a base housing US forces in Iraq after Israel’s strikes on Iran, US military officials said on Saturday.

The drones were shot down, the officials said, and no group have as yet claimed responsibility for the attack on Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq.

A network of powerful Iran-backed militias in Iraq has remained mostly quiet amid the escalating Israel-Iran conflict. In the past, the militias had periodically attacked US bases in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in its war against the Iran-allied Hamas militant group in Gaza.

More RAF jets are being sent to the Middle East, Sir Keir Starmer has said, after Iran threatened to target UK, French and US bases if the countries help stop strikes on Israel.

The prime minister said further military assets were being deployed to provide “contingency support” across the region amid escalating hostilities between the two long-time foes. Additional refuelling aircraft have been deployed from UK bases and more fast jets will be sent over, it is understood.

The UK already has RAF jets in the Middle East as part of Operation Shader.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him on a visit to Canada, Starmer declined to rule out intervening in the conflict entirely but made clear he would continue pressing for de-escalation and said the “intense” developments over the weekend would be discussed in detail at the G7 summit.

President Macron of Francesaid he had spoken with President Pezeshkian of Iran and told him Tehran’s nuclear programme was a “serious concern” and must be “resolved through negotiation”.

In a post on X, he said that he had invited Pezeshkian “to return swiftly to the negotiating table to reach an agreement — the only viable path to de-escalation. We stand ready to contribute and to mobilise all our efforts to achieve that goal”.

President Putin condemned Israel’s strikes on Iran during a 50-minute call with President Trump, the Kremlin has said.

“Vladimir Putin condemned Israel’s military operation against Iran and expressed serious concern about a possible escalation of the conflict, which would have unpredictable consequences for the entire situation in the Middle East,” Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, told reporters.

Trump described events in the Middle East as “very alarming,” according to Ushakov, adding the two leaders said they do not rule out a return to the negotiating track on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Putin told the US president that Russia was ready to continue negotiations with the Ukrainians after June 22, according to the state news agency RIA. The Russian leader also congratulated Trump on his 79th birthday.

Binyamin Netanyahu says Israel has “indications” that senior Iranian leaders are “already packing their bags” amid his airstrikes.

Speaking in English for a video statement, he said: “They sense what’s coming. I’ll tell you what would have come if we hadn’t acted. We had information that this unscrupulous regime was planning to give the nuclear weapons that they would develop to their terrorist proxies. That’s nuclear terrorism on steroids. That would threaten the entire world.”

He said the operation has the “clear support” of President Trump. “Our enemy is your enemy … We’re dealing with something that will threaten all of us sooner or later. Our victory will be your victory,” Netanyahu said, as well as wishing Trump a happy birthday.

“This is what Israel is doing with the support, the clear support of the president of the United States, Donald Trump and the American people and many others in the world.”

There has been a “massive explosion” at the South Pars refinery in Iran’s southern Bushehr region after an Israeli drone strike on Saturday, Iranian media reports.

“An hour ago, an Israeli drone hit one of the South Pars Phase 14 refineries, causing a massive explosion and fire in the refinery,” the Tasnim news agency said, while the Fars agency reported firefighters were working to extinguish a blaze that had erupted as a result of the attack.

South Pars is the largest natural gas field in the world with ownership shared between Iran and Qatar. If the attacks are confirmed, they would mark the first Israeli attack on Iran’s oil and natural gas industry.

Among more than 1,000 protesters at the Parliament Square rally against Israeli strikes on Iran was a man holding a placard demanding the deproscription of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The controversial sign held by Richard Knight, 69, read on one side: “Home secretary deproscribe Hezbollah.” The other side stated: “HMG deproscribe Hamas.”

Both groups, which are backed by Iran, are listed by the Home Office as terrorist organisations and banned in the UK. Officers have spotted Knight and his placard and have called supervisors to seek advice — but he has not been arrested.

Knight, of Ilford, northeast London, revealed that he was arrested with the same placard at a pro-Gaza march in January on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation. “I was taken away and held at Hammersmith police station for many hours,” he said.

Officers initially refused to hand back his sign. However, he said it was later returned to him by a member of Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism command. Police told Knight a month later that he had not committed an offence and would not be charged.

Netanyahu says Israel aims to “thwart a dual threat” from Tehran, these being “nuclear and ballistic missiles” and that it had achieved its goals.

“We cannot afford for them to be able to build production capabilities for 20,000 missiles, so we have taken action to destroy their production capabilities, and that’s what the IDF is doing now”, he said, adding: “We have paved a path to Tehran. In the very near future, you will see Israeli planes, the Israeli Air Force, our pilots, over the skies of Tehran.”

The Israeli prime minister also suggested his forces would strike the Natanz nuclear facility again. He said: “We have dealt a very severe blow to Iran’s main enrichment site and if necessary we will also hit it again. There is a huge threat from ballistic missiles, we have taken action to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile production capabilities.”

Oman’s foreign minister says planned talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program “will not now take place” after Israel’s strikes.

Badr al-Busaidi made the announcement on social media on Saturday. It comes after Iran’s foreign minister said any talks would be “unjustifiable” amid the ongoing attacks. Oman has been mediating the talks.

“The Iran US talks scheduled to be held in Muscat this Sunday will not now take place,” Busaidi wrote. “But diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace.” A sixth round was due to happen in Muscat, Oman’s capital, before the Israeli strikes began overnight on Thursday.

Binjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel’s strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back, possibly by years, and that heavier blows were yet to come.

“We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs’ regime and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days,” he said in a video message.

He added that the military was now destroying Iran’s ability to manufacture ballistic missiles.

Croatia’s consul in Israel and his wife sustained minor injuries in Iran’s missile strikes on Tel Aviv, Gordan Grlic-Radman, Croatia’s foreign minister, has said.

“The building they live in was hit,” he said on X. “I spoke with them and, fortunately, their injuries are minor and they are not in any life-threatening condition.”

He added that his ministry was in constant contact with the Croatian embassy in Israel and was taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of staff. “We strongly condemn attacks on civilians and diplomatic facilities. We call for immediate de-escalation and restraint,” he said.

By Matthew Syed

The West is afflicted, as so often, by a stunning failure of imagination. Again and again over the past two days, I’ve read commentaries with “on the one hand, on the other hand” prevarication about the Israeli strikes, the idea that while we “mustn’t” let Iran get nuclear weapons, we should disarm it “some other way”. How, exactly? Perhaps a continuation of recent diplomatic failure, or maybe more phone calls urging “restraint” (see Keir Starmer and David Lammy) as the fundamentalists rush to enrichment while deceiving and dissembling — as an authoritative report by the International Atomic Energy Agency just revealed?

Still we struggle to understand religious fanaticism in the West, the high likelihood that if Iran gained nuclear weapons, it would use them against Israel.

• Read Matthew Syed in full here

Iran’s foreign minister says it would be “unjustifiable” to continue talks with the US over its nuclear programme. Abbas Araghchi, its lead negotiator, described Israel’s attacks as “savagery” in a phone call with, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat.

The foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baqai, told state TV on Saturday that a final decision about attending the planned sixth round of talks to be held in Oman on Sunday remained unclear.

President Trump has called on Iran to “make a deal, before there is nothing left”. So far the US and Iran have held five rounds of talks in April and May, mediated by Oman.

Tehran has also said that Israeli strikes were conducted with Washington’s approval making negotiations with the US “meaningless”.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that its airstrikes on Iran had killed more than 20 Iranian army and Revolutionary Guards commanders, including Mohammad Bagheri, the armed forces chief.

“Since the beginning of the operation [on Friday], over 20 commanders in the Iranian regime’s security apparatus have been eliminated,” the military said in a statement.

Up to 500 activists protesting against Israel’s military strikes on Iran have gathered in Parliament Square in central London.

Demonstrators carried placards that read “Don’t Attack Iran” and “Stop Arming Israel”, and chanted: “From the belly of the beast, hands off the Middle East.”

The protest, which is taking place under a heavy police presence, has been organised by a coalition led by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which has hosted a string of pro-Gaza marches in the capital since the October 7 massacre by Hamas on Israel in 2023.

Among the many Palestinian banners on display were a handful of Iranian flags.

A stall set up opposite the parliament was selling T-shirts with an image of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, bearing the slogan: “Wanted for Genocide”.

One man was holding a placard which read: “HMG de-proscribe Hamas.” The other side the placard said: “Home secretary de-proscribe Hezbollah.”

Statues around Parliament Square, including that of Winston Churchill, were fenced off and protected by officers.

The PSC said in a statement: “As Israel carpet bombs and starves Gaza, intensifies its land grabs and attacks in the West Bank, and now launches major attacks in Iran, the responsibilities on the British government could not be clearer. It must impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.”

The organisation is planning protests next week against three British defence and logistics firms which it accuses of being part of the supply chain for F-35 fighter jets used by the Israel Defence Forces.

President Zelensky said he hoped the escalation between Israel and Iran would not result in a drop in military aid to Kyiv, according to remarks published on Saturday.

“We would like to see aid to Ukraine not decrease because of this,” he said. “Last time, this was a factor that slowed down aid to Ukraine.”

Israel’s military said it was “currently” launching attacks on several sites across Iran as it kept up its campaign targeting the Islamic republic’s military and nuclear sites.

“We are currently launching attacks on several sites in Iran,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised press conference.

Sir Keir Starmer and Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, have “agreed on the need to de-escalate” the conflict between Iran and Israel, Downing Street has said.

The two leaders spoke on Saturday afternoon, according to No 10.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “They discussed the gravely concerning situation in the Middle East and agreed on the need to de-escalate.

“The prime minister updated on his conversations with partners so far, and reiterated that the UK is poised to work closely with its allies in the coming days to support a diplomatic resolution.”

David Lammy has said he is “alarmed” by the strikes in the Middle East overnight.

In a post on X, the foreign secretary wrote: “Alarmed by further strikes in the Middle East overnight, with reports of fatalities and injuries in Israel. We must urgently de-escalate and prevent any further harm to civilians. Following the prime minister’s call with PM Netanyahu, I spoke to Iranian FM Araghchi to urge calm.”

Lammy is expected to spend the day in talks with counterparts across the Middle East and elsewhere. He did not address Iran’s threat to target UK bases and ships in the region if they help stop Tehran’s strikes on Israel.

France is boosting security, including around Jewish and US sites on its territory, because of the conflict between Israel and Iran, the interior minister said in a domestic order sent on Saturday.

“Special vigilance” must be given “to all sites that could be targeted by terrorist or malicious acts by a foreign power,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said in a dispatch to French regional security chiefs that was seen by AFP.

He said security should be heightened around “places of worship, schools, state and institutional buildings, sites with high traffic”, including “festive, cultural or religious gatherings”.

An Iranian missile strike wounded seven soldiers in central Israel overnight, an Israeli military spokesman said.

“Seven … soldiers were lightly injured last night, as a result of an Iranian missile hit to central Israel,” the spokesman said.

Tel Aviv is in central Israel and the city hosts the defence ministry and military headquarters.

Israel’s strikes on Iran’s Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites killed nine senior nuclear Iranian scientists, an Israeli military official said on Saturday.

The strikes caused significant damage to the sites, which were among more than 150 targets in Iran, the official said, adding that the aerial route to Tehran, the Iranian capital, was effectively open to Israel’s air force.

The official said that it would take more than a few weeks for Iran to repair damage at the two sites.

Iran responded to the claim by saying only three of its nuclear scientists had been killed. They were named by Tasnim, the semi-official news agency, as Ali Bakaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari and Saeid Borji.

Britain’s Jewish community was warned to be vigilant and follow “strict security measures” after the Israeli embassy in London, like others across the globe, was closed due to an increased threat.

Synagogues have been placed on alert and Israelis abroad, including in the UK, were warned to “avoid displaying Jewish or Israeli symbols in public spaces”.

The Community Security Trust (CST) a charity that works to protect the Jewish community in Britain, said it was recommending vigilance and urged British Jews to follow “strict security measures”. Since the October 7 atrocity Jewish schools and places of worship across the UK have hired security guards and installed ­enhanced CCTV.

Read the story in full here

Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister warned Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that “Tehran will burn” if it keeps firing missiles at Israeli civilians.

“The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage, bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Tehran’s residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel’s citizens. If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” Katz said.

By Roger Boyes

The Israeli bombardment of Iran’s nuclear complex is codenamed Operation Rising Lion. That points to Israel’s broader hopes for the campaign: not only to halt Tehran’s gallop towards acquiring a nuclear weapon but also to encourage domestic resistance to the clerical regime and incite an uprising.

Iran’s quest for the bomb was always supposed to establish it as a regional leader, the defender of Shia Muslims everywhere and the ultimate answer to US interference in the Middle East.

But Friday’s assault showed that the Iranian regime is incapable of defending the nation, that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cannot guard his country’s strategic treasure, cannot stay true to the principles of the Islamic revolution or even keep his people happy. He is a supreme leader in name only.

Read Roger Boyes in full here.

One of President Trump’s proudest boasts is that his first term was notable for “no wars”. It fuelled his ambition to be a peacemaker in his second term, with an eye on a Nobel prize.

However, since his return to the White House, the body count has been growing — and a war in the Middle East is looming on his watch.

• Read the story in full here

Two people were killed in an Israeli attack on a missile site in Asadabad in western Iran on Saturday, Iranian news sites reported.

Iran’s Fars news agency has reported explosions, with missile strikes in three locations in the west of the country.

There is “no question” Israel’s attacks did substantial damage to Iran’s nuclear programme, said Fabian Hinz, an expert from the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.

A key question, Hinz said, was whether Israel also targeted suppliers of specialist components such as centrifuges and subcontractors.

David Albright, a nuclear weapons expert, speculated that the initial wave of attacks could set back any Iranian attempt to develop a nuclear weapon by about a year.

Israel’s strategy appears to be to “destroy the brains” behind the programme and “as much equipment as possible,” said Albright, who agreed that Israel has potentially done a “tremendous amount of damage” to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The UK was not officially informed about Israel’s attack on Iran before it happened and provided no support to the mission, it is understood, highlighting the deteriorating relationship between the two countries.

Diplomats said it appeared Israel no longer considered the UK to be a “reliable partner” after Sir Keir Starmer placed sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers this week.

• Read the story in full here

Iran has warned the United States, United Kingdom and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help stop Tehran’s strikes on Israel, Iran state media reported on Saturday.

The Pope called on Israel and Iran to show responsibility and reason as the two enemies clashed.

“The situation in Iran and Israel has seriously deteriorated at such a delicate moment. I wish to forcefully renew an appeal for responsibility and reason,” the pope said on Saturday.

“The commitment to build a safer world free from the nuclear threat must be pursued through a respectful meeting and sincere dialogue,” he said. “No one should ever threaten the existence of the other.”

Israeli firefighters worked for hours to free people trapped in a high-rise building in Tel Aviv on Friday.

Resident Chen Gabizon told AFP he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert.

“After a few minutes, we just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place,” he said.

Jordan’s civil aviation authority said it had reopened its airspace on Saturday, a day after suspending it as Israel and Iran traded fire.

“Jordan has reopened its airspace starting 7.30am (5.30am BST),” Haitham Misto, the chairman of the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission, said in a statement.

Iran has yet to decide whether to join a sixth round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman on Sunday, state media reported, as Israel and Iran traded fire for a second day.

“It is still unclear what decision we will make for Sunday,” Esmaeil Baqaei, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, told the official IRNA news agency on Saturday.

The scene was set for “operation rising lion” long before the strikes on Iran began in the early hours of Friday. The Mossad commando fighter cells smuggled into the heart of Iran helped to position precision weapons in open areas adjacent to surface-to-air missile systems, and high-tech equipment enabled Israel to establish a secret base for launching attack drones near Tehran.

What followed was the biggest attack on Iranian territory for almost 40 years. Read the full reconstruction of events here.

Two deputy commanders at the Iranian armed forces’ general staff were killed in Israeli attacks, Iranian state media reported on Saturday.

It was unclear when the two commanders were killed but their deaths were announced on Saturday.

Israel’s attacks on Iran since Friday have killed at least 78 people, including senior military officials, in what are Israel’s biggest attacks ever against Iran.

• Hossein Salami obituary: chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility sustained limited damage following recent attacks, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Saturday, citing a spokesman for the country’s atomic energy organisation.

“There has been limited damage to some areas at the Fordow enrichment site,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the state atomic energy agency, said. “We had already moved a significant part of the equipment and materials out, and there was no extensive damage and there are no contamination concerns.”

The Beilinson Hospital in Tel Aviv has said that a woman was killed in an Iranian missile strike, bringing the total number of fatalities to three.

The hospital also treated seven people who were wounded in the strike early on Saturday. Israel’s fire and rescue services said a projectile hit a building in the city.

Israel’s paramedic service, Magen David Adom, said an Iranian missile struck near homes in central Israel early Saturday morning, killing two people and injuring 19 others. Four homes were severely damaged.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it that had targeted Iran’s “defence arrays” with a wave of strikes in the Tehran area overnight.

“Overnight, the IAF struck dozens of targets, including surface-to-air missile infrastructure, as part of the effort to damage the Iranian regime’s aerial defence capabilities in the area of Tehran,” the military said. “For the first time since the beginning of the war, over 1,500km from Israeli territory, the IAF (Israeli military) struck defence arrays in the area of Tehran.”

Iran said on Friday that dialogue with the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme is “meaningless” after Israel’s biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy, accusing Washington of supporting the attack.

“The other side (the US) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime [Israel’] to target Iran’s territory,” Esmaeil Baghaei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Iran’s strikes against Israel will continue, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Saturday, citing senior Iranian military officials.

“This confrontation will not end with last night’s limited actions and Iran’s strikes will continue, and this action will be very painful and regrettable for the aggressors,” Fars cited an unnamed official as saying, citing senior military officials.

Iran and Israel targeted each other with airstrikes early on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever offensive against its longtime foe, in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the country’s two largest cities, before dawn, sending residents rushing into shelters. The military said its air defence systems were operating, seeking to intercept Iranian missiles.

Read the full story here.