Israel strikes Iran's nuclear program, kills top commander
World
Israel strikes Iran's nuclear program, kills top commander
June 13, 2025 | 7:29 AM GMT
Israel launched strikes on Iran's nuclear program and military targets June 13, killing the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and other senior officials.
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Bloomberg
30 minutes ago
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Mousavian: Full Damage To Iran Nuclear Sites Unknown
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35 minutes ago
The US and Iran have had bitter relations for decades. After the bombs, a new chapter begins
WASHINGTON -- Now comes a new chapter in U.S.-Iran relations, whether for the better or the even worse. For nearly a half century, the world has witnessed an enmity for the ages — the threats, the plotting, the poisonous rhetoric between the 'Great Satan' of Iranian lore and the 'Axis of Evil' troublemaker of the Middle East, in America's eyes. Now we have a U.S. president saying, of all things, 'God bless Iran.' This change of tone, however fleeting, came after the intense U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear-development sites this week, Iran's retaliatory yet restrained attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar and the tentative ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump in the Israel-Iran war. The U.S. attack on three targets inflicted serious damage but did not destroy them, a U.S. intelligence report found, contradicting Trump's assertion that the attack 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear program. Here are some questions and answers about the long history of bad blood between the two countries: In the first blush of a ceasefire agreement, even before Israel and Iran appeared to be fully on board, Trump exulted in the achievement. 'God bless Israel,' he posted on social media. 'God bless Iran.' He wished blessings on the Middle East, America and the world, too. When it became clear that all hostilities had not immediately ceased after all, he took to swearing instead. 'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f— they're doing,' he said on camera. In that moment, Trump was especially critical of Israel, the steadfast U.S. ally, for seeming less attached to the pause in fighting than the country that has been shouting 'Death to America' for generations and is accused of trying to assassinate him. In two words, Operation Ajax. That was the 1953 coup orchestrated by the CIA, with British support, that overthrew Iran's democratically elected government and handed power to the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Western powers had feared the rise of Soviet influence and the nationalization of Iran's oil industry. The shah was a strategic U.S. ally who repaired official relations with Washington. But grievances simmered among Iranians over his autocratic rule and his bowing to America's interests. All of that boiled over in 1979 when the shah fled the country and the theocratic revolutionaries took control, imposing their own hard line. Profoundly. On Nov. 4, 1979, with anti-American sentiment at a fever pitch, Iranian students took 66 American diplomats and citizens hostage and held more than 50 of them in captivity for 444 days. It was a humiliating spectacle for the United States and President Jimmy Carter, who ordered a secret rescue mission months into the Iran hostage crisis. In Operation Eagle Claw, eight Navy helicopters and six Air Force transport planes were sent to rendezvous in the Iranian desert. A sand storm aborted the mission and eight service members died when a helicopter crashed into a C-120 refueling plane. Diplomatic ties were severed in 1980 and remain broken. Iran released the hostages minutes after Ronald Reagan's presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981. That was just long enough to ensure that Carter, bogged in the crisis for over a year, would not see them freed in his term. No. But the last big one was at sea. On April 18, 1988, the U.S. Navy sank two Iranian ships, damaged another and destroyed two surveillance platforms in its largest surface engagement since World War II. Operation Praying Mantis was in retaliation against the mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf four days earlier. Ten sailors were injured and the explosion left a gaping hole in the hull. Not officially, but essentially. The U.S. provided economic aid, intelligence sharing and military-adjacent technology to Iraq, concerned that an Iranian victory would spread instability through the region and strain oil supplies. Iran and Iraq emerged from the 1980-1988 war with no clear victor and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, while U.S.-Iraq relations fractured spectacularly in the years after. An example of U.S.-Iran cooperation of sorts — an illegal, and secret, one until it wasn't. Not long after the U.S. designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984 — a status that remains — it emerged that America was illicitly selling arms to Iran. One purpose was to win the release of hostages in Lebanon under the control of Iran-backed Hezbollah. The other was to raise secret money for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua in defiance of a U.S. ban on supporting them. President Ronald Reagan fumbled his way through the scandal but emerged unscathed — legally if not reputationally. Only four: Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Syria. The designation makes those countries the target of broad sanctions. Syria's designation is being reviewed in light of the fall of Bashar Assad's government. From President George W. Bush in his 2002 State of the Union address. He spoke five months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the year before he launched the invasion of Iraq on the wrong premise that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. He singled out Iran, North Korea and Saddam's Iraq and said: 'States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.' In response, Iran and some of its anti-American proxies and allies in the region took to calling their informal coalition an Axis of Resistance at times. Some, like Hezbollah and Hamas, are degraded due to Israel's fierce and sustained assault on them. In Syria, Assad fled to safety in Moscow after losing power to rebels once tied to al-Qaida but now cautiously welcomed by Trump. In Yemen, Houthi rebels who have attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea and pledged common cause with Palestinians have been bombed by the U.S. and Britain. In Iraq, armed Shia factions controlled or supported by Iran still operate and attract periodic attacks from the United States. In 2015, President Barack Obama and other powers struck a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear development in return for the easing of sanctions. Iran agreed to get rid of an enriched uranium stockpile, dismantle most centrifuges and give international inspectors more access to see what it was doing. Trump assailed the deal in his 2016 campaign and scrapped it two years later as president, imposing a "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions. He argued the deal only delayed the development of nuclear weapons and did nothing to restrain Iran's aggression in the region. Iran's nuclear program resumed over time and, according to inspectors, accelerated in recent months. Trump's exit from the nuclear deal brought a warning from Hassan Rouhani, then Iran's president, in 2018: 'America must understand well that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace. And war with Iran is the mother of all wars.' In January 2020, Trump ordered the drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top commander, when he was in Iraq. Then Iran came after him, according to President Joe Biden's attorney general, Merrick Garland. Days after Trump won last year's election, the Justice Department filed charges against an Iranian man believed to still be in his country and two alleged associates in New York. 'The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran's assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump," Garland said. Now, Trump is seeking peace at the table after ordering bombs dropped on Iran, and offering blessings. It is potentially the mother of all turnarounds.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Euphoria grips Europe's defence industry as the world prepares for war
Five years ago, Babcock was lurching from one crisis to another. The defence and engineering giant had endured a string of profit warnings and delayed results. Hedge funds were betting its stock price would keep falling, with its shares consistently among the most shorted on the London Stock Exchange. David Lockwood, the incoming chief executive, had a mountain to climb. Today, Babcock is a stock market darling. The nuclear submarine contractor made a triumphant return to the FTSE 100 in March. Its stock climbed as much as 13pc on Wednesday after it announced a £200m buyback and raised profit targets. Babcock's renaissance is symbolic of a new confidence sweeping through Europe's defence industry. A world riven by conflict and Donald Trump's threat to withdraw support for Nato is prompting investors to flock to companies with ties to the West's military establishment, buoying share prices and a sense of purpose within the industry. After years of managed decline for defence, Lockwood says the messaging coming from European governments both in public and privately has shifted considerably. 'I had meetings with mainland European governments, where we're bidding for something, and they said, 'If we selected you, could you go faster?',' he says. 'That's quite an interesting change, because if you went back five years, it would have been 'Can we squeeze any more costs out?' It wasn't whether you could do it, it was whether you could be cheap. 'We're seeing quite a different tone of debate.' Lockwood declared a 'new era of defence' on Wednesday as Babock reported strong financial results. Demands from President Trump that Europe pay for its own defence, and that Nato members increase their security commitments to 5pc of GDP, and quickly, has sent stocks soaring as Western governments sign off rising defence budgets with the intention of boosting sovereign suppliers. In March, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, pitched 'ReArm Europe', a plan to increase defence spending by €800bn (£682bn) after the US paused military aid to Ukraine. The end of the Cold War brought about a systematic decline in Europe's defence capabilities. Between 1990 and 2014, the so-called 'peace dividend' saw security spending in Europe fall from 2.3pc of GDP to as low as 1.3pc. That figure climbed to about 2pc in 2024, but some Nato countries have lagged. Under Trump, the White House has issued biting criticism of Europe's laxity on defence. A leaked text from Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, derided 'European freeloading' as 'pathetic'. On Wednesday, Nato leaders lavished praise on Trump for jolting Europe out of its reverie and bringing back urgency to defence investment. 'Without President Trump, this would not have happened,' said Mark Rutte, Nato's secretary general, in The Hague. Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said there was now 'conviction that Nato as a whole, and especially the European part, must do more'. Richard Drake, of US hi-tech defence manufacturer Anduril, says there has been a 'fundamental rethinking of defence priorities across Europe' and a 'long-term shift towards rebuilding credible deterrence'. Tristram Constant, at Applied Intuition UK, which makes autonomous software for the defence sector, adds: 'For the first time in decades, European defence spending is aligning with the scale and complexity of the threats it faces.' As a result, shares in military contractors are on a tear. Babcock's stock is up about 120pc over the past year. In Europe, Rheinmetall, which builds Germany's Panther battle tank and has supplied Ukraine with its Leopard vehicle, has climbed about 250pc over the past year and is up a staggering 1,600pc since Russian invaded Ukraine. The pattern is repeated at defence giants across the Continent, from BAE which is developing the Archer howitzer for Sweden to French giant Airbus which has been lined up to build communications satellites for Brussels. The FTSE All-Share Aerospace and Defence index, which tracks defence stocks, is up 57pc over the past 12 months. Babcock, which maintains the UK's nuclear submarine fleet, in March secured a £1.6bn deal with the British government to maintain and repair armoured vehicles, including the Challenger 2 battle tank that has seen service in Ukraine. Until recently, European defence stocks had struggled to attract investors who were sticking to environmental, social and governance (ESG) dogma. Rupert Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill, compared ethical investors to 'people who eat sausages, but don't want to know how they are made' in The Telegraph in 2021. While there has not been a rush from ESG funds to defence stocks, a handful, such as Allianz have shifted their policies this year on security investments. Trevor Taylor, at defence think tank Rusi, meanwhile, expects European governments to fund sovereign capabilities that can reduce their reliance on an unpredictable US. He says European governments are now 'significantly more wary of reliance on American equipment'. In critical technologies such as air defence, 'European countries will not want to rely on US-sourced systems'. Tom Bailey, of defence investment fund HANetf, says: 'Europe must not only spend more on defence, but also spend differently. 'That means building real capabilities and reducing reliance on US-made equipment. Investors have taken note, and have re-rated European defence accordingly.' Europe has spent too much money on soldiers and not enough on hi-tech equipment compared with the US, he believes. 'Europe now allocates about 32pc of military budgets to equipment. Poland, the bellwether of European rearmament, spent more than half its defence budget on equipment in 2024. Convergence toward that level is likely. 'This shift alone could mean many billions of euros in additional equipment spending – and with it, rising sales and earnings for defence firms.' Home-grown technology is also benefiting from new investment – in some cases from unlikely investors. Earlier this month, Daniel Ek, the Spotify billionaire, led a funding round for Helsing, a German business planning to manufacture cutting-edge strike drones. Ek said of the deal: 'There is an urgent need for investments in advanced technologies that ensure Europe's strategic autonomy and security readiness.' However, Jack Wang, of early-stage venture investor Project A, says in venture and start-up funding 'there's still a very long way to go', with Europe lagging the US. 'European defence capabilities – in terms of tech sophistication and production capacity – remain far behind what we've seen deployed in Ukraine,' he says. Leaders are aware of their shortcomings and are playing catch-up. To further boost the sector, the European Commission has said it will loosened rules governing defence mergers and cut environmental red tape. According to Lockwood, revived defence investment in Britain should also help rejuvenate neglected parts of the country – what he dubs a 'defence dividend'. Increased defence investment will 'strengthen the relationship between people like us and the communities we work in [and] highlights the value we bring to places like Plymouth with our investments'. With no signs of Russia backing down in Ukraine and a grim picture in the Middle East, Europe's defence industry looks like a winner as the world prepares for war. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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