An explosive moment of truth for Iran and Israel
THE SECOND week of Israel's war on Iran may be even more dangerous than the first. In Iran the destruction is relentless: on June 21st there were strikes on its Isfahan nuclear facility and more assassinations. For Israel, after a dazzling display of prowess, the coming days threaten to expose horribly the limits of its military power, with a long-distance air campaign suffering diminishing returns and Iran's regime recovering its poise. A war that peters out would leave the regime intact and with greater incentives to race for a bomb. That nightmarish prospect may lead Israel to escalate in the pursuit of a knock-out blow or to draw in America. President Donald Trump was due to meet his national security team on June 21st and B-2 stealth bombers are being moved out of America. Iran is ramping-up threats. On June 21st it warned American involvemen t would be 'very, very dangerous for everybody'.
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Sky News
14 minutes ago
- Sky News
Israel-Iran live: Donald Trump arriving back at White House as Security Council mulls Iran action
22:23:11 Analysis: Trump facing 'biggest call of his presidency to date' Donald Trump is preparing to make the biggest call of his presidency to date, US correspondent David Blevins says. The president is due to arrive back at the White House shortly, where he'll hold a National Security Council meeting to discuss the Israel-Iran conflict. "It's very unusual for Donald Trump to spend Saturday and Sunday at the White House," says Blevins. "And equally unusual for him to be meeting with his national security team as often as he is." The US currently has a group of B-2 bombers heading from America towards the Pacific region, which could then potentially head onwards to the Middle East if Trump approves it. On Thursday, Trump said that he will decide whether the US gets directly involved in the conflict within a fortnight. In a call on the same day, Israeli officials reportedly expressed their displeasure at such a timeframe (see 21.10pm post). "All of this speaks to the challenge facing the president right now," adds Blevins. "With his own base divided, his own administration arguably divided, it's going to be the biggest call of his presidency to date." 22:21:26 Iran launches new wave of attacks on Israel - report Attack drones have been moving towards Israel "for hours" as part of Iran's latest attack, local media says. "This operation will be continuous and unsettling," a spokesperson for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is quoted by the Tasnim news agency as saying. We'll bring you more on this as it develops. 22:07:34 More buildings struck at Isfahan, nuclear watchdog says The UN's nuclear watchdog has confirmed that several more buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site have been struck amid Israel's ongoing attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. The site in central Iran was first hit on 13 June when four buildings were damaged, with six other buildings attacked today, the International Atomic Energy Agency says. These include a fuel rod production facility, nuclear material storage and laboratory, it added. 21:51:01 Israeli strikes heard in southern Iran - report Iranian media says that Israel had launched strikes on the southern city of Shiraz, which hosts military bases. The Mehr news agency says the city's air defences have been activated and have been "engaged in fighting hostile targets and Zionist aircraft". Air defences are also reportedly being engaged in the southern city of Bandar Abbas. A little earlier, the Israeli military said it was attacking drone and weapons warehouses in the region. 21:34:24 Iran's internet partially restored after 62-hour blackout Iran's internet connectivity has been partially restored after a widespread 62-hour blackout that began early Wednesday, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks. The outage was described by NetBlocks as the most severe and extensive internet shutdown in Iran since the November 2019 protests. In the initial hours of the blackout, only 3% of Iranian users had access to the global internet, NetBlocks reported. 21:10:01 Israel seeks swift action on Iran, sources say Israeli officials have reportedly told the Trump administration they don't want to wait two weeks to learn if the US will join the Israel-Iran conflict. Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will decide whether the US gets directly involved in the conflict within a fortnight. According to the Reuters news agency, citing two unnamed sources, Israel believes it has a limited window of opportunity to move against the deeply buried nuclear site at Fordow, the crown jewel of Iran's nuclear program. The US is the only country with bombs powerful enough to reach the facility, which is dug into the side of a mountain. Four sources said it is now increasingly likely that Israel will launch a solo military operation at Fordow. Israeli air superiority over much of Iran makes an operation more feasible, though still risky, said two of the sources. Benjamin Netanyahu, defence minister Israel Katz and military chief Eyal Zamir reportedly part in the "tense" phone call with Washington on the Israeli side. JD Vance and defence secretary Pete Hegseth participated in the call on the US side, a security source said. 20:50:01 Watch: How close is Iran to producing a nuclear weapon? Last night, Donald Trump said US intelligence agencies were "wrong" after they said they had no evidence that Iran was building a nuclear weapon. Tehran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking a nuclear weapon and the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said this month that it has no proof of a "systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon". But Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60% - a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. So, how close is it to producing a nuclear weapon? Our US correspondent Mark Stone takes a look... 20:30:01 Palestine a 'central issue' to Iran, supreme leader says Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has this evening shared a message in support of the Palestinian people. Posting on X, he said the victory of Palestinians "is something that's definite".
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Russian government nervous as country faces economic challenges
At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a Russian MP came up to me."Are you going to bomb Iran?" he asked."I'm not planning to bomb anyone!" I replied."I mean you, the British…""Don't you mean Donald Trump?""He's told what to do by Britain," the man smiled. "And by the deep state."It was a brief, bizarre conversation. But it showed that in St Petersburg this week there was more on people's minds than just the economy. Take President Vladimir Friday, the Kremlin leader delivered the keynote speech at the forum's plenary session. It focused on the it's what the Kremlin leader said in the panel discussion afterwards that made headlines."We have an old rule," Putin declared. "Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that's ours."Imagine you're the leader of a country that's hosting an economic forum, seeking foreign investment and cooperation. Boasting about your army seizing foreign lands wouldn't appear to be the most effective way to achieve that's the point. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the state of the economy has been secondary to the goal of winning the war against Ukraine. That is the Kremlin's overarching priority. True, Russia's economy has been growing, but largely due to massive state spending on the defence sector and military-industrial complex. Russia fears another loss in Middle East from Iran's conflict with IsraelHow the West is helping Russia to fund its war on Ukraine And even this war-related growth is now petering didn't sound overly concerned."As far as the 'murder' of the Russian economy is concerned, as a famous writer once said - 'rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated,'" the Russian president declared. But the Russian government is clearly the forum, Russia's Minister for Economic Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, warned that the country's economy was teetering "on the brink of recession". "We grew for two years at a fairly high pace because unused resources were activated," said Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. "We need to understand that many of those resources have truly been exhausted."The St Petersburg International Economic Forum was conceived as a shiny showcase for the Russian economy. A lot of that shine has faded due to the thousands of international sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Many Western companies pulled out of Russia. Might they return?After all, US President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants better relations with Moscow."Today we had breakfast with the American Chamber of Commerce and lots of investors came from the US. We get a sense that lots of American companies want to come back," Kirill Dmitriev, President Putin's envoy on foreign investment, told me. We spoke on the sidelines of the St Petersburg forum."I think the American administration understands that dialogue and joint cooperation is better than sanctions that do not work and hurt your businesses."Western businesses, though, are unlikely to return in large numbers while Russia is waging war on Ukraine."I think it's clear you have to have some sort of an end to the conflict before American companies are going to seriously consider going back," said Robert Agee, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia."Have you asked the Trump administration to remove some sanctions from Russia?" I asked him."We've been to Washington," he replied. "We have made an analysis of the impact of American sanctions on American businesses. We passed that on to the administration.""Do you accept that the idea of Western businesses returning is controversial in light of the war in Ukraine?" I asked. "Western businesses have made decisions based on what happened three or four years ago," replied Mr Agee. "And it's up to them to decide whether it's the right time to return."After more than three years of war and mass sanctions, Russia faces tough economic challenges: high inflation, high interest rates, reports of stagnation, recession. The problems in the economy are now openly discussed and unclear how soon they will be resolved.
