The Latest: 2nd week of Israel-Iran war starts with renewed strikes
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The second week of the Israel-Iran war started with a renewed round of strikes despite talks between European ministers and Iran's top diplomat.
Friday's talks, which aimed at de-escalating the fighting between the two adversaries, lasted for four hours in Geneva, but failed to produce a breakthrough. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump continued to weigh his country's military involvement and concerns spiked over potential strikes on nuclear reactors.
Still, European officials expressed hope for future negotiations. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue but stressed Tehran wasn't interested in negotiating with the U.S. while Israel continued attacking.
Here is the latest:
Tehran vows to make Grossi 'pay'
A senior adviser for Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, vowed in a social media post Saturday to make the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency 'pay' once the war with Israel is over.
Ali Larijani's threat comes as IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has become a major target for many Iranian officials who say his conflicting statements about the status of Iran's nuclear program incited the Israeli surprise attack last week.
Grossi told the United Nations' Security Council Friday that while Iran has the material to build a nuclear bomb, it appears they have no plans to do so.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Israel Strikes Iran's Largest Nuclear Facility in Fresh Attacks
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Israel has targeted Iran's largest nuclear facility in an airstrike on Saturday, according to an official in the Islamic republic. Israeli sources reported the destruction of Isfahan nuclear research complex although Iranian state media said there was no leakage of hazardous materials from the strike. It comes as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was ready for a negotiated solution to its nuclear program Tehran says is for peaceful purposes, although the Islamic republic has said it would not hold talks while under threat. But Alex Adamo, founder of negotiation firm The Commercialiser, told Newsweek that "Iran is cornered with very few options." Newsweek has contacted the Iranian foreign ministry for comment. Demonstrators wave Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on Iran, after the Friday prayer ceremonies on June 20, 2025 in central Tehran, Iran. Demonstrators wave Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on Iran, after the Friday prayer ceremonies on June 20, 2025 in central Tehran, It Matters President Donald Trump has said he would wait for two weeks to decide on U.S. military intervention in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. Experts have suggested that the U.S.'s 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb is the only weapon that can destroy Iran's underground Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. As the world waits for Trump's decision, Israel is continuing with the goal of Operation Rising Lion to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb. But Israel's latest strikes will stoke fears about the leak of hazardous materials and other consequences. What To Know Israel attacked Iran's Isfahan nuclear site on Saturday, Iran's Fars news agency reported, citing a local official. The Israel Defense Force released footage of what it said showed the aftermath of its airstrikes on the site and social media users posed video of smoke coming from the site. There were many attacks including on the Isfahan site but no evidence of leakage of hazardous materials although residents were advised to avoid the area, Iranian state media noted. Other parts of Isfahan province were also targeted, but no casualties reported as Iranian air defenses intercepted most Israeli attacks, Fars reported. The IDF releases footage showing the aftermath of its airstrikes on Iran's Isfahan nuclear facility. A first strike on Ishafan on June 13 destroyed several critical sections, including uranium conversion infrastructure and labs, according to the IDF. Strikes overnight were… — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 21, 2025 Israel had hit the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center in the early days of Operation Rising Lion launched on June 13 and an Israel Defense Forces official said the facility sustained significant damage. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had previously said four buildings had been damaged at the site but the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said damage was limited. Israel said it had hit other military targets on Friday, including missile production sites, a site it said was nuclear weapons and military facilities in the west and center of the country. Shortly after 2:30 a.m. local time Saturday, air raid sirens across parts of central Israel, including Tel Aviv, warned of an incoming missile barrage from Iran. Interceptions could be seen in the sky over Tel Aviv, Reuters reported. The Israeli military also said it killed two commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) linked with arming Hamas and other militant groups in the region. They were Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the IRGC's overseas arm, and Benham Shariyari, who was accused of transferring weapons to Iranian proxies, according to Israel, although the IRGC has not commented on Israel's claims. Araghchi said Tehran is "absolutely ready for a negotiated solution for our nuclear program," but the Islamic republic has said it would not hold talks while under threat. Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but rejects any proposal that barred it from enriching uranium completely, "especially now under Israel's strikes." Upping the diplomatic ante were comments from Trump's former Iran envoy Elliott Abrams. He told Iran International, the U.K.-based news channel, the conflict would end by negotiation and that Tehran would lose its nuclear weapons program, "the question is whether they do it the hard way or the easy way." However, Adamo, chief negotiator at The Commercialiser, told Newsweek that pressure from Israel and the U.S. had left Tehran with virtually no leverage left at the negotiating table. If a de-escalation deal were to emerge, it will likely depend on Iran offering full compliance in exchange for a halt in aggression, essentially meaning Tehran would have to surrender its nuclear ambitions, he said. European powers like the U.K., France, and Germany are still searching for a politically acceptable middle ground, but they're sidelined if Washington and Tel Aviv drive an uncompromising approach, Adamo added. What People Are Saying Hananya Naftali, Israeli journalist on X: "Israel DESTROYED the nuclear site in Isfahan, Iran.." Israel DESTROYED the nuclear site in Isfahan, Iran. 💪💪💪 — Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) June 21, 2025 Donald Trump's former Iran envoy Elliott Abrams told Iran International: Iran is "going to lose this nuclear weapons program, and the question is whether they do it the hard way or the easy way." Alex Adamo, founder of negotiation firm The Commercialiser; "Iran is cornered with very few options. With relentless pressure from Israel and the U.S., Iran has virtually no leverage left at the negotiation table. The only diplomatic path being offered is capitulation—halt your nuclear program or face continued strikes." What Happens Next Anticipation will continue over whether a diplomatic solution can end hostilities and whether Trump will commit the U.S. to direct involvement. Adding to speculation is a report by Iran International citing unnamed Israeli security sources, that while Israel hopes the United States will knock out Iran's underground nuclear site Fordow, Israel may try to go it alone within days.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Guarded by a unit no one knew existed, Khamenei lives in fear
Iran's supreme leader has been moved to a highly secure location where he is under the protection of a top-secret elite unit, The Telegraph has learned. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ruled Iran since 1989, has entrusted his survival to a previously unknown group of deeply vetted bodyguards, amid increasingly overt threats from Israel on his life, according to officials in Tehran. Believing Israeli intelligence has comprehensively penetrated the regime, the unit was kept so secret that even senior officials within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were unaware of its existence. 'He's not hiding from death, he's not in a bunker,' said one Iranian official. 'But his life is in danger, and there is a unit responsible for his protection that no one even knew existed to avoid any chance of infiltration.' Khamenei has long spoken of his impending 'martyrdom' and is believed to have expected that Israel would one day attempt to assassinate him. But the killing of at least 11 senior military officers and 14 nuclear scientists in targeted strikes since Israel launched hostilities a week ago has accentuated the risk. Following a missile strike on a hospital in Beersheba on Thursday, the Israeli government has grown more explicit in its calls for Khamenei's death. Credit: ABC News Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has refused to rule out an attempt to kill him, saying it 'could bring an end to the conflict'. His defence minister, Israel Katz, went further, calling him a 'modern Hitler' who 'cannot be allowed to continue existing'. Although Donald Trump reportedly vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Khamenei, the US president has also adopted more threatening rhetoric in recent days, saying on Tuesday: 'We know exactly where the so-called 'supreme leader' is hiding. Mr Trump added that the US had no plans to target Khamenei, 'at least not for now', but described him as an 'easy target' should he change his mind. For either Israel or the United States to undertake a mission of such magnitude, they would first have to locate Khamenei. Despite reports that regime officials were preparing to flee to Moscow, there is no evidence that Khamenei is planning to leave Iran. Few expect him to follow the example of Bashar al Assad, Syria's former leader — and a close ally — who escaped to Russia as his regime crumbled in December. 'He is in Iran and is not going anywhere,' the official said. 'He won't flee like the coward Assad. At a time of this foreign aggression, the nation's morale depends on his survival.' The 86-year-old leader has traditionally lived and worked out of the Leadership House complex in Tehran's District 11. But his recent video appearances suggest he has changed location. He now speaks against a brown curtain, sometimes adorned with a portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy in 1979. The setting differs markedly from the location of his usual briefings. Video analysis suggests these briefings were filmed at the IRGC's media operations centre in central Tehran — indicating that he could be living nearby, or possibly beneath the building itself. Given the recent spate of mysterious car bombings in Tehran and the death of so many colleagues, it is considered highly unlikely that Khamenei is travelling around the city by vehicle. Khamenei's precautions are understandable. Israeli intelligence has a long history of assassinations and kidnapping far beyond its shores, dating back to the abduction of Adolph Eichmann — a principal Nazi architect of the Holocaust — from Argentina in 1960. The principle of 'rise and kill first', is deeply ingrained in Mossad's culture. It is not merely a military doctrine, but one with roots in religious teachings found in the Jewish Talmud. Mossad, which rarely acknowledges its operations, has carried out assassinations in at least a dozen countries — including several in Europe — often with chilling ingenuity. In 1996, Yahya Ayyash, a Hamas bomb maker, was killed by an exploding mobile phone — a precursor of last year's detonating pagers and walkie-talkies that wounded thousands of Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon. In earlier decades, the agency is believed to have used letter bombs to kill German nuclear scientists in Egypt, poisoned a Palestinian militant leader's toothpaste in East Germany and attempted to assassinate another by spraying nerve agent into his ear in Jordan. Khamenei was reportedly deeply unnerved by the killing in 2020 of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the country's top nuclear scientist, with a remote-controlled killer robot. Last year's assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, showed inventiveness of a different sort. Although the full details remain unclear, it is believed that an explosive device was hidden in his flat — possibly inside a lavatory — weeks before he arrived in the country for the inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's president. Credit: Mossad via Sent Defender / X Such assassinations underscore the scale of Israeli infiltration into Iran's most secure circles. No single killing is said to have shaken Khamenei more than that of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, who died last year when Israel dropped 'bunker-buster' bombs on his subterranean headquarters beneath a Beirut tower block. Khamenei was reportedly perturbed not just by the loss of a trusted ally and friend, but also by the suspected source of Israel's intelligence — it is believed the information in Nasrallah's whereabouts came not from within Hezbollah but from Tehran itself. Given the extreme sensitivity of such details, the leak must have come from someone with direct access to top-level information. It is little wonder, then, that Khamenei is, in the words of Yaakov Amidror, Israel's former national security advisor, 'probably one of the most cautious people in the world.' 'He understands that he must be the next target,' Gen Amidror said. 'I am sure that he is moving from one place to another, trying to find a place where he feels comfortable.' Israel has almost certainly spent years gathering information on Khamenei's movements, using a blend of human, operational and artificial intelligence. Mossad is likely to have attempted to embed agents within his inner circle by recruiting disillusioned officials, resentful guards, or even low-level staff with access to his quarters. Signal intelligence would also be crucial. While Khamenei himself avoids electronic devices, the same cannot be said for those around him. Intercepted phone calls, emails and encrypted traffic would all be monitored by Israeli analysts. Artificial intelligence systems would then process that data to identify probable locations and track patterns in his movements. Once confirmed, a kill operation could then take many forms: a drone strike, a street-level assassination, or an air force attack. Special forces might even be deployed by helicopter, as in the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. 'How we would do it depends on the intelligence,' said Gen Amridror. 'If he's in a bunker, you use the air force. If he's in an apartment, you use a drone. If he's in a car then you use an agent in the street.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Erdogan vows to boost Turkey's missile production as Israel-Iran war escalates
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he plans to strengthen the country's deterrence capabilities so that no country would dare attack it. Erdogan announced plans this week to step up Turkey's production of medium- and long-range missiles, as the war between Israel and Iran escalates. Erdogan discussed the Iran-Israel war with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in a telephone call on Friday. He told Merz that the Iranian nuclear issue can only be resolved through negotiations, according to Erdogan's office. Despite Turkey's tense relations with Israel, analysts and officials don't see an immediate threat of the conflict spreading into NATO-member Turkey. Still, some see the move by Erdogan as a sign that the Israel-Iran war could trigger a new arms race in the region, with countries not directly involved in the fray ramping up their military efforts to preempt future conflicts. The Israeli army on Friday declined to comment on Turkey's plans to ramp up missile production, but Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded to Erdogan's criticisms of Israel over its attack on Iran in an X post on Wednesday. He accused Erdogan of having 'imperialist ambitions' and of having 'set a record in suppressing the freedoms and rights of his citizens, as well as his country's opposition.' Ahmet Kasim Han, a professor of international relations at Istanbul's Beykoz University, said that Turkey was reacting to what he described as an unraveling world order. 'The Turkish government is drifting toward what is the name of the game in the Middle East right now: an escalation of an arms race,' he said, adding that Israel and the U.S. have set a high standard in aerial warfare, creating a technological gap that Turkey and others are eager to close. Importance of air superiority Erdogan said following a Cabinet meeting on Monday that 'we are making production plans to bring our medium- and long-range missile stockpiles to a level that ensures deterrence, in light of recent developments." 'God willing, in the not-too-distant future, we will reach a defense capacity that is so strong that no one will even dare to act tough toward us," Erdogan said. In an separate address days later, he highlighted Turkey's progress in its domestically developed defense industry, that includes drones, fighter jets, armored vehicles and navy vessels, but stressed that continued effort was needed to ensure full deterrence. 'Although Turkey has a very large army — the second largest in NATO — its air power, its air defense, is relatively weaker,' said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, a Turkey analyst at the German Marshall Fund think tank. The ongoing conflict has reinforced the importance of air superiority, including missiles and missile defense systems, prompting 'countries in the region, including Turkey to strengthen its air power,' he said. Since the start of the conflict, Erdogan has been scrambling to end the hostilities. He has held a flurry of phone calls with leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, offering to act as a 'facilitator' for the resumption of negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. There are deep concerns in Turkey that a prolonged conflict will cause energy disruptions and lead to refugee movement from Iran, with which it shares a 560 kilometer-long (348 mile) border. Turkey relies heavily on energy imports, including from Iran, and rising oil prices due to the conflict could aggravate inflation and further strain its troubled economy. It has strongly criticized Israel's actions, saying Iran has the legitimate right to defend itself against Israel's attacks, which came as nuclear negotiations were ongoing. Turkish influence in Syria Once close allies, Turkey and Israel have grown deeply estranged, especially after the start of the war in Gaza in 2023, with Erdogan becoming one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fiercest critics. Relations further deteriorated following the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government as Israel grew increasingly wary of expanding Turkish influence in Syria. Earlier this year, Turkey and Israel established a 'de-escalation mechanism' aimed at preventing conflict between their troops in Syria. The move came after Syria's Foreign Ministry said that Israeli jets had struck a Syrian air base that Turkey reportedly hoped to use. Erdogan's nationalist ally, Devlet Bahceli, suggested that Turkey was a potential target for Israel, accusing the country of strategically 'encircling' Turkey with its military actions. He didn't elaborate. However, analysts say such statements were for 'domestic consumption' to garner support amid growing anti-Israel sentiment in Turkey. 'I don't think that Israel has any interest in attacking Turkey, or Turkey has any interest in a conflict with Israel,' Han said. __ Ibrahim Hazboun contributed from Jerusalem.
