Israel-Iran latest: UK sends military support as defensive missiles ‘run low'

Times

6 hours ago

Thousands of people are fleeing Tehran and other major Iranian cities. Heavy traffic was reported on roads heading from the capital towards northern provinces.
Limits have been placed on fuel purchases. Mohsen Paknejad, the oil minister, told state TV that restrictions were to prevent shortages but there would be no problems with supply.
Ali Bahreini, Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, went on to accuse Israel of a 'war against humanity'.
He said: 'The deliberate targeting of Iran's nuclear facilities not only constitutes a grave violation of international law and UN charter but also risks exposition of all people in our neighbourhood to possible hazardous leak. This is not an act of war against our country, it is war against humanity'.
He also criticised the failure of states to condemn Israel's attacks. 'We are hearing almost nothing from those self-proclaimed champions of human rights.'
Iran says it has conveyed to Washington that it will respond firmly to the United States if it becomes directly involved in Israel's military campaign.
Ali Bahreini, Tehran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said that he saw America as 'complicit in what Israel is doing'.
So far, the US has taken only indirect action such as helping to shoot down missiles fired toward Israel. It is also deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes.
Bahreini said Iran would also respond strongly to Israeli strikes. 'We will not show any reluctance in defending our people, security and land — we will respond seriously and strongly, without restraint.'
The FTSE 100 defied the conflict in the Middle East to start the session in positive territory, as defence-facing stocks sustained gains and anxiety eased over international travel.
London's blue chip index was up 0.25 per cent, or 21 points, to 8,855 as trading got underway.
Aerospace engineers Melrose (up 3.6 per cent), Babcock (up 1.2 per cent) and Rolls-Royce (up 0.99 per cent) led the way, with British Airways owner IAG reversing several days of decline to add 1 per cent.
Almost 800 Chinese citizens have been evacuated from Iran since Israel launched military strikes against the country last week.
'Currently … 791 Chinese nationals have been relocated from Iran to safe areas,' Guo Jiakun, the foreign ministry spokesman, said. 'More than 1,000 other people are in the process of relocating and withdrawing.' Some Chinese citizens had also left Israel, he said.
'China expresses its thanks to the relevant countries for providing full support and assistance,' he said.
By Liz Cookman
Russia believes Israel's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities are pushing the world toward a 'nuclear catastrophe'.
Moscow's foreign ministry called the strikes 'illegal from the point of view of international law' and said they would 'create unacceptable threats to international security and push the world towards a nuclear catastrophe, the consequences of which will be felt everywhere, including in Israel itself'.
Maria Zakharova, the ministry's spokeswoman, said that Iran 'had, has and will have the right' to 'peaceful' nuclear facilities.
She told Sputnik radio: 'This all leads not just to escalation, but to a direct threat to the region and the world due to the fact that strikes are being carried out on peaceful atomic or nuclear facilities. The nuclear threat has a practical, not a hypothetical dimension.'
Russia has repeatedly made veiled threats concerning the use of its own nuclear weapons in relation to the war in Ukraine.
By Gabrielle Weiniger in Tel Aviv
British Jews stranded in Tel Aviv after five days of Iranian missile bombardment are wondering how to return to the UK.
Karen Tuhrim said: 'Having driven myself mad, I'm going to book the Sharm el-Sheikh flight because we've got very good friends here from London and … they're on that flight on the first of July. Even though things might change, I have to have something concrete booked. I can't stay in a hotel indefinitely.'
The Barzilay family arrived in Israel to surprise their father on his 60th birthday and were supposed to leave today. Simon Barzilay said: 'It looks as though we'll be staying a lot longer. Initially, having to get up two or three times during the night to go to the bomb shelter was a scary experience, but we quickly got used to it.'
The British authorities have advised those stranded to follow guidelines on the Foreign Office website.
At least 2,800 stranded Israelis are expected to be repatriated today. The first two flights bringing Israeli citizens home from Larnaca, Cyprus, have landed at Ben Gurion airport.
Between 100,000 and 150,000 Israelis have been unable to return since the air war led to the closure of Israeli airspace.Sharon Kedmi, chief executive of Israel Airports Authority, said: 'Our aim is to bring back as many people as possible, but it is more important that they are safe. We are carrying out assessments on an hourly basis.'
Matthew Pennycook has told Times Radio that Britain is 'sending military assets to the region to support regional security in general terms — contingency support throughout the Middle East should the escalation of the conflict continue'.
Pennycook, the housing minister, said he would not comment on future operational decisions or specific decisions.
'We obviously already have RAF jets in the region as part of our operation against Daesh. So it's right that they are protected. So we have already sent military assets to the region,' he said.
Israel's foreign minister Israel Katz has alluded to the collapse of the Iranian government in a post on X. 'A tornado passes over Tehran,' he wrote. 'Symbols of government are being bombed and destroyed — from the Broadcasting Authority and soon other target — and crowds of residents are fleeing. This is how dictatorships collapse.'
Katz, speaking to senior military officials yestereday, said that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could suffer the same end as Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Iran has arrested five suspected agents of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, on charges of 'tarnishing' the country's image, Iranian news agencies have reported.
'These mercenaries sought to sow fear among the public and tarnish the image of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran through their calculated activities online,' the Tasnim and ISNA news agencies said, quoting a statement from the Revolutionary Guards. The arrests were made in western Iran.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has made his first public comments since President Trump made a veiled threat on his life, saying that he was an 'easy target'.
Khamenei wrote two messages on X. In Farsi, one said: 'In the name of the noble Haidar, the battle begins,' referring to Ali, considered by Shia Muslims to be the rightful successor to the prophet Mohammed. It was accompanied with an image of fireballs falling on what appeared to be an ancient city or castle.
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In a second post, in English, he wrote: 'We must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.'
Israel has launched a strike on Imam Hussein University in Tehran, which is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Following the attack, smoke was seen rising from the area.
Israeli authorities said that at least 24 people had been killed and hundreds injured in Iranian missile attacks.
Iran said that at least 224 people had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in Israeli attacks.
More than 700 foreigners living in Iran have crossed into neighbouring Azerbaijan and Armenia since Israel launched its campaign on Friday, according to Tehran government figures.
Among those fleeing were citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the United States.
Israel is running low on defensive Arrow interceptors, which are designed to destroy ballistic missiles.
The shortage introduces concerns about Israel's ability to counter long-range ballistic missiles from Iran in a drawn-out conflict. A US official told The Wall Street Journal that Washington had been aware of the capacity problems for months.
Since the onset of the recent conflict, the Pentagon has sent additional missile-defence assets to the region, raising concerns about its supplies.
'Neither the US nor the Israelis can continue to sit and intercept missiles all day,' Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, said. 'The Israelis and their friends need to move with all deliberate haste to do whatever needs to be done because we cannot afford to sit and play catch.'
The first aircraft bringing home Israelis stranded abroad landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday.
Flights had been cancelled and Israeli airspace closed because of the conflict.
'Just a short while ago, the first flight of Operation Safe Return landed at Ben Gurion Airport,' the airport's authority said in a statement. It added that the flight had been operated by the national carrier El Al and brought Israelis home from Larnaca in Cyprus.
Israel's new bombing campaign against Iran began with strikes on nuclear facilities and military commanders on Friday and has continued with daily attacks on missile launchers, air-defence systems and even a state television channel.
Iran has responded by firing salvoes of ballistic missiles at Israel, including some that have penetrated the Iron Dome missile-defence system, sending the population hurrying for shelter at the sound of air-raid alerts.
• How the conflict unfolded
The Israeli army said it had struck Iran's centrifuge-production and weapons-manufacturing sites in overnight strikes.
'More than 50 air force fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence from the intelligence directorate, completed a series of strikes on military targets in the Tehran area in recent hours,' the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.
The army said a centrifuge-production site in Tehran used by Iran to expand the scope of its uranium enrichment was attacked. 'As part of the broad effort to disrupt Iran's nuclear weapons development programme, a centrifuge-production facility in Tehran was targeted.'
In what it described as a 'wave of attacks', Israel struck several arms factories it claims were producing raw materials and components for assembling ground-to-ground missiles.
'Additionally, sites producing systems and components for ground-to-air missiles designed to target aircraft were attacked. These targets were struck as part of the IDF's effort to disrupt the Iranian regime's nuclear-weapons programme and its missile-production industry,' the IDF wrote on X.
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Israeli strikes have killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others, according to a human rights group.
The Human Rights Activists, based in Washington, said it had identified 239 of the dead as civilians and 126 as security personnel.
Iran has not published regular death tolls during the conflict. Its last update, issued on Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 wounded — however, the regime has minimised casualties in the past.
Human Rights Activists provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating rules requiring women to wear the headscarf.
The group cross-checks local reports in Iran against a network of sources it has developed in the country.
The US embassy in Jerusalem said it will close until Friday.
It directed government employees to shelter in place as the air war between Israel and Iran continued.
In a statement posted to its website, the embassy said on Tuesday evening that the closure was 'a result of the current security situation and ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran'. It added: 'Given the security situation and in compliance with Israel Home Front Command guidance, the US embassy in Jerusalem will be closed tomorrow (Wednesday, June 18) through Friday (June 20).'
Iran claims to have fired hypersonic missiles at the Israeli city in the latest round of overnight strikes.
In retaliation for attacks on Tehran overnight Wednesday, Iran told residents of Tel Aviv to prepare for an attack, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claiming its hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles were 'repeatedly shaking the shelters' in the city.
'The 11th wave of the proud Operation Honest Promise 3 using Fattah-1 missiles' was carried out, the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state television early Wednesday.
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept.
Iran also sent a 'swarm of drones' towards Israel, according to the army.
Israeli warplanes targeted Tehran in a predawn raid on Wednesday as the air war entered its sixth day.
The Israeli military issued a warning on social media for civilians in an area of the Iranian capital known as District 18, near the city's international airport, to evacuate.
Iranian state media reported explosions ricocheting in the Piroozi, Sabalan and Sayyad areas of Tehran.
Overnight, at least 60 Israeli air force jets carried out 'an extensive wave of strikes in the heart of Iran', targeting ballistic missile launchers that were aimed at Israel, according to the country's military.
President Trump demanded an uncon­ditional surrender from Iran and warned its supreme leader that he was an 'easy target' who would not be killed 'at least for now'.
Increasing pressure on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while weighing up bombing raids on Iran's nuclear facilities, Trump said America's patience with the regime was running out. He aligned the US with Israel, boasting that 'we' have 'total control of the skies over Iran'.
Trump posted: 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don't want missiles shot at ­civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.'