Israel's Military Says It Will Respond With Force to Iranian Missiles
The Israeli military said the country will 'respond with force' after it said Iran fired missiles toward Israel's north shortly after a cease-fire was announced. Iranian state media denied firing a missile toward Israel.
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Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Israel killed at least 14 scientists in an unprecedented attack on Iran's nuclear know-how
PARIS (AP) — Israel's tally of the war damage it wrought on Iran includes the targeted killings of at least 14 scientists, an unprecedented attack on the brains behind Iran's nuclear program that outside experts say can only set it back, not stop it. In an interview with The Associated Press, Israel's ambassador to France said the killings will make it 'almost" impossible for Iran to build weapons from whatever nuclear infrastructure and material may have survived nearly two weeks of Israeli airstrikes and massive bunker-busting bombs dropped by U.S. stealth bombers. 'The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by a number of years, by quite a number of years," Ambassador Joshua Zarka said. But nuclear analysts say Iran has other scientists who can take their place. European governments say that military force alone cannot eradicate Iran's nuclear know-how, which is why they want a negotiated solution to put concerns about the Iranian program to rest. 'Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge Iran has acquired over several decades, nor any regime ambition to deploy that knowledge to build a nuclear weapon," U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told lawmakers in the House of Commons. Here's a closer look at the killings: Chemists, physicists, engineers among those killed Zarka told AP that Israeli strikes killed at least 14 physicists and nuclear engineers, top Iranian scientific leaders who 'basically had everything in their mind.' They were killed 'not because of the fact that they knew physics, but because of the fight that they were personally involved in, the creation and the fabrication and the production of (a) nuclear weapon," he said. Nine of them were killed in Israel's opening wave of attacks on June 13, the Israeli military said. It said they 'possessed decades of accumulated experience in the development of nuclear weapons' and included specialists in chemistry, materials and explosives as well as physicists. Zarka spoke Monday to AP. On Tuesday, Iran state TV reported the death of another Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, in an Israeli strike, after he'd survived an earlier attack that killed his 17-year-old son on June 13. Targeted killings meant to discourage would-be successors Experts say that decades of Iranian work on nuclear energy — and, Western powers allege, nuclear weapons — has given the country reserves of know-how and scientists who could continue any work toward building warheads to fit on Iran's ballistic missiles. 'Blueprints will be around and, you know, the next generation of Ph.D. students will be able to figure it out," said Mark Fitzpatrick, who specialized in nuclear non-proliferation as a former U.S. diplomat. Bombing nuclear facilities "or killing the people will set it back some period of time. Doing both will set it back further, but it will be reconstituted.' 'They have substitutes in maybe the next league down, and they're not as highly qualified, but they will get the job done eventually,' said Fitzpatrick, now an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London think tank. How quickly nuclear work could resume will in part depend on whether Israeli and U.S. strikes destroyed Iran's stock of enriched uranium and equipment needed to make it sufficiently potent for possible weapons use. 'The key element is the material. So once you have the material, then the rest is reasonably well-known,' said Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based analyst who specializes in Russia's nuclear arsenal. He said killing scientists may have been intended 'to scare people so they don't go work on these programs.' 'Then the questions are, 'Where do you stop?' I mean you start killing, like, students who study physics?" he asked. 'This is a very slippery slope.' The Israeli ambassador said: 'I do think that people that will be asked to be part of a future nuclear weapon program in Iran will think twice about it.' Previous attacks on scientists Israel has long been suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists but previously didn't claim responsibility as it did this time. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for killing its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled machine gun. 'It delayed the program but they still have a program. So it doesn't work,' said Paris-based analyst Lova Rinel, with the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank. "It's more symbolic than strategic." Without saying that Israel killed Fakhrizadeh, the Israeli ambassador said 'Iran would have had a bomb a long time ago' were it not for repeated setbacks to its nuclear program — some of which Iran attributed to Israeli sabotage. 'They have not reached the bomb yet,' Zarka said. 'Every one of these accidents has postponed a little bit the program.' A legally grey area International humanitarian law bans the intentional killing of civilians and non-combatants. But legal scholars say those restrictions might not apply to nuclear scientists if they were part of the Iranian armed forces or directly participating in hostilities. 'My own take: These scientists were working for a rogue regime that has consistently called for the elimination of Israel, helping it to develop weapons that will allow that threat to take place. As such, they are legitimate targets,' said Steven R. David, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. He said Nazi German and Japanese leaders who fought Allied nations during World War II 'would not have hesitated to kill the scientists working on the Manhattan Project' that fathered the world's first atomic weapons. Laurie Blank, a specialist in humanitarian law at Emory Law School, said it's too early to say whether Israel's decapitation campaign was legal. 'As external observers, we don't have all the relevant facts about the nature of the scientists' role and activities or the intelligence that Israel has,' she said by email to AP. 'As a result, it is not possible to make any definitive conclusions.' Zarka, the ambassador, distinguished between civilian nuclear research and the scientists targeted by Israel. 'It's one thing to learn physics and to know exactly how a nucleus of an atom works and what is uranium,' he said. But turning uranium into warheads that fit onto missiles is 'not that simple,' he said. 'These people had the know-how of doing it, and were developing the know-how of doing it further. And this is why they were eliminated.' ___ Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
New York Post
11 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump says he doesn't want a regime change in Iran: ‘Chaos'
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Tuesday he does not seek regime change in Iran, as doing so could lead to 'chaos.' 'No. If there was, there was, but no, I don't want it. I'd like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible,' the president told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the NATO summit in the Netherlands. 'Regime change takes chaos and ideally we don't want to see so much chaos. So we'll see how it goes.' 3 Trump speaks with reporters before going to The Hague. AFP via Getty Images 3 A person wearing a MAGA hat leads chants with other supporters of regime change in Iran during a rally outside the Wilshire Federal Building on June 23, 2025 in Los Angeles. Getty Images Trump urged both Iran and Israel to adopt a ceasefire and end hostilities on Monday after ordering a US military strike on Tehran's nuclear sites on Saturday. He had fired off a Truth Social post when Israel first began bombing Iran about possibly taking out their leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and floated 'regime change' in a post on Sunday. 3 Supporters of regime change in Iran rally outside the Wilshire Federal Building on June 23, 2025. Getty Images 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' Trump wrote on Truth Social. But in private, the president had been telling those around him that he wanted to prevent regime change in Iran in case it ended as 'another Libya,' The Post previously reported.
CBS News
11 minutes ago
- CBS News
ICE arrests 11 Iranian nationals in 48 hours
In its latest crackdown against illegal immigration, federal agents arrested eleven Iranian foreign nationals in 48 hours, including one watchlisted individual – part of a series of targeted operations spanning eight states and nine cities nationwide. Among those arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since Sunday, June 22 was Mehran Makari Sahel in St. Paul, Minnesota. ICE's St. Paul division alleged Sahel is a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with admitted connections to Hezbollah. ICE said that five of those arrested possessed previous criminal convictions ranging from grand larceny to drug and firearm possessions. The Department of Homeland Security says Yousef Mehridehno had been living in America illegally for nearly 8 years when federal authorities determined he lied on a visa application. Roughly four months after the Iranian foreign national was added to the U.S. known or suspected terrorist list in February, he was apprehended by federal agents Sunday in central Mississippi, just outside of Jackson. Officials have not linked these arrests to any specific terrorism plots and the Department of Homeland Security has stated that there are no current, credible threats to the U.S. homeland, despite a heightened security environment following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend. But all eleven Iranians have been charged or accused of crimes beyond civil immigration violations, according to ICE officials, who say the arrested men represent a threat to public safety. While arresting Ribvar Karmi in northern Alabama on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security says federal agents found an Islamic Republic of Iran Army identification card on his person. According to ICE officials, Karimi purportedly served as an Iranian Army sniper from 2018 to 2021 and entered the U.S. in October 2024 on a K-1 visa, reserved for migrants engaged to be married to American citizens. Karmi is now detained in ICE custody, where officials say he will remain pending removal proceedings. In addition to the 11 Iranian nationals who were arrested, federal agents have also arrested U.S. citizen Linet Vartaniann, who was taken into custody on federal charges of threatening a law enforcement officer and harboring an illegal alien. ICE officials contend the woman threatened to open fire if immigration enforcement officers entered her home. According to ICE, the defendant threatened federal agents during an encounter on Sunday, warning she would go outside and "shoot officers in the head." ICE officials tell CBS News that the arrests since Sunday are part of the Trump administration's latest crackdown on illegal immigration. Federal officials have aimed to dramatically ramp up immigration arrests, with average daily arrests climbing from 660 in President Trump's first 100 days to 1,200 in June — and the White House says its target is 3,000 arrests per day. "We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out—and we are," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News. "We don't wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump's mandate to secure the homeland." According to U.S. government data, last fiscal year, 68 Iranian foreign nationals were arrested by ICE — including 47 with criminal convictions. ICE arrested some 113,000 people in total over that period, most of whom were from Mexico or Central America. This weekend, the Department of Homeland Security activated its National Terrorism Advisory System just hours after the United States' attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. The strikes came after a days-long Israeli campaign against Iran, resulting in Iranian attacks on Israel — though Mr. Trump said Monday the two sides had agreed to a ceasefire. Current and former intelligence officials caution that America is on high alert for physical or cyber retaliation, telling CBS News that there is a growing concern about the potential for homegrown extremism, including lone attacks inspired by Iranian calls to violence. On Monday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters that homeland security officials are trying to "get in front of" threats to the U.S. by "working with our local governors and law enforcement to make sure that they recognize potential threats or suspicious activities." Probed on reports of potential Hezbollah sleeper cells, the secretary said only that the U.S. has seen "some [that have] gone overseas for a short period of time, become radicalized and come back." She added, "We have to watch for all of it, and to be diligent on all of it, and we'll continue to do so."
