Israel-Iran live: Trump calls to 'make Iran great again' - as Tehran urges UN over 'historic test'
Donald Trump has asked why there would not be a "regime change" in Iran following US strikes, calling to "make Iran great again". Meanwhile, Iran's UN envoy says the current situation provides a "historic test" for the body. Watch and follow the latest below.
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The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Israel 'very close' to achieving goals in war with Iran, Netanyahu says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel is 'very close' to achieving its goals in the war with Iran, adding that he is 'genuine friends' with the US president and knew in advance about the US strikes. The US military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel's effort to destroy Iran's nuclear program
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Iranians ‘moved enriched uranium before US strikes'
Iran claims to have smuggled almost all of the country's highly enriched uranium to a secret location before the United States launched strikes on its nuclear bases. Donald Trump dispatched seven B-2 stealth bombers from American soil to drop massive bunker-busting bombs on three enrichment facilities, Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, on Saturday night, in an effort to pummel Tehran's nuclear programme. Following the strikes, Mr Trump on Sunday said the US took the bomb 'right out of Iran's hands'. In a post on Truth Social, he wrote: 'We had a spectacular military success yesterday, taking the 'bomb' right out of their hands.' His defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said Iran's nuclear ambitions had been 'obliterated'. But officials believe that most of the material at Fordow, 400kg of 60 percent enriched uranium, had been moved elsewhere before the attack codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer. Satellite images of convoys leaving all three sites in recent days appeared to support Iran's claims that it moved its 400kg stockpile – much of it previously held at Isfahan. One image, released by Maxar Technologies, a US defence contractor, appeared to show a line of 16 trucks snaking down a road near to the entrance of the Fordow plant on June 19, which is concealed with earth and rubble. Trucks, bulldozers and security convoys appeared to swarm Fordow, with analysts suggesting the image revealed a 'frantic effort' to move centrifuges or shielding materials, according to TS2 Space, a Polish defence firm. Other images showed that Natanz, Iran's largest enrichment site, had already been damaged by extensive Israeli strikes. This means Iran could still possess the material needed to develop a nuclear weapon, although this would be several years away and dependent on Tehran's ability to rebuild vital equipment. Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence analyst, told The Telegraph that even if Iran had moved its uranium, it would be 'like having fuel without a car', adding: 'They have the uranium, but they can't do a lot with it, unless they have built something we don't know about on a small scale.' Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to the supreme leader, said: 'Even assuming the complete destruction of the sites, the game is not over, because enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, and political will remain intact.' Uranium enrichment is the process of increasing the concentration of the uranium-235 isotope in natural uranium. To build a nuclear weapon, uranium must be enriched to about 90 per cent U-235. Once enriched to that level, the material is considered 'weapons grade'. Iran enriches uranium using centrifuges, which spin uranium hexafluoride gas at high speeds to separate the uranium isotopes, increasing the concentration of U-235. This process, called centrifuge enrichment, is done in stages called cascades. Iran has been progressively installing more advanced centrifuges, like the IR-2m and IR-6 models, which are faster and more efficient than the older IR-1 centrifuges. The more advanced the centrifuge, the faster and more efficiently it can separate uranium-235 from uranium-238 and in turn, speed up the time needed to make a nuclear bomb. Iran's current centrifuge capacity could allow it to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a bomb in less than two weeks, according to the Arms Control Association. It is transported inside steel cylinders, specially designed to withstand significant pressure and temperature changes, according to the World Nuclear Association. The cylinders are then placed inside an extra level of protective casing, called an overpack, and can be transported via rail, road and sea. Iran produces most of its near weapons-grade material at Fordow, its most heavily fortified nuclear facility, buried deep within a mountain, and considered a high-value target for America. The base, reportedly shielded by half a mile of rock, could only be penetrated by the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators or MOP, weapons experts said prior to the attack. The bunker-busting MOPs are the largest and most powerful conventional bombs in the US arsenal. As of May 17, Iran has amassed 408.6kg (900.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent, a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found. It was an increase of 133.8kg (294.9 pounds), or almost 50 per cent, since the IAEA's last report in February. JD Vance, the US vice-president, appeared to confirm the suggestion that the material had been moved at the 11th hour. 'We're going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel,' he told ABC News. On Saturday, stealth pilots pummelled Iran's nuclear programme with 14 GBU-57 bombs, each weighing 30,000lbs, while a US submarine launched a further two dozen Tomahawk missiles. In a televised address to the US a few hours later, Mr Trump said the strikes had 'completely and totally obliterated' three of Iran's nuclear sites – and warned of worse to come. 'This cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,' he added. The full extent of the damage inside Fordow remains unclear. At a news conference on Sunday, Gen Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: 'Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.' Yet Two Israeli officials told the New York Times that their initial analysis suggested the fortified site at Fordow had sustained serious damage but had not been completely destroyed. They also said Iran appeared to have moved equipment and uranium away from the site. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN that it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Starmer left blindsided as the US goes it alone on Iran attack
The decision by the Americans to strike Iran unilaterally, without any request of assistance from the UK or the use of their joint Diego Garcia airbase, will give Sir Keir Starmer only a small moment of relief. While it leaves Britain out of the conflict for now and is likely to spare it from the immediate threat of retaliation from Tehran, it exposes the limit to which the prime minister and his top ministers can influence or even second-guess President Trump's actions. UK government officials admit that Trump's comments and actions in the past week have put a significant strain on the 'special relationship'. Starmer, who spent the weekend at Chequers, refused to explicitly say whether he supported Trump's decision to bomb Iran as he warned of the 'risk of escalation'. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary sent out to speak for the government, made clear that while Britain welcomed the setback to Iran's nuclear capabilities, it had wanted a diplomatic means to those ends. • Can Iran still build nuclear weapons after the US bombing? UK government officials said that the US did not make a request to use Diego Garcia as a staging post for its airstrikes on Iran. Trump would have required Starmer's approval to use the military base in the Indian Ocean because it is under the UK's sovereign control. If it had granted that permission, the UK would effectively become a participant in the war. A UK government source said: 'Diego Garcia is a joint military base, so it's not surprising that they used their own personnel and air base given it was unilateral action.' It may have been that the use of Diego Garcia was simply not necessary, given the bombers were able to refuel mid-air and fly to Iran without stopping. Pausing at Diego Garcia could have ruined the element of surprise. However, there is also the possibility that the UK would not have approved and some believe the US made this calculation in deciding to go it alone. Lord Hermer, the attorney-general, had explicitly advised that joining the US would be a potential breach of international law because it would stray beyond the definition of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. The article allows for the use of force if it is deemed necessary and proportionate and an attack is 'imminent'. Although Starmer has avoided the invidious decision of whether to join the conflict, there will be serious doubts about the degree of influence he holds over the US. On Friday afternoon his aides were confident they had bought more time to drag Iran back to the negotiating table. They believed they had a crucial window after Trump announced that he would make a decision whether to bomb Iran 'within the next two weeks'. But at the same time, American B-2 Spirit stealth bombers were being readied at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri for one of the boldest missions in recent US military history and barely 24 hours later Starmer was told shortly before the operation was carried out. • Who are Iran's allies — and will any help after the US strikes? The fact that Trump went ahead with the strikes will be seen as embarrassing for Starmer. Just days earlier, he had sat with Trump at the G7 summit in Canada. He said afterwards that 'there's nothing the president said that suggests that he's about to get involved in this conflict'. Government officials have admitted it was a miscalculation to expect Trump to hold off. 'We didn't even get the short window that we thought we might get. They were already moving their assets,' one said. They said closer attention should have been paid to the wording of Trump's comments, pointing out that the president and his press secretary had said he would decide 'within' two weeks rather than 'in' two weeks. The writing was already on the wall on Friday afternoon after David Lammy and his French and German counterparts met the Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi as part of efforts to get Iran back to the negotiating table. Lammy had flown from the White House where he had been briefed on the American position by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy. In his meeting with Araghchi, Lammy hammered home the American position that Iran must stop its attacks on Israel and return to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme. His Iranian counterpart was forthright in stating that Tehran was unwilling to return to talks until the US had called on Israel to stop its attacks. John Healey, the defence secretary, has increased protection for the armed forces and UK personnel in the region to its highest level ever as British forces brace for retaliatory strikes from Iran. Healey has not ruled out sending in more fighter jets and refuelling aircraft. On Sunday Lammy was back on the phone to Araghchi, reiterating the UK's opposition to Iran ever acquiring a nuclear weapon. But Britain's role as the direct interlocutor between the US and Iran has been made immeasurably harder by the American airstrikes. Trust in diplomatic talks has broken down on both sides and there are concerns that the UK's voice in the conflict is decreasing in relevance. Starmer will be reeling from yet another week of uncertainty that has left him blindsided by Trump's unpredictability. The decisions he takes on how closely he aligns Britain with Trump's actions could prove critical for his premiership and national security.
