G7 Summit overshadowed; Global Leaders Call for Calm
Dubai, Jun 17: Israel appeared to be expanding its air campaign on Tehran five days after its surprise attack on Iran’s military and nuclear program, as U.S. President Donald Trump posted an ominous message warning residents of the city to evacuate.
“IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” Trump wrote Monday night before returning to Washington early from a Group of Seven summit in Canada. “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” he added.
Trump later denied reports that he had rushed back to Washington to work on a ceasefire, saying his early departure “has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that,” without elaborating.
Earlier, the Israeli military had called for some 330,000 residents of a neighborhood in the city center to evacuate. Tehran is one of the largest cities in the Middle East, with around 9.5 million people.
Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientiests, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile program is necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people since Friday.
Iran has retaliated by launching more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 wounded.
The back-and-forth has raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.
Before leaving the summit in Canada, Trump joined the other leaders in a joint statement saying Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon” and calling for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth headed to the White House Situation Room to meet with the president and his national security team.
Hegseth didn’t provide details on what prompted the meeting but said on Fox News late Monday that the movements were to “ensure that our people are safe.”
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Monday that his country’s forces had “achieved full aerial superiority over Tehran’s skies.”
The military said it destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers in central Iran, a third of Iran’s total, including multiple launchers just before they launched ballistic missiles towards Israel. It also destroyed two F-14 fighter planes that Iran used to target Israeli aircraft, the military said.
Israeli military officials also said fighter jets had struck 10 command centers in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, an elite arm of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.
Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that houses the country’s state TV and police headquarters, as well as three large hospitals, including one owned by the Guard.
Israel’s military has issued similar evacuation warnings for parts of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon ahead of strikes. Health authorities reported that 1,277 people were wounded in Iran. Iranians also reported fuel rationing.
Rights groups such as the Washington-based Iranian advocacy group Human Rights Activists have suggested that the Iranian government’s death toll is a significant undercount. The group says it has documented more than 400 people killed, among them 197 civilians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time,” and told reporters he is in daily touch with Trump.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed that Tehran has not had an organized effort to pursue a nuclear weapon since 2003. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that the country has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs should it choose to do so.
So far, Israel has targeted multiple Iranian nuclear program sites but has not been able to destroy Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility.
The site is buried deep underground – and to eliminate it, Israel may need the 30,000-pound (14,000-kilogram) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a U.S. bunker-busting bomb that uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets. Israel does not have the munition or the bomber needed to deliver it. The penetrator is currently delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, appeared to make a veiled plea Monday for the U.S. to step in and negotiate an end to hostilities between Israel and Iran.
In a post on X, Araghchi wrote that if Trump is “genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.”
“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Iran’s top diplomat wrote. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”
The message to Washington was sent as the latest talks between the U.S. and Iran were canceled over the weekend after Israel’s surprise bombardment.
On Sunday, Araghchi said that Iran will stop its strikes if Israel does the same.
Qatar ‘strongly condemns’ Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites
Qatar “strongly condemns” Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and called them “an uncalculated measure that will have very dire repercussions”.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said that the attacks were carried out at a time when Iran was “progressing in a positive diplomatic course” with Washington.
“We will continue to work for a ceasefire between the warring parties – Israel and Iran,” he said in Doha.
Iran Guards say hit Mossad HQ in Tel Aviv
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck a centre of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, amid an escalating air war between the two foes.
In a statement aired on state television, the Guards said they “struck the military intelligence centre of the Zionist regime’s army, Aman, and the Zionist regime’s terrorist operations planning centre, the Mossad, in Tel Aviv”, adding it was “currently on fire”.
Trump says looking for ‘real end, not a ceasefire’
US President Donald Trump said he is looking forward for a ‘real end’ to the conflict between Israel and Iran, and not just a ceasefire.
“I’m not looking for a ceasefire, we’re looking at better than a ceasefire,” Trump told reporters shortly after arriving back in the United States from a G7 summit in Canada.
The president said he was looking for “an end, a real end, not a ceasefire,” adding that he wanted a “complete give-up” by Iran.
Iran’s state-owned bank targetted by cyberattack
An Israel-linked hacking group called Predatory Sparrow – or Gonjeshke Darande in Persian – said it ‘destroyed’ the bank data of Sepah Bank, one of Iran’s main state-owned banks.
According to Fars news agency, Sepah Bank is one of Iran’s main state-owned banks. Reports also said that the banks expects to resolve the problems in the coming hours.
Israel says it killed Ali Shadmani – Khamenei’s closest aide
Israel claimed that another high-ranking Iranian general, Ali Shadmani, had been killed in an overnight strike.
Gen Ali Shadmani had just been named as the head of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
Shadmani was a general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and known as the closest figure to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran did not immediately acknowledge Shadmani’s death.
“For the second time in 5 days— the IDF has eliminated Iran’s War-Time Chief of Staff, the regime’s top military commander. Ali Shadmani, Iran’s senior-most military official and Khamenei’s closest military advisor, was killed in an IAF strike in central Tehran, following precise intelligence,” Israel Defense Forces posted the update on X. (Agencies)
