Israeli home front command personnel in a building damaged by an Iranian missile strike in Haifa, June 20, 2025 (Baz Ratner/AP)

EA on International Outlets: Israel’s War on Iran

Is Trump Wobbling Over US Military Intervention In Israel’s War on Iran?

EA on Irish and UK Outlets: How Israel Played Trump to Support Its War on Iran

UPDATE 2352 GMT:

Donald Trump has announced the US bombing of Iran on social media.

Trump posted on Truth Social about a “very successful attack” on three nuclear sites: Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordoo, buried deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom.

He said all US bombers are now outside Iranian airspace.

In Orwellian fashion, he concluded, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”

UPDATE 1740 GMT:

An Israeli attack killed at least five army officers and wounded nine others in Kermanshah Province in western Iran.

Fars, linked to the Revolutionary Guards, said the attack was on the city of Sumar.

Earlier on Saturdya, five Guards members were reportedly slain in the city of Khorramabad, also in western Iran.

In their latest wave of strikes across southwest Iran, the Israeli Defense Forces say 30 fighter jets dropped 50 munitions on dozens of targets, including ballistic missile launchers. The jets also hit a radar site and other military infrastructure.

UPDATE 1732 GMT:

A “senior Iranian official” has said that European proposals over Iran’s nuclear program, presented yesterday at a meeting of foreign ministers in Geneva, are “unrealistic”.

“Insisting on these positions will not bring Iran and Europe closer to an agreement,” the official cautioned.

However, talks will continue: “Iran will review the European proposals in Tehran and present its responses in the next meeting.”

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Ankara that a resumption of negotiations is the only solution to the nuclear dispute.

Erdoğan said Turkey is ready to be a facilitator, with direct talks needed between US and Iranian officials as soon as possible.

“Three US officials and a source with direct knowledge of the matter” said Erdoğan and Trump tried to arrange a meeting between senior American and Iranian officials in Istanbul this week.

However, the Supreme Leader, in a bunker to avoid any Israeli assassination attempt, could not be reached for his approval, the sources said.

In a phone call with Trump on Monday, Erdoğan proposed the meeting for the next day.

Trump agreed and said he was willing to send his envoy, the real estate developer Steve Witkoff, or to travel to Turkey himself to meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

A White House official said that in the hours before the call from Erdoğan, Trump received “signals” from the Iranians through backchannels that they wanted to meet. The leading plan was to send Witkoff and Vice President J.D. Vance.

Erdoğan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan then relayed the proposal to Pezeshkian and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi. The Iranians tried but failed to reach the Supreme Leader, and after several hours, they informed the Turks that they could not confirm his approval

Shortly afterward, Trump posted:

Iran should have signed the “deal” I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!

UPDATE 1213 GMT:

French President Emmanuel Macron and Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian have agreed in a phone call to accelerate negotiations between European powers and Tehran.

Macron posted:

[I] expressed my deep concern about Iran’s nuclear program. Here again, my position is clear: Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons, and it is up to Iran to provide full guarantees that its intentions are peaceful.

I am convinced that a path exists to end war and avoid even greater dangers.

To achieve this, we will accelerate the negotiations led by France and its European partners with Iran.

Macron reiterated his “firm demand” that French nationals Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, political prisoners in Iran since May 2022, be released and returned to France. He called their detention “inhumane” and “unjust”.

According to an official Iranian readout, Pezeshkian said, “We are ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities; however, we do not agree to reduce nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances.”

UPDATE 1136 GMT:

Facing possible Israeli attempts to assassinate him, Iran’s Supreme Leader has named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, say “three Iranian officials familiar with his emergency war plans”.

Ayatollah Khamenei has instructed the Assembly of Experts, which appoints the Supreme Leader, to choose his successor swiftly from the three names. His son Mojtaba is not among the candidates, said the sources.

Khamenei has also picked replacements in case his top advisors are slain, according to the officials. He has suspended electronic communications, usually speaking with commanders through a trusted aide.

Iran’s leadership has been shaken by Israeli infiltrations that have aided airstrikes and targeted assassinations.

“It is clear that we had a massive security and intelligence breach; there is no denying this,” said Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iran Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf. “Our senior commanders were all assassinated within one hour.”

The public have been told not to take photographs of the impact sites of missiles. The internet has been almost shut down, and incoming international calls blocks.

On Friday, the Supreme National Security Council said anyone “working with the enemy” must turn themselves into the authorities by the end of the day on Sunday, hand over their military equipment and “return to the arms of the people”. Anyone discovered to have an association with the enemy after Sunday will face execution.

UPDATE 1111 GMT:

Iran’s Health Ministry says at least 430 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since the start of Israel’s attacks on June 13.

UPDATE 1058 GMT:

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said it will be “very unfortunate and very dangerous for everyone” if the US joins the war alongside Israel.

Araqchi spoke to reporters in Istanbul, where he is meeting Turkish officials after his talks with European counterparts in Geneva on Friday. He said Iran was exercising its right to self-defense against Israel’s “unprovoked” bombardment, and reiterated that the attacks must stop before Tehran returns to negotiations.

UPDATE 1046 GMT:

The Israeli military says it downed 40 Iranian drones early this morning, as well as a truck-mounted drone launcher.

One drone hit a home in Beit She’an in northern Israel, and another struck an open area near a highway in the south.

The military claims it has intercepted more than 500 drones since June 13, a 99% interception rate of UAVs that posed a threat.

Iran has launched more than 1,000 drones at Israel, but many have fallen short or have been intercepted by other countries such as Jordan.

UPDATE 0739 GMT:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said five of its members have been killed by Israeli strikes in the city of Khorramabad in western Iran.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Israel’s military has warned of “difficult days ahead” in its “prolonged war” on Iran.

The Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said, “To remove a threat of such magnitude, against such an enemy, we must be ready for a prolonged campaign.”

Zamir assured that his forces were prevailing, “Day by day, our freedom to operate is expanding and the enemy’s is narrowing.” Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, echoed “We will not stop. Not until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled, not until its war machine is disarmed, not until our people and yours are safe.”

Israel’s overnight strikes targeted the Isfahan nuclear complex in central Iran, as well “as against missile storage and launch infrastructure”.

Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestinian Division in the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, by a strike on his apartment in the holy city of Qom.

Katz declared that Izadi “funded and armed Hamas ahead of the October 7 massacre”: “A huge achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Israeli Air Force. Justice for the murdered and the hostages. Israel’s long arm will reach all its enemies.”

Iran: We’ll Negotiate…When Israel Stops Attacks

After his meeting with European counterparts on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran is ready to resume negotiate over its nuclear program, but only when Israel stops its attacks.

“Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again and once the aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed,” Araqchi said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot urged Iran to resume talks before an Israeli ceasefire:

We invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for.

Donald Trump sniped that he was not involved in the talks, “Iran doesn’t want to speak with Europe. Europe is not going to be able to help with this one.”

However, he gave no sign of a step back to the US-Iran talks, whose sixth set was scuttled last Sunday by Israel’s war. Instead, he posed:

I think it’s very hard to make that request right now. If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody is losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran.

Trump also repeated his insistance that Iran may be only “weeks” away from a nuclear weapon, trashing his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard along the way.

Gabbard has presented the assessment of US intelligence agencies that Iran is not pursuing the atomic bomb.

Pressed on this by reporters as he left for his golf resort in New Jersey, Trump boomed, “She’s wrong.”