Smoke billows from Israeli strikes on central Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2025

EA on International Media: Will Trump Go to War with Iran?

UPDATE 0752 GMT:

Donald Trump has confirmed the US military’s launch of “major combat operations” because Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program.

He told the Revolutionary Guard to surrender their arms: “You will be treated fairly with total immunity or you will face certain death.”

The United States military has undertaken a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.

We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We are going to annihilate their navy. We are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world, and attack our forces, and no longer use their IEDs – or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called – to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people including many Americans.

And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

UPDATE 0741 GMT:

Iranians report explosions across multiple cities, including the capital Tehran and Isfahan in the center of the country.

An Iranian official confirmed several ministries in southern Tehran have been targeted.

Mobile service has now been cut off. There are long queues at gas stations in Tehran, with many people trying to leave.

The Revolutionary Guards outlet Fars reports a wave of cyberattacks, with several major Iranian news agencies experiencing” severe disruptions in their operations”.

UPDATE 0733 GMT:

An Israeli officials says the Government is preparing for “several days of conflict” with Iran.

They confirmed strikes were conducted jointly with the US, targeting “Iranian regime sites and military facilities”.

Amos Yadlin, Israel’s former intelligence chief, said the aim of the current operation is to “dramatically weaken the regime and its military capabilities”.

“You cannot bring down a regime from the air” but you can restrict what it can do, including to its own people, he declared.

UPDATE 0710 GMT:

A US official has confirmed to the Times of Israel that American forces participated in this morning’s attacks on Iran.

Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Saturday morning.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Defense Minister Israel Katz declared a “preemptive strike”, as a state of emergency was declared across the country in the expectation of Iranian retaliation.

The Administration has threatened for weeks to attack Iran, amassing a naval fleet with two aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and missiles off the Iranian coast. However, Trump Administration officials said earlier this week that “the politics are a lot better” if Israel struck first.

The Administration initially issued its threat during nationwide protests against the regime last month. After the bloody suppression of the protests, the Trump camp continued the buildup, saying the threat was necessary because of Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The Trump camp maintained the military pressure as Donald Trump’s envoys, real estate developer Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, engaged in three sets of talks with Iranian officials led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

After the third set on Thursday, Araqchi and Omani mediators said “good progress” was being made, with the next round of discussions expected next week.

But Witkoff and Kushner were silent, and White House officials subsequently said there had been no advance. Donald Trump told reporters:

Israel carried out a 12-day war against Iran in June 2025, killing more than military commanders and trying to assassinate political leaders.

The US assisted the Israelis with “bunker buster” strikes on the Fordoo uranium enrichment facility, buried inside a mountain, before Donald Trump demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu halt the strikes.