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

EA on Australia’s ABC and India’s WION: Israel’s War on Iran

Trump Revels in Uncertainty Over US Joining Israel’s War on Iran

UPDATE 2136 GMT:

Donald Trump has sniped that he was not involved in talks between European and Iranian foreign ministers on Friday:

Iran doesn’t want to speak with Europe. Europe is not going to be able to help with this one.

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.

Barrot added, “It is illusory and dangerous to want to impose a regime change from the outside. It is up to the people to decide their own destiny.”

UPDATE 1805 GMT:

A US official said Donald Trump’s Steve Witkoff is in regular contact with Iranian officials with Qatar as a mediator.

Three diplomats said Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken several times over the phone since Israel began airstrikes.

Araqchi made clear that Iran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped the attacks.

The talks included a brief discussion of a US proposal given to Tehran at the end of May, including a regional consortium that would enrich uranium outside Iran – an offer which Iran has rejected.

UPDATE 1757 GMT:

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, the UK, and the European Union said that they are ready for further talks following a three-hour long discussion with Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi on Friday.

The foreign ministers did not say whether there had been any tangible progress.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that it is important that the US is involved in further talks and in finding a solution to the conflict.

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

UPDATE 1318 GMT:

Twenty-three people have been wounded by an Iranian ballistic missile strike on Haifa.

Two victims, a 16-year-old boy and a man in his 40s, are in serious condition, and a 54-year-old has been moderately injured.

UPDATE 1051 GMT:

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian has said:

We have always sought peace, but currently, the only way to end the imposed war is an unconditional halt to enemy aggression and a definitive guarantee against Israel’s terrorist adventurism for good.

Otherwise, our responses will be harsher and more regrettable.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi aimed a comment at Washington:

UPDATE 1025 GMT:

An Israeli official says a drone attack on an apartment in Tehran has killed another Iranian nuclear scientist.

The official said the scientist was a specialist in weaponry, who was being kept in a locastion outside of his home to avoid being targeted.

The scientist would be the 10th murdered by Israel since last Friday.

The Israel Defense Forces said more than 25 fighter jets attacked and destroyed more than 35 missile storage and launch facilities in Iran on Friday morning.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has instructed the IDF to “intensify strikes on regime targets in Tehran” to “destabilize” the Iranian regime.

During an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other top officers, Katz said, “We must strike all symbols of the regime and its mechanisms of oppression, such as the Basij [paramilitaries], as well as the base of the regime’s power, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

The goal is “a mass evacuation of the population from Tehran, in order to destabilize the regime and increase deterrence in response to missile fire on Israel’s home front, while continuing to target facilities and scientists to thwart Iran’s nuclear program, until all objectives of the operation are fully achieved”.

UPDATE 0723 GMT:

Having reported that a senior advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader had died of injuries suffered on the first day of Israel’s strikes, Iranian media now say he is in stable condition.

Ali Shamkhani’s condition had improved after treatment, posted the Tasnim News Agency. It proclamed his declaration, “I am alive and ready to sacrifice myself. The bright day of victory is near. Iran’s name will shine in history.”

Shamkhani, an admiral in the Iranian Navy, is a former Secretary of the National Security Council.

UPDATE 0640 GMT:

The Israel Defense Forces said more than 60 fighter jets hit targets inside Tehran overnight.

The IDF claimed it struck several industrial plants manufacturing missiles: “These sites served as a key industrial center for the Iranian Ministry of Defense.”

It also claimed a strike on the headquarters of Iran’s military research and development organisation, the SPND.

An Iranian missile again struck Be’er Sheva, a day after a direct hit on hospital in the city in southern city.

The missile struck a road near several apartment blocks, creating a large crater and setting several cars on fire.

Iran declared that it had targeted Microsoft’s office. The fire that was set was reportedly in the next street.

Israeli media said seven people sustained minor injuries.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Donald Trump appeared to wobble on Thursday over US military intervention in Israel’s war on Iran, stepping back from an imminent decision.

Trump spent Wednesday on social media proclaiming “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” He buried the five rounds of US-Iran negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program, saying “total and complete victory” was the only acceptable outcome.

US officials said he had agreed to US military operations, such as the use of “bunker buster” bombs against Iran’s Fordoo uranium enrichment complex, buried deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom.

But on Thursday afternoon, Trump put out a message through White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, reviving the possibility of talks and avoiding any immediate military commitment.

Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.

Leavitt added that “correspondence has continued with Iran”. She continued that Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, has interacted with Iranian officials in recent days.

Trump reinforced the message with a social media slap at the reports of his imminent decision: “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!”

Administration officials say they will now watch Friday’s talks between Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and his counterparts from the UK, France, and Germany.

Trump did not give a reason for his shift. However, a split has opened among Trumpists: polemicists and former advisors from Tucker Carlson to Steve Bannon oppose any intervention while hard-right Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz — humiliated by Carlson in a viral interview earlier this week — have long sought bombing and regime change.

Perhaps more importantly, the US officials who said Trump had approved the plans of attack added a caveat. A final decision awaited the assurance that the bunker busters would be effective in destroying the Fordoo complex.

Trump has used the ritual phrase “within two weeks” when he has pledged action but then retreated. Recently, he has deployed with respect to his threatened global tariffs, and to a verdict on whether Vladimir Putin is serious about ending Russia’s 40-month invasion of Ukraine.