20/06/2025 – 03:44 Foreigners evacuated by air, land and sea as Israel-Iran conflict worsens Countries are evacuating their nationals from Israel and Iran by air, land and sea as conflict rages between the bitter rivals.

Days of attacks and reprisals by the two enemies have shuttered airspace across the Middle East, severely disrupting commercial flights and leaving people unable to get in or out of the region easily.

Some governments are using land borders to get their citizens out by road to countries where airports remain open.

Thousands of foreigners have already left since the conflict started last week when Israel launched surprise missile strikes on Iran.

Bulgaria has moved all its diplomats from Tehran to the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, the Balkan country’s prime minister said Thursday.

“We are not closing the embassy, ​​but moving it to Baku until the danger passes,” said Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov.

20/06/2025 – 02:35 Israeli airstrikes reach into the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea Israeli airstrikes reached into the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea early Friday, Iranian media reported as the conflict reached the one-week mark.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Israel was targeting in the city in Iran’s Gilan province. Social media video posted online appeared to show explosions around the city.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that local air defense systems were firing into the night sky against the Israelis.

20/06/2025 – 01:40 US military aircraft no longer visible at base in Qatar: satellite images Dozens of US military aircraft are no longer on the tarmac at a major US base in Qatar, satellite images show — a possible move to shield them from eventual Iranian air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to intervene in Tehran’s conflict with Israel.

Nearly 40 military aircraft — including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance aircraft — were parked on the tarmac at the Al Udeid base on June 5, according to images published by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by AFP.

In an image taken on June 19, only three aircraft are visible.

The US embassy in Qatar announced Thursday that access to the base would be limited “out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities,” and urged personnel to “exercise increased vigilance.”

20/06/2025 – 00:47 British FM, in US, says ‘window now exists’ for diplomacy with Iran Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Thursday after talks at the White House with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that there is still time to reach a diplomatic solution with Iran over its nuclear program, to avert a wider conflict.

“The situation in the Middle East remains perilous. We are determined that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon,” Lammy said in a statement released by the UK embassy in Washington.

“We discussed how Iran must make a deal to avoid a deepening conflict. A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” Lammy said of his talks with Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

20/06/2025 – 00:37 Explosion outside home of Norway ambassador to Israel: A grenade was thrown into the yard of the home of the Norwegian ambassador to Israel on Thursday, officials said, adding that there had been no injuries.

“There was an explosion outside the Norwegian residence in Tel Aviv Thursday evening,” Tuva Bogsnes, Head of Communications at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement to AFP.

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar said in a post to X that he had been in contact with Norway’s ambassador to Israel, Per Egil Selvaag, adding that Selvaag’s home had been targeted by “a shrapnel grenade.”

“I strongly condemn this serious and dangerous crime,” Saar said.

Bogsnes added that “no embassy staff were physically injured in the incident,” and that Israeli police had been on the scene.

19/06/2025 – 23:42 Israel says Iran fired cluster bomb-bearing missile Iran fired at least one missile at Israel that scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties, the Israeli military said on Thursday, the first reported use of cluster munitions in the seven-day-old war.

Israeli military officials provided no further details.

Israeli news reports quoted the Israeli military as saying the missile’s warhead split open at an altitude of about 4 miles (7 km) and released around 20 submunitions in a radius of around 5 miles (8 km) over central Israel.

One of the small munitions struck a home in the central Israeli town of Azor, causing some damage, Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian reported. There were no reports of casualties from the bomb.

19/06/2025 – 23:41 Iran appoints new Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief ran appointed a new chief of intelligence at its Revolutionary Guards on Thursday, the official Irna news agency said, after his predecessor was killed in an Israeli strike last week.

Major General Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), appointed Brigadier General Majid Khadami as the new head of its intelligence division, Irna said.

He replaces Mohammed Kazemi, who was killed on Sunday alongside two other Revolutionary Guards officers — Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri — in an Israeli strike.

Pakpour had himself been recently appointed after Israel killed his predecessor Hossein Salami in a strike on June 1.

19/06/2025 – 22:12 ‘This changes everything’: Israeli officials react to hospital attack Following an Iranian missile attack, the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, south Israel, was left in flames and its director Shlomi Codish said 40 people had sustained injuries.

The attack also had a “profound” psychological impact in Israel, says FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent, reporting from Tel Aviv.

19/06/2025 – 21:42 Upcoming Trump decision on Iran intervention leaves Tehrani’s feeling ‘trapped’ FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Iran, Saeed Azimi, reports from Tehran.

19/06/2025 – 21:05 IAEA continues monitoring Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that it is continuing to closely monitor and assess the situation regarding the Israeli attacks on nuclear sites in Iran.

Earlier in the day, the UN nuclear watchdog said it had information that Iran’s Khondab heavy water research reactor had been hit but reported no radiological effects.

19/06/2025 – 21:04 Hezbollah chief says group will ‘act as we see fit’ in Iran-Israel war Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said that the militant group would “act as we see fit” in response to the ongoing war between its main backer Iran and Israel.

In a statement, Qassem said Hezbollah was “not neutral” in the conflict between the two regional superpowers, saying that the group would “act as we see fit in the face of this brutal Israeli-American aggression”.

This comes after the US special envoy for Syria warned Hezbollah against getting involved in the war.

19/06/2025 – 21:00 Iran able to produce nuclear bomb in ‘a couple of weeks’, White House says Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in the space of a “couple of weeks,” the White House, as US President Donald Trump debated whether to take military action against the Islamic republic.

“Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the supreme leader to do that, and it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

19/06/2025 – 20:59 Trump will make Iran war decision ‘within next two weeks’, White House says US President Donald Trump said he will decide whether to attack Iran within a fortnight, as Israel and its regional rival continued to trade fire for a seventh day.

“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,” Trump said in a statement read out by his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.

19/06/2025 – 19:17 Netanyahu says ‘all help welcome’ in striking Iran’s nuclear sites Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he welcomed “all help” with destroying Iran’s nuclear sites, nearly a week into major Israeli air raids on the Islamic republic.

Israel is “capable of striking all of Iran’s nuclear facilities” but “all help is welcome”, Netanyahu told public broadcaster Kan, also saying that US President Donald Trump “will do what is good for for the United States, and I will do what is good for the State of Israel”.

19/06/2025 – 19:17 Iran air defences ‘confront hostile targets’ over Tehran, state media says Iranian state media said air defence systems were activated against “hostile targets” over the capital Tehran, a week into a war triggered by major Israeli attacks.

“Iran’s air defences confront hostile targets in northern Tehran,” said official news agency IRNA without elaborating. Another news agency, Mehr, gave the same report.

19/06/2025 – 18:44 Netanyahu says Israel is ‘changing the face of the world’ in war with Iran Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel was “changing the face of the world” in its war with Iran, now in its seventh day.

“I said that we’re changing the face of the Middle East, and now I say we’re changing the face of the world,” he told public broadcaster Kan, adding that Israel had destroyed “more than half” of Iran’s missile launchers.

19/06/2025 – 18:41 Israel has destroyed more than half of Iran’s missile launchers, Netanyahu says

19/06/2025 – 18:26 Change or fall of Iranian regime not a goal but could be a result, Netanyahu says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the change or fall of the Iranian regime was not a goal but could be a result.

“The matter of changing the regime or the fall of this regime is first and foremost a matter for the Iranian people.

“There is no substitute for this. And that’s why I didn’t present it as a goal. It could be a result, but it’s not a stated or formal goal that we have,” Netanyahu told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

TEL AVIV: Iranian media reported a “massive explosion” on Saturday following an Israeli drone strike on the South Pars refinery in the southern port city of Kangan. It marks the first Israeli attack on Iran’s oil and natural gas industry.

“An hour ago, an Israeli drone hit one of the South Pars Phase 14 refineries, causing a massive explosion and fire in the refinery,” the Tasnim news agency said, while the Fars agency reported firefighters were working to extinguish a blaze that had erupted as a result of the attack.

Iran shares the gas field, which stretches across the Persian Gulf, with Qatar.

Israeli military late on Saturday said it struck an underground facility in western Iran’s Khorramabad that contained surface-to-surface and cruise missiles.

“This is an important site that was even featured in a propaganda video by the Iranian regime in the past,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told journalists.

He was likely referring to footage aired by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards earlier this year showing what it described as a new underground missile facility.

“It was struck and the senior officials associated with it have also been eliminated,” Defrin said, adding that “dozens of other such sites have also been destroyed”.

The military said the site contained “storage tunnels for surface-to-surface missiles and cruise missiles as well as multiple launch shafts”.

Missiles streak across the sky, as seen from the Gaza Strip

Air raid sirens and explosions were heard by AFP journalists in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv early Sunday, as Israel’s military said millions of Israelis were “running for shelter” around the country.

Israel’s emergency services said at least eight people, including children, were killed in the overnight strikes, and around 200 were wounded.

In Iran’s capital, AFP journalists heard a series of blasts at around 2:30 am.

The third day of tit-for-tat attacks comes despite global calls for de-escalation, with Iran scrapping its latest nuclear talks with the United States, saying it could not negotiate while under fire from Israel.

After decades of enmity and conflict by proxy, it is the first time the arch-enemies have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a prolonged conflict that could engulf the Middle East.

The Iranian Red Crescent released a picture of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Tehran © – / Iranian Red Crescent/AFP

Israel’s operation, which began early Friday, has targeted Iranian nuclear and military sites, killing dozens of people including top army commanders and atomic scientists, according to Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to hit “every target of the ayatollah regime”, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned further strikes would draw “a more severe and powerful response”.

In Bat Yam, outside of Tel Aviv, Israeli first responders wearing helmets and headlamps combed through the rubble of a building as dawn broke.

Two women, aged 69 and 80, a girl and a 10-year-old boy were killed, while about 100 others were wounded, according to a spokesperson for Magen David Adom (MDA).

In Shfela region, west of Jerusalem, another 37 people were wounded, the MDA spokesperson added.

In the north of Israel, in the Western Galilee, rescuers said a strike late Saturday destroyed a three-storey building, killing three women.

A woman in her 20s also died after an Iranian missile hit a home in the Haifa region, leaving about a dozen people wounded, MDA said.

An MDA spokesman told Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 that around 200 people were wounded in the overnight missile strikes fired by Iran.

Iran’s UN ambassador said 78 people were killed and 320 wounded in Friday’s first wave of Israeli strikes. Iranian authorities have not provided an updated toll as of early Sunday.

‘Nuclear project’ sites struck

Israel’s military said it had struck Iran’s defence ministry headquarters, “nuclear weapons project” infrastructure sites and other targets, including fuel tankers, just before 2:40 am on Sunday (2340 GMT Saturday).

Responders work beside a damaged building following a strike by an Iranian missile in the Israeli city of Bat Yam © Jack GUEZ / AFP

The targeted sites, including the “headquarters of the SPND (Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research) nuclear project”, advanced Iran’s efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon, according to Israel.

Iranian news agency Tasnim earlier reported that an Israeli strike had targeted the defence ministry headquarters in Tehran and damaged one of its buildings. The ministry did not comment.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the country had struck sites used by Israeli warplanes for refuelling, in retaliation for the strikes carried out by Israel.

“The Iranian armed forces’ offensive operations will continue more fiercely and more broadly if the depravity and attacks (against Iran) continue,” the Guards said in a statement.

Overnight, Israel stuck two fuel depots in Tehran, the Iranian oil ministry said Sunday.

According to the ministry, the oil depots at Shahran northwest of Tehran and another reservoir south of the city were hit.

An AFP journalist saw a depot at Shahran on fire.

Foreign concern

Netanyahu maintained Israel’s operation had the “clear support” of US President Donald Trump.

Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed in a phone call on Saturday that the conflict between Iran and Israel “should end”.

Israel’s strikes on Iran © Valentina BRESCHI, Sylvie HUSSON / AFP

According to a statement from his office, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned Washington’s “dishonesty” for supporting Israel while engaged in nuclear talks with Iran — which mediator Oman said would no longer take place on Sunday.

Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, which it denies.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said the Israeli attacks undermined negotiations and were pushing the region into a “dangerous cycle of violence”.

Israeli strikes have hit Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant and killed its highest-ranking military officer, Mohammad Bagheri, as well as the head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami.

The Israeli military said its strikes had killed more than 20 Iranian commanders.

Iranian media reported five Guards killed Saturday in Israeli strikes, while authorities in one northwestern province said 30 military personnel had been killed there since Friday.

Iran called on its citizens to unite in the country’s defence, while Netanyahu urged them to rise up against the government.

Highlighting the global unease, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned against a “devastating war” with regional consequences, in a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ankara said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that his country was deploying fighter jets and other “assets” to the Middle East “for contingency support”, while he also urged de-escalation.

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