Israel Iran War LIVE Updates: Strait closure would be ‘Economic Suicide’, says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

By CNBCTV18.COM Jun 22, 2025 8:48 PM IST (Updated)

Israel Iran War Live Updates: US President Donald Trump says Iran’s key nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated” by US bomb strikes. Trump warns Tehran against carrying out retaliatory attacks on the US, saying Iran has a choice between “peace or tragedy”. Stay tuned for the Live Updates here:

Israel Iran War Live Updates: The United States has entered the war against Iran by joining Israel in striking Iranian nuclear programme sites, US president Donald Trump said.

The conflict has escalated in the West Asian region as Iran vows to retaliate. The war that started on June 13, is increasingly raising fears in the Middle East countries that have US military bases.

United States President Donald Trump said that Iran’s key nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated” by US strikes.

Trump made the comments at the White House Saturday night hours after announcing the US military had carried out strikes against three key nuclear facilities in Iran, reported the Associated Press.

The president also warned Tehran against carrying out retaliatory attacks against the US, saying Iran has choice between “peace or tragedy”.

Iran has vowed retaliation with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative urging attack on US forces, and closure of Hormuz Strait, Iranian state media reported. Hossein Shariatmadari said Iran must launch an attack on US Naval Fleet in Bahrain.

Khamenei’s representative says Iran must simultaneously close Strait of Hormuz to US, British, German and French ships.

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) confirmed that attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz sites, but it insisted that its work will not be stopped.

Stay tuned here for the latest updates on Iran Israel war.

A gas field in Iran’s southwestern Bushehr province was hit by Israeli strikes earlier today, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

Parts of the area “caught fire as a result,” the agency reported, adding that eyewitnesses said a drone was used to carry out the attack.

Earlier, the Israeli military said in a statement that it had carried out strikes on several parts of Iran, including Bushehr.

Missile launchers, military sites for the production of air defense batteries and a command center were hit, along with a drone storage center, it said. Iranian military personnel were also killed, the statement added.

Here’s what Trump said in his address as broadcasted live by Fox News and transcribed by Sky News:

“A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan.

“Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.

“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.

“Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.

“Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.

“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.

“For 40 years Iran has been saying death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their speciality.

“We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate.

“In particular, so many were killed by their general, Qassem Soleimani.

“I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen.

“It will not continue.

“I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.

“I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.

“Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that so.

“I also want to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Rosen Kane, spectacular general and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack.

“With all of that being said, this cannot continue.

“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.

“Remember, there are many targets left.

“Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal.

“But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.

“There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight. Not even close. There’s never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.

“Tomorrow, General Kaine, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth will have a press conference at 8am at the Pentagon.

“I want to just thank everybody and in particular, God, I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel, and God bless America.

“Thank you very much. Thank you.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei spoke exclusively to CNN’s Fred Pleitgen in Iran after the US attacked three key nuclear facilities in the country. CNN

Iran is witnessing a “betrayal of diplomacy” by the Trump administration, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson told CNN Sunday.

“They cannot talk about diplomacy, they betrayed diplomacy,” Esmail Baghaei said about the Trump administration. He said, however, that “diplomacy never ends.”

“No one knows what will happen next, but what is sure is that the responsibility of the consequences of this war must be borne by the United States and Israel,” he said.

The diplomat refused to say how Iran might respond to the military strikes by the US on its nuclear sites early Sunday, nor what had been damaged, but said Tehran “is entitled … to exercise its right of self-defense.”

He added: “And we will do that for sure.”

Baghaei said President Donald Trump’s recent statements and threats of more attacks were “bullying at a global level.”

He warned that the attacks by Israel and the US leave the region in an “unprecedently dangerous” position.

The spokesperson said Iran had been “absolutely restrained” in its response to Israel and had targeted only military and security targets. Israel, for its part, has said Iran has attacked civilian targets in its cities.

Israeli officials, such as Defense Minister Israel Katz, have said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “cannot continue to exist” – a statement Baghaei called “despicable” and “outrageous.”

“Threatening a state sovereign leader with an act of terror simply shows the nature of the Israeli regime,” he said.

Baghaei, who served in the Iranian United Nations mission in New York between 2006 and 2010, said Iran had been trying its “best for diplomacy and peace.”

“History will not forgive what is being done by the US administration,” he said.