Ceasefire in Iran gives rise to new calls for a deal to end Gaza war
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Three Palestinians killed in West Bank clash with Israeli settlers and troops
Three Palestinians were killed in Kafr Malik, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. In the nearby village of Taybeh, vigilantes speaking Hebrew were filmed setting fire to a vehicle. It was not immediately clear whether it was the Israeli soldiers or settlers who were responsible for the fatal shots. The deadly clash was the latest instance of armed settlers carrying out violent raids against Palestinian villages in the West Bank, often with impunity in the presence of soldiers or with their help. The five Israelis who were arrested were released Thursday morning after being cleared of any suspicion, Israeli media reported. the IDF said in a statement that its soldiers were dispatched to quell a confrontation between settlers and Palestinians but were attacked by rocks and “fire” from “terrorists” The incident is under examination, the IDF says, and no imminent threat to remove the soldiers is present. The Israeli military data showed that crimes committed by soldiers and settlers against Palestinians in the first two months of 2025 surged 30 percent compared with a year earlier.
CCTV footage verified by The Washington Post showed Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian villages in the West Bank on June 25. (Video: B’Tselem via AP)
The deadly clash in Kafr Malik was the latest instance of armed settlers carrying out violent raids against Palestinian villages in the West Bank, often with impunity in the presence of Israeli soldiers or directly with their help. Internal Israeli military data showed that crimes committed by soldiers and settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank during the first two months of 2025 surged 30 percent compared with a year earlier, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported in March, citing Israeli security officials who were concerned by the uptick.
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The IDF said in a statement that its soldiers were dispatched to quell a confrontation between settlers and Palestinians but were attacked by rocks and “fire” from “terrorists” inside the village. Troops “opened fire toward the source of fire and the rock-hurlers” and later found that several people were injured and killed, the IDF said, adding that soldiers arrested five Israelis and turned them over to the Israeli police.
Kafr Malik’s mayor, Najeh Daoud, told The Washington Post that settlers carrying M-16 rifles and molotov cocktails arrived around 7 p.m. local time and burned four cars. When they tried to approach homes to set them ablaze, they were surrounded by local Palestinians, he said. Soon after that, the IDF arrived and fired tear gas to disperse the clashing crowds, Daoud said.
“Then, the soldiers started shooting live ammunition at the residents, who were civilians who came to stop the fire and to defend their village with rocks and sticks,” said Daoud, who disputed the IDF’s claim that Palestinians fired guns at soldiers and accused the IDF soldiers of killing the three people.
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A series of videos verified by the Associated Press show some of the violence in Kafr Malik late Wednesday, including one that shows a house on fire in the village while men are seen running away and gunfire can be heard in the distance. In another, a car is engulfed in flames, and a man tries to pour water on the fire. What sounds like a single gunshot is captured in the footage, followed by screams.
A third video recorded on Thursday shows damaged property, including charred vehicles and a house.
The five Israelis who were arrested were released Thursday morning after being cleared of any suspicion, Israeli media reported, citing the police. A spokesman for the Israeli police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The law enforcement agency, which is led by Israel’s far-right minister of national security and settler leader Itamar Ben Gvir, has jurisdiction over settlers living in the West Bank, while the IDF is responsible for overall public safety in the occupied territory.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said that apart from the three killed, seven others were injured by bullets from settlers and “Israeli occupation forces,” reported WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency.
Palestinian officials condemned the incident.
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“The orgy and violence of settlers under the protection of the occupation army is a political decision by the Israeli government implemented by the settlers,” Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh said.
Violence has rocked the West Bank since Oct 7. 2023, when Hamas and its Palestinian supporters in Gaza poured into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 Israeli civilians and taking 251 hostages.
The clash that killed three in Kafr Malik on Wednesday evening came days after residents accused the IDF of fatally shooting Moataz Aamar Hamayel, a 13-year-old boy from the same village. In response to a question about Hamayel’s death, the IDF said that “terrorists” threw stones at passing cars and soldiers, who acted “in accordance with the rules of engagement and responded with fire to remove the imminent threat.” The incident is under examination, the IDF said.
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On Tuesday night, settlers also set Palestinian homes on fire in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, according to the Israeli human rights group Standing Together.
From Oct. 7, 2023, until Wednesday night, Israeli forces have killed at least 918 Palestinians in the West Bank, including at least 193 minors, according to B’Tselem. At least 24 more Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers or Israelis of unclear affiliation, the group said.
Trump-Iran live: Trump says Iranian nuclear sites ‘obliterated’ in strikes – but senator claims president ‘deliberately misled public’
It’s possible that the American airstrikes did “obliterate” the Iranian nuclear sites hit on Saturday night. It’s also possible that Iran retains stockpiles of enriched uranium and nuclear production equipment elsewhere. The storm around the level of destruction caused by Saturday’s American airstrikes could be a distraction.
By Mark Stone, US correspondent
Two things can be true at the same time.
It’s possible that the American airstrikes did “obliterate” the Iranian nuclear sites hit on Saturday night.
It’s also possible that Iran retains stockpiles of enriched uranium and nuclear production equipment elsewhere – undisclosed.
We know from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has been obstructive, and we know too that the regime has attempted to build new facilities.
This pattern of behaviour makes it possible, even probable, that they have existing hidden programmes.
Preliminary intelligence reports shared with European governments indicated that Iran’s highly-enriched uranium stockpile remains largely intact and that much of it was not concentrated in the Fordow site.
Given all this, the storm around the level of destruction caused by Saturday’s American airstrikes could be a distraction. Nevertheless, the early morning Pentagon news conference revealed plenty.
There were two strands to the briefing. From the politician, we got a political attack, and from the general, we got the military detail.
Israel agrees to deepen ‘close’ security cooperation with US – as it happened
The shaky truce between Iran and Israel appears to hold, with both sides saying they would honour the ceasefire if the other side did the same. Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz said he told his US counterpart Pete Hegseth that “Israel will respect the ceasefire — as long as the otherside does”. Israel would strike again if Iran rebuilds its nuclear project, Benjamin Netanyahu said. Donald Trump said China can continue to purchase Iranian oil , a move the White House clarified did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions. France and its European partners are still prepared to reactivate sanctions on Iran if an agreement is not reached soon on its nuclear program, the French ambassador to the UN has warned. Elon Musk’s AIbot produced contradictory responses to Donald Trump’s comments on Twitter when users sought to fact-check the president’s statements. The US president lashed out, his anger and frustration clearly visible as he swore on live television. Trump later called Israel’s prime minister to demand he stop bombing Iran.
An initial classified US assessment of Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months , according to two people familiar with the report. The report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon – concluded key components of the nuclear program, including centrifuges, were capable of being restarted within months. The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be put to use for a possible nuclear weapon was moved before the strikes and may have been moved to other secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran. The findings suggest Trump’s declaration about the sites being “obliterated” may be overstated. Read our story here.
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would strike again if Iran rebuilds its nuclear project . Describing his war on Iran as a “historic victory” that “will stand for generations”, the Israeli PM claimed that Israel in its 12 days of war with Iran had removed “the threat of nuclear annihilation”. He said on he had “no intention of easing off the gas pedal” and Israel “must complete” its campaign against the Iranian axis, to defeat Hamas and to bring about the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
Netanyahu also declared that Israel “never had a better friend that President Trump in the White House”. His comments came only hours after Trump directed stinging criticism at Israel over the scale of strikes Trump said violated the truce with Iran negotiated by Washington, with the US president saying: “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” Israel’s leadership was reportedly “stunned” and “embarrassed” by Trump’s harsh rebuke.
Iranian state news reported that Iran’s air space would reopen on Tuesday night, while Israel Home Front Command said Israeli citizens could resume full activity without restriction for most of the country and Ben-Gurion and Haifa airports would return to full operations.
Donald Trump said China can continue to purchase Iranian oil , a move the White House clarified did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions.
At the United Nations, France and its European partners are still prepared to reactivate sanctions on Iran if an agreement is not reached soon on its nuclear program, the French ambassador to the UN has warned. Share Updated at 02.31 BST
2d ago 01.54 BST Donald Trump’s startling outburst at Iran and Israel capped a drama-filled 24 hours for Trump, the US, the Middle East and the world. As both sides defied his ceasefire, the US president lashed out, his anger and frustration clearly visible as he swore on live television. Trump later called Israel’s prime minister to demand he stop bombing Iran. With the fragile ceasefire seeming to hold, there was some unwelcome news via a report from the Pentagon which said the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were not quite as successful as Trump had claimed. View image in fullscreen US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before boarding Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on June 24, 2025, to attend the NATO’s Heads of State and Government summit in The Hague. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images That and much more is in our freshly launched daily wrap of key Trump stories: Trump news at a glance: profanity and push-back over success of Iran strikes Read more Share Updated at 02.03 BST
2d ago 01.14 BST Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok produced inaccurate and contradictory responses when users sought to fact-check the Israel-Iran conflict, a study has said, raising fresh doubts about its reliability as a debunking tool. Agence France-Presse reports that with tech platforms reducing their reliance on human fact-checkers, users are increasingly utilising AI-powered chatbots – including xAI’s Grok – in search of reliable information, but their responses are often prone to misinformation. “The investigation into Grok’s performance during the first days of the Israel-Iran conflict exposes significant flaws and limitations in the AI chatbot’s ability to provide accurate, reliable and consistent information during times of crisis,” said the study from the digital forensic research lab (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council, an American thinktank. Grok demonstrated that it struggles with verifying already-confirmed facts, analysing fake visuals and avoiding unsubstantiated claims. View image in fullscreen AI chatbot Grok showed ‘significant flaws’ in fact-checking on the Israel-Iran war, the study says. Photograph: AP The DFRLab analysed about 130,000 posts in various languages on the platform X, where the AI assistant is built in, to find that Grok was “struggling to authenticate AI-generated media”. Following Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel, Grok offered vastly different responses to similar prompts about an AI-generated video of a destroyed airport that amassed millions of views on X, the study found. It oscillated – sometimes within the same minute – between denying the airport’s destruction and confirming it had been damaged by strikes, the study said. In some responses, Grok cited the a missile launched by Yemeni rebels as the source of the damage. In others, it wrongly identified the AI-generated airport as one in Beirut, Gaza or Tehran. Share Updated at 01.15 BST
2d ago 00.46 BST Israelis have responded calmly to Donald Trump’s criticisms and accusations their country had violated a truce he brokered with Iran, expressing gratitude for his mediation and relief at the conclusion of the 12-day war. Reuters reports that earlier on Tuesday the US president admonished Israel after waking in Washington to find the ceasefire had been violated by both sides, telling the media: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” In Haifa, northern Israel, Daniel Kopylkov, a 27-year-old cook, said: “Honestly, I don’t care that much about what Trump said about Israel. At the end of the day, I think he’s the one that truly helped to bring an end to this war and that’s what’s important to me.” Kopylkov was one of several people Reuters interviewed in Haifa, a target of Iranian missiles during the conflict. It is Israel’s third-largest city after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and home to Israel’s busiest seaport and a naval base. Historian Marc Volovici, 42, said Trump’s outburst underscored Israel’s dependence on US political, military and financial support. This was just a very small but significant demonstration of how Israel relies on international legitimacy, and especially [the] American one. View image in fullscreen People gathered at the site of an Iranian strike in Haifa, Israel, at the weekend. Photograph: Florion Goga/Reuters A 70-year-old resident identifying herself only as Esther said: It’s like a parent scolding the child. He’s scolding us. But it’s not anything dramatically serious. I’m not a politician, you know, I’m just feeling it like that. Lawyer Ephraim Glazberg, 75, expressed a similar view, saying: “I think it was the agony of the moment. I don’t think this is a problem.” Share Updated at 00.53 BST
2d ago 00.16 BST Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that Israel “never had a better friend that President Trump in the White House” in video remarks issued by the prime minister’s office. Netanyahu also said that in its 12 days of war with Iran, Israel had removed “the threat of nuclear annihilation”. You can see the video here: Live Live Israel ‘never had a better friend than Trump in the White House’, says Netanyahu Share Updated at 00.16 BST
2d ago 00.07 BST Oil prices sank for a second straight day and stock markets mostly rose on Tuesday as the ceasefire between Iran and Israel appeared to be holding. Crude futures slumped in volatile trading after Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, extending Monday’s steep losses in oil after Iran’s response to the US attack did not hit energy infrastructure, Agence France-Presse reports. “This morning’s ceasefire further reduced the perceived threat to Middle Eastern oil supply routes,” said David Morrison, analyst at Trade Nation. The main international and US oil contracts briefly bounced off their lows as Israel and Iran accused each other of breaking the ceasefire, but then resumed their fall after Trump berated the two countries. Prices were also brought down by Trump saying that China could continue to buy oil from Iran. Share
2d ago 23.51 BST Turkey’s president hailed the Iran-Israel truce and hoped it would remain in place as he held talks with Donald Trump on the sidelines of a Nato summit late on Tuesday. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “expressed his satisfaction with the ceasefire achieved between Israel and Iran through President Trump’s efforts, hoping it would be permanent”, his office said. It said Erdoğan also stressed that Ankara and Washington should work closely together to end the war in Gaza, Agence France-Presse reported. He “emphasised the importance of close dialogue in ending the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza as soon as possible”, as well as “peacefully resolving the Russia-Ukraine war”. Erdogan also called for increased defence industry cooperation with the US, which he said could significantly boost trade between them. Advancing cooperation in the defence industry would facilitate achieving the goal of a $100 billion trade volume. View image in fullscreen Trump and Erdoğan meet on the sidelines of the Nato summit in The Hague, Netherlands. Photograph: Turkish presidential press office/Reuters Share Updated at 23.53 BST
2d ago 23.31 BST Donald Trump has said China can continue to purchase Iranian oil after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, a move the White House clarified did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions. “China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran. Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, just days after ordering the US bombings of three Iranian nuclear sites. Reuters cited a senior White House official as saying the US president was drawing attention to no attempts by Iran so far to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, as a closure would have been hard for China, the world’s top importer of Iranian oil. “The president continues to call on China and all countries to import our state-of-the-art oil rather than import Iranian oil in violation of US sanctions,” the official said. View image in fullscreen Vessels in transit in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Oman, on Tuesday. Photograph: Ali Haider/EPA After the ceasefire announcement, Trump’s comments on China were another bearish signal for oil prices, which fell nearly 6%. Any relaxation of sanctions enforcement on Iran would mark a US policy shift after Trump said in February he was reimposing maximum pressure on Iran, aiming to drive its oil exports to zero, over its nuclear program and funding of militants across the Middle East. “President Trump’s greenlight for China to keep buying Iranian oil reflects a return to lax enforcement standards,” said Scott Modell, a former CIA officer, now CEO of Rapidan Energy Group. Share Updated at 23.32 BST
2d ago 23.15 BST At the United Nations, France and its European partners are still prepared to reactivate sanctions on Iran if an agreement is not reached soon on its nuclear program, the French ambassador to the UN has warned. “Time is running out,” Jerome Bonnnafont said at a UN security council meeting in reference to the October expiration of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. We expect Iran to return to talks without delay in order to achieve a robust, verifiable and lasting diplomatic solution. Agence France-Presse reports Bonnafont also said on Tuesday said negotiations were the only way to “guarantee the impossibility of an Iranian military nuclear program”, days after the US conducted strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. He told the New York meeting: France and its E3 partners [Germany and the UK] remain ready to use the leverage established by resolution 2231, that of a ‘snapback’ [of sanctions], if a satisfactory agreement is not reached by summer. View image in fullscreen The UN security council meeting in New York. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters UK ambassador Barbara Wood concurred, saying: “We will use all diplomatic levers at our disposal to support a negotiated outcome and ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.” This is Adam Fulton picking up our live coverage Share Updated at 23.22 BST
2d ago 22.39 BST The day so far The shaky truce between Iran and Israel appeared to hold, with both sides saying they would honour the ceasefire if the other side did the same. Earlier on Tuesday Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would respect the ceasefire announced by Trump, provided that Israel also upholds its terms. “If the Zionist regime does not violate the ceasefire, Iran will not violate it either,” he said. Hours later, Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz said he told his US counterpart Pete Hegseth that “Israel will respect the ceasefire — as long as the other side does”.
An initial classified US assessment of Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months , according to two people familiar with the report. The report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon – concluded key components of the nuclear program, including centrifuges, were capable of being restarted within months. The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be put to use for a possible nuclear weapon was moved before the strikes and may have been moved to other secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran. The findings suggest Trump’s declaration about the sites being “obliterated” – and acting US envoy to the UN Dorothy Shea’s statement to the United Nations Security Council that the US strikes “effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon” – may be overstated. Read our story here.
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would strike again if Iran rebuilds its nuclear project . Describing his war on Iran as a “historic victory” that “will stand for generations”, the Israeli PM claimed that Israel in its 12 days of war with Iran had removed “the threat of nuclear annihilation”. He said on he had “no intention of easing off the gas pedal” and Israel “must complete” its campaign against the Iranian axis, to defeat Hamas and to bring about the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
Netanyahu also declared that Israel “never had a better friend that President Trump in the White House”. His comments came only hours after Trump directed stinging criticism at Israel over the scale of strikes Trump said violated the truce with Iran negotiated by Washington, with the US president saying: “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” Israel’s leadership was reportedly “stunned” and “embarrassed” by Trump’s harsh rebuke.
Iranian state news reported that Iran’s air space would reopen on Tuesday night, while Israel Home Front Command said Israeli citizens could resume full activity without restriction for most of the country and Ben-Gurion and Haifa airports would return to full operations. Fragile Israel-Iran truce appears to hold after Trump’s fury at initial violations Read more Share Updated at 22.46 BST
2d ago 22.02 BST Chris Stein In the US, Democrats are up in arms over the cancellation of classified briefings to Congress scheduled for today, where White House officials were going to inform lawmakers about the bombing raid targeting Iran’s nuclear program. “What are the facts that the Trump administration is trying to hide? The American people deserve to know the truth,” House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said after the briefings were canceled. “This last-minute postponement of our briefing is outrageous. It’s evasive. It’s derelict. They’re bobbing and weaving and ducking. Senators deserve full transparency. There is a legal obligation for the administration to inform Congress about precisely what is happening,” said Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat. It was not immediately cleared why the briefings for all members of the Senate and the House of Representatives were canceled. On X, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said his chamber’s briefing had been rescheduled to Friday: I have just confirmed with the White House that the classified bipartisan briefing for all House Members will now be held on Friday. Senior Administration officials will present the latest information pertaining to the situation involving Israel and Iran. Spokespeople for Senate majority leader John Thune did not respond to a request for comment. Share
2d ago 21.48 BST The Israeli military said on Tuesday it intercepted earlier this evening two drones “most likely from Iran” that were making their way towards Israel. Israel’s Kan radio said the drones were most likely launched in the morning hours about the same time as the launch of a surface-to-surface missile from Iran. The drones were intercepted outside of Israeli territory, the military added. Share
2d ago 21.46 BST Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have denied earlier reports on Tuesday that there was a drone attack in the northwestern city of Tabriz, three Iranian news sites reported. Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian media said air defences were activated in the area amid the shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Share
2d ago 21.40 BST Trump’s strikes on Iran only set back nuclear program by months, early intelligence finds Hugo Lowell An initial classified US assessment of Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report. The report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon – and first reported by CNN, concluded key components of the nuclear program including centrifuges and enriched uranium were capable of being restarted within months. The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be put to use for a possible nuclear weapon was moved before the strikes and may have been moved to other secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran. The findings by the DIA, which were based on a preliminary battle damage assessment conducted by US central command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, suggests Trump’s declaration about the sites being “obliterated” may be overstated. Trump had said in his televised address on Saturday night immediately after the operation that the US had completely destroyed Iran’s enrichment sites at Natanz and Fordow, the facility buried deep underground, and at Esfahan, where enrichment was being stored. “The strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” Trump said in his address from the White House. While the DIA report was only an initial assessment, one of the people said if the intelligence on the ground was already finding within days that Fordow in particular was not destroyed, later assessments could suggest even less damage might have been inflicted. View image in fullscreen This handout satellite picture provided by Maxar Technologies and taken on June 24, 2025, shows damage caused by recent airstrikes on nearby tunnel entrances near Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility in central Iran. Photograph: Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP/Getty Images Share Updated at 01.29 BST
China Warns: ‘World Will Not Be at Peace’ if Middle East Unstable
China and Russia have urged deescalation, emphasizing the dangerous consequences the escalating conflict could have on the whole world. China, like Russia, has also positioned itself as a potential peacebroker, though experts say it’s unlikely Israel would accept Beijing as a neutral conciliator, given its past criticisms of Israel and ties with Iran. China has historically followed a policy of non-interference, focusing more on domestic issues while aiming to avoid entanglement in protracted foreign conflicts. But communiqués and declarations are all China is likely to offer, experts tell TIME, and are likely to be vetoed by the U.S. It has been accused of providing “very substantial” support to Russia in its war against Ukraine, but China has maintained that it doesn’t provide weapons or troops to its neighbor. The White House says it doesn’t see “any signs” of China providing military support to Iran “at this moment in time.” It has also publicly advised against greater involvement in the conflict.
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“The warring parties, especially Israel, should cease fire as soon as possible to prevent a cycle of escalation and resolutely avoid the spillover of the war,” Xi added. Xi’s comments came in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which both leaders called for a ceasefire, according to a readout by China’s foreign ministry. Earlier last week, Russia warned that Israel’s attacks have brought the world “millimeters” from nuclear calamity, and Putin urged Trump against attacking Iran. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that Putin and Xi “strongly condemn Israel’s actions, which violate the U.N. Charter and other norms of international law.” Ushakov added that Xi expressed support for Putin’s suggestion to mediate the conflict, an offer Trump said he has rejected. China, like Russia, has also positioned itself as a potential peacebroker, though experts say it’s unlikely Israel would accept Beijing as a neutral conciliator, given its past criticisms of Israel and ties with Iran.
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Here’s what to know about how China has responded so far to the conflict and what it may see is at stake. Rhetorical but not material support “Iran doesn’t need communiqués or declarations, but concrete help, like anti-aircraft systems or fighter jets,” Andrea Ghiselli, a Chinese foreign policy expert at the University of Exeter, told France 24. But communiqués and declarations are all China is likely to offer, experts tell TIME. William Figueroa, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Groningen, tells TIME that China’s lack of military support should not come as a surprise. China has historically followed a policy of non-interference, focusing more on domestic issues while aiming to avoid entanglement in protracted foreign conflicts. Earlier this year, China similarly called on both India and Pakistan, the latter being an “ironclad friend” of China, to show restraint. And while it has been accused of providing “very substantial” support to Russia in its war against Ukraine, China has maintained that it doesn’t provide weapons or troops to its neighbor. (Reports suggest, however, that its material support has included lethal systems.)
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the White House doesn’t see “any signs” of China providing military support to Iran “at this moment in time.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday on Fox News that so far there has been no evidence of material support from China to Iran. “We don’t have any evidence that the Chinese were involved in anything, other than perhaps trying to get Chinese nationals out of Iran,” Rubio said. Instead, China has mostly offered just words. China’s Ambassador to the United Nations Fu Cong said the U.S. attacks on Iran “seriously violate the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law, as well as Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.” “The international community must uphold justice and make concrete efforts to cool the situation and restore peace and stability,” he added. “The Security Council shoulders the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It cannot stand idly by in the face of a major crisis.”
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China, Russia, and Pakistan put forth a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire ahead of the Sunday emergency meeting. The resolution, which was seen by Reuters, does not name the U.S. or Israel but condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. It is likely to be vetoed by the U.S. Beijing has been “harshly critical” of Israel, says Figueroa. In separate calls with his Iranian and Israeli counterparts over the past weekend, after Israel launched an attack on Friday against Iran, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that China “explicitly condemns Israel’s violation of Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.” It had also publicly advised the U.S. against greater involvement in the conflict. “The heating up of the Middle East region serves no one’s interests,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday. “To fan up the flames, use threats and exert pressure does not help deescalate the situation and will only aggravate tensions and enlarge the conflict.”
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“The international community, especially influential major countries, should uphold a fair position and a responsible attitude to create the necessary conditions for promoting a ceasefire and returning to dialogue and negotiation so as to prevent the regional situation from sliding into the abyss and triggering a greater disaster,” a Chinese state-media editorial declared on Thursday. China’s diplomatic response reflects its priority to “lower the temperature,” says Figueroa, particularly in tensions with the U.S. Diplomatic limitations China has sought to deepen its investments and influence in the Middle East over the years, which has raised the expectations of its regional diplomacy to “sky high” levels, says Figueroa. China has also signaled its desire to step forward as a world leader and peacebroker amid a U.S. retreat from global institutions under Trump. Just last month, China launched the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed), a new intergovernmental dispute resolution body in Hong Kong that proposes to fill an “institutional gap.”
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But while Beijing touted brokering a historic truce between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023, the task before it now is much taller. Wang, the Chinese foreign minister, said China is “ready to play a constructive role” in resolving the conflict, according to foreign ministry readouts of his calls with both Iran and Israel, but unlike with Saudi Arabia and Iran, Figueroa says, Israel has expressed no interest in negotiating a resolution. And even if Israel was interested in coming to the table, China is unlikely to be seen as a neutral arbiter given its ties with Iran, criticisms of Israel including over Gaza, and ongoing global power competition with the U.S., Israel’s biggest ally. China has developed strong economic ties with Iran over the years, becoming Iran’s largest trading partner and export market, especially for oil—a critical lifeline for Iran as the U.S. has placed severe economic sanctions on the country. Iran joined BRICS, the intergovernmental group China has viewed as an alternative collective of emerging powers to the Western-oriented G7, in 2024; joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Beijing-backed security group, in 2023; and the two countries signed a 25-year cooperative agreement in 2021.
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While China has also maintained an economic relationship with Israel—China is Israel’s second-biggest trading partner and the two countries have had an “innovative comprehensive partnership” since 2017—Figueroa says it’s “not close enough to have a serious influence over Israel’s actions.” When asked about the possibility of China acting as a mediator, Israel’s Ambassador to Beijing Eli Belotserkovsky told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday, “at this stage, we are concentrating on the military campaign. This is our main concern at the moment, and we need to see how things will develop.” Still, he added that Israel would “continue talking to China as [part of] an ongoing process.” Failure to help bring peace to the Middle East could seriously dampen China’s recent efforts to portray itself as an effective global peacebroker, especially after Ukraine already rejected a peace plan Beijing had proposed in 2023. And if Iran’s regime falls, Marc Lanteigne, an associate professor of political science at the Arctic University of Norway, told France 24, the China-mediated truce with Saudi Arabia would also risk “going up in smoke.”
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“It is hard to predict how the conflict itself might impact [China’s diplomatic] efforts,” Figueroa says. “A wider conflict would undoubtedly complicate Chinese diplomatic efforts, which largely rest on their ability to provide economic development.” Economic concerns While the Iran-China trade balance is largely skewed in China’s favor—around a third of Iranian trade is with China, but less than 1% of Chinese trade is with Iran—China is heavily dependent on the Middle East’s oil. “China is by far the largest importer of Iranian oil,” according to a statement in March by the U.S. State Department, which added: “The Iranian regime uses the revenue it generates from these sales to finance attacks on U.S. allies, support terrorism around the world, and pursue other destabilizing actions.” Sara Haghdoosti, executive director of public education and advocacy coalition Win Without War, tells TIME that China “has a vested interest in seeing the conflict end before Israel strikes more of Iran’s oil infrastructure.”
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But China is less dependent on Iran itself than on access to the region’s reserves. “The Islamic Republic is a replaceable energy partner,” according to a Bloomberg analysis. For global oil markets too, changes to Iran’s supply alone are unlikely to cause significant price disruptions. “Even in the unlikely event that all Iranian exports are lost, they could be replaced by spare capacity from OPEC+ producers,” assessed credit agency Fitch Ratings earlier this week. Around 20% of the world’s oil trade, however, passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran previously threatened to close and, after the attacks on its nuclear facilities, passed a parliamentary resolution on Sunday to shut it down—a decision that will ultimately lie with Iran’s National Security Council. “If the United States officially and operationally enters the war in support of the Zionists, it is the legitimate right of Iran in view of pressuring the U.S. and Western countries to disrupt their oil trade’s ease of transit,” said Iranian lawmaker Ali Yazdikhah on June 19, according to state-sponsored Iranian news agency Mehr News.
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Doing so would also impact China, for which more than 40% of crude oil imports come from the Middle East. The conflict’s “greatest impact on China could be on energy imports and supply chain security,” Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University, told the South China Morning Post. “While Beijing will continue to condemn the conflict, it will also seek to balance ties with Israel and the Gulf states and promote stable energy flows,” according to Bloomberg’s analysts, especially as surging commodity prices would exacerbate domestic economic growth challenges already hampered by the trade war with the U.S. and an ongoing real estate crisis. That mutual dependence could be handy for the U.S. as it urges Iran to not escalate things further after the latest strikes on its nuclear facilities. Rubio told Fox News on Sunday that he encourages the Chinese government, “because they heavily depend on the Strait of Hormuz for their oil,” to advise Iran against closing the strait.
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In response to a question about the potential interruption of Iranian oil supplies to China, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun reiterated on Tuesday the need to “ease tensions as soon as possible” in order to “prevent the region from spiraling into greater turmoil.” A contained conflict could be good for China “If a wider conflict breaks out,” Figueroa says, “the impact on China’s economic projects and investments in the region would be significant.” Foreign policy analyst Wesley Alexander Hill noted in a Forbes op-ed that an escalated conflict could force China into a bind between taking “decisive action” to defend Iran, which might alienate Saudi Arabia, or doing nothing militarily and letting Israeli and potentially U.S. attacks “continue to degrade Iranian export capacity,” which would leave other regional partners with a “dim view [of] what Chinese commitment under pressure looks like.”
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Still, some analysts have suggested that China—as well as Russia—may be content for now to sit back and let things play out, with their higher priorities clearly elsewhere.
According to Bloomberg Economics analyst Alex Kokcharov, a contained conflict in the Middle East could “distract Washington from strategic competition with China.”
Added Bloomberg’s bureau chief in China, Allen Wan, in a newsletter Friday: “Should the U.S. once again get tangled up in a war in the Middle East, that’d probably suit China just fine. Beijing and the [People’s Liberation Army] would appreciate the chance to squeeze Taiwan tighter.”
“At very least, both powers [Russia and China] are content to watch the U.S. further squander goodwill with gulf Arab partners by backing another destabilizing conflict in the region,” Haghdoosti, the Win Without War executive director, tells TIME. And they, she adds, are likely “shedding no tears that the U.S. military is currently burning through stocks of difficult-to-replenish missile defense interceptors to shield Israel.”
Israeli warning call to top Iranian general: ‘You have 12 hours to escape’
The Washington Post obtained an audio recording and transcript of one such call, which took place the same day that Israel began its bombardment of Iran. The general, a member of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was told he had 12 hours to make a video disassociating himself from the Iranian government. “We’re closer to you than your own neck vein. Put this in your head, May God protect you,” the operative says, referring to the Telegram messaging app. It is unclear whether such a video was made or sent; the general is believed to be still alive and in Iran, said one of the people familiar with the operation. The overall operation, dubbed “Rising Lion” by the Israeli government, relied on the activation of clandestine intelligence teams, pre-positioned weapons caches and other capabilities that had lain dormant inside Iranian territory for weeks or even months, Israeli officials said. The Israeli government said that in recent months, Iran was getting closer to being able to turn its stockpile of enriched uranium into a nuclear weapon.
People working for Israel’s security services who speak Persian, Iran’s primary language, called senior Iranian officials on their cellphones and warned them that they, too, would die unless they ceased supporting the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, according to the three people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss clandestine operations. One of them estimated that more than 20 Iranians in positions of power were contacted.
The Washington Post obtained an audio recording and transcript of one such call, which took place the same day, June 13, that Israel began its bombardment of Iran.
The Washington Post obtained the audio file of an Israeli intelligence operative’s June 13 call to a senior Iranian commander. (Video: HyoJung Kim, Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)
“I can advise you now, you have 12 hours to escape with your wife and child. Otherwise, you’re on our list right now,” an Israeli intelligence operative told a senior Iranian general close to the country’s rulers, according to the audio recording. The operative then suggested that Israel could train weapons on the general and his family at any moment. “We’re closer to you than your own neck vein. Put this in your head. May God protect you,” he said.
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The general, a member of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was told he had 12 hours to make a video disassociating himself from the Iranian government.
“How should I send it to you?” the general replies.
“I will send you a Telegram ID,” the operative says, referring to the Telegram messaging app. “Send it.”
It is unclear whether such a video was made or sent. The general is believed to be still alive and in Iran, said one of the people familiar with the operation. But a primary goal of the operation was to deter and confuse the Tehran leadership, a second person said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not reply to a request for comment.
The audio recording and an English-language transcript were made available by an Israeli individual who obtained the material and shared it with The Post, along with a description of a second such call to another senior Iranian official close to Khamenei. The Post prepared its own English-language transcript of the nearly four-minute audio recording of the conversation, which was conducted in Persian.
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The individual who provided the recording said the content of the audio was not manipulated in any way, other than to mask the voice of the Israeli intelligence operative to protect his identity. The Post obtained the Iranian general’s name but is not publishing it and has removed his voice from the recording to conceal his identity.
The phone calls to top Iranian military and security figures were one node of what Israeli security officials have described as a broad covert action campaign that complemented Israel’s military assault of nuclear sites, weapons production facilities and missile launchers.
The overall operation, dubbed “Rising Lion” by the Israeli government, relied on the activation of clandestine intelligence teams, pre-positioned weapons caches and other capabilities that had lain dormant inside Iranian territory for weeks or even months, Israeli officials said.
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Netanyahu said Israel launched the surprise operation, now in its second week, to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. The Israeli government said that in recent months, Iran was getting closer to being able to turn its stockpile of enriched uranium into a nuclear weapon. Israel has offered no new detailed evidence of Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions or weaponization efforts. Current and former U.S. officials said that while they have intelligence that Iran was researching techniques that would allow it to build a crude nuclear device quickly if it chose to, there was no sign it had made a decision to acquire an atomic bomb.
President Donald Trump ordered a multipronged attack on Iran’s nuclear sites this weekend using earth-penetrating ordnance dropped from B-2 Spirit bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from submarines. The weapons struck the deeply buried uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, as well as nuclear sites at Natanz and Isfahan.
Top Pentagon officials said the three sites suffered “severe damage” but added that it was too soon to say whether Iran retained some nuclear capability.
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The U.S. military strikes came eight days after Israel launched its assault on Iran. In the opening hours of Israel’s attack, members of Khamenei’s inner circle and top figures in Iran’s nuclear brain trust were killed, in some cases apparent casualties of explosives-packed drones or other devices that blew holes in the sides of apartment high-rises and other structures in central Tehran, according to Israeli and Western security officials, as well as regime statements on known casualties.
Those targeted and believed killed include Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the IRGC; Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, an IRGC veteran who was the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces; and Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, a nuclear physicist and major figure in Iran’s nuclear development.
The Israeli operative emphasized those assassinations in his phone call to the Iranian general. “I’ll explain to you, listen carefully. I’m calling from a country that two hours ago sent Bagheri, Salami, Shamkhani, one by one, to hell,” the operative tells the general.
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The operative’s list of the dead included Vice Adm. Ali Shamkhani, the former head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Iranian media reported last week that Shamkhani, while seriously injured, had survived an Israeli attack and sent a message to Khamenei promising that the “dawn of victory is near” for Iran.
Israel has shown before that it has the ability to conduct targeted assassinations in Tehran. In July, it killed the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, using an explosive device smuggled inside the state-run guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying in the Iranian capital.
The covert intimidation campaign against key Iranian figures who survived, or were not targeted in, the initial round of Israeli strikes involved several of Israel’s security and military agencies and was aimed at striking fear into second- and third-tier figures, according to two of the people familiar with the operation. The goal was to make it harder for Khamenei, who controls Iran’s national security policy, to fill the positions of those Israel killed.
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“The second-tier leadership that is supposed to inherit the positions and now fill in the places of those who have been eliminated, they are terrified,” said one of the people familiar with the operation. “And they are being reminded on a personal level about what happened to the successor of Nasrallah and the successors of Hezbollah commanders who were eliminated, as well.”
The official referred to Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon whom Israel assassinated in an airstrike in September. Israel later killed Nasrallah’s likely successor.
“Khamenei is facing serious difficulties to nominate successors for the positions of officials that were eliminated in the operation,” the official said. “And even if he succeeds to do so, these are people he didn’t choose in the first place. Because the more serious ones are refusing to take the positions now.”
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Western security officials said they have not seen indications of defections among high-ranking members of Iran’s military or the IRGC.
The Israeli official said that some senior Iranian figures received a warning letter under their door, some received a phone call directly, and others were contacted via their spouses. “They fully understand that they are transparent and known to us and that our intelligence penetration is 100 percent.”
Some of the senior Iranian officials have been contacted several times, resulting in a dialogue between them and Israeli intelligence, one of the people familiar with the operations said.