Trump-Iran latest: Israel’s military strikes in southern Lebanon while UN assesses nuclear facility damage
It comes as Iran’s supreme leader warned the country would not hesitate to bomb more US air bases if provoked
Israel’s military has struck at Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, days after a ceasefire deal with reached with Iran.
The Israeli air force said it was targeting the militant group’s underground defence assets in an intense barrage of strikes on Friday morning.
Meanwhile experts are still assessing the damage done to Iran’s nuclear facilities after Donald Trump claimed they were “obliterated” and his defence secretary said they were “destroyed” in US attacks on the weekend.
It comes after Iran’s increasingly isolated supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in his first televised appearance since the US bombed Tehran’s nuclear facilities that Iran would not hesitate to bomb more US air bases in the Middle East if provoked.
Earlier, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said Iran’s nuclear facilities have been decimated in a complex operation, while railing against the media for reporting on a leaked Defence Intelligence Agency assessment that found that Donald Trump's airstrikes had only set back the country's nuclear program by a matter of a few months.
The 3 lingering questions Trump and Hegseth must answer about their Iran nuke strikes ‘success’
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The 3 lingering questions Trump and Hegseth must answer about their Iran nuke strikes ‘success’
Donald Trump hailed the recent U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities as a “spectacular military success,” claiming the bombings he ordered left the sites “completely and totally obliterated.”
But almost a week on from Operation Midnight Hammer, serious doubts remain about whether the mission actually achieved its aims, Richard Hall writes.
The 3 lingering questions Trump and Hegseth must answer about Iran nuke strikes
Future talks with US ‘complicated’ by nuclear facility attack, top Iran diplomat says
Iran’s foreign minister did not rule out future talks with the US but said the situation had been “complicated” by America’s attack on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The two countries had been in negotiations before the US struck Iran’s three nuclear facilities on Sunday, and during the week Donald Trump suggested the two sides would meet next week to continue those discussions.
In an interview on Iranian state television broadcast late on Thursday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left open the possibility that his country would again enter talks on its nuclear program, but suggested it would not be anytime soon.
"No agreement has been made for resuming the negotiations," he said. "No time has been set, no promise has been made, and we haven't even talked about restarting the talks."
The American decision to intervene militarily "made it more complicated and more difficult" for talks on Iran's nuclear program, Araghchi said.
Former CIA director says people must understand ‘how dangerous a world we live in right now’ in the wake of Trump’s Iran strike
Leon Panetta, the former director of the CIA during Barack Obama’s first term, has warned that President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran – and the intelligence disputes surrounding it – only serve to emphasise “how dangerous a world we live in right now.”
Read the full report here:
Ex-CIA chief says Trump-Iran intelligence drama creates ‘very dangerous moment’
Iran extends flight ban in parts of regime's airspace
Iran has extended a flight ban over the west and northwest of the country, according to state-run news agency Mizan.
The flight ban will remain in place until 2pm (9.30am BST) on Saturday, Reuters reports.
One killed, 11 wounded in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon
The Israeli military carried out intense airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Friday, with two waves of strikes hitting mountains overlooking a city.
Israel’s military said the operation was targeting underground assets of militant Hezbollah group.
Shortly afterward, another strike hit an apartment building in the nearby city of Nabatieh, killing one woman, wounding 11 and knocking out the building's top floor, according to Lebanon's state news agency.
It was not immediately clear if that strike targeted anyone in the building.
Since the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a US-brokered ceasefire in November, Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes on southern Lebanon. Friday's strikes were more intense than usual.
There was no comment from Hezbollah.
Netanyahu says opportunity to expand peace agreements 'should not be wasted'
Benjamin Netanyahu has celebrated Israel’s operation against Iran, saying there was now an opportunity to expand peace agreements.
“We fought fiercely against Iran - and achieved a great victory. This victory opens an opportunity for a dramatic expansion of peace agreements. We are working on this vigorously,” he said on X.
“Alongside the release of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas, there is a window of opportunity here that must not be missed. Not a single day should be wasted.”
Watch: Rare looks at how the Bunker Buster bombs dropped on Iran work
Analysis: Donald Trump sends U.S. military to war against the media over Iran strike doubts
The US military’s latest operation — convincing the American media that its mission to destroy Iran’s nuclear capability was a success — is proving to be a challenging one, writes Richard Hall.
Donald Trump sends the U.S. military to war against the media over Iran strike doubts
In pictures: cleanup continues in Tehran after Israeli strikes
UN nuclear watchdog says damage to Iranian nuclear site ‘very considerable’
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said damage to Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility was ‘very considerable’, and the key centrifuges required to enrich uranium would have been seriously damaged.
IAEA director Rafael Grossi has previously said Iran had informed the orgaisation that it planned to move its enriched uranium from its nuclear sites ahead of an expected attack.
Even if Iran did move its uranium, Mr Grossi told Radio France International that the damage done to the Fordow site "is very, very, very considerable".
Among other things, he said, centrifuges are "quite precise machines" and it's "not possible" that the concussion from multiple 30,000-pound bombs would not have caused "important physical damage".
"These centrifuges are no longer operational," he said.
Mr Araghchi himself acknowledged that "the level of damage is high, and it's serious damage".
He added that Iran had not yet decided upon whether to allow IAEA inspectors in to assess the damage, but that they would be kept out "for the time being".
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