As it happened Israel-Iran conflict: Trump goes to ground after National Security Council meeting, weighs US involvement; Iranian nuclear, weapons facilities attacked in Israeli strikes

Thank you for joining us today as we covered the rapidly developing conflict between Israel and Iran.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more live coverage as the two countries trade missile strikes in an escalation that shows no signs of easing.

Here’s a quick overview of the latest developments:

• US President Donald Trump has demanded “unconditional surrender” from Iran as its conflict with Israel escalates and tensions grow within Trump’s Republican Party about whether the world’s most powerful military should become directly involved in yet another Middle East theatre of war.
• The White House confirmed Trump had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but would not divulge details of the call – and Trump, unusually, refrained from posting about it on social media.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said US military intervention in the conflict would be met with “irreparable harm”, and his country would not surrender.
• Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear sites represented an act of “war against humanity”, exposing people to the risk of hazardous leaks.
• The first Israeli repatriation flights landed on home soil at Tel Aviv, as evacuations of internationals continued by air, road and sea from Israel and Iran.
• You can catch up with everything we know about the conflict on our regularly updated “what we know so far” page.

We’ll be back on Thursday with more live news coverage.

Following on from Ali Khamenei’s televised statement, more has been shared on the Iran Supreme Leader’s X account.

Posts shared a few minutes ago derided US President Donald Trump: “The US President threatens us. With his absurd rhetoric, he demands that the Iranian people surrender to him. They should make threats against those who are afraid of being threatened. The Iranian nation isn’t frightened by such threats.

“The US entering in this matter [war] is 100 [per cent] to its own detriment. The damage it will suffer will be far greater than any harm that Iran may encounter.”

Further to our previous post, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said “we are millimetres away from catastrophe” because of daily Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, local media reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke by phone today, and both agreed there needed to be an immediate end to the conflict between Israel and Iran, the Kremlin said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.Credit:

Putin reiterated Russia’s readiness to serve as a mediator to help find a diplomatic solution to Israeli and Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme, the Kremlin said.

Reuters

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has warned direct US military assistance to Israel could radically destabilise the situation in the Middle East.

In separate comments, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, was quoted as saying that the situation between Iran and Israel was now critical.

Ryabkov warned the US against even considering such “speculative options”.

“This would be a step that would radically destabilise the entire situation,” he said, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Earlier, a source familiar with US internal discussions said President Donald Trump and his team were considering a number of options, including joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.

On Tuesday, Trump openly mused on social media about killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but said: “We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in January signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran, has called for a cessation of hostilities between the two countries.

Reuters

Quotes from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s statement are trickling in via translators now.

“Any form of US military intervention will undoubtedly be met with irreparable harm,” his statement says, according to the BBC.

“Wise people who know Iran, its people, and its history never speak to this nation in the language of threats, because Iranians are not those who surrender.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said any US strike would have serious and irreparable consequences.

Khamenei, whose statement was read by a presenter on state-run television minutes ago, was quoted by local media as saying the US should know Iran would not surrender.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Credit: Bloomberg, Getty, AP

Referring to Donald Trump’s threats to Iran, Khamenei was quoted as saying those who knew Iran’s history knew that Iranians did not answer well to the language of threat.

He said Israel had made a huge mistake and would be punished for it, according to local media.

Iran would not accept an imposed peace or war, he said.

Reuters

Israel and Iran have both deployed weapons old and new as the fighting between them rages on.

As part of its surprise attack, launched last week while Iran was negotiating a nuclear deal with the US, Israel has flown sorties using the F-35, one of the most-advanced aircraft in the world, as well as launching drone strikes from deep inside Iranian territory.

The site of a ballistic missile strike in Tel Aviv on Monday.Credit: Bloomberg

Iran has struck back with a combination of conventional ballistic missiles and drones in an effort to overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome air-defence system.

But as the conflict continues, focus has switched to a weapon neither side possesses: the US’s 13-tonne GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the only aerial weapon reportedly capable of destroying Iran’s fortified nuclear enrichment site.

Read the full story from Liam Mannix here.

Israel and Iran continue to exchange missile fire in the Middle East’s latest battleground – and the world awaits a decision from Donald Trump.

The US president has long sworn off getting involved in wars like this. Indeed, he’s touted himself as the peacemaker.

But now he faces a critical decision, and a key test for his presidency. Meanwhile, Trump told leaders at the G7 summit that he would been open involving Russian President Vladimir Putin as a mediator.

In our Morning Edition podcast, political and international editor Peter Hartcher examines what Putin’s growing influence over Trump means for foreign policy. You can listen below, or click here.

Iran’s ambassador to Australia has warned of “very bad consequences” if governments refuse to condemn Israel’s attack on the country.

Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 program, Ahmad Sadeghi defended Iran’s response to Israel’s “unprovoked” June 13 attack as “its inalienable right to just defensive measures”.

Iran’s ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi.Credit: Rohan Thomson

He called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to condemn the attack.

“You have to have the punishment of the aggressor,” Sadeghi told 7.30.

“If you let it go unpunished [and] the prime minister of this regime [Benjamin Netanyahu] declared publicly and arrogantly that ‘I ordered such an attack against Iran’.

“If you just let them go free, it has very bad consequences.

“We ask Australia, as a friendly nation that we are in a good relation with, they have to condemn.”

Host David Speers pressed the ambassador about whether Iran was working towards a nuclear weapon.

“Of course not. It has been prohibited by our supreme leader,” Sadeghi said.

Sadeghi said the process of co-operation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency was long-lasting and continuous.

“Suspicions should be removed by diplomacy talks and co-operation,” he said.

“Iran declared quite a few times that it does not have any nuclear program in terms of military aspects.”

As we reported earlier, countries have begun evacuating their citizens from Israel and Iran, and Chinese nationals are making their way by road.

The first Chinese evacuees from Iran have started sharing on social media their desperate efforts to reach the Islamic republic’s borders and the safety of Turkmenistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The first group of Bulgarian citizens evacuated from Israel, along with dozens of foreign nationals from Slovenia, the US, Belgium, Albania, Kosovo and Romania, arrive at Vassil Levsky airport in Sofia on Wednesday.Credit: AP

Several thousand Chinese nationals are thought to reside in oil-rich Iran, according to state media reports.

“My heart was pounding but amid the haze of war, everything became clear: I packed my bags and tried to evacuate to the embassy,” a Chinese travel blogger under the alias Shuishui Crusoe wrote.

Evacuees on the tarmac.Credit: AP

China started evacuating its citizens from Tehran to Turkmenistan by overland bus on Tuesday, a distance of 1150 kilometres, state-run China News Service reported.

The first Polish flights with repatriated citizens landed in Warsaw earlier today, flying from Tel Aviv via Egypt.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski welcomed the Polish nationals home on social media, saying: “Tomorrow, another flight. Come back safely.”

Some yacht owners in Cyprus have reportedly offered to take Israelis home.

Reuters