LIVE: Iran says it is ‘co-ordinating with Russia’

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Moscow today, the Interfax news agency said, citing Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Araqchi earlier said that Tehran is coordinating with Russia regarding the current escalation.

The two men are set to discuss ‘common threats’ during their meeting, Iran’s IRNA news agency reports.

It comes after Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia argued at an emergency meeting on Sunday that the United States’ airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities ‘has opened Pandora’s box.’

‘No one knows what new catastrophes and suffering it will bring,’ Nebenzia said.

Iranian state media have ramped up calls for attacks on US bases in the Middle East, with one declaring 50,000 US soldiers could be brought back to Washington in ‘coffins’.

According to Al Jazeera, state television’s Channel 3 showed a map of all US bases across the region highlighting facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq. All are believed to be in range of Iranian missiles.

In quotes translated by Al Jazeera, the channel’s anchor Mehdi Khanalizadeh is purported to have said:

It is now clearer than ever, not just for the Iranian nation but for the whole peoples of the region, that all US citizens and military personnel are legitimate targets.

We were negotiating and progressing through a diplomatic path, but you chose to spill the blood of your soldiers. The US president in the Oval Office chose to take delivery of the coffins of up to 50,000 US soldiers in Washington.

While Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of the hardline Keyhan daily newspaper, wrote: ‘It is now our turn to immediately rain missiles down on the US naval force in Bahrain as a first measure.’

Good morning. Follow along here for the key updates after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend.

• Iran’s military has warned the US of ‘heavy consequences’ for entering its conflict with Israel, saying it has now expanded the scope of legitimate targets.
• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said ‘the punishment continues’ against Israel, as Tehran launched new missile strikes on the country overnight.
• US President Donald Trump raised the prospect of ‘regime change’ in Iran.
• Iran’s foreign minister said the country is ]’co-ordinating with Russia’ as he is set to visit Moscow today.
• Trump said strikes on caused ‘monumental damage’ to ‘all nuclear sites in Iran’.
• The UN’s nuclear watchdog could not immediately verify the exact level of damage.