- Last updated: 9am BST/4am EDT, June 20
Israel began pounding Iran on June 13, in a conflict that has the world holding its breath because of fears it could rapidly escalate and drag Britain and the US in.
The IDF’s blistering aerial assault – codenamed ‘Operation Rising Lion’ – has targeted dozens of key nuclear sites, military bases and surface-to-air missile launchers. Oil and gas infrastructure have also been hit, as well as Iran’s state news broadcaster, which was struck while live on air.
Among the eliminated are nuclear scientists and senior Iranian commanders, including the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – an elite wing of Tehran’s military.
In a televised address to the nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was neccessary to ‘roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival’. Iran was thought to be ‘closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon’.
Iran immediately retaliated with drone strikes, before launching several waves of ballistic missiles aimed at Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as part of its own ‘Operation True Promise III’.
Israel’s largest oil refinery in Haifa was shut down following an attack that severely damaged the facilities.
The IRGC claimed their precision-guided missiles struck the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, as well as another military intelligence unit known as Aman, near Tel Aviv.
Israel’s state-of-the-art air defences, including its ‘Iron Dome’, have been in near-constant action.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, told Israel to prepare for ‘a severe punishment’.
He has previously called Israel a ‘terrorist base’ and a ‘cancerous tumour’ that must ‘be removed and eradicated’.
Iran has also issued bloodcurdling threats urging the US, UK and France not to rush to Israel’s defence, warning that their military bases and ships will be in the firing line should they intervene.
Donald Trump has demanded Tehran’s ‘unconditional surrender’, boasting his forces could assisinate Khamenei. Posting on social media on June 17, he said the Ayatollah was an ‘easy target’ but remained safe ‘for now’.
Actual US strikes aimed at targets inside Iran remain on the table. America is assembling an armada of warships and fleets of fighter jets in the region ahead of possible military action.
Britain itself has ordered military reinforcements to be sent to the Middle East as the war rages.
Keir Starmer told reporters en route to the G7 summit in Canada that he would ‘always make the right decisions for the UK and our allies’. Britain already has fighter jets in the region as part of an operation to counter threats in Iraq and Syria.
Tehran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful and that it has never intended to make a bomb, despite the fears of Israel and the West.
However, its ever-growing stockpile of enriched uranium – needed to produce an atomic weapon – had triggered major concerns.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said Iran’s activity was a ‘matter of serious concern’. On June 12, the day before Israel’s sudden attack, the IAEA ruled that Iran was in breach of its safeguard obligations.
Iran criticised the ‘politically motivated’ decision, announcing it would bolster its nuclear programme with a new enrichment facility in a ‘secure location’.
Officials also said centrifuges – machines that enrich uranium – would be upgraded at Fordo, one of the nation’s most secretive and heavily fortified nuclear sites, buried deep beneath the mountains near the holy city of Qom.
