Donald Trump has responded to reports he approved attack plans on Iran but is holding back on the final order. Meanwhile, back-and-forth strikes continued overnight between Israel and Tehran. Listen to Trump 100 as you scroll.
Friday 20 June 2025 07:17, UK
Iran’s leader has said Israel is “being punished right now” in a message in the last few hours.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted on social media, seemingly implying that Iran had launched fresh attacks on Israel.
We’ll bring you any updates to possible strikes.
Read his full message below:
Iran’s internet shut off continues today.
The move makes it increasingly difficult to get information in and out of the country.
It has not only blocked the public from seeing news from abroad, but it also restricts people outside from reading Iranian sites.
NetBlocks, a group that monitors nations’ interference with internet access, said Iran has been disconnected from the rest of the world for 36 hours.
That’s left many scrambling on various social media apps to try and figure out what’s happening.
Those outside Iran seeking to make contact with loved ones inside via phone have found themselves unable to dial any numbers in the country.
Meanwhile, state-run TV and radio stations offer irregular updates on what’s happening with the conflict.
Instead, they often focus on the damage wrought by Iran’s own strikes on Israel.
The Iranian regime is also one of the world’s top jailers of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Even outside of open fighting, reporters faced strict restrictions stifling the flow of information.
Here are some of the latest pictures from the Israel-Iran conflict.
At the site of an Iranian attack in Beer Sheba, southern Israel, Israeli soldiers were pictured taking a selfie.
It’s the same spot where Tehran hit a hospital yesterday.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is heading to Geneva today.
Along with the foreign ministers of France and Germany and the EU foreign policy chief, he is going to meet his Iranian counterpart.
They will discuss the fighting as well as Tehran’s nuclear programme.
It marks an uptick in diplomatic efforts to try to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East.
Ahead of the meeting with Abbas Araghchi, Lammy met US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Donald Trump’s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington DC.
Speaking yesterday, Lammy said: “Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one.”
Here’s what he tweeted yesterday:
Back-and-forth strikes continued overnight between Israel and Iran.
Fighting today enters its second week, after Israel began attacking Iran last Friday.
As we’ve been reporting, Donald Trump has apparently approved a US plan to intervene, targeting Iran’s ability to potentially produce a nuclear weapon. However, he’s set a timeline of two weeks for the Iranian regime to agree a deal.
Here’s the latest on the conflict:
In Israel…
Israeli emergency services said six people suffered minor injuries in Beer Sheba, in southern Israel, after Iranian strikes.
It is the same area where Iranian missiles hit a hospital yesterday.
Footage circulating online appears to show damaged buildings following the missile attack.
In Iran…
The Israel Defence Forces said it carried out strikes “in the heart of Tehran”.
Among its targets were missile sites, research headquarters and the “development of Iran’s nuclear weapons project”.
The attacks were a part of ongoing Israeli efforts to cripple Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
The Israeli Air Force also downed four drones.
It’s approaching 6am here in the UK, so here’s everything you need to know from overnight.
Tit-for-tat strikes continued between Israel and Iran as fighting entered its eighth day.
The Israel Defence Forces say they struck Tehran, continuing their efforts to target missile sites and the “development of Iran’s nuclear weapons project”.
Israel also issued an evacuation demand for an Iranian village to the northwest of Tehran.
Iran hit the area of Beer Sheba, in southern Israel, where six people were said to have suffered minor injuries.
It is the same area where Iranian missiles hit a hospital yesterday.
Elsewhere in the world…
In a rare interview with a foreign media organisation, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told our Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett that the killing of Iran’s supreme leader would “open the Pandora’s box.”
Watch more on that below:
Then, in Washington DC, Donald Trump set out a timeline for any possible intervention in the Middle East, saying: “I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”
However, the US leader made positive noises about the chances of talks as well, saying there is “a substantial chance of negotiations”.
Our US correspondent Mark Stone breaks down what it may mean below:
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy was in Washington to meet secretary of state Marco Rubio yesterday.
But today he’s flying to Geneva, where, along with his European counterparts, he’ll meet the Iranian foreign minister.
A few more details have emerged on the latest reported strikes by Iran on Israel (see our 4.05 post).
There are no reports of injuries following the missile attack, which appears to have hit Beer Sheba, the same southern city where a hospital was struck on Thursday.
A spokesperson for Israel’s emergency services said: “Following the Red Alert sirens heard in the past few minutes in southern Israel, MDA teams were dispatched to a scene in the Negev where a report of a rocket impact was received.
“So far, no physical injuries have been identified.
“MDA teams are providing medical treatment at the scene to several people suffering from anxiety and are continuing to search for additional casualties.”
Iran has fired a fresh wave of missiles at Israel, according to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
It comes after Israel issued an evacuation warning to residents in an Iranian village to the northwest of Tehran, as it prepared to strike Iranian military infrastructure.
The warning is for the industrial area of Iran’s Kolesh Taleshan village.
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
Regime change in Iran is “unacceptable” and the assassination of the country’s supremeleader would “open the Pandora’s box”, the Kremlin has said.
In a rare interview with a foreign media organisation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sky News that Russia would react “very negatively” if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.
The comments came as US President Donald Trump said he will decide within two weeks whether America will join Israel’s military campaign against Tehran, after earlier speculating on social media about killing the Iranian leader.
Earlier we brought you news that Israel attacked a partially-constructed Iranian heavy water reactor roughly 400km west of Tehran.
While it was part of Iran’s nuclear programme, the IAEA has said that the site was not operational and contained no nuclear material.
So why did the IDF attack it?
It may have been because Israel is thinking ‘longer term’, Dr Alexander Bollfrass, an expert in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons at the International Institute for Strategic Studies thinktank, says.
“The concern there is that were the reactor to come online and to produce plutonium, in the long run that plutonium could find its use in a nuclear warhead,” he told a panel on Thursday afternoon.
Plutonium is an alternative fuel for nuclear weapons.
“That was a much longer term nuclear capability,” Dr Bollfrass added.
He also described the Israeli campaign in general in how it is seeking to destroy or disable Iran’s nuclear capability in general.
“They are really trying to systematically go through and eliminate the raw materials that would be needed for a nuclear weapon, the intellectual ability in the form of scientists and engineers, as well as things like test results, and also focussing on the longer term ability to produce plutonium.”
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