{"id":154036,"date":"2025-06-20T11:27:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T11:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/israel-iran-live-uk-says-it-will-get-britons-out-of-tel-aviv-iran-captures-spy-trumps-attack-decision-timeline-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T11:27:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T11:27:58","slug":"israel-iran-live-uk-says-it-will-get-britons-out-of-tel-aviv-iran-captures-spy-trumps-attack-decision-timeline-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/israel-iran-live-uk-says-it-will-get-britons-out-of-tel-aviv-iran-captures-spy-trumps-attack-decision-timeline-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-Iran live: UK says it will get Britons out of Tel Aviv; Iran 'captures spy'; Trump's attack decision timeline – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran’s supreme leader says Israel is “being punished right now”, amid reports of more attacks and back-and-forth strikes overnight. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has responded to reports he approved attack plans on Iran but is holding back on the final order. Listen to Trump 100 as you scroll.
Friday 20 June 2025 12:27, UK
Israel is currently carrying out more strikes on Iran, according to the Israel Defence Forces.
The IDF says the attacks are targeting “military infrastructure” in central and western parts of the country.
The UK is preparing charter flights out of Israel for British nationals.
It comes after Britons in Israel were asked to register their presence in the country amid the ongoing conflict and strikes by Iran.
The flights will leave from the Tel Aviv airport once airspace reopens.
Read the latest from Foreign Secretary David Lammy below:
The government was working with Israeli authorities to provide the transport out of the region.
Number 10 said this morning it was closely monitoring the “fast-moving” situation.
A spokesperson added: “We are advising British nationals to continue to register their presence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, to be contactable with further guidance on these flights.”
The foreign secretary is in Geneva along with his French and German counterparts, and an EU foreign policy chief, to meet Iran’s Abbas Araghchi.
Israel’s stated goal in its fight with Iran is to dismantle its potential to build a nuclear weapon.
It isn’t clear if Israel has the military might to do it alone, with some of the key sites Iran is using to store and process nuclear material protected deep underground.
So far, Israel has conducted strikes on nuclear sites like Natanz, Khondab, Isfahan and Fordow.
Yesterday, Israel said it had struck the Bushehr site, Iran’s only active nuclear plant, before seemingly rowing back the comments.
But what are the risks from such attacks, and could they lead to a nuclear fallout of some kind in a region home to tens of millions of people?
Underground safety<\/b>
Peter Bryant, a professor at the University of Liverpool who specialises in radiation protection science, said he was not too concerned about the risks so far.
While there had been strikes on the likes of Khondab, a lot of the damage reported so far is external, and such facilities are designed to contain internal issues.
“Uranium is only dangerous if it gets physically inhaled or ingested or gets into the body at low enrichments,” he said.
Nuclear material could end up buried<\/b>
Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow at London thinktank RUSI, said attacks on facilities at the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle – the enrichment stages where uranium is prepared for use in a reactor – pose primarily chemical, not radiological risks.
Sites like Natanz and Isfahan are enrichment sites.
Such chemicals could be dispersed, but such a risk is again lower with underground facilities.
Simon Bennett, who leads the civil safety and security unit at the University of Leicester in the UK,  said Israeli strikes were likely to end up “burying nuclear material in possibly thousands of tonnes of concrete, earth and rock”.
Risk of ‘absolute catastrophe’ at nuclear power plant<\/b>
The major concern would be if the Israelis attacked the Bushehr nuclear reactor.
Richard Wakeford, honorary professor of epidemiology at the University of Manchester, said that while enrichment facilities would remain a chemical issue, a reactor strike would be a “different story”.
This could lead to the release of radioactive elements either in a plume of volatile materials or into the sea, he added.
James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said an attack on Bushehr “could cause an absolute radiological catastrophe”.
Gulf State water supply could be vulnerable<\/b>
For the Gulf States, any potential impact on Bushehr threatens to contaminate Gulf waters, jeopardising a critical source of desalinated potable water. 
In a number of Gulf countries like the UAE,  Qatar and Bahrain, desalinated water accounts for a huge amount of drinking water.
Nidal Hilal, professor of engineering and director of New York University Abu Dhabi’s Water Research Centre, said: “Coastal desalination plants are especially vulnerable to regional hazards like oil spills and potential nuclear contamination.”
Iranian media is reporting an Israeli spy has been arrested for sending the location of air defence sites to an “intelligence agent”.
It’s said the alleged Mossad agent used WhatsApp to relay the messages.
He was reportedly caught during a “surveillance and reconnaissance operation” in Tehran.
Mossad, the mysterious spy organisation, is the Israeli equivalent of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (better known as MI6) or the CIA in the US.
Its work is veiled in secrecy and it often takes a much more proactive role against Israel’s enemies.
It’s said that Mossad commandos gathered intelligence over a number of years by infiltrating deep into Iran – information which informed the strikes Israel first launched last Friday.
Operatives also reportedly played a part in the attacks themselves to destroy weapons systems and other Israeli targets in Iran.
The United Nations has kept Israel on its blacklist for countries that violate children’s rights for a second year running.
The UN released its annual report on Children in Armed Conflict yesterday, against the backdrop of ongoing criticism of Israel for its military activity and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The paper detailed “a staggering 25% surge in grave violations” against children under the age of 18 in 2024 compared to 2023.
Gaza and the West Bank were among the worst areas for such violations.
This included the killing of 1,259 Palestinian children and injury to 941 others in Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has much higher figures, but the UN has strict criteria and said its verification processes were ongoing.
Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, said he was “appalled” and “deeply alarmed” – especially by the high number of children killed by Israeli forces.
While much focus in the Middle East has shifted to the fighting between Israel and Iran, the situation in Gaza continues to be dire.
After Israel’s aid blockade, there are still insufficient amounts of food and water.
And after the UN was supplanted as the main aid distributor for a US-backed group, there have been repeated reports of deadly shootings around aid points.
The UN also kept Hamas, whose 7 October 2023 terror attack on Israel sparked the latest war in Gaza, and Palestinian Jihad on the blacklist.
Israel’s attacks increase the chances of Iran making a nuclear bomb, according to a former nuclear negotiator for Tehran.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian said Iran was not planning to develop the bomb and had been “transparent” about its programme.
Talks between Iran and the US were ongoing until Israel’s attack last Friday.
Speaking to CNN<\/b><\/a>, he said: “This narrative is telling Iranians, you know what? Even if there is transparency, even [if] all nuclear ambiguities are resolved, the US and Israel would attack to bring regime change.”
He added: “That’s why you Iranians, you need nuclear deterrence, which is a nuclear bomb.
“I think this is what Americans and Israelis are practically telling Iranians: get the bomb as the best deterrence. And I believe if this policy continues, Iran would go for [a] nuclear bomb.”
While Israel has stated its goal is to prevent Iran building a nuclear bomb – and has claimed Tehran is close to doing so – our military analyst Michael Clarke<\/b><\/a> explained they’re likely at least a year away.
Even then, there are difficulties around the trigger mechanism – read more in the link below…
Here’s the latest from our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn<\/a><\/b>.
He’s reporting from Geneva, where Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his French and German counterparts, along with an EU foreign policy chief, are meeting Iran’s Abbas Araghchi.
He explains Lammy’s likely message from the US and why, despite the limited chance of success, the talks are the “only game in town” to avoid further escalation.
Catch up on the latest here:
An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed in a strike, Israeli media is reporting.
The attack was said to have taken place in Tehran, state broadcaster Kan and other local media said.
There has been no comment from either side so far, but Israel targeted nuclear scientists earlier in the conflict.
Emmanuel Macron has said that strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure, in the ongoing fighting between Israel and Iran, has to stop.
The French president made the comments as he arrived at an air show near Paris.
“For several days now, France has had a clear, simple voice: there is no justification for strikes against energy infrastructures and civilian populations,” he told reporters.
He added that Iran should show its willingness to return to the negotiating table.
Controversy at the air show<\/b>
The air show was hit by controversy earlier in the week when France’s government ordered black partition walls be erected around Israeli defence exhibits.
It was said the move was taken because of Israel’s war in Gaza and tensions in the Middle East.
Israel’s defence ministry demanded the decision be reversed.
Israeli attacks have targeted an area near an airport in Tabriz, according to a local official.
The director of crisis management for the East Azerbaijan province – which is in Iran – said strikes also hit an area west of the city of Tabriz.
In Tehran, news website Asriran reported a drone struck a flat in a residential building in the central Gisha district.
Be the first to get Breaking News<\/span>
Install the Sky News app for free<\/p>\n

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