Rescue team work at the site where a missile launched from Iran struck Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israeli strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time.” He added that Israel was not attempting to topple the Iranian government, but said he would not be surprised if that happened as a result of the strikes.

He spoke on the fourth day of a conflict between the regional foes, which began when Israel attacked Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program. The tit-for-tat attacks between Israel and Iran escalated over the weekend, raising fears of a wider, more dangerous regional war.

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Here's the latest:

Netanyahu says Israeli strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back a ‘very, very long time’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israeli strikes against Iran have set Iran’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time.” He added that Israel was not attempting to topple the Iranian government, but said he would not be surprised if that happened as a result of the strikes.

Netanyahu also said he is in touch with Trump daily.

Israel’s opposition leader rallies behind Netanyahu’s Iran operation

Roughly 24 hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a blistering assault on Iran, Israel’s opposition was scheming to bring down his government.

Now, just days into the ongoing operation against Iran, the opposition has closed ranks behind the effort, suspending months of bitter criticism against Netanyahu and his handling of the war in Gaza.

It’s a sharp about-face for a constellation of parties that have criticized Netanyahu throughout the war for what they have charged is his politically motivated decision-making.

“It’s not the right moment to do politics,” opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid told The Associated Press on Monday in his first international media interview since the start of the operation against Iran.

Website for Iranian state TV remains offline

The website for Iranian state TV, iribnews.ir, which was targeted by an Israeli strike hours ago, is currently inaccessible.

The site displays a message saying: “The website server is temporarily unavailable.”

UK signals it doesn’t want to topple Iran’s government

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, Tom Wells, told reporters that “significant destabilization in the region is in nobody’s interests.”

Speaking Monday on the sidelines of a G7 summit where conflict in the Middle East is the dominant issue, Wells said “this summit is an opportunity to try and press for de-escalation and that is the priority, certainly for the prime minister and I believe for other world leaders too.”

Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country’s ongoing strikes on Iran could result in the government’s overthrow, and on Friday urged Iranians to rise up against their leaders.

Iranian news anchor says there were ‘bodies of reporters’ after Israeli strike

Anchor Sahar Emami came back on-air from another studio soon after rushing off-camera when Israel struck the state-run Iranian TV station.

Speaking with another anchor, Emami said that “bodies of reporters” were at the site of the initial broadcast, and images showed smoke and flames in the sky.

Israel’s defense minister takes credit for striking Iranian TV station

“The Iranian regime’s propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority was attacked by the IDF after a widespread evacuation of the area’s residents,” Israel Katz said in a statement. “We will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere.”

Human rights groups say deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime.

Germany offers to evacuate its citizens from Israel via neighboring Jordan

The German Foreign Office said Monday a charter flight from the Jordanian capital of Amman to Frankfurt is scheduled for Wednesday. Those who want to get on the flight must independently arrange their travel from Israel to Amman.

Iran calls Israeli strike on state TV station a ‘war crime’

The spokesperson for the Iranian foreign minister condemned the Israeli strike on Iran’s state TV broadcaster and called on the international community to demand justice for the attack on media.

“The world is watching: targeting Iran’s news agency #IRIB‘s office during live broadcast is a wicked act of war crime,” Esmaeil Baqaei wrote on X.

After the strike, the Israeli military released a statement saying it struck “a communication center that was being used for military purposes by the Iranian Armed Forces.” It was not immediately clear if that referred to the state TV building.

Throughout the war in Gaza, Israel has struck hospitals, U.N. facilities and schools, accusing Palestinian militants of operating from within civilian infrastructure, often without providing visual evidence.

3 killed in Israeli oil refinery hit by Iranian missiles

Early Monday morning, Iranian missiles hit an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa for the second night in a row.

Now Israel’s fire and rescue services are saying the strike killed three workers, ignited a significant fire and damaged a building.

The workers were sheltering in the building’s safe room when the impact caused a stairwell to collapse, trapping them inside. Firefighters tried to extinguish the fire and rescue them, but were too late.

Lebanese leaders indirectly urge Hezbollah to stay out of the Israel-Iran conflict

Lebanon’s president and prime minister say any engagement would be detrimental to the small nation, which is already engulfed in an economic crisis and struggling to recover from the latest war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, funded and armed by Iran, has long been considered Tehran’s most powerful ally in the region but its latest war with Israel also saw much of Hezbollah’s political and military leadership killed in Israeli airstrikes.

The remarks from Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam during a Cabinet meeting Monday amounted to a message to Hezbollah to stay out of the fray.

US Air Force moves refueling tanker aircraft to Middle East

The movements provide President Donald Trump additional options to defend U.S. bases and personnel in the region in wake of the ongoing ballistic missile attacks by Iran and Israel’s continued air operations against Tehran, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

The refueling tankers are vital to supporting any major U.S. air operation, whether it would be evacuations or a potential strike by U.S. fighter jets. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not announced publicly.

Trump demurs on US involvement on Iran

The U.S. president declined to answer what it would take for U.S. to be directly involved in the growing conflict between Israel and Iran, saying he did not want to talk about the issue.

Instead, he continued to press Iran on negotiations on its nuclear program.

“They should talk, and they should talk immediately,” Trump said during a bilateral meeting with the Canadian prime minister during the G7 summit.

Trump added: “I’d say Iran is not winning this war.”

Iran hints at US role in ending fighting with Israel, says ‘one call’ could shift course

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to make a veiled outreach Monday for the U.S. to step in and negotiate an end to dayslong hostilities between Israel and Iran.

In a post on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, Araghchi wrote that if Trump is “genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.”

“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Iran’s top diplomat continued. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”

The message to Washington comes as the most recent round of talks between U.S. and Iran was canceled over the weekend after Israel targeted key military and political officials in Tehran on Thursday.

Iranian state TV halts live broadcast after Israeli strike

During a live broadcast, an Iranian state television reporter said the studio was filling with dust after “the sound of aggression against the homeland, the sound of aggression against truth and righteousness.”

Suddenly, an explosion occurred, cutting out the screen behind her as she hurried off camera amid dust and debris wafting in the air, and sounds of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) were heard from off-screen. The broadcast quickly switched to pre-recorded programs.

Israel had issued a warning the evacuate the area of Iran’s capital where the TV studios are located an hour earlier.

US warships help shoot down Iranian missiles

Two American warships, the USS The Sullivans and the USS Arleigh Burke, were used to shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles over the weekend, according to a U.S. official.

The Sullivans and the USS Thomas Hudner are currently in the Mediterranean, while the Arleigh Burke has moved away from the area. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier is in the Arabian Sea with the four warships in its strike group. They are not participating in the defense of Israel.

The USS Nimitz has been long scheduled to take over for the Carl Vinson and is heading west from the Indo-Pacific region. The official said it is slated to arrive in the region by the end of the month, and the two carriers would likely overlap in the Middle East at least for a short time before the Vinson heads home to San Diego.

— By Lolita C. Baldor in Washington.

Germany backs Israel’s defense, warns Iran on nukes ahead of G7 summit

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters Monday ahead of the G7 summit in Canada that together with his European colleagues at the summit, Germany is planning to draw up a final communique proposal on the Israel-Iran conflict in which the European will stress that “Iran must under no circumstances be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons-capable material.”

The chancellor added the communique would also emphasize Israel’s right to defend itself, and that he and the other European leaders would discuss possible further steps to reach a diplomatic solution.

Merz rejected the idea that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be involved in mediating a diplomatic solution for the hostilities between Israel and Iran and said that instead “it would be good if Russia ended its war in Ukraine.”

Calm is returning to Wall Street after last week’s Israeli attacks

U.S. stocks are rallying Monday, while oil prices are giving back some of their initial spurts following Israel’s attack on Iran at the end of last week.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.1% and was on track to reclaim nearly all of its drop from Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 449 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.4%. They joined a worldwide rise in stock prices, stretching from Asia to Europe.

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. oil fell by more than 3%, while gold’s price eased.

Iran's nuclear program

The Trump administration revived efforts to negotiate limits on Iran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But the indirect talks between American and Iranian diplomats have hit a stalemate.

The latest round of talks between the U.S. and Iran on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program had been scheduled Sunday in Oman but were canceled after Israel’s attack.

Iran said last Thursday that it had built and would activate a third nuclear enrichment facility. The announcement came less than two weeks after the IAEA censured Iran for failing to comply with nonproliferation obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. It was the first such censure in two decades.

Israel warns residents in part of Iran’s capital to evacuate ahead of strikes

Israel said Monday it planned to strike military sites in Tehran. The Israeli military has issued similar evacuation warnings for civilians in parts of Gaza and Lebanon ahead of strikes.

The warning affected up to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that includes the country’s state TV and police headquarters, as well as three large hospitals, including one owned by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

A Democratic US senator says he’ll force a vote to give Congress more of a say over military force against Iran

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is filing a resolution to require that Congress authorize a declaration of war or any specific use of military force against Iran. Congress passed a similar resolution in 2020 during Trump’s first term.

“It is not in our national security interest to get into a war with Iran unless that war is absolutely necessary to defend the United States. I am deeply concerned that the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could quickly pull the United States into another endless conflict,” Kaine said.

The resolution requires that any hostilities with Iran must be explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force, but would not prevent the United States from defending itself from imminent attack.

Cyprus says Portugal and Slovakia have asked for its help with evacuations

Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos says Portugal and Slovakia will be bringing their citizens from the area of the Israeli-Iran conflict home through Cyprus.

The island nation is the nearest European Union country to Israel, lying just 268 kilometers (167 miles) across the Mediterranean Sea.

Cyprus has acted as a transfer point for evacuees following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas that led to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Moscow still not announcing plans to evacuate Russians from Israel and Iran

The Kremlin says Russia is ready to do “everything necessary” to resolve the “root causes” of the “dangerous escalation of tensions” between Iran and Israel.

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters he was unaware if a decision had been made by Moscow to organize a full evacuation of its citizens from Israel and Iran.

“All agencies are monitoring the situation with the utmost care,” Peskov said.

Poland will evacuate around 200 of its citizens stranded in Israel

The evacuations will be overland to neighboring Jordan and will take place within the next two days, according to a deputy foreign minister, Henryka Moscicka-Dendys.

She says there will be a bus convoy to Amman, the Jordanian capital, where evacuees — tourists and short-term visitors — will board a government plane to return home.

“Poland will be the first country to organize such an evacuation,” Moscicka-Dendys said, emphasizing the move is precautionary and aims to avoid escalating tensions. No military escort is planned.

Putin and Erdogan condemn Israeli attacks on Iran

The Russian and Turkish presidents called for an immediate end to hostilities and the use of diplomatic means to settle contentious issues.

Both Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Israeli attacks on Iran. They spoke in a phone call on Monday, the Kremlin said.

Russians urged to leave Israel

Speaking with Russian state media Monday, Russia’s Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov reiterated Moscow’s advice to Russian citizens to leave Israel if possible.

Viktorov said that Russian citizens could independently cross Israel’s border with Egypt in order to catch commercial flights home. He also said that a wider, state-organized evacuation of citizens from Israel could be carried out “if necessary.”

“The threat that is being posed to the lives and health of both diplomats and Russian citizens in Israel is quite real,” he said.

Iran is on its own, analyst says

“Iran is battling it out alone,” said Lina Khatib, a Middle East expert at the Chatham House think tank in London.

Russia will not come to Iran’s aid, Khatib told AP, pointing out that Russia did not help Iran last year when Israel destroyed Russian-supplied air defenses or when Iran’s ally, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was ousted.

Russia is likely to limit its support for Iran to “strongly worded statements” and will use the conflict to present itself as a mediator, Khatib said.

Turkey's Erdogan offers mediation

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a telephone call Monday that Turkey was ready to act as a “facilitator” for the resolution of the Israel-Iran conflict and resumption of the nuclear negotiations.

A statement from Erdogan office said Erdogan emphasized Turkey’s commitment to peace and stability in the region.

The Turkish leader has been engaged in telephone diplomacy since Saturday in an effort to reduce tensions. It was Erdogan’s second call with Pezeshkian since the outbreak of the conflict.

Azerbaijan helps evacuate foreign citizens from neighboring Iran

Azerbaijani media reports said that following the evacuation of citizens of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, citizens of Portugal, the Philippines, Finland and some other countries have crossed the Astara border checkpoint and headed to the airport in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizade said that 41 of its citizens, including family members of its diplomats in Iran, also have returned to Azerbaijan, said. He added that Azerbaijan’s diplomatic missions in Iran have continued to operate as usual.

UN warns of ‘unprecedented’ food crisis in Gaza

A new U.N. food crisis report released on Monday said the resumption of military operations in Gaza was escalating the food crisis in Gaza “to unprecedented levels."

The Hunger Hotspots report by the World Food Program and Food and Agricultural Organization said that no adequate humanitarian aid or commercial supplies have reached the Gaza Strip since the end of the eight-week cease-fire, the longest interruption since the start of the conflict.

According to the latest projections, released in May, the whole of Gaza's 2.1 million people are at risk of falling into acute food insecurity by September.

UN human rights chief decries ‘unconscionable suffering’ in Gaza

The U.N. human rights chief said Israel’s warfare in Gaza is inflicting “horrifying, unconscionable suffering” on Palestinians and urged government leaders to exert pressure on Israel’s government and the militant group Hamas to end it.

“Israel’s means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza,” Volker Türk told the 47-member Human Rights Council in an address that raised concerns about the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, the fallout from sweeping U.S. tariffs, and China’s human rights record among other topics.

Israeli authorities have regularly accused the council of anti-Israel bias, and the Trump administration has kept the United States out of the its proceedings.

Israel claims 'air superiority' over Tehran

Israel’s military claimed Monday to have achieved “aerial superiority” over Iran’s capital.

The military says it has degraded Iranian air defenses and missile systems to the point that its planes can now operate over Tehran without facing major threats.

It says Israel now controls the skies from western Iran to Tehran.

Egypt arrests 2 members of Global March to Gaza, group says

Egyptian authorities arrested two members of the international coordination committee of the Global March to Gaza, the group said Monday.

The group said in a statement it hasn't heard from French citizen Hicham El Ghaoui and Spanish national Manuel Tapial for around a day since their arrest and it has no details about their whereabouts.

Demonstrators from 80 countries planned to march to Egypt’s border with Gaza to spotlight the deepening humanitarian crises facing Palestinians since Israel began blocking aid trucks from entering the coastal enclave in March.

“Our commitment remains unchanged: We stand with Gaza, call for the opening of a humanitarian corridor, and demand an end to the genocide against the Palestinian people. Governments must act now,” the statement said.

Foreigners are being evacuated from Iran and Israel

Some 120 people, including diplomats and their families, were evacuated from Iran via Turkmenistan, the country’s Foreign Ministry said Monday. Many of those evacuated were from fellow Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, officials said.

Turkmenistan, a gas-rich nation that has remained largely isolated under its autocratic rulers since it became independent following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, shares a 1,148-kilometer (713-mile) border with Iran.

The Czech Republic is also sending a plane for Czechs who want to leave Israel amid the conflict with Iran, the Czech Foreign Ministry said. Other Czechs will use another plane sent by the government of Slovakia headed to Jordan to return home.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it helped 14 Taiwanese leave Israel by bus for Jordan on Sunday and will help them travel onward. The ministry is in touch with another nine Taiwanese currently in Iran and will assist them if they need help departing, the ministry said in a statement Monday.

Concussion of Iranian missile causes minor damage to US Consulate in Tel Aviv

The American Consulate in Tel Aviv suffered minor damage from the concussion of an Iranian missile landing nearby, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on Monday.

Huckabee said in a post on X there were no injuries to American personnel but that the consulate in Tel Aviv and Embassy in Jerusalem would remain closed through the day as a precaution.

The damage came amid a new wave of Iranian missile attacks on Israel in retaliation for Israel’s sweeping attacks on Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure.

Iran’s health ministry says 224 killed since Israel’s attack began Friday

Iran’s health ministry says 224 people have been killed since Israel’s attack began Friday.

Spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said on social media that 1,277 other people were hospitalized, and asserted that over 90% of the casualties were civilians.

Israel has said 14 people have been killed there since Friday and 390 others wounded.

EU foreign ministers to meet Tuesday by video link

The European Union’s top diplomat will convene an emergency meeting of the 27-nation bloc’s foreign ministers Tuesday to discuss the conflict between Israel and Iran.

The meeting, to be held via video link, “will provide an opportunity for an exchange of views, coordination on diplomatic outreach to Tel Aviv and Tehran, and possible next steps,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas’ office said Sunday.

“We will continue to contribute to all diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions and to find a lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear issue which can only be through a negotiated deal,” it said.

Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader, US official says

President Donald Trump vetoed a plan presented by Israel to the U.S. to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The Israelis informed the Trump administration in recent days that they had developed a credible plan to kill Khamenei. After being briefed on the plan, the White House made clear to Israeli officials that Trump was opposed to the Israelis making the move, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the sensitive matter.

The Trump administration is desperate to keep Israel’s military operation aimed at decapitating Iran’s nuclear program from exploding into an even more expansive conflict and saw the plan to kill Khamenei as a move that would enflame the conflict and potentially destabilize the region.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025