Smoke rises up after Israel's attack, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Explosions were heard in Tehran throughout the day Wednesday as Israel said its warplanes pounded Iran in three waves of strikes. Less than a week into the conflict, Israel now says its aircraft have free rein over the Iranian capital's skies.

Iran launched small barrages of missiles at Israel with no reports of casualties, and Israel has eased some restrictions for its civilians. Meanwhile, fear grips the Iranian capital as the streets are empty, businesses closed and communications patchy at best. Thousands have fled.

President Donald Trump would not say Wednesday whether he has decided to order a U.S. strike on Iran. “I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters at the White House. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

High-ranking European diplomats will hold nuclear talks with Iran in Switzerland on Friday, according to a European official familiar with the plans.

Here’s the latest:

Putin says ‘a solution could be found’ to end Israel-Iran conflict

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Wednesday to help mediate an end to the conflict between Israel and Iran, suggesting Moscow could help negotiate a settlement that could allow Tehran to pursue a peaceful atomic program while assuaging Israeli security concerns.

Speaking at a roundtable session with senior news leaders of international news agencies, Putin said he had shared Moscow’s proposals with Iran, Israel and the United States.

“We are not imposing anything on anyone, we are simply talking about how we see a possible way out of the situation. But the decision, of course, is up to the political leadership of all these countries, primarily Iran and Israel,” the Russian leader added.

British official hints at UK and US force deployments

The British official said the U.S. is sending resources including the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and putting refueling tankers in Spain and Greece, adding that the U.S. has fighter jets and B-52 bombers at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter freely.

They said there could be a U.S. request to station jets at RAF base Akrotiri, the British base in Cyprus, but that the U.K. has not received one yet. The U.S. would normally have to inform the U.K. if it wanted to conduct offensive operations from either the U.K. base in Cyprus or Diego Garcia, which is a joint U.S.-U.K. base.

— By Emma Burrows in London.

British official says UK isn’t fully clear on US plans for Iran

A British official with knowledge of the situation in the Middle East said there “isn’t complete clarity” about the American plan in the region. The official said they understand the U.S. is still debating what to do but believe that “all options” are on the table.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely on the matter, said Trump wants to put pressure on Iran to do a deal and suggested he does not want to go to war.

The British official said the U.S. is mounting a “very strong defensive response,” which allows a lot of choice “whichever way this goes,” but emphasized that the U.S. is framing the current operation as “primarily defensive.” That includes protecting U.S. bases and personnel in the Middle East.

— By Emma Burrows in London.

Senior European diplomats to hold nuclear talks with Iran on Friday, official says

The high-ranking officials from Germany, France and the United Kingdom as well as the European Union’s top diplomat will gather for the meeting in Switzerland.

That’s according to a European official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

It comes as Trump is weighing approval U.S. military to join Israel in carrying out strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.

— By Aamer Madhani in Washington.

US starts evacuating some diplomats from its embassy in Israel

Two U.S. officials said a government plane evacuated a number of diplomats and family members who had asked to leave Israel on Wednesday. There’s no indication of how many diplomats and family members departed on the flight.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic movements.

This took place shortly before U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced on X that the embassy was making plans for evacuation flights and ships for private American citizens.

The evacuation comes amid the there is the possibility that the United States could become directly involved in the conflict.

— By Matthew V. Lee in Washington.

Iran’s state TV reports it’s under a cyberattack by Israel

Social media users reported that regular broadcasts on state TV were briefly interrupted and replaced with an anti-government video urging people to take to streets.

After the normal broadcast was resumed, a message displayed on screen read: “If you see an irrelevant message on the screen, it’s due to a cyber attack by the Zionist regime.”

USS Ford to sail for European deployment, giving the US a 3rd carrier option if Iran-Israel conflict widens

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford will sail from the East Coast for Europe on a regularly scheduled deployment. But its presence also gives President Donald Trump a third aircraft carrier option as he weighs what sort of military response the U.S. should provide amid escalating strikes between Israel and Iran.

The Ford was previously deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean as a show of strength and to provide options to Israel following the October 2023 attacks by Hamas. The U.S. Navy already has the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, and is sending the USS Nimitz to sail toward the Mideast from the Indo-Pacific.

Israel says a drone was intercepted in the Golan Heights

Sirens sounded in Israeli communities in the annexed Golan Heights after a drone infiltrated the area late Wednesday, the military said, but it was intercepted by the air force.

The internet in most of Gaza has been cut for 2 days

For the second day in a row, communications and internet service has been cut off in south and central Gaza because of an outage caused by Israeli attacks on a key piece of infrastructure, according to the Ramallah-based Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.

Meanwhile up north in Gaza City, Al-Quds Hospital was able to report that it received the bodies of four people and treated more than 54 wounded Wednesday morning following Israeli shelling across neighborhoods in the city, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Since the war began on October 2023, a total of 55,637 people have been killed and nearly 130,000 others were injured, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. That count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it says women and children make up more than half the dead.

The toll includes 5,334 people killed and more than 17,000 wounded since Israel ended a ceasefire three months ago.

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza, including people in tents and parents trying to feed their kids

Israeli strikes across the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis killed 22 people, including two children, and injured 90 others since dawn Wednesday, according to records from Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Eight were killed sheltering in tents and five others killed while trying to get aid, according to hospital records obtained by an AP contributor.

Dozens gathered at Nasser Hospital to mourn their loved ones placed in body bags, including Ahmed Abu Rizk, a boy who cried and screamed in disbelief at losing his father, who was fatally shot when they were getting aid at the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution center in Rafah.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said hospitals across the territory took in 144 bodies and treated 560 wounded people within a 24-hour period.

Arms control experts say US involvement in Israel-Iran conflict worsens risk of nuclear proliferation

Three top officials at the Washington-based Arms Control Association are strongly urging Trump and members of Congress “to choose nuclear nonproliferation diplomacy over war.”

They warned in a statement Wednesday that military strikes can’t destroy Iran’s extensive nuclear knowledge, and while they can set back its nuclear program, attacks can also spur Tehran to pull out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and possibly pursue nuclear weapons.

Israel, which is believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal, is not a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.

According to U.S. intelligence, the experts said, there was no imminent threat that Iran was moving toward producing nuclear weapons before Israel’s attack.

Hypersonic missiles could shift the dynamic of the conflict, experts say

The mix of speed and agility gives defenders less time to react, making the missiles hard to stop.

“It comes over the horizon, you suddenly see it, and then it’s over,” said Jack Watling, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

The missile Iran has launched, the Fattah 1, has had minimal success. Israel says Iran has fired over 400 missiles, with over 40 causing damage or casualties.

That’s because “speed is not crucial,” said Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher at the Israeli think tank INSS.

“What is important is the maneuverability of the incoming missiles, and so far the maneuverability of these missiles is limited,” said Kalisky.

He said Iran has two fast and maneuverable missiles, the Khorramshahr and Fattah 2, that would be “more difficult” to intercept. But neither have been deployed.

Iran says it has fired hypersonic missiles at Israel, but experts are skeptical

Simply put, hypersonic weapons are any missile that travels beyond Mach 5, five times the speed of sound. Ballistic missiles, fired high up or outside the earth’s atmosphere, routinely reach this speed.

However, they must also be able to maneuver midflight to qualify as true hypersonic weapons. That’s a capability Iran isn’t believed to possesses, as the missiles must have advanced navigation systems and withstand the temperature and momentum stresses.

Experts say the U.S. and China are the only countries that have developed new-generation hypersonic missiles, but neither have used them in battle. Other nations such as Russia, North Korea and Pakistan have tested or used missiles with similar but less sophisticated technology.

? Read more about hypersonic missiles

Israel strikes the main Iranian police headquarters

Iran’s police says a number of its forces have been injured during a strike by Israel on its central command buildings in Tehran. An official statement by police public relations called the attack “cowardly and blind.”

Republican Sen. Cruz says ‘zero possibility of American boots on the ground in Iran’

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he’s spoken to Trump and believes the president could “quite reasonably” intervene in the conflict by striking an Iranian nuclear facility that’s deep underground.

Cruz did not respond to a question about whether such actions risked drawing the U.S. into a wider regional war.

“In terms of U.S. involvement in military action, there is zero possibility of American boots on the ground in Iran,” he said.

Cruz also said he believes Iran was working to build a nuclear bomb intended to threaten America. Experts and the U.S. intelligence community have assessed that Iran was not actively working on such a weapon before Israel’s strikes.

Macron calls for Israel to halt strikes on Iran

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his concerns about “Israeli strikes increasingly targeting sites unrelated to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programs, and a growing number of civilian casualties in Iran and Israel.”

“We urgently need to put an end to these military operations,” a statement by Macron’s office said Wednesday, following a special security meeting at the presidential palace in Paris.

Macron asked France’s foreign minister to work with European partners to propose a negotiated settlement of the conflict in the coming days.

He also asked the government to take measures to facilitate the departure of French nationals who want to leave Israel and Iran.

UN chief urges immediate de-escalation

Saying he is “profoundly alarmed” at the military escalation between Iran and Israel, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also strongly appealed to all parties “to avoid any further internationalization of the conflict.”

And in an indirect warning to Trump, who is debating whether to intervene to support Israel, Guterres said: “Any additional military interventions could have enormous consequences, not only for those involved but for the whole region and for international peace and security at large.”

In a statement Wednesday, he stressed that “Diplomacy remains the best and only way to address concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program and regional security issues.”

The secretary-general also condemned “the tragic and unnecessary loss of lives and injuries to civilians and damage to homes and critical civilian infrastructure.”

Wall Street rises as oil prices fall with hopes that Israel-Iran fighting could cool

Some of the strongest moves on Wall Street are again in the oil market, where crude prices dropped after Trump said it’s not “too late” for Iran to give up its nuclear program.

Oil prices have been yo-yoing for days because of rising and ebbing fears that Israel’s fighting with Iran could disrupt the global flow of crude.

Some of Trump’s most ardent supporters are skeptical about deepening US involvement in the Mideast

During his 2024 run for the White House, Trump promised voters he would quickly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and keep the U.S. out of costly conflicts.

Steve Bannon, who served as a senior adviser to Trump during his first administration, on Wednesday said the administration should tread carefully.

“This is not something you play around with,” Bannon told reporters. “You have to think this through. And the American people have to be on board. You can’t just dump it on them.”

Trump has pushed back at that notion, saying: “My supporters are more in love with me today, and I’m in love with them more than they were even at election time when we had a total landslide.”

Iran says its leaders would never ‘grovel at the gates of the White House’

Trump says Iranian officials continue to reach out. “They’ve suggested that they come to the White House — that’s, you know, courageous.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations refuted Trump’s claim in a statement on social media: “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House. The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader.”

Russia urges the US not to strike Iran, official says

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday that Moscow has cautioned Washington against offering direct military assistance to Israel.

“We are warning Washington against even speculative, hypothetical considerations of the sort,” Ryabkov said, according to the Interfax news agency. “That would be a step drastically destabilizing the situation as a whole.”

Trump said earlier this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to serve a mediator with. But the U.S. president said he told Putin to keep focused on finding an endgame to his own conflict with Ukraine.

In Cyprus, evacuated and stranded Israelis find shelter and kosher meals

Carrie Best-Lary was among hundreds of Jews who had traveled to Israel on a trip that was supposed to be about culture and Jewish roots, only to find herself fleeing on a cruise ship to Cyprus. She is in one of two groups that have converged on the Mediterranean island — one leaving Israel and the other trying to get back in.

At a scary time, the two groups that never expected their paths to cross are coming together, seeking shelter and sharing kosher meals.

Cyprus has become a transit point for those being evacuated from Israel or Israelis wishing to return home after being stranded abroad, with thousands now in Cyprus trying to reach Israel.

Several powerful explosions rock central Tehran

Witnesses say there have been more than 10 powerful explosions in central Tehran as Israel continues its campaign, with white smoke rising into the air. Iranian officials did not immediately acknowledge the strikes.

Air raid sirens in Israel as fresh Iranian missile barrage approaches

The Israeli military urged people to head to shelters after it said it identified missile launches in Iran on Wednesday evening.

Israel had eased some restrictions for civilians earlier in the day, as Iranian missile attacks have been waning.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, according to Israel’s emergency rescue service.

‘Nobody knows’: Trump won’t say whether he will move forward with US strikes on Iran

President Donald Trump speaks as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters at the White House . “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

Iran’s supreme leader issued a fresh warning Wednesday that U.S. direct involvement in Israel’s military operations be greeted with stiff retaliation.

The “bunker-buster” bombs believed necessary to significantly damage Iran’s underground nuclear sites would have to be dropped from an American aircraft.

Iran denies sending mediators to Oman

The denial by Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei comes after three planes flew to Muscat, Oman, from Iran on Wednesday, despite Iranian airspace being closed.

Flights and cruise ships will evacuate Americans from Israel

The U.S. State Department is making plans to evacuate American citizens from Israel by flights and cruise ships, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Wednesday.

In a post on X, he said Americans interested in leaving Israel should enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) for updates. The link is: https://t.co/rXymPRTQJJ

Huckabee’s post comes just a day after the State Department said it had stood up a special task force to assist Americans wanting to leave Israel and other Mideast countries.

There are some 700,000 Americans, many of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, now in Israel and thousands more in other Mideast countries, including Iran.

Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels say they won’t end support for Gaza

A top leader of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, one of Iran’s allies, say they will keep up their support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip until Israeli “aggression stops, and the siege is lifted.”

“Our operations in support of Gaza will not cease, no matter the sacrifices,” said Houthi-backed president Mahdi al-Mashat in a statement Wednesday.

The Houthis are the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.

They’ve been firing long-range missiles at Israel in the months since it resumed the war in Gaza, setting off air raid sirens but generally causing few casualties. They’re also been attacking shipping in Mideast waters.

US lawmaker visiting Mideast calls for diplomacy and deterrence on Iran

Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, whose district covers Iowa’s capital and suburbs, said the U.S. would back up nuclear negotiations with firm consequences.

“This is something that needs to be on the negotiating table to make the Iranians aware: that there’s a real threat here if they refuse to negotiate a peaceful end to their nuclear program, the U.S. has the ability to eliminate it for them,” Nunn told the AP in Dubai on Wednesday.

He’s one of four U.S. representatives — two Democrats and two Republicans — visiting wealthy Persian Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia.

Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider said they’re working to get a sense of the challenges facing the so-called Abraham Accords, in which four Arab countries normalized relations with Israel in 2020.

US congressmen say America is ‘prepared to act’ if Iran doesn’t end its nuclear program

The members of the U.S. House of Representatives are visiting the United Arab Emirates, a key ally in the Gulf, as the conflict between Israel and Iran has frozen nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran.

“A nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat,” Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider told the AP in Dubai.

Schneider represents Illinois’ 10th District, which includes wealthy and working-class communities along Lake Michigan and is a classic swing district with a large number of Jewish voters.

Highlighting deterrence, Republican Rep. Donald Bacon of Nebraska said: “If Iran attacks our forces, I will guarantee you that there will be a very hard response, and that’s why I think the president is moving forces in place to be prepared.”

Pope Leo warns high-tech weapons can bring unprecedented ‘barbarity’

Speaking to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for a general audience, Pope Leo XIV urged: “We must not get used to war. On the contrary, we must reject as a temptation the allure of powerful and sophisticated weapons.”

The pope said Tuesday that “the heart of the church is torn by the cries rising from places of war, especially Ukraine, Iran, Israel and Gaza,” and appealed for peace “in the name of human dignity and international law.”

In the year and a half before his death, Leo’s predecessor Pope Francis became increasingly outspoken in his criticism of the Israeli military’s harsh tactics in Gaza. Francis also advocated freeing the hostages held by Hamas, meeting with their families.

Iranian media denies ‘rumors’ Israel struck home of supreme leader

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Iranian semiofficial news agency has denied “rumors” that an Israeli airstrike targeted the home of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It’s the first time media in Iran has explicitly acknowledged the Islamic Republic’s paramount leader was a target.

The report came from the Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Fars described the rumors as showing “the U.S. and the Zionist regime’s anger and confusion in the face of the supreme leader’s firm statements made today.”

3 aircraft from Iran fly to Oman, a key mediator in previous US talks

Three aircraft took off from Iran for Muscat, Oman’s capital, on Wednesday. The flights come as Iranian airspace has been closed for days. Their flight trackers all turned on in southeastern Iran, meaning it wasn’t immediately clear from where the aircraft took off.

Iran offered no explanation for the flights and Oman did not immediately acknowledge any arrival of Iranian officials to the sultanate.

Oman has been a key mediator between Iran and the United States during their five rounds of talks over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Trump responds to Iran supreme leader’s refusal heed to his call for unconditional surrender

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier Wednesday warned that the United States that strikes targeting Iran will “result in irreparable damage for them” and that his country would not heed to Trump’s call for surrender.

“I say good luck,” Trump said when asked about the supreme leader’s refusal to surrender.

Trump says it’s not ‘too late’ for Iran to give up nuclear program

“Nothing’s too late,” Trump said when asked about whether direct U.S. involvement in Israel’s military operations against Iran was becoming inevitable. He added. “I can tell you this. Iran’s got a lot of trouble.”

Trump’s comments came as during an event on the White House South Lawn to watch the raising of a new flagpole.

Iran is having a ‘near-total national internet blackout,’ monitor says

Few pedestrians walk along the historic Grand Bazaar as most shops remain shuttered, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Few pedestrians walk along the historic Grand Bazaar as most shops remain shuttered, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

NetBlocks, a group which monitors government-caused internet interference, said Iran was “in the midst of a near-total national internet blackout.”

“The incident follows a series of earlier partial disruptions and comes amid escalating military tensions with Israel after days of back-and-forth missile strike,” it said in a post on the social media platform X.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025