Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes on Israel into Saturday (June 14, 2025) morning, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, after a series of blistering Israeli attacks on the heart of Iran’s nuclear program and its armed forces.

Israel’s assault used warplanes, as well as drones smuggled into the country in advance, to assault key facilities and kill top generals and scientists. Iran’s U.N. ambassador said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded in the attacks.

Follow Israel-Iran conflict live updates on June 14, 2025

Israel asserted the barrage was necessary before Iran got any closer to building an atomic weapon, although experts and the U.S. government have assessed that Tehran was not actively working on such a weapon before the strikes.

Iran retaliated by launching drones and later firing waves of ballistic missiles at Israel, where explosions lit the night skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook the buildings below. The Israeli military urged civilians, already rattled by the raging Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, to head to shelter for hours.

Israel’s strikes also put further talks between the United States and Iran over an atomic accord into doubt days before the two sides were set to meet Sunday in Oman. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman called further nuclear talks with the United States “meaningless” after Israeli strikes on the country, state television said.

“The U.S. did a job that made the talks become meaningless,” Baghaei was quoted as saying. He added that Israel had passed all Iran’s red lines by committing a “criminal act” through its strikes.

However, he stopped short of saying the talks were cancelled. The Mizan news agency, which is run by Iran’s judiciary, quoted him as saying: “It is still not clear what we decide about Sunday talks.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a recorded message Friday: “We will not allow them to escape safely from this great crime they committed.”

Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel late Friday and early Saturday.

A hospital in Tel Aviv treated seven people wounded in the second Iranian barrage; all but one of them had light injuries. Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said they were injured when a projectile hit a building in the city. A spokesperson for Beilinson Hospital said one woman was killed.

Hours later, an Iranian missile struck near homes in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, killing two people and injuring 19, according to Israel’s paramedic service Magen David Adom. Israel’s Fire and Rescue service said four homes were severely damaged.

Meanwhile, the sound of explosions and Iranian air defense systems firing at targets echoed across central Tehran shortly after midnight on Saturday. An Associated Press journalist could hear air raid sirens near their home.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported a fire at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport, with a video posted on X of a column of smoke and orange flames rising from what the outlet said was the airport.

Israel’s paramedic services said 34 people were wounded in the barrage on the Tel Aviv area, including a woman who was critically injured after being trapped under rubble. In Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv, an AP journalist saw burned-out cars and at least three damaged houses, including one where the front was nearly entirely torn away.

U.S. ground-based air defense systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.

Israel’s ongoing airstrikes and intelligence operation and Iran’s retaliation raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.

Countries in the region condemned Israel’s attack, while leaders around the globe called for immediate deescalation from both sides.

Israel had long threatened such a strike, and successive American administrations sought to prevent it, fearing it would ignite a wider conflict across the Middle East and possibly be ineffective at destroying Iran’s dispersed and hardened nuclear program.

But a confluence of developments triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack — plus the reelection of U.S. President Donald Trump — created the conditions that allowed Israel to finally follow through on its threats. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the U.S. was informed in advance of the attack.

On Thursday, Iran was censured by the U.N.’s atomic watchdog for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Israel’s military said about 200 aircraft were involved in the initial attack on about 100 targets. Its Mossad spy agency positioned explosive drones and precision weapons inside Iran ahead of time, and used them to target Iranian air defenses and missile launchers near Tehran, according to two security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was not possible to independently corroborate the officials’ claims.

Among the key sites Israel attacked was Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, where black smoke could be seen rising into the air. It also appeared to strike a second, smaller nuclear enrichment facility in Fordo, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Tehran, according to an Iranian news outlet close to the government that reported hearing explosions nearby.

Israel said it struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan, too, and said it destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran confirmed the strike at Isfahan.

Israel military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the Natanz facility was “significantly damaged” and that the operation was “still in the beginning.”

Jordanian state-run Petra news agent said the country would reopen its airspace to civilian aircraft at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, signaling the Mideast kingdom believes there is no immediate danger of further attacks. Jordan’s airspace had seen Iranian drones and missiles cross through it, with Israeli fighter jets likely engaging targets there.

The crossfire between Israel and Iran disrupted East-West travel through the Mideast, a key global aviation route.

U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. He said all the electrical infrastructure and emergency power generators were destroyed, as well as a section of the facility where uranium was enriched up to 60%, which is a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged the infrastructure there, he said.

The first wave of strikes had given Israel “significant freedom of movement” in Iran’s skies, clearing the way for further attacks, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the attack with the media.

Over the past year, Israel has been targeting Iran’s air defenses, hitting a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery in April 2024 and surface-to-air missile sites and missile manufacturing facilities in October.

The official said Israel is prepared for an operation that could last up to two weeks, but that there was no firm timeline.

Among those killed were three of Iran’s top military leaders: one who oversaw the entire armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

Netanyahu said the attack had been months in the making. In a video statement sent to journalists Friday, he said he ordered plans for the attack last November, soon after the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, one of Iran’s strongest proxies. Netanyahu said the attack was planned for April but was postponed.

In its first response Friday, Iran fired more than 100 drones at Israel. Israel said the drones were being intercepted outside its airspace, and it was not immediately clear whether any got through.

Israel’s military said it called up reservists and began stationing troops throughout the country as it braced for further retaliation from Iran or Iranian proxy groups.

Trump urged Iran on Friday to reach a deal with the U.S. on its nuclear program, warning on his Truth Social platform that Israel’s attacks “will only get worse.”

“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire,” he wrote.

A still image from undated archive footage released by Iranian media on August 24, 2026, shows Mojtaba Khamenei attending a meeting.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

People run in front of burned cars that were attacked in an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on June 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Image used for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Majid Khademi, the Head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence organisation. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran’s president had asked for a ceasefire, but ruled out any truce until the vital Strait of Hormuz was reopened for crucial energy shipments.

But his assertion was flatly denied by Iran, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei rejecting it as “false and baseless”.

Trump made the remarks ahead of a prime-time speech at 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Thursday) — his first since US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 ignited a regional war and sparked a global energy crisis.

Tehran has insisted there are no ongoing negotiations to end the war, and launched fresh missile attacks on Israel and US-allied Gulf nations on Wednesday, as AFP journalists reported massive explosions in the Iranian capital.

But ahead of his national address, Trump said that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had asked for a truce.

“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump’s tone has see-sawed between combative and conciliatory since the war began.

Late on Tuesday, he said that the month-long conflict could be over in “two weeks, maybe three.”

Pezeshkian had said Iran had the “necessary will” for a ceasefire, but only if its foes guaranteed that hostilities would not return.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday that the Hormuz, a narrow strait through which one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, would remain closed to the country’s “enemies”.

The Guards also confirmed they hit an oil tanker in the Gulf they said belonged to Israel. A British maritime security agency said the vessel was struck off Qatar, reporting damage but no casualties.

– ‘Every day we hear drones’ –

An airport in central Iran was damaged in an attack on Wednesday evening, the deputy provincial governor of Isfahan province, told local news agency of Mehr.

Iranian media also said steel complexes in central and southwest Iran were damaged in separate attacks.

An AFP journalist reported huge explosions in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon and earlier strikes near the former US embassy, now a symbol of decades of US-Iranian tensions.

The Israeli military confirmed it struck Tehran, while emergency services in Israel said an Iranian missile attack wounded 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl.

Israel also said its air defences had responded to a missile fired from Yemen — the third attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since they entered the war over the weekend.

In Lebanon, seven people were killed in strikes around south Beirut, the health ministry said Wednesday, with the Israeli military saying it had struck a senior Hezbollah commander.

A Lebanese security source and a Hezbollah source both told AFP that the strike had killed Hezbollah’s top commander for Iraq military affairs.

AFP correspondents at the scene saw a blackened, debris-strewn street.

“Nobody knows what’s happening,” resident Hassan Jalwan told AFP, adding that “displaced people have been sleeping in the open” in the area.

Israel launched broad strikes and a ground offensive against Lebanon after attacks on March 2 by the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The Lebanese health ministry said Wednesday that Israeli attacks had killed more than 1,300, among the thousands reported killed across the region since the war began, mostly in Iran.

Iran has also carried out retaliatory attacks on nations in the Gulf it says have been launchpads for strikes.

A Bangladeshi national was killed on Wednesday by falling shrapnel from an intercepted drone in the United Arab Emirates.

Strikes in Kuwait caused a large fire in fuel tanks at its international airport, Bahrain’s interior ministry said a fire broke out at a business facility, and Saudi Arabia said several drones were intercepted.

Meanwhile, a drone strike caused a massive fire at the storage facilities of an engine oil firm in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan.

“Every day, we hear the sound of drones,” Waad Abdulrazaq, a 31-year-old truck driver, told AFP near Iraq’s Erbil international airport.

“We hear them in the morning, and we hear them at night. We can no longer sleep or live in peace.”

– Energy crisis –

Optimism sparked by Trump’s comments on the timeline for the end of the war pushed oil prices down Wednesday, and stock markets rallied in Europe and Asia.

But Iran’s chokehold on Hormuz, through which Gulf oil and gas exports reach global markets, has sent energy prices soaring and unleashed global economic turmoil.

Average US gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon for the first time in four years this week, while European inflation spiked and governments around the world started to unveil support measures.

“We’re a small outfit,” driver Nicolas Barthes told AFP at a protest against soaring fuel prices in the French city of Toulouse. “The additional diesel cost for me this month is EUR15,000, and we’re not managing to pass all of that on.”

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said prices were still about 50 percent above pre-war levels, showing “scepticism still remains about Trump’s claims of progress”.

Trump has criticised allies for not helping in the war, and President Emmanuel Macron repeated Wednesday that France would not take part.

Britain said Wednesday that it would host a meeting of about 35 countries this week to discuss how to reopen the strait.

Washington has not said who it is speaking with in Iran, which has denied it is in talks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera he still receives messages from US envoy Steve Witkoff, “directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations”.

Trump threatened earlier this week to “obliterate” Iran’s oil wells, its main Kharg Island export terminal, and possibly water desalination plants if the Islamic republic didn’t make a deal.

burs-np/smw

(This article is part of the View From India newsletter curated by The Hindu’s foreign affairs experts. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Monday, subscribe here.)

Over 8 million people are estimated to have gathered in protest, at the ‘No Kings’ rallies held across the United States and in over a dozen other countries, against the Trump administration. American commentators point to a notable departure in the third ‘No Kings’ protest, where a majority — over 70 % — cited peace and anti-war positions as reason for their participation.  View the protest photos here for an idea of how opposition to Mr. Trump is gaining momentum within the U.S.  

But history has repeatedly shown us that tyrants and bullies are seldom good listeners.  That is also perhaps why Mr. Trump finds himself trapped in a war he cannot sustain. After miscalculating Iran’s ability to respond, he is unable to find the exit route he desperately wants. Mr. Trump is also unable to rein in Israel, which is determined to persist with the ongoing war on Iran, despite Iran decidedly standing up to the two powers.  Amid reports of the Pentagon preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, the threat of a prolonged war continues, even as the rest of the world struggles to cope with its impact, especially with shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz — through which 20 % of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes every day — being brought to a near-standstill.  

Speaking to Stanly Johny, Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, tells us why this war is unsustainable, regardless of what the U.S. or Israel might believe. A month since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, President Trump doesn’t have any easy exit options, he says, adding that Israel and the U.S. have different objectives in the war. If the U.S. launches a ground offensive in Iran, it would be more difficult for Mr. Trump to declare victory and exit, he noted. Contrary to Mr. Trump’s frequent claims, “the United States is not winning the war,” Mr. Parsi asserts.  Read the full interview here

You can also watch the conversation here

One month of Israel-U.S. war on Iran – our desk compiled a timeline from February 28, 2026, to March 28, 2026.  Have a look to understand how the conflict, which began with joint Israel-U.S. strikes on February 28, spread throughout West Asia and sent ripples through the global economy. 

Mediating between warring sides  

As global headlines spotlighted Pakistan as a mediator between the two warring sides, India was quick to dismiss Pakistan’s role. Parrying the questions raised by the Opposition regarding the reported central role played by Pakistan in mediating between the U.S. and Iran, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar termed the neighbouring country a “dalal” or broker, often used in a derogatory manner, Sobhana K. Nair and Suhasini Haidar report. Further, responding to criticism over India’s “silence”, Mr. Jaishankar asserted that with nearly one crore Indians living in West Asian countries, it was crucial for India’s strategic and economic interests to maintain a balanced position. Whether in Gaza in the case of Iran, where there is little ambiguity over who the aggressor is, “balance” or “neutrality” appear woefully weak choices, especially for a country that commands attention on the global stage.   

However, Washington’s decision to engage Pakistan as a facilitator for talks may also be rooted in history, given Islamabad, and a different General’s role in facilitating U.S. talks with China 55 years ago, at the height of the Cold War, writes Suhasini Haidar in this flashback piece. At that time, U.S. President Richard Nixon had begun to work on his plan to open up relations with Beijing (U.S. still formally recognised Taiwan as the Republic of China (ROC)), but direct Sino-U.S. Ambassadorial talks had floundered. Pakistan was not the first option, as he and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger considered others, including Poland, France and Romania. 

Meanwhile, following The New York Times’s recent report on U.S. businessman Elon Musk being present during a call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump, India said that the conversation was only between the two leaders. However, the government did not deny or confirm Mr. Musk’s presence during the call, in which the two leaders discussed the West Asia conflict, reports Suhasini Haidar. New Delhi’s response did not answer the many questions that have risen since, such as why Mr. Musk was present while the two leaders were speaking, presumably on the Iran war; whether India knew of and was comfortable with his presence, and what influence that leaves India with.  

Watch: War in West Asia: Is India’s energy diplomacy holding up? Suhasini Haidar examines where New Delhi stands, in the latest episode of Worldview

Top 5 stories we are reading this week   

1. Mohammad Bagher Zolqadr | Ascent of the Guardsman – Stanly Johny writes on the rise of the former IRGC commander as the Secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, that suggests the Guards are tightening their grip on Iran’s state machinery  

2. Situating Nepal’s current political moment in the long history of feudalism to republican democracy – by Srinivasan Ramani  

3. The Hindu editorial on India-Nepal ties in the new context  

4. Writing on world affairs from the Global South – Srinivasan Ramani urges editorial writers depending on the West for reports to critically reject their imperial frame of reference  

5. G. Sampath profiles Pedro Sanchez, Europe’s only anti-war Prime Minister   

Published – March 30, 2026 02:08 pm IST

File photo of Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A person holds a placard featuring images of U.S. President Donald Trump and the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, Reza Pahlavi, as people protest at an International Women’s Day march to show support for women in Iran, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in London, Britain, on March 7, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Due to the current situation in parts of the Middle East–Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE, the board has decided to postpone Class 12 exams on March 9, 10 and 11,” CBSE Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said. FIle