58 m. ago Mapped: Where Iran and Israel’s missiles have struck as Tehran hits major hospital

Tensions escalate after Israel launches largest bombardment on Iran in decades early on Friday

Events

75 m. ago Starmer warns Trump not to 'ramp up'  Middle East turmoil by joining Israel's attacks on Iran

The PM repeated his call for de-escalation in the region, saying concerns about Tehran's nuclear programme were best dealt 'by way of negotiations than by way of conflict'.

Events

2 h. ago Iran's Arak heavy water reactor, hit by an Israeli airstrike, was part of Tehran's nuclear deal

Much of the focus on Iran’s nuclear program has been on Tehran’s enrichment of uranium

Events

5 h. ago 'Strong case' for Donald Trump to attack Iran's nuclear sites with bunker

Sir John Sawers, head of the Secret Intelligence Service from 2009 to 2014, believes it may be better if the US president ‘got on with it’

Events

5 h. ago Trump approved Iran attack plans on Tuesday but then decided to hold off, report says

President still weighing U.S. intervention in Middle East in hope Tehran will back down

Politics

8 h. ago The Latest: Israel attacks Arak heavy water reactor, Iranian state TV says

Iranian state television says Israel has attacked Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor

Politics

9 h. ago Europe must stand without the US – but the latest war in the Middle East shows it has no idea how | Nathalie Tocci

If Europe was not so in hock to Washington, it would sanction Israel over Gaza and condemn its unilateral attack on IranThe rupture in the transatlantic relationship has left European leaders struggling to know how to think, let alone act, with any autonomy. Europe most urgently needs a mind of its own on the Middle East.Tragically, EU governments were just beginning to turn the page after a year and a half of complicity with the Israeli government’s war crimes in Gaza. Donald Trump’s obscene plans for a Gaza “riviera” and “humanitarian” initiatives that breach humanitarian principles were creating distance with the US, and European governments were starting to craft their own course.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

Events

11 h. ago Israel’s military warns people to evacuate the area around Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor

Israel’s military warned people Thursday to evacuate the area around Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor

Events

15 h. ago Donald Trump privately 'approves attack plans' for Iran but withholds final order

Donald Trump has reportedly approved attack plans for Iran just hours after he issued a thinly-veiled threat at Iran, joking about joining Israel in attacking the Middle Eastern nation

Politics

15 h. ago British, German and French foreign ministers plan meeting with Iranian counterpart

The meeting in Geneva would be the first face-to-face diplomatic communication with Iran since Israel’s attackThe foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany are planning to meet the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in what could represent a potential diplomatic breakthrough after five days of Israeli bombing.The meeting is due to take place in Geneva on Friday but final confirmation from Tehran is still pending; if confirmed it would represent the first face-to-face diplomatic meeting since Benjamin Netanyahu launched Israel’s attack on Iran’s military and nuclear sites. Continue reading...

Politics

19 h. ago The Guardian view on Israel, the US and Iran: you can’t bomb your way out of nuclear proliferation | Editorial

The age of disarmament is over. But military action only increases the dangers instead of ending the threatEighty years after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 40 years after the US and Soviet Union pledged to reduce their arsenals, the threat of nuclear war has resurged with a vengeance. The age of disarmament is over, a prominent thinktank warned this week: “We see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric and the abandonment of arms control agreements,” said Hans M Kristensen of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.The world’s nine nuclear-armed states have amassed the equivalent of 145,000 Hiroshima bombs. Israel’s illegal attack upon Iran is purportedly a last-ditch attempt to prevent it joining this club – as Israel did long ago, though does not admit it. While Tehran possesses the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon if it chose to, US intelligence believes it has not made that decision – and would stil...

Events

19 h. ago Trump undecided on joining war on Iran as Khamenei warns him not to attack

‘I may do it, I may not do it,’ US president says as Tehran reportedly prepares to strike US bases in responseDonald Trump said he had not decided whether or not to take his country into Israel’s new war, as Iran’s supreme leader said the US would face “irreparable damage” if it deployed its military to attack.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel had made a “huge mistake” by launching the war, in his first comments since Friday. “The Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage,” he said in a statement read out by a presenter on state TV. Continue reading...

Events

20 h. ago Will the new Middle East crisis rock the world economy? The markets say no – but I fear they’re wrong | Larry Elliott

The oil shocks of the 1970s-90s had brutal economic impacts. As Israel attacks Iran, a moderate rise in oil prices rests on questionable assumptionsFinancial markets picked up the clear message when Donald Trump cut short his stay at the G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies this week. Despite calls from fellow western leaders to de-escalate the crisis, the president’s early return to the White House was taken as a sign that the US is considering joining Israel in its military action against Iran. Trump says he wants Iran’s unconditional surrender.This is where modern summitry came in half a century ago. In 1975, the first meeting of what eventually became the G7 was convened at Rambouillet in France in an attempt to work out a joint response to the oil shock that accompanied the Yom Kippur war between Israel and its neighbours.Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by em...

Economics

21 h. ago Keir Starmer holds Cobra meeting on Middle East fighting as UK evacuates families of Israel embassy staff

The Prime Minister gathered ministers and outside experts including military leaders after returning from the G7 summit in Canada, where he met Donald Trump.

Politics

21 h. ago Tucker Carlson confronts Ted Cruz on Iran as Maga rift erupts into public view

Public spat reflects fracture among Trump’s coalition over whether US should join Israel’s escalating conflict with IranUS politics live – latest updatesTed Cruz, the US senator from Texas, and conservative media personality Tucker Carlson have clashed over US military involvement in the Middle East, with the latter shouting: “You don’t know anything about Iran!” in a heated interview that exposes a sharp division within Donald Trump’s coalition as the president considers joining Israel in attacking Iran.In the confrontation, a short excerpt released ahead of an approximately two-hour interview set to air today, Carlson – an acolyte of the Maga movement which generally argues for American isolationism from foreign wars – challenged Cruz’s knowledge of Iran, which the Republican hawk has advocated attacking. Continue reading...

Politics

22 h. ago Israel blitzes Iran suburb where Ayatollah is 'hiding in bunker' as Trump warns 'no one knows what I will do' as he considers joining war

Israel has launched new attacks across Tehran near to where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is hiding in an underground bunker.

Events

23 h. ago Putin wades in: Russia warns Trump against bombing Iran and says Israel is 'millimetres away' from sparking nuclear 'catastrophe' with its airstrikes as Trump considers US military attack

Fears that the United States could wade into yet another war in the Middle East grew yesterday when a security source revealed Trump was considering joining Israel in strikes on Iran

Events

23 h. ago Israel blitzes Iran suburb where Ayatollah is 'hiding in bunker' but Trump now refuses to say if US will join war after Russia warned him not to

Israel has launched new attacks across Tehran near to where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is hiding in an underground bunker.

Events

24 h. ago Keir Starmer to hold Cobra meeting on Middle East fighting as UK evacuates families of Israel embassy staff

Sir Keir Starmer will chair a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee on Wednesday to discuss the security situation in the Middle East, amid fears that the US will join Israel's attack on Iran.

Politics

24 h. ago Is the 'Thursday surprise' going to be a nuclear attack? DAVID AVERRE breaks down five possible moves Israel may be planning for Tehran

Israel's ambassador to the US gave a cryptic statement this week, declaring there were 'surprises up our sleeves' for Iran. DAVID AVERRE breaks down Israel's possible plans for Tehran.

Events