Here are the latest developments.
"Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Tehran on Monday and promised more “in the coming days,” pressing on with its bombing campaign a day after the United States attacked three Iranian nuclear sites.
The new Israeli barrage, which a military spokesman said targeted a paramilitary headquarters, a notorious prison and access routes to the Fordo nuclear enrichment sitethat the U.S. military bombarded over the weekend, came as Iran fired salvos of missiles that sent Israelis to huddle in shelters.
The strikes came despite calls from world leaders for de-escalation, and as President Trump’s decision to join Israel’s campaign against Iran raised fears that the war wouldintensify. American military and intelligence officials detected potential signs that Iran-backed militias were preparing to attack American bases in Iraq, and possibly Syria.
Iranian officials also appeared to be weighing their options for retaliation against the United States, as Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, met with a key ally, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. But while the Russian leader called the U.S. strikes “absolutely unprovoked aggression,” he stopped short of offering concrete support for Iran. And more than 36 hours after the American attacks, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who will have the final say in any response, had yet to make an official statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in a televised address on Sunday night, said that his country was “very, very close” to realizing its objectives in the conflict but did not say when its bombing campaign would end. On Monday, an Israeli military spokesman issued a new warning to residents of Tehran and said that the army “will continue attacking military targets in the Tehran region in the coming days.”
Though Mr. Trump declared that Iran’s nuclear program had been “totally obliterated” by the U.S. bombings, the actual state of the program seemed far more murky, with senior officials conceding they did not know the fate of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.
Trump administration officials emphasized on Sunday that the United States did not want an all-out war with Tehran, but Mr. Trump’s position was less clear — particularly when he raised the prospect of regime change in Iran in a social media post on Sunday. He was set to meet with his National Security Council on Monday.
Here’s what else to know:
Economic impact: Investors appeared cautiously optimistic on Monday about the potential economic fallout from the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities. Traders were waiting for clearer indications of whether there would be an escalation in the conflict — particularly any moves by Iran that might disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit point for global oil supplies. Read more ›
Calls for peace: After European foreign ministers met to discuss Iran, the European Union’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said that “the concerns of retaliation and this war escalating are huge.” The International Atomic Energy Agency held an emergency meeting in Vienna, where the head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, warned that “violence and destruction could reach unimaginable levels” if Iran, Israel and the United States do not find a path to diplomacy.
Possible response: Mr. Trump’s decision to attack Iran seemed likely to dim hopes for a negotiated solution to end the fighting. While U.S. officials say that Iran has depleted its stockpile of medium-range missiles, the country still has an ample supply of other weapons, including rockets and drones, some of which would — if employed — give U.S. forces in the region only minutes of warning before an attack.
The strikes: Pentagon officials described a tightly choreographed operation that included B-2 bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and submarine-fired Tomahawk cruise missiles hitting a trio of sites in less than a half-hour. A senior U.S. official acknowledged that the attack on Fordo had not destroyed the heavily fortified site, but it had been severely damaged.
River Akira Davis contributed reporting."
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