About 400 ballistic #missiles have been launched at #Israel from Iranian territory since June 13. Over the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, both sides of the conflict reported to have seized control of each other’s airspace, with Iranian authorities reporting the downing of an Israeli F-35 fighter jet.

TASS has compiled the key developments in the ongoing Middle East conflict.
Airspace control

· On the night of June 18, the Iranian Air Force reported to have seized control of Israeli airspace, IRNA reported, citing a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

· The same morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dismissed Iran’s statement, saying that Iranian forces had not gained control over Israeli skies.
Casualties

· Since the beginning of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, "about 400 ballistic missiles have been fired at Israel, along with hundreds of drones and approximately 40 munition drops," said Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, on June 18.

· A total of 24 civilians have been killed and 804 injured. Nearly 3,800 residents have been evacuated from their homes.

· The Israel Tax Authority has received 18,766 compensation requests, including 15,861 for building damage, 1,272 for vehicles, and 1,633 for other property damage.

· According to Israel’s Health Ministry, 94 people were hospitalized overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday as a result of Iranian shelling.

· Iranian Minister of Health and Medical Education Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi reported at least 1,800 people wounded since the conflict began: "As a result of the Zionist regime’s attacks, we have at least 1,800 wounded. The dead and injured are mostly civilians."
New strikes

· On Wednesday morning, 50 Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck Iranian facilities used in the production of uranium enrichment centrifuges.

· The strikes also targeted multiple weapons manufacturing sites. "The targeted weapons factories included the production facility for ground-to-ground missile components, which are used by the Iranian regime to attack the State of Israel," the IDF said.

· Additionally, Israeli forces hit 12 missile launchers and depots in Iran.

· Iran has yet to launch a large-scale operation against Israel, instead issuing limited retaliatory warnings. "We have restricted ourselves to a certain kind of deterrent warning," said Abdulrahim Mousavi, head of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff.

· Iranian air defenses shot down an Israeli F-35 over the city of Varamin, according to city spokesman Hosein Abbasi. It is the fifth F-35 Iran asserts to have downed.
US reaction

· A closed-door meeting at the White House on Tuesday night ended without a decision on launching strikes against Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources.

· US officials told ABC News that the next 24-48 hours will be crucial, as a decision may be made soon on whether Washington will join Israel’s military operation.

· If the US enters the conflict on Israel’s side, Iran is prepared to target American military bases in the region, The New York Times reported, citing sources.

· The US Navy has reportedly withdrawn its warships from its base in Bahrain — home to the Fifth Fleet — in what the Associated Press described, based on satellite imagery, as a precautionary dispersal in response to the rising threat level.
Third-party Involvement

· Yemen’s Houthi Ansar Allah movement has pledged to join the conflict. "We will support Iran in repelling Zionist attacks, just as we supported our brothers in Gaza," said politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti in an interview with Al Jazeera.

· According to The Daily Telegraph, China diverted at least three Boeing 747 cargo planes to Iran using concealed flight routes. The first flight occurred the day after the Israeli operation began, with two more arriving later that day.

· "We are carrying out military strikes today," US Republican Senator Ted Cruz told journalist Tucker Carlson, suggesting that Washington is already actively assisting Israel in its campaign against Iran.

TEHRAN, June 18. Iranian air defense systems have taken down an Israeli F-35 fighter plane over the city of Varamin southeast of Tehran, the IRNA news agency reported citing a representative of municipal authorities.

"The army air defenses have shot down and eliminated an enemy F-35 fighter plane of the Zionist regime in the Javadabad area of the Varamin municipal district," the agency quoted him as saying.

This F-35 is the fifth Israeli fighter plane taken down since the onset of the Iranian-Israeli escalation on June 13.

Overnight into June 13, Israel kicked off Operation Rising Lion, aimed at Iran’s nuclear program. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that 200 fighter jets attacked more than 100 targets in Iran, including nuclear facilities.

On the evening of June 13, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that Iran retaliated by attacking dozens of targets in Israel with missiles, including military facilities and air bases, striking, in particular, the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. In the following days, Israel and Iran exchanged more strikes. Both sides reported casualties and fatalities as a result of these attacks and admitted that some targets were hit but claimed that the damage was limited.

NEW YORK, June 17. Tehran is preparing to strike US military bases in the Middle East if Washington joins Israel's military campaign against Iran, the New York Times reported, citing sources.

According to the report, the Islamic Republic has "prepared missiles and other military equipment" and plans to start with US bases in Iraq.

Tehran would be ready to strike any American bases in Arab countries, the newspaper said. Iran could also start to mine the Strait of Hormuz to pin US warships in the Persian Gulf.

US officials said Iran would not need lengthy preparations to attack US bases. The US military in the Middle East has been put on high alert. The US has more than 40,000 troops deployed in the Middle East.

Israel and Iran have continued to exchange strikes for five consecutive days, each saying they demolished strategically important enemy targets, nuclear ones included, and used cutting-edge weapons and interception systems.

TASS has compiled the main targets reported as eliminated and destroyed by the two parties.
Israeli strikes on nuclear facilities

- Israeli strikes on June 13 partially damaged Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said: "The above-ground part of the pilot fuel enrichment plant, where Iran was producing uranium enriched up to 60% U-235, has been destroyed."

- Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, confirmed minor radioactive leaks but said no contamination has spread to the outside environment: "The damage at Natanz is primarily superficial because the core section of this facility is underground. A minor containment breach occurred within the complex, but no radioactive contamination has escaped into the external environment."

- On June 14, the Israeli armed forces continued to attack nuclear facilities: Iran intercepted an Israeli drone near the nuclear plant in Natanz, the Tasnim news agency reported. Israel also expanded strikes to Isfahan and Fordow nuclear sites.

- On June 16, Iranian air defenses destroyed more Israeli projectiles headed for targets including Natanz, where a nuclear facility is located.

- Due to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s failure to condemn Israel’s strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran said it would no longer notify the IAEA about its activities for nuclear program implementation.
Oil refinery strikes

- On June 14, Israel attacked the territory near an oil refinery in Tabriz in the northwest of Iran, the Mehr news agency reported.

- That same night, fires erupted at Fajr Jam gas facility in the Bushehr province where the South Pars gas field is located.

- On June 17, Haifa’s Bazan Group refinery halted operations after an Iranian missile damaged its power plant.
Strikes on military targets

- In the early hours of June 13, more than 200 Israeli jets hit more than 100 Iranian targets, including senior Iranian leadership bunkers, the IDF reported.

- In retaliation, Iran launched a large-scale massive attack against Israel with the use of ballistic missiles and drones, the IRNA news agency said. More than 150 Israeli targets were hit, including air bases hosting F-35, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets.

- On June 15, the IDF reported conducting strikes against ballistic missile production facilities, radar stations, and missile launch sites in Tehran.

- That same day, Iran attacked Israeli "facilities producing fuel for fighter jets and adversary’s power supply centers were attacked with the use of a large number of drones and missiles".

- On June 16, Israeli forces reported having destroyed one-third of Iran's ground-to-ground missile launchers. "Since the beginning of the operation, more than 120 missile launchers — constituting one-third of the Iranian regime’s total launchers — have been destroyed," the army reported.

- On June 17, Iran launched attacks against Tel Aviv, Haifa, and other Israeli military targets using "novel weapons" along with hundreds of combat drones, Iran’s Army Ground Force Commander Brigadier General Kiumars Heidari announced. Iranian state media outlets. The strikes successfully hit the Israeli military’s Glilot base and a Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv, SNN television and Tasnim news agency reported.
Civilian impact

- At least 1,800 people have received wounds and injuries after Israel’s attacks on Iran, Iranian Health Minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi stated on June 17. "At least 1,800 civilians have been wounded and injured as a result of the Zionist regime’s (Israeli — TASS) attacks," he said.

- On June 13, Iranian media had claimed Israel targeted and killed several of the country’s nuclear scientists.

- On June 16, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had struck "a communications center" in Tehran - the headquarters of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). The attack occurred during a live broadcast, with Mehr news agency reporting three fatalities.

- In Israel hospitals admitted 287 patients with various injuries following overnight Iranian missile strikes on June 16, health authorities reported.
Missile strike tally

- Iran has conducted "550 operations using drones and continuously attacked Israeli territory" since the start of the direct conflict, Fars news agency reported, citing a source.

- Iran has launched "about 400 missiles and hundreds of drones" at Israel during the recent escalation, Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister, said in a bulletin published June 17.
Cutting-edge weapons

- Israel used the Iron Ray laser air defense system to intercept Iranian missiles and drones for the first time in combat conditions, a representative of the Israeli embassy in Moscow told TASS. It is designed to intercept ultra-short-range missiles, as well as mortar and artillery shells with a laser beam. It is assumed that the system can destroy ultra-short-range missiles, mortar and artillery shells, as well as small drones.

- The Iranian Defense Ministry reported hitting Israel with a cutting-edge missile, which the Israeli military "did not notice at all before it hit."
Unproven claims of Iranian nuclear weapons

- US intelligence has concluded that Tehran was "not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon", CNN reported on June 17, citing sources. Israel justified its strikes against Iran by citing concerns over the potential development of Iranian nuclear weapons.

- Grossi also said that he cannot confirm Israeli intelligence data on Iran’s nuclear program. "Well, I would not judge Israel’s intelligence readings. This is their evaluation of the situation, and I’m not familiar with the internal reports or information that they may have," Grossi pointed out.

- Former UK Ambassador to Tehran (2003-2006) Richard Dalton told Sky News that there is no reliable evidence indicating that Iran is on the brink of nuclear weaponization like Israel suggests: "There is no evidence to that effect in the public domain. <...> We are entitled to disbelieve [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s claims that there was some recent change in Iranian policy and behavior."

#Israeli tank shellfire killed at least 51 Palestinians on Tuesday as they awaited aid trucks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the territory’s health ministry said, adding that dozens of others were wounded.

American empire, Trump’s presidency — Tucker Carlson
Other nations would like to see that, and this is a perfect way to scuttle the USS America on the shores of Iran, US journalist said

NEW YORK, June 17. If the United States gets dragged into the conflict with Iran, we could be witnessing the end of the American empire, US journalist Tucker Carlson said.

"I am saying this because I am really afraid that my country is going to be further weakened by this. I think we are going to see the end of the American empire. Obviously, other nations would like to see that, and this is a perfect way to scuttle the USS America on the shores of Iran," Carlson said, commenting on the latest escalation in the Middle East. "But it’s also going to end, I believe, [Donald] Trump’s presidency, and effectively end it," he opined in a podcast, War Room, hosted by Trump’s former chief political strategist Steve Bannon.

#WASHINGTON, June 16. #US President Donald Trump will hold bilateral meetings with Vladimir Zelensky, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada, a White House official told reporters on Sunday. His words were quoted by the White House press corps.

As the official specified, on the sidelines of the summit Trump "will hold bilateral meetings with Carney, Zelensky and Sheinbaum".

Trump earlier arrived in Canada. The G7 summit (the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States, France and Japan) will be held from June 15 to 17 in the Canadian resort area of Kananaskis (Alberta).

#Britain’s MI6 spy agency gets its first female chief, Britain’s real-life spies have finally caught up with James Bond. MI6 has appointed its first female chief.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Sunday that Blaise Metreweli will be the next head of the U.K.’s foreign intelligence agency, and the first woman to hold the post since its founding in 1909. She is currently the MI6 director of technology and innovation — the real-world equivalent of Bond gadget-master Q.

A career intelligence officer, Metreweli, 47, steps from the shadows into the light as the only MI6 employee whose name is made public. She said “I am proud and honored to be asked to lead my Service.”

Starmer said the “historic appointment” comes at a time “when the work of our intelligence services has never been more vital.

“The United Kingdom is facing threats on an unprecedented scale – be it aggressors who send their spy ships to our waters or hackers whose sophisticated cyber plots seek to disrupt our public services,” he said.

Starmer made the announcement as he arrived in the Canadian province of Alberta for a Group of Seven leaders’ summit.

Metreweli takes over at MI6 as the agency faces growing challenges from states including China and Russia, whose use of cyber tools, espionage, and influence operations threatens global stability and British interests, even as it remains on alert against terrorist threats.

Metreweli is the first woman to get the top job, known as C – rather than M, the fictional MI6 chief of the 007 thrillers. M was played onscreen by Judi Dench in seven Bond movies starting in the 1990s.

She will take up her post in the fall, replacing Richard Moore, who has held the job for five years.

Britain’s two other main intelligence agencies have already shattered the spy world’s glass ceiling. MI5, the domestic security service, was led by Stella Rimington from 1992 to 1996 and Eliza Manningham-Buller between 2002 and 2007. Anne Keast-Butler became head of electronic and cyber-intelligence agency GCHQ in 2023.

Moore, an Oxford-educated former diplomat, fit the 007 mold like a Savile Row suit. But in recent years MI6 has worked to increase diversity, broadening its recruitment process from the traditional “tap on the shoulder” at an elite university. The agency’s website stresses its family-friendly flexible working policy and goal of recruiting “talented people from all backgrounds.”

Moore suggested he would like his successor to be a woman. He wrote on X in 2023 that he would “help forge women’s equality by working to ensure I’m the last C selected from an all-male shortlist.”

Like many things about MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service, the process of choosing a new chief took place out of public view. It began with the country’s top civil servant writing to government departments in March asking them to put forward candidates. The job was open to applicants from other intelligence agencies, the civil service, the diplomatic service, the armed forces or the police.

In the end, MI6 opted for an internal candidate with a 25-year career in espionage, a degree in anthropology from Cambridge University — where she was on the women’s rowing team — and expertise in cutting-edge technology.

“At a time of global instability and emerging security threats, where technology is power and our adversaries are working ever closer together, Blaise will ensure the U.K. can tackle these challenges head on to keep Britain safe and secure at home and abroad,” said Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who oversees MI6.

#Israel has struck one of the buildings belonging to the Foreign Ministry, Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh has said.

"Israel deliberately and ruthlessly struck one of the buildings belonging to the Iranian Foreign Ministry. <...> Several civilians were injured, including a number of my colleagues," he wrote on his social media page.

#Trump says Israel-Iran will come to deal ‘soon’ and warns Tehran against retaliating against U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump rejected 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 was not authorized to comment on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

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.

Asked about the plan during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not directly address whether the White House rejected the plan.

“But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri later called reports about the Israeli plan to kill Khamenei “fake.”

Netanyahu in the Fox interview also said regime change “could certainly be the result” of the conflict “because the Iranian regime is very weak.”

Trump’s rejection of the proposal was first reported by Reuters.

Meanwhile, Trump on Sunday issued a stark warning to Iran against retaliating on U.S. targets in the Middle East while also predicting Israel and Iran would “soon” make a deal to end their escalating conflict.

Trump in an early morning social media posting said the United States “had nothing to do with the attack on Iran” as Israel and Iran traded missile attacks for the third straight day. Iran, however, has said that it would hold the U.S.--which has provided Israel with much of its deep arsenal of weaponry--for its backing of Israel.

“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,” Trump said.

Hours later Trump took to social media again to predict “Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal.”

The U.S. president said he has a track record for de-escalating conflicts, and that he would get Israel and Iran to cease hostilities “just like I got India and Pakistan to make” after the two countries’ recent cross-border confrontation.

India struck targets inside Pakistan after militants in April massacred 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan has denied any links to the attackers. Following India’s strikes in Pakistan, the two sides exchanged heavy fire along their de facto borders, followed by missile and drone strikes into each other’s territories, mainly targeting military installations and airbases.

It was the most serious confrontation in decades between the countries. Trump on Sunday repeated his claim, disputed by India, that the two sides agreed to a ceasefire after he had offered to help both nations with trade if they agreed to de-escalate.

Trump also pointed to efforts by his administration during his first term to mediate disputes between Serbia and Kosovo and Egypt and Ethiopia.

“Likewise, we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran!” Trump said. “Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump is set to travel later Sunday to Canada for Group of Seven leaders summit where the Mideast crisis will loom large over his talks with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan and the European Union.

There’s a divide in Trump world about how far the president should go in backing Israel.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson are among the prominent backers of Trump who have argued voters backed Trump because he would not involve the nation in foreign conflicts.

GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul praised Trump for having shown restraint and said he hoped the president’s “instincts will prevail.”

“So, I think it’s going to be very hard to come out of this and have a negotiated settlement,” Paul said in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I see more war and more carnage. And it’s not the U.S.’s job to be involved in this war.”

In an interview aired on CBS’ “Face the Nation” GOP South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said he preferred diplomatic efforts, but if diplomacy doesn’t work Trump should “go all in” on destroying Iran’s nuclear program.

“If that means providing bombs, provide bombs,” he said. “If that means flying with Israel, fly with Israel.”

Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press