#Moscow warns Washington against interfering in military actions against Iran, as this is fraught with uncontrollable consequences, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (#SPIEF).

"We would like to especially warn Washington against military intervention in the situation, which would be an extremely dangerous step with truly unpredictable negative consequences," she said.

Zakharova emphasized that Russia is actively engaged in political and diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel. "The priority today is to halt the escalation of violence, achieve a ceasefire, and restore peace. These steps are crucial for creating the necessary conditions to bring the situation back to the negotiating table. We are committed to facilitating this process in every possible way," she stated.

Zakharova recalled that on the very first day of the conflict's intensification, Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged in telephone discussions with both the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of Iran. The following day, he spoke with his US counterpart, and subsequently held conversations with the leaders of Turkey and the UAE.

"Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also been active, communicating with the foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Oman. The current crisis in the Middle East was a topic of discussion in Lavrov's conversations with the Azerbaijani foreign minister, as well as during negotiations with Indonesia’s foreign minister. These dialogues are ongoing," Zakharova noted. "We hope that all parties recognize that there is no viable alternative to seeking mutually acceptable negotiated solutions to the problems at hand. Our support for a resolution concerning the Iranian nuclear program will always be grounded in international law, the principle of equal and indivisible security, and a balanced consideration of mutual interests."

She acknowledged Iran’s clear commitment to its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as well as its willingness to reengage with the United States to explore potential solutions that address unwarranted suspicions regarding its nuclear activities, contingent on the cessation of Israeli attacks.

"Moscow fully endorses this position and firmly believes that a lasting resolution can only be realized through diplomacy and negotiations," Zakharova concluded.
Conflict escalation

Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the United States was preparing for a potential strike on Iran in the coming days, though there was uncertainty about whether plans might change. The Wall Street Journal revealed that on the evening of June 17, President Donald Trump informed his aides that he had approved a plan to attack Iran but had not yet issued the order, expecting Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi indicated that Iran was considering all options in response to the possibility of US involvement alongside Israel.

On June 13, Israel launched a military operation against Iran, prompting Tehran to carry out a retaliatory attack less than a day later. Over the following days, the two countries exchanged further strikes. Both sides reported casualties and damage to some facilities, acknowledging that their forces had been hit. The cycle of mutual strikes continues to escalate. Russia condemned Israel’s actions and expressed its willingness to mediate in efforts to resolve the conflict.

#Iranian strike damages a hospital as latest missile barrage wounds dozens in Israel. Israel’s defence minister threatened Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday after Iranian missiles crashed into a major hospital in southern Israel and hit residential buildings near Tel Aviv, wounding at least 240 people. As rescuers wheeled patients out of the smoldering hospital, Israeli warplanes launched their latest attack on the country’s nuclear program.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz blamed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for Thursday’s barrage and said the military “has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.”

While it remained unclear whether U.S. President Donald Trump would task American forces to join Israel’s sweeping campaign against Iran’s military and nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted that Trump would “do what’s best for America.”

“I can tell you that they’re already helping a lot,” Netanyahu said from the rubble and shattered glass around the Soroka Medical Center in Israel’s southern city of Beersheba.

U.S. officials said earlier this week that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei. Trump later said there were no plans to kill him, “at least not for now.”

The U.S. has been weighing whether to join Israel’s attack by striking Iran’s well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America’s “bunker-buster” bombs.

The conflict began last Friday with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting nuclear and military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists. At least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.

Iran has retaliated by firing hundreds of missiles and drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds.
More than 200 wounded, including dozens in the hospital strike

At least 240 people were wounded by the latest Iranian attack on Israel, among them 80 wounded in the strike on the Soroka Medical Center. The vast majority were lightly wounded, as much of the hospital building had been evacuated in recent days.

Israel’s Home Front Command said that one of the Iranian ballistic missiles fired Thursday morning had been rigged with fragmenting cluster munitions. Rather than a conventional warhead, the missile carries dozens of submunitions that can explode on impact, showering small bomblets around a large geographic area and posing major safety risks on the ground.

The Israeli military did not say where the missile with the cluster munition warhead had been fired.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted that it had not sought to strike the hospital and claimed the attack hit an Israeli military intelligence compound near the Gav-Yam Negev advanced technologies park, some three kilometres (2 miles) from the hospital. An elite technological unit of the Israeli military has a branch campus in the area, according to the tech park’s website.

The Israeli army did not respond to a request for comment. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, acknowledged that there was no specific intelligence that Iran had planned to target the hospital.

Many hospitals in Israel, including Soroka, had activated emergency plans in the past week. They converted underground parking garages to wards and moved patients to them, especially those on ventilators or are difficult to move quickly.

Israel also has a fortified, subterranean blood bank that kicked into action after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Doctors at Soroka Medical Center said that the Iranian missile struck almost immediately after air raid sirens went off, causing a loud explosion that could be heard from a safe room. The strike inflicted the greatest damage on an old surgery building and affected key infrastructure, including gas, water and air-conditioning systems, the medical center said.

The hospital, which provides services to around 1 million residents of Israel’s south, had been caring for 700 patients at the time of the attack. Of the 80 lightly wounded in the strike, half were hospital staff, it said. Afterward, the hospital closed to all patients except for life-threatening cases.

Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, though most have been shot down by Israel’s multitiered air defences.
Iran rejects calls to surrender or end its nuclear program

Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. However, in addition to having a nuclear power plant, it also enriches uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich at that level.

Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons — making it the only such state in the Middle East — but does not acknowledge having such arms.

Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday rejected U.S. calls for surrender and warned that any American military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage to them.”

Already, Israel’s campaign has targeted Iran’s enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran, and a nuclear site in Isfahan. Its strikes have also killed top generals and nuclear scientists.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would travel to Geneva for meetings with his counterparts from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, as well as the European Union’s top diplomat, indicating a new diplomatic initiative might be underway.

Trump has said he wants something “much bigger” than a ceasefire and has not ruled out the U.S. joining in Israel’s campaign.
Iran agreed to redesign Arak to address nuclear concerns

Israel’s military said Thursday its fighter jets targeted the Arak heavy water reactor, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of Tehran, in order to prevent it from being used to produce plutonium.

Iranian state TV said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” around the Arak site, which it said had been evacuated ahead of the strike.

Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon.

Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to alleviate proliferation concerns. That work was never completed.

The reactor became a point of contention after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018. Ali Akbar Salehi, a high-ranking nuclear official in Iran, said in 2019 that Tehran bought extra parts to replace a portion of the reactor that it had poured concrete into under the deal.

Israel said strikes were carried out “in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14.

Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s heavy water production — meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran’s production and stockpile.

By Sam Mednick, Natalie Melzer, And Jon Gambrell

Archaeologists have assembled the “world’s most difficult jigsaw puzzle” to reveal huge frescoes that once adorned a luxury villa in Roman London.

Fragments of shattered wall plaster, which were discovered during excavations by experts from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), have been meticulously pieced together to reveal frescoes that covered about 20 internal walls of the building.

The significance of the plaster pieces was not immediately apparent when they were first unearthed at a site in Southwark. Thousands of fragments were found dumped in a large pit, probably as a result of Roman demolition work carried out prior to 200 AD, MOLA said.

Han Li, senior building material specialist at MOLA, spent three months painstakingly laying out the fragments in order to restore the massive artwork, which has not been seen for more than 1,800 years.

It features painted images of fruit, flowers, birds, candelabras and stringed musical instruments popular at the time.

Countries are evacuating their nationals from Israel and Iran by air, land and sea as conflict rages between the bitter rivals.

Days of attacks and reprisals by the two enemies have shuttered airspace across the Middle East, severely disrupting commercial flights and leaving people unable to get in or out of the region easily.

Some governments are using land borders to get their citizens out by road to countries where airports remain open.

Thousands of foreigners have already left since the conflict started last Friday when Israel launched surprise missile strikes on Iran.
Bulgaria

Bulgaria has moved all its diplomats from Tehran to the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, the Balkan country’s prime minister said Thursday.

“We are not closing the embassy, ​​but moving it to Baku until the danger passes,” said Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov.

A group of 89 Bulgarians was evacuated from Israel by plane to Sofia, along with 59 nationals from Slovenia, the U.S., Belgium, Albania, Kosovo and Romania.

They left from the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh, where they had been transferred by bus across the border from Israel.

He said the government had urged all Bulgarians willing to join the convoy to do so. They set off in 11 vehicles on Wednesday morning.

“There were alternatives. They could travel via Turkey, but eventually we decided that they should go via Azerbaijan,” Zhelyazkov added.
China

China said it has evacuated more than 1,600 nationals from Iran and “several hundred others” from Israel.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing would continue to do its “utmost to assist in the safe transfer and evacuation of Chinese citizens.”

Aell Huang, who was in the Iranian city of Isfahan, said he didn’t feel safe during the conflict. “I heard explosions from time to time. Civilians got hurt too. I got more prepared mentally once I saw the embassy’s warning.”

He and some friends hired a car and headed to Azerbaijan, waiting at border control for almost 12 hours, where he saw as many as 60 other Chinese nationals.

The Chinese Embassy said it would organize group evacuations by bus from Israel starting Friday.

A notice posted on the embassy’s WeChat social media account said citizens would be taken out through the Taba border crossing to Egypt. It asked them to register online and said they would be notified of the evacuation time.

People carrying Chinese, Hong Kong, and Macao passports were eligible, the notice said.
European Union

The European Union has helped evacuate some 400 people from Israel via Jordan and Egypt as part of its efforts to coordinate an emergency response within the 27-nation bloc.

“Member states coordinate the list and we co-finance these flights up to 75 per cent of the transport costs,” European Commission spokesperson Eva Hrncirova told a regular press conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

Hrncirova said the E.U. was fielding requests by Slovakia, Lithuania, Greece, and Poland for assistance with Middle East evacuations.
France

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Thursday it was helping nationals who want to leave Iran and Israel to do so through neighboring countries where commercial flights were still available.

Barrot said people in Iran could travel to Armenia and Turkey without a visa. Those unable to reach the border on their own would be “transported by convoy by the end of the week” so they could take commercial flights to France.

French nationals wanting to leave Israel can go via Jordan and Egypt. From Friday morning, some buses will carry passengers from the Israeli border to Amman and Sharm el-Sheikh airports.
Germany

Germany flew 171 people out of Amman on a special flight on Wednesday. A further 174 people returned on Thursday and another flight is planned this weekend.

Passenger Daniel Halav, who was stuck in Tel Aviv, said he had “never been so glad to be home” after landing in Frankfurt, the German news agency dpa reported.

But, he said, “we had to take care of ourselves of how we got to Amman. From my point of view, we were left a bit alone there.”

The German Foreign Ministry said officials had decided against organizing convoys to get people to Amman, arguing this move could have created a security risk and that those wishing to leave were scattered across Israel.
Greece

Greece’s Foreign Ministry said 141 Greeks and other nationals have been evacuated from Israel via Egypt.

The group included citizens from Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S.

They were flown to Athens early Wednesday from Sharm el-Sheikh aboard two military transport planes.
India

India said it evacuated 110 students by road from northern Iran to the Armenian capital, Yerevan. They left on a special flight on June 18.

The Indian Embassy in Iran has been helping nationals to move from areas experiencing increased hostilities to relatively safer areas within the country, subsequently evacuating them, according to the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.
Israel

As of Thursday, some 22,000 holidaymakers had asked the Israeli Tourism Ministry to help them leave the country. There are around 38,000 tourists in Israel.

The Transport Ministry said thousands of Israelis have returned daily in the past few days, with 21 planes bringing back nationals stranded abroad since the start of the aerial campaign against Iran.

The Population, Immigration, and Border Authority said 38,250 Israelis entered the country between June 13 and 19, and 21,456 left during the same period.

The majority of arrivals and departures were by land.
Middle East and North Africa

Oman said Thursday it had evacuated 245 of its citizens and nationals from other countries via the Iranian coastal city of Bandar Abbas.

Ten buses transported Omani citizens from Iran’s north into Turkey. A further three buses crossed into Iraq.
Indonesia

The Indonesian government on Thursday decided to evacuate its nationals from Iran.

“Our citizens are at risk,” Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sugiono said. “Over the past two days, Israel’s attacks have grown more intense, not only targeting the military, but also civilians.”

He said about 386 Indonesians, mostly students, were in Iran, primarily in the city of Qom. The ministry earlier said some 194 Indonesians were in Israel, mostly student interns in the southern city of Rafah.

Sugiono did not give a timeframe for evacuations, but said Iran has promised to help with the process.
Japan

Japan is sending two military aircraft to Djibouti to stand by for the possible airlifting of Japanese nationals from Iran.

Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters he had issued an order to send two C-2 transport aircraft, along with 120 armed forces personnel, to the Horn of Africa nation, where Japan has a military base. An advance team of servicemembers left Japan earlier Thursday.

Chief of the Self-Defence Forces Joint Staff Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida said the C-2 dispatch was to secure multiple options for evacuation when necessary.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the embassy in Iran was preparing to evacuate an unspecified number of Japanese nationals by bus.

Some 280 Japanese are in Iran, and 1,000 are in Israel.
Poland

Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys said a group would depart from Amman by military aircraft on Thursday, following road transportation from Israel to the Jordanian border.

Some 160 Poles arrived in Warsaw on Wednesday morning from Israel via Egypt, the Polish news agency PAP reported.

The deputy minister said while there were no plans to evacuate citizens from Iran, Warsaw was helping with the departure of non-essential personnel from the embassy in Tehran.

The staff, along with seven Polish citizens, left the Iranian capital on Wednesday morning for the Azerbaijan border.
South Korea

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry says 18 South Korean nationals and two Iranian family members were evacuated from Iran and arrived in Turkmenistan late Wednesday by land.

The ministry described the evacuation as a preemptive move to protect citizens as the closure of airspace would have otherwise made it difficult for them to leave.

It urged South Koreans in Iran and Israel to promptly depart in line with embassy instructions and advised travelers to cancel or postpone trips to the region.

Twenty-five nationals and one Israeli family member were escorted out of Israel by embassy staff and arrived in Jordan on Thursday morning.
Thailand

Thai nationals have been advised to leave Tehran at the earliest opportunity and avoid traveling to affected areas, although there is no immediate plan for an evacuation from Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said Wednesday.

He said there are about 350 Thais in Iran and only five had expressed a wish to return to Thailand.

The embassy in Tehran has set up a temporary shelter for Thais in Amol and has temporarily relocated its office to Kordan to ensure the safety of those needing to travel for the services.

The embassy has also prepared the land routes for Thais to travel to Iran’s neighbors, Nikorndej said.
U.S.

The State Department is planning to evacuate Americans from Israel by air and on cruise ships, according to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Huckabee said Americans interested in leaving Israel should enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program for updates.

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

Associated Press writers from around the world contributed to this report.

It is claimed that two #Chinese electronic intelligence ships, the 855 and the 815A, are in the Persian Gulf.

Iran strikes Israel’s cyber command headquarters — IRNA
According to the news agency, thousands of servicemen responsible for intelligence data processing and cyber operations were stationed there

TEHRAN, June 19. The Israeli army’s C4I cyber command headquarters and the military intelligence center in the Gav-Yam hi-tech park were targeted by Iranian missile strikes on Thursday morning, IRNA reported.

According to the news agency, thousands of servicemen responsible for intelligence data processing and cyber operations were stationed there.

The Gav-Yam intelligence center is situated near Soroka hospital in southern Israel’s Beersheba which suffered no serios damage as it was exposed to a blast wave, while the military infrastructure was hit in a precision strike, the news agency said.

#IRAN'S AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI WARNS TRUMP:

"War will be met with war, bombing with bombing, and strike with strike. Iran WILL NOT SUBMIT to any demands or dictates."

ALLEGED NEW IRANIAN MISSILE DANCES IN THE SKY

#Iranian media report that Iran may have unleashed a new generation of missiles in a fresh wave of attacks on #Israel.

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.