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Asia
Iran
(16 june 2025) Israel said its strikes had hit dozens of targets in Tehran. Iranian media, quoting the health ministry, said 224 Iranians had been killed and 1,277 injured as of Sunday evening. Iran later confirmed the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit, Kazemi, had been killed, alongside a deputy and another commander. Report from inside Iran, making it to assess the damage caused by Israel's offensive is difficult, due to restrictions by the country's government. Iran's state TV said the country attacked Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities with tens of Iranian missiles and drones. Tehran's oil ministry said the Shahran oil depot in the capital was hit by Israeli strikes overnight. Israel's military said fighter jets struck more than 80 targets in Tehran overnight, including the Iranian Ministry of Defense and additional targets where the Iranian regime hid the nuclear archive. An aerial refuelling aircraft was also struck at an airport in the north-east city Mashhad. The Iranian former crown prince Pahlavi - the son of Iran's former Shah who was overthrown in the country's 1979 Islamic revolution - has told the BBC people who oppose the country's government have been re-energised by Israel's attacks, which killed senior Iranian military leaders. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
Israel
June 16, 2025, 10:21 PM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News today that targeting Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei would end, not escalate, the ongoing fight between Israel and Iran that erupted late last week. ’We've had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorizes everyone in the Middle East; has bombed the Aramco oil fields in Saudi Arabia; is spreading terrorism and subversion and sabotage everywhere,’ Netanyahu said. ’The forever war is what Iran wants, and they're bringing us to the brink of nuclear war. In fact, what Israel is doing is preventing this, bringing an end to this aggression, and we can only do so by standing up to the forces of evil.’ Asked if Israel would target the supreme leader, Netanyahu said that Israel was ’doing what we need to do.’ ’I'm not going to get into the details, but we've targeted their top nuclear scientists,’ Netanyahu said. ’It's basically Hitler's nuclear team.’ Netanyahu said it in America's interest to support Israel as it seeks to eliminate Iran's nuclear program. ’Today, it's Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it's New York. Look, I understand 'America First'. I don't understand 'America Dead'. That's what these people want. They chant 'Death to America.' So we're doing something that is in the service of mankind, of humanity, and it's a battle of good against evil. America does, should, and does stand with the good. That's what President Trump is doing, And I deeply appreciate his support,’ he told. Israel's prime minister dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that Iran has been urgently signaling that it is wants to end hostilities and resume negotiations over its nuclear program. ’I'm not surprised. I mean, they want to continue to have these fake talks in which they lie, they cheat, they string the U.S. along’. We have very solid Intel on that, he said. ’They want to keep on building their nuclear weapons and building their mass ballistic missile arsenal, which they're firing at our people. They want to continue to create the two existential threats against Israel while they're talking. That's not going to happen.’ Asked to respond to some Republicans opposed to America's military support for Israel's strikes against Iran, including commentator Carlson, Netanyahu said Iran is a threat to the entire world. In his Friday newsletter, Carlson wrote that the United States should let Israel fight their own wars - the United States should not at any level participate in a war with Iran: No funding, no American weapons, no troops on the ground. „We're not just fighting our enemy. We're fighting your enemy. For God's sake, they chant, ’death to Israel, death to America.’ We're simply on their way. And this could reach America soon,’ Netanyahu said. "We're taking the action. America is supporting us in defense. Deeply, deeply appreciated. But this is a threat to the entire world,’ Netanyahu said. "It's a threat to Israel; as I said - to our Arab neighbors; to Europe; to America. They chant 'Death to America.' It's though - 'This is not your business'? This is not myopia. This is utter blindness.’ ’Sometimes you have to take a stand against evil. And that's what the American people instinctively understand. Most of them, I have to say. And that's what President Trump understands. We cannot let that happen,’ he added. In an updated travel advisory today, the State Department appears to have classified all of Israel and the West Bank as Level 4: Do Not Travel - its highest advisory level. Would he stop bombing if Trump requested him to do so and to resume diplomatic talks, Netanyahu was asked. President Trump has been a great leader and a great friend of Israel, and he put forward the terms very clearly in the negotiations, Netanyahu said. "He said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and in order for it not to have a nuclear weapon, it cannot have the capacity to enrich uranium, which is the prerequisite for nuclear weapons.' He later added that the Iranians do not want to continue negotiations in good faith and are stringing the U.S. along as they keep building up their weapons. ’They don't want a seat at the table - they want to blow up the table. Specifically, they want to blow up Israel and purchase time,’ Netanyahu said. He praised the American defenses helping Israel against drones and missiles, but added: As far as what else America will do - that's up to President Trump. „He will do what's in the best interest of the United States, but it's important to understand that we deeply appreciate his help and the help and the support of the great majority of the American people, because they understand what we're fighting against a regime that hates us both, that is trying to assassinate us both, that there is trying to bring death and destruction throughout the Middle East and to the world. And sometimes you have to take a stand. You take a stand with the good against evil. And that's precisely what America is doing under President Trump,' Netanyahu said. Trump, in Canada today at the Group of Seven summit, was asked what it would take for the United States to get involved militarily in the conflict; he replied, “I don't want to talk about that." The death toll in Iran was 224 as of early today, according to the head of the Public Relations and Information Center of the Ministry of Health. In Israel, 24 have been killed and 592 injured, according to a release from the Prime Minister's office today morning. Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi told a meeting of ambassadors in Tehran yesterday that Israel's ongoing attacks on the country could not have happened without the agreement and support of the United States. Araghchi called on the international community to condemn Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. 'This is perhaps the last red line of international law that the Israeli regime has crossed, and if the international community is indifferent to these red lines, it will certainly have consequences for all other countries,’ Araghchi said. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)
North America
United States
Jun 16, 2025 4:01 PM EDT About a broader U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. Over two dozen U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers from across the United States appeared on flight-tracking software yesterday evening, taking off from their bases and heading east over the Atlantic. Such a large, mysterious near-simultaneous migration of the jets at a time of extreme crisis in the Middle East could signal a major contingency being put in place or even a change in U.S. policy on the Iran-Israel war. These are precisely the assets that would be needed if the United States were going to change its support of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, or if there were urgent concerns that the conflict is about to widen significantly. Israel lacks robust aerial refueling capabilities, with just a handful of aging 707 tankers (around seven operational) available to support hundreds of fighter aircraft. As Israel gains air superiority further east over Iran, aerial tanking becomes even more important. Aerial refueling will enable much better effectiveness when it comes to hunting for and interdicting Iran’s theater ballistic missiles before they can be launched. Gaining more aerial refueling capacity will enhance just about every facet of Israel’s tactical jet operations, multiplying the available force to a significant degree. The U.S. can provide exactly this support at scale. This would mean the U.S. would enter the air war directly, or is preparing to be more capable of executing that option. This would be a massive shift in U.S. policy, and it could have cascading effects throughout the region, especially in terms of the likelihood that Iran would start targeting American installations. This scenario could also work in reverse if Iran targeted American interests in the region, with the U.S. then entering the direct conflict. Having the tankers pre-positioned for such a contingency would be very helpful. If preparing to deal with Iran attempting to close the Strait of Hormuz were to occur, U.S. and likely Arab gulf state military aircraft would leap into action in an attempt to curtail the operation. It would require a massive operation that includes SEAD/DEAD and persistent surveillance aircraft sorties. It also means having to hunt for highly mobile shore-based anti-ship missile launchers on a grand scale. This would demand large amounts of continuous tanker support. American B-2s are the only known conventional assets that have the potential capability of badly disabling or destroying Iran’s deepest underground components of its nuclear program. Pre-positioning a tanker bridge spanning the Atlantic to the Middle East would be needed to support those heavily-laden B-2 operations. This same bridge can also help American assets get out of the region if the United States evacuates its sprawling bases there out of fears of massive Iranian bombardment. It’s worth noting that other assets also appear to be moving in Iran’s direction, including a U.S. carrier strike group heading into the Indian Ocean from the South China Sea. (Source: TWZ - U.S.)
By Rogoway, founder and editor-in-chief
.5 6 16 21:41
