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Attacks on Tehran
Airstrikes lit up the Israeli and Iranian skies on Monday, marking the fourth straight day of heavy bombardments between the two adversaries. Although foreign leaders are demanding that both sides de-escalate immediately to avoid an all-out war, Israel and Iran refuse to come to the negotiating table. Israel is “changing the face of the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a Monday press conference.
Israel has continued to target Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, including major uranium enrichment facilities as well as top Iranian leadership. According to Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, Israel has destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers in central Iran since airstrikes began on Friday as well as 10 command centers in Tehran allegedly belonging to the country’s elite Quds Force.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that Israel is also attacking “regime targets and security infrastructures in Tehran,” signaling a potential regime-change focus. Israel issued its first evacuation warning for part of the Iranian capital on Monday, affecting some 330,000 people. Among Monday’s targets, Israel confirmed that it had hit the Tehran headquarters of Iran’s state media broadcaster. The attack occurred while a news anchor was live on air and briefly halted the broadcast, though programming resumed shortly after. Israeli forces claimed the facility was a “communication center” being used by the Iranian military “under the guise of civilian activity,” but they did not provide evidence for the claim. Before the strike, Katz had warned that the “mouthpiece of Iranian propaganda and incitement is about to disappear,” adding that “we will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere.” A spokesperson for Iran’s foreign minister called the attack a “war crime.”
In retaliation for the Israeli campaign, Iran has fired around 370 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel over the past four days, including another wave of strikes on Monday, killing at least eight people and bringing the total death toll in Israel since last Friday to at least 24, with nearly 600 others injured, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Israeli attacks on Iran have killed more than 220 people since the strikes began, according to Iranian state media.
Iran reportedly told mediators Qatar and Oman on Sunday that it will not begin cease-fire negotiations with Israel or return to nuclear negotiations with the United States while Israeli attacks continue.
“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X on Monday. He warned the United States against getting involved in the conflict, saying it will destroy any prospect of a nuclear deal and could have dangerous consequences for regional security. And he vowed to continue to “pummel” Israel until all military actions stop.
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said on Monday that Israel will pursue its military offensive against Iran regardless of whether Washington holds nuclear negotiations with Tehran.
European leaders who are in Canada on Monday for the G-7 summit are reportedly drafting a statement calling for both Israel and Iran to cease their assaults. The draft acknowledges that Israel has the right to defend itself and that Iran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. However, CNN reported that, according to a source familiar with the process, U.S. President Donald Trump is not expected to sign the joint declaration.
Asked by a reporter at the summit on Monday about whether he has seen any messages from intermediaries suggesting that Iran wants to de-escalate the conflict, Trump replied that he had, and that Iran “would like to talk.”
“Iran is not winning this war,” Trump said, adding that the country “should talk immediately before it’s too late.”
Today’s Most Read
The World This Week
Tuesday, June 17: Jordanian King Abdullah II addresses the European Parliament.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon begins a four-day visit to China.
Wednesday, June 18: Russia begins hosting the four-day St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Guernsey holds a general election.
Thursday, June 19: Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
The deadline for Chinese company ByteDance to divest TikTok or else face a U.S. ban expires. Trump is expected to extend the deadline but has not formally done so yet.
Friday, June 20: Istanbul hosts a two-day Organization of Islamic Cooperation foreign ministers’ meeting.
Monday, June 23: European Union sanctions against Russia following its annexation of Crimea expire.
What We’re Following
A rocky start to the G-7. Disunity overshadowed the start of the working sessions of the annual G-7 summit in Canada on Monday, as leaders fear that traditional alliances will not be enough to ensure consensus on key global issues. Already, Ottawa has abandoned drafting the usual joint communique issued at the end of the two-day conference for fear of repeating the results of the 2018 summit in Quebec, when Trump ordered the United States to withdraw from the document over a spat with then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Day one of the G-7 meeting was supposed to focus on tariff deals and China amid Washington’s trade war and the resulting economic fallout. However, wars in Europe and the Middle East took center stage at the summit, as Trump suggested following a phone call with Putin on Saturday that Moscow should mediate negotiations between Israel and Iran.
Speaking to reporters in Canada on Monday, Trump also suggested that Russia be brought back into the group, arguing that ejecting Moscow had been a “mistake” and that he thinks Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022 if that hadn’t happened. Russia was kicked out of what was then the G-8 in 2014 after it annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the G-7 talks on Tuesday alongside NATO chief Mark Rutte.
U.S. immigration crackdowns. Trump ordered federal authorities on Sunday to prioritize deportations in Democratic-run cities, including Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. In a Truth Social post, the U.S. president heralded the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose raids against undocumented migrants have sparked mass protests across the country this month and led to the contested deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to California.
“You have my unwavering support. Now go, get the job done!” Trump wrote.
The White House has pushed an aggressive immigration agenda in recent weeks, ramping up domestic deportation efforts as well as imposing a sweeping travel ban on 12 countries. According to an internal State Department cable seen by the Washington Post, the Trump administration is considering expanding initial travel restrictions to 36 additional nations if they do not meet State Department benchmarks and requirements within 60 days. Countries must submit an initial action plan by Wednesday at 8 a.m.
The new nations facing visa bans are Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The memo listed “widespread government fraud,” the lack of a central authority to produce reliable identity documents, large numbers of citizens who overstay their tourist visas, and populations that exhibit “antisemitic and anti-American activity in the United States” as some of the rationale for restrictions. However, countries that agree to accept third-country nationals removed from the United States could be exempt.
“Your holidays, my misery.” Thousands of people took to the streets across Southern Europe on Sunday to protest overtourism. In Barcelona, where the main march took place, demonstrators chanted “your holidays, my misery” while carrying signs reading “mass tourism kills the city” and firing water pistols at tourists standing outside of cafes, hostels, and public squares. Similar demonstrations were held across Portugal, Italy, and smaller Spanish towns.
European authorities argue that short-term rentals, largely used by tourists, drive up housing costs for locals. Barcelona’s city government vowed last year to ban apartment rentals for tourists by 2028 in an effort to make the city more livable. And last month, Spain ordered Airbnb to block more than 65,000 listings from its platform for allegedly violating government rules. Barcelona recorded around 26 million tourists last year alone.
Odds and Ends
In the fictional on-screen world of James Bond, Britain’s MI6 has had a female spy chief since 1995. Now, the real MI6 is finally catching up. On Sunday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that Blaise Metreweli, currently the organization’s director of technology and innovation, will become the first woman in charge of the country’s foreign intelligence service. The “historic appointment” comes “when the work of our intelligence services has never been more vital,” Starmer said. MI6 is the last of Britain’s three main spy agencies to shatter the glass ceiling.
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Thanks to the Team @ World Brief – Foreign Policy Source link & Great Job Alexandra Sharp
