US president tells reporters that Iran has reached out but ‘it’s very late to be talking’ as he declines to answer whether the US will hit Iran’s nuclear facilities
President Donald Trump has declined to answer reporters’ questions on whether the US is planning to strike Iran or its nuclear facilities.
He said the Iranians had reached out but he felt “it’s very late to be talking … there’s a big difference between now and a week ago. Nobody knows what I’m going to do”.
During a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “we have plans for everything” in regards to a question about the military’s plans for a “day after” in Iran.
Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan who served three tours in Iraq, raised the question, the Washington Post reports. She noted that inadequate preparations for a “day after” in Iraq and Afghanistan had left many Americans “deeply concerned” about the United States’s potential involvement in another conflict.
French president Emmanuel Macron has voiced concerns that Israeli strikes are “increasingly targeting sites unrelated to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programs”, leading to “a growing number of civilian casualties”, the Associated Press reports, citing a statement the president’s office issued following a crisis meeting in Paris.
The news came just minutes before Iran’s police announced their central command buildings had been struck by an Israel.
Macron also asked his foreign minister to collaborate with other European countries to negotiate a settlment to end the conflict.
The head of the United Nations is urging foreign countries to stay out of the Israel-Iran conflict.
In a statement calling for a ceasefire, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: “I strongly appeal to all to avoid any further internationalization of the conflict. Any additional military interventions could have enormous consequences, not only for those involved but for the whole region and for international peace and security at large.”
Guterres’s statement comes as the world awaits Donald Trump’s decision on whether the United States will join the conflict by aiding Israel in its attempts to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran has fired ultra-heavy, long-range, two-stage missiles at Israel, Reuters reports, citing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
In a statement, the guards told Israel the skies over its “occupied lands” are open to Iranian attacks, and that Israelis must choose between a “slow death” in underground bunkers or fleeing the state.
Israelis are increasingly seeking to leave – or reeenter – their country on ships through Cyprus, a large Mediterranean island.
The Associated Press reports that thousands of people are now transiting through Cyprus, trying to flee Israel before its conflict with Iran escalates further or return home after being stranded abroad.
The Mediterranean island, located off the coast of Turkey and Syria, became a similar transit point for thousands of Syrian refugees trying to reach Europe during that country’s civil war.
Republican senator Rand Paul has told reporters that Donald Trump would need congressional approval to bomb Iran, Reuters reports.
“Let’s say President Trump decides that he’s going to bomb Iran. He needs to come to a joint session of Congress and ask for permission, and Congress would have to declare war on Iran. That is war on Iran,” said the junior senator from Kentucky. “He would have to come and ask permission. Otherwise, he’d be acting in an unconstitutional manner.”
Paul has been a longtime supporter of the Tea Party movement, often seen as a predecessor to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.
The US Constitution vests the power to declare war in Congress, not the president. However, in recent days, Democratic and progressive lawmakers, including Tim Kaine and Bernie Sanders, have called for Congress to adopt a war powers resolution that would prohibit US armed forces from taking direct action against Iran without explicit authorization from Congress or a declaration of war.
Longtime supporters of Donald Trump have voiced their disapproval of the possibility that the president may seek to involve the United States in the Israel-Iran conflict, a rare break within the deeply loyal Make America Great Again coalition.
Joining their ranks today is Steve Bannon, former chief strategist during Trump’s first term.
“This is not something you play around with,” Bannon told reporters, including the Associated Press. “You have to think this through. And the American people have to be on board. You can’t just dump it on them.”
Trump campaigned on ending the United States’s “forever wars” and in recent days his vice president, JD Vance, has met with Republican senators to dispell fears that the US may be entering another such conflict.
With strikes ongoing in both Israel and Iran, Iran’s mission to the United Nations says the nation will not “grovel at the gates of the White House”.
In a social media post, the mission wrote, “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House. The only thing more despicable than [Trump’s] lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader.”
The post appeared to be in response to Donald Trump’s recent comments that Iranian officials have reached out to negotiate: “They’ve suggested that they come to the White House — that’s, you know, courageous”, the Associated Press reports.
Currently, the AP reports, powerful explosions can be felt across Tehran, while air raid sirens are urging Israeli citizens to seek shelter as the Israeli military detects incoming missiles.
President Donald Trump has declined to answer reporters’ questions on whether the US is planning to strike Iran or its nuclear facilities. He said the Iranians had reached out but he felt “it’s very late to be talking … there’s a big difference between now and a week ago. Nobody knows what I’m going to do”.
Qatar and Oman are trying to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, after the latter conveyed a message to the Qataris, the Jerusalem Post reported. “We are willing to talk, in order to reach an agreement with the US, but Israel needs to “calm things down,” the Iranians said, according to the source.
At least one – and perhaps as many as three – aircraft associated with the Iranian government appear to have flown to Muscat in Oman on Wednesday afternoon where cancelled talks on Iran’s nuclear programme were supposed to take place on Sunday but were cancelled amid Israel’s attack. The Guardian was able to identify apparent tracking data one flight – identified as JJ-25 – which had previously been used by the Iranian government, which appeared sporadically on Wednesday during its flight on the FlightRadar24 tracking service.
The US military is “prepared to execute” any decision President Donald Trump might make on matters of war and peace, defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday, even as he declined to confirm preparations of strike options on Iran. “If and when those decisions are made, the Department (of Defense) is prepared to execute them,” Hegseth told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described on Wednesday as “unacceptable” an ultimatum from US president Donald Trump calling for the nation’s “unconditional surrender”, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The president of America in an unacceptable statement explicitly urged Iranians to surrender but we tell him: first threaten those who are afraid of being threatened. Threats will not affect the thinking and behaviour of the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said in a speech read on state television.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that air force jets had destroyed Iran’s “internal security headquarters” after the army announced it was striking military targets in Tehran, AFP reports. “Air Force jets have just destroyed the internal security headquarters of the Iranian regime - the main arm of repression of the Iranian dictator,” Katz said in a statement, vowing to “strike symbols of governance and hit the Ayatollah regime wherever it may be”.
Iran and Israel accused each other of endangering commercial activity in sea lanes around the Gulf and the Red Sea at the UN’s shipping agency on Wednesday, as their military conflict escalated. Iran’s delegation told a session of the International Maritime Organization’s security committee that Israel had in recent days extended its “unlawful attacks” to include petrochemical and gas infrastructure in Asalouyeh along Iran’s Gulf coast.
The United States is working to evacuate US citizens from Israel by arranging flights and cruise ship departures, US ambassador Mike Huckabee said in a post on X on Wednesday. The US embassy in Jerusalem was working on the evacuation arrangements, he said, urging Americans in the country to sign up for updates through the state department’s Smart Traveler programme.
An Israel strike targeted a building of the Iranian Red Crescent Society in Tehran, Iranian media including the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 33 people were killed by Israeli fire in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, including 11 who were seeking aid. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 11 people were killed and more than 100 wounded “after the occupation forces opened fire and launched several shells... at thousands of citizens” who had gathered to queue for food in central Gaza.
A new explosion was heard in northern Tehran adding that a main road has been partially closed, an AFP journalist said. The blast followed a series of other explosions heard in the eastern quarters of the city.
Israel will ease domestic restrictions imposed on its population due to the ongoing war with Iran and will “reopen its economy”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday. “While we continue our intense fight against Iran until the threats are removed, we will also reopen the economy, ease restrictions, and restore Israel to paths of creativity, activity, and security,” Katz was quoted as saying in a statement after approving the changes for most of the country starting Wednesday evening.
Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, on Wednesday called on Iran to resume talks over its nuclear programme, AFP reports. Wadephul said he had delivered the message to his Iranian counterpart in a phone call on Monday together with the French and British foreign ministers and the European Union’s chief diplomat.
The family members of British diplomatic staff in Israel have been “temporarily withdrawn”, the UK Foreign Office said on Wednesday. Relatives of staff working at the UK embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem were “temporarily withdrawn as a precautionary measure”, the it said, adding that staff at the mission remain.
Iran is set to impose temporary restrictions on internet access, the communications ministry said in a statement relayed by Iranian media on Wednesday, as the country continues to exchange missiles with Israel.
The statement said the move was to prevent “the enemy from threatening citizens’ lives and property”.
A handout photo made available by the Iranian Army on 18 June 2025 shows the wreckage of a downed Israeli drone near the city of Isfahan, Iran.
Qatar and Oman are trying to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, after the latter conveyed a message to the Qataris, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“We are willing to talk, in order to reach an agreement with the US, but Israel needs to “calm things down,” the Iranians said, according to the source.
At least one – and perhaps as many as three – aircraft associated with the Iranian government appear to have flown to Muscat in Oman on Wednesday afternoon where cancelled talks on Iran’s nuclear programme were supposed to take place on Sunday but were cancelled amid Israel’s attack.
The Guardian was able to identify apparent tracking data one flight – identified as JJ-25 – which had previously been used by the Iranian government, which appeared sporadically on Wednesday during its flight on the FlightRadar24 tracking service.
The aircraft appeared briefly in south eastern Iran before disappearing and then reappearing near the coast with its destination listed as Muscat.
Later reports in some Israeli media suggested three government flights had left Oman including a presidential plane, which until recently was used by president Masoud Pezeshkian.
The appearance of at least one listed flight was highly unusual in an airspace closed because of Israel’s military assault on Iran.
The destination, however, led to immediate speculation that Iran – which has reached out to neighbours in the Gulf and Moscow to mediate and end to the conflict – may have sent officials to Oman related to the cancelled nuclear talks.
President Donald Trump has declined to answer reporters’ questions on whether the US is planning to strike Iran or its nuclear facilities.
He said the Iranians had reached out but he felt “it’s very late to be talking … there’s a big difference between now and a week ago. Nobody knows what I’m going to do”.
The United States is working to evacuate US citizens from Israel by arranging flights and cruise ship departures, US ambassador Mike Huckabee said in a post on X on Wednesday.
The US embassy in Jerusalem was working on the evacuation arrangements, he said, urging Americans in the country to sign up for updates through the state department’s Smart Traveler programme.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected US calls for surrender and warned that joining the war would lead to ‘irreparable damage’, as Israel ramped up rhetoric about regime change and ordered civilians to evacuate a district in Tehran.