US and Israel attacks on Iran necessary to stop ‘intolerable threat’ of nuclear weapons, says President Trump
Main points
- The US and Israel are continuing to strike at targets in Iran
- US president Donald Trump has said “this was our last best chance to strike”
- Iran “refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons”, claiming the regime “would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America”, Trump said
- Global oil prices jumped when markets opened on Monday
- Contingency planning for the evacuation of potentially hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Irish citizens from the Middle East has begun
- Limited resumption of flights to begin from Dubai airports
Hizbullah said its attack on Israel was in response to Israel’s assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, on Saturday morning, an action the militant group said “crossed a red line”.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) responded with a wave of strikes throughout Lebanon, including in Beirut’s Dahiyeh quarter.
The attacks continued throughout the day. Huge traffic jams were reported as residents fled.
The Israeli air force and navy said dozens of Hizbullah targets and what were described as “Iranian regime command centres” were struck, including a weapons storage site in the Tyre area in southern Lebanon. Money exchange shops that Israel claimed were used by Hizbullah for money laundering were also hit.
The Hizbullah decision to attack Israel came despite intense pressure on the group from the Lebanese government, which wanted to avoid the country being dragged into another confrontation with Israel. A ceasefire in December 2024 ended a war between Israel and Hizbullah.
Could drone attacks lead Cyprus to trigger an EU common defence clause?
Drone attacks targeting military bases in Cyprus have opened the prospect the EU state may trigger a “common defence clause”.
The defence has only been used once before in the bloc’s history, Europe Correspondent Jack Power writes.
An Iranian-made drone hit a British military airbase in Cyprus on Sunday, causing a small amount of damage, but no injuries. Two further unmanned drones were intercepted heading towards the Mediterranean island on Monday.
The apparent target, Akrotiri, is one of two RAF bases on the island, which are sovereign British territory under the terms of a 1960 agreement that saw the former British colony granted independence.
The UK government has shown no interest in giving up the small tracts of strategically important territory close to the Middle East.
West Dunbartonshire and Argyllshire soldiers men serving in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders served there in the early 1980s when the US Embassy in Beirut was attacked and 83 people were killed.
The injured were flown into the British hospital at Akrotiri where they were treated before being flown back to Berlin and eventually home to the UK.