Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations has vowed “we will not stop” attacks on Iran until the “nuclear threat is dismantled” and “its war machine is disarmed”.
The two countries traded angry accusations at the United Nations Security Council, as its secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that expansion of the Israel-Iran conflict could “ignite a fire no one can control”.
Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon vowed: “We will not stop. Not until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled, not until its war machine is disarmed.”
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His Iranian counterpart Amir Saeid Iravani said Iran would continue to respond to Israeli airstrikes targeting nuclear sites that Israel sees as part of a weapons programme.
But he told reporters in New Jersey on Friday that his director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, was wrong in suggesting there is no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon.
More on Iran
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0:27
Trump: US intelligence ‘wrong’ on Iran
Talks between Iranian and European ministers took place on Friday, but the US president was dismissive of the discussions.
“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this one”.
But he added that he might support a ceasefire between Iran and Israel “depending on the circumstances”.
Lammy on ‘perilous moment’
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy warned “this is a perilous moment, and it is hugely important that we don’t see regional escalation of this conflict”, after he and his German, French and EU counterparts met Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva.
He also referred to the role of the US in potential negotiations: “There is a… short window to find a diplomatic solution for the Iranians to… end their nuclear programme.
“We’re urging diplomacy. It’s important they get back into serious talks with the United States.”
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1:04
Lammy warns of ‘perilous moment’
Iran says attacks are ‘grave war crimes’
But the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict, did not reveal any indication of an immediate breakthrough.
Mr Araghchi described the talks as “a very serious but respectful discussion” but condemned what he called Israel’s “atrocities”, adding that “Iran will continue exercising its legitimate right of self-defence against the regime”.
“Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again… once aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed. In this regard, I made it clear that Iran’s defence capabilities are not negotiable,” he added.
Earlier, he called Israel’s attacks on nuclear facilities “grave war crimes”.
Jason Brodsky, policy director at the US-based pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran, told Sky News the talks in Geneva would not satisfy the US president.
He said: “It seems that the maximum that the Islamic Republic is prepared to give still does not meet the minimum that President Trump is able to accept.
“I think the Islamic Republic wants to lure the United States back into an endless negotiating process. They think they can dominate this process and manipulate President Trump.
“President Trump has made it very clear that a deadline means a deadline. And he has red lines as well. And his red lines is zero enrichment in Iran.”
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4:53
Iran ‘wants to lure US into an endless negotiating process’
Protests over Israeli strikes
On Friday, thousands of people protested in Iran’s capital Tehran after a week of Israeli strikes which have killed at least 657 people and wounded 2,037 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists.
Image: Anti-Israeli protest in Tehran after Friday prayers. Pic: Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters
Israel’s military says 25 fighter jets carried out airstrikes on Friday morning targeting “missile storage and launch infrastructure components” in western Iran.
In the Israeli city of Haifa, at least 19 people were wounded by an Iranian missile barrage.
UN issues nuclear warning
Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned against attacks on Iran’s nuclear reactors.
Image: Rafael Grossi, who heads the UN nuclear watchdog, has warned about Israeli attacks on nuclear sites. Pic: Reuters
“A direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity,” said Rafael Grossi, chief of the UN nuclear watchdog.
Israel has not targeted Iran’s nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the country’s uranium enrichment sites.
Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, although it enriches uranium up to 60%, well beyond the level required for an atomic power station and a step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the IAEA.
The brutality of Russia’s drone assaults on Ukraine’s towns and cities shows no let up.
“Savage strikes, a deliberate targeted terror” is how the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the latest overnight bombardment.
Some 595 attack drones and 48 missiles were involved and even if only a small fraction made it through Ukrainian air defences, the destruction – in Sumy and Odessa, Zaporizhia and Kyiv – is significant.
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2:57
Russia strikes Kyiv in major attack
Also overnight, Denmark reported yet more drone sightings.
It has not named Russia directly but after a week in which unidentified drones have resulted in the temporary shutdown of military and civilian airports, it is banning all civil drone flights and describing the threat as a hybrid attack.
Germany is also raising the alarm over unexplained drone activity along its border with Denmark.
Germany’s interior minister said on Saturday: “We are witnessing an arms race, an arms race between drone threats and drone defences. It is a race we cannot afford to lose.”
NATO is having to deploy extra assets to beef up its Baltic Sea defences and its Eastern flank.
European nations are working to establish a drone wall along their borders with Russia and Ukraine.
Germany is setting up a drone defence centre to make sure it has what it needs to protect itself.
The Kremlin is forcing NATO to divert assets to protect its airspace and sub-sea infrastructure at a time when Europe is trying to work out how best to support and finance Ukraine.
With drones an inexpensive element of its hybrid warfare arsenal, Russia is sending a clear warning that it can relatively easily chip away at Europe’s defences and that Europe had better focus on protecting itself.
“If NATO begins to look too rattled, that actually is encouragement for Putin precisely to step up the pressure,” says Mark Galeotti, a specialist in Russian security. “So really we need to be holding our nerve.
“Yes, reserving the right to shoot things down that look like direct threats, but otherwise actually talking down, not talking up, the nature of the threat while of course we arm so that we are even more prepared.”
Last week, Estonia said its fighter jets had escorted three Russian MIG fighter jets out of their airspace after a 12-minute incursion, which Russia denies ever took place.
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3:24
Russia denies violating Estonia airspace amid NATO outrage
On Saturday, Estonia pledged €10m (£8.7m) to NATO’s “Prioritised Ukraine Requirement List” or PURL programme, which sees US-produced weapons, paid for by NATO’s European partners, fast-tracked to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy posted on Sunday after speaking with the NATO secretary general that PURL is moving forward well. And that is just what Russia is trying to prevent.
Hamas’s armed group has claimed it has lost contact with two hostages as a result of Israel’s operations in Gaza – after it called on air deployments to be stopped for 24 hours.
In a statement, Hamas’s armed al-Qassam Brigades said it had demanded that Israel halt air sorties for 24 hours, starting at 6pm, in part of Gaza City, to remove the hostages from danger.
It comes a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Donald Trump and as the number of those killed in Gaza surpasses the 66,000 mark, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
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3:06
Volunteer nurse’s video diary of Gaza horrors
A total of 48 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas, the militant group which rules Gaza, with about 20 believed by Israel to still be alive. A total of 251 hostages were taken on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people.
Situation on the ground
In Gaza, a war-torn enclave where famine has been declared in some areas and where Israel has been accused of committing acts of genocide – which it has repeatedly denied – the almost two-year war raged on.
On Sunday, the number of those killed rose to at least 21 as five people were killed in an airstrike in the Al Naser area, local health authorities said, while medics reported 16 more deaths in strikes on houses in central Gaza.
The Civil Emergency Service in Gaza said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international organisations, to rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City.
Israeli authorities had no immediate comment. The military earlier said forces were expanding operations in the city and that five militants firing an anti-tank missile towards Israeli troops had been killed by the Israeli air force.
In Monday’s White House meeting, President Trump is expected to share a new 21-point proposal for an immediate ceasefire.
His proposal would include the release of all hostages within 48 hours and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave, according to three Arab officials briefed on the plan, the PA news agency reports.
A Hamas official said the group was briefed on the plan but has yet to receive an official offer from Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas has said it is ready to “study any proposals positively and responsibly”.
Mr Trump, who has been one of Israel’s greatest allies, said on Sunday there is “a real chance for greatness in the Middle East”.
It is unclear, however, what Mr Trump was specifically referring to.
He said in a Truth Social post: “We have a real chance for Greatness in the Middle East. All are on board for something special, first time ever. We will get it done.”
On Friday – the same day a video of diplomats walking out on Mr Netanyahu during his address to the United Nations went viral – Mr Trump said he believed the US had reached a deal on easing fighting in Gaza, saying it “will get the hostages back” and “end the war”.
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1:08
Diplomats walk out as Israeli PM speaks at UN
“I think we maybe have a deal on Gaza, very close to a deal on Gaza,” the US president told reporters on the White House lawn as he was leaving to attend the Ryder Cup.
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed an agreement to end the war was imminent, only for nothing to materialise.
Weeks ago, he said: “I think we’re going to have a deal on Gaza very soon.”
It was one sentence among the many words Donald Trump spoke this week that caught my attention.
Midway through a jaw-dropping news conference where he sensationally claimed to have “found an answer on autism”, he said: “Bobby (Kennedy) wants to be very careful with what he says, but I’m not so careful with what I say.”
The US president has gone from pushing the envelope to completely unfiltered.
Last Sunday, moments after Charlie Kirk‘s widow Erika had publicly forgiven her husband’s killer, Mr Trump told the congregation at his memorial service that he “hates his opponents”.
Image: President Donald Trump embraces Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika. Pic: AP
The president treats professional disapproval not as a liability but as evidence of authenticity, fuelling the aura that he is a challenger of conventions.
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“I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” he told his audience, deriding Europe’s approach to immigration as a “failed experiment of open borders”.
Image: Mr Trump addresses the UN General Assembly in New York. Pic: Reuters
Then came a U-turn on Ukraine, suggesting the country could win back all the land it has lost to Russia.
Most politicians would be punished for inconsistency, but Mr Trump recasts this as strategic genius – framing himself as dictating the terms.
It is hard to keep track when his expressed hopes for peace in Ukraine and Gaza are peppered with social media posts condemning the return of Jimmy Kimmel to late-night television.
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2:29
Trump’s major shift in Ukraine policy
Perhaps most striking of all is his reaction to the indictment of James Comey, the FBI director he fired during his first term.
In theory, this should raise questions about the president’s past conflicts with law enforcement, but he frames it as vindication, proof that his enemies fall while he survives.
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0:49
Ex-FBI chief: ‘Costs to standing up to Trump’
Mr Trump has spent much of his political career cultivating an image of a man above the normal consequences of politics, law or diplomacy, but he appears to feel more invincible than ever.