NEWNow you can hearken to Fox Information articles!
Israeli Protection Forces (IDF) have launched a sweeping strike on Iran following months of tried, and seemingly failed, nuclear negotiations between the Trump administration and Tehran, however in accordance with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the U.S. was not concerned within the strikes.
“Tonight, Israel took unilateral motion towards Iran,” Rubio stated in an announcement Thursday night time. “We aren’t concerned in strikes towards Iran and our high precedence is defending American forces within the area.
“Israel suggested us that they imagine this motion was mandatory for its self-defense,” he added.
Smoke rises up after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photograph/Vahid Salemi)
In remarks following the strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed, “We focused Iran’s main nuclear scientists engaged on the Iranian bomb, we additionally struck the guts of Iran’s ballistic missile program.
“Our struggle shouldn’t be with the individuals of Iran, our struggle is with the Iran’s dictatorship,” he added.
PRESIDENT TRUMP ON RISING TENSIONS WITH IRAN
In accordance with an IDF spokesman the strike has been dubbed “Operation Rising Lion” and got here after Jerusalem had collected “high-quality intel” that prompt “Iran is nearer than ever to creating a nuke.”
An IDF spokesman instructed reporters, “We have now no selection however to behave towards these existential threats to the State of Israel.”
Fox Information’ Trey Yingst reported that Israel carried out strikes in Iran, including that explosions had been heard within the capital of Tehran.
A state of emergency has been declared throughout Israel because the nation braces for an Iranian response.
The strikes got here after Israel first threatened to go after Iran’s nuclear amenities in early November following a collection of back-and-forth missile assaults between April and October final 12 months.
Direct engagement between Israel and Iran started after Tehran in April 2024 levied its first ever direct strikes towards Israeli territory. Israel responded lower than per week later and destroyed a part of Iran’s S-300 long-range air protection system.
(Courtesy of Israeli MOD)
TRUMP WARNS ISRAEL STRIKE ON IRAN ‘COULD HAPPEN’ AMID MIDDLE EAST EVACUATION, NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS
On Oct. 1, Iran levied a ballistic missile strike on Israel, to which Jerusalem responded with a series of hits on Oct. 26 that focused army amenities and missile storage areas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed that Israel’s October strike partially degraded a part of Iran’s nuclear program, and worldwide considerations remained heightened that the safety risk may escalate within the area.
Some hoped that President Donald Trump’s administration would have the ability to make headway in nuclear negotiations the place the Biden administration, and others within the worldwide group couldn’t.
Negotiations between Washington and Tehran, mediated by Oman, resumed in Muscat on April 12 and Trump repeatedly known as on Netanyahu to not hit Tehran and to let negotiations proceed.
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout a gathering the place Trump introduced nuclear talks with Iran, Washington, U.S., April 7, 2025. (REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Photograph/File Photograph)
IRAN BECOMING ‘MUCH MORE AGGRESSIVE’ IN NUCLEAR TALKS, TRUMP TELLS FOX NEWS
Following the primary spherical of talks, Center East Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff instructed Fox Information that the U.S. was seeking to restrict Iran’s uranium enrichment to three.67%, a degree usually used for civil nuclear energy needs.
Beneath the Joint Complete Plan of Motion (JCPOA), which Trump pulled out of in 2018, Iran dedicated to sustaining not more than this degree of enrichment till 2031 – although it has been discovered to have repeatedly violated this settlement.
However the subsequent day, on April 15, Witkoff backtracked his feedback and stated in an announcement that “Iran should cease and get rid of its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”
4 days later the U.S. entered its second spherical of nuclear talks in Rome on April 19, earlier than a 3rd spherical was held in Muscat on April 26. Either side expressed optimism following the talks.
Particulars of the negotiations weren’t launched, however studies prompt the discussions largely targeted on limiting Iran’s nuclear program in alternate for sanction reduction.
Talks appeared to take a flip after the U.S. hit Iran with one other spherical of sanctions in late April, which resulted within the postponement of the beforehand scheduled Could 3 talks.
The fourth spherical of talks started to point out indicators of pressure when Iran described the negotiations as “tough however helpful,” and Iran’s International Minister Abbas Araghchi made clear that Washington’s zero enrichment demand was a “non-negotiable.”
An Iranian newspaper with a canopy photograph of Iran’s International Minister Abbas Araqchi and U.S. Center East envoy Steve Witkoff, is seen in Tehran, Iran, April 12, 2025. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia Information Company) by way of REUTERS)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Oman’s International Minister Badr al-Busaidi reported that “some however not conclusive progress” was made following the fifth spherical of talks held in Rome on Could 23.
By early June, Trump and Iranian chief Ayatollah Ali Khamanei had repeatedly made clear they each would refuse to bend on the subject of the problem of enrichment, however a sixth spherical of talks was nonetheless set for June 15 in Oman.
It’s unclear if these talks will proceed following the Israeli strike.
