Politics After missiles from Iran: Israel's military attacks Tehran
Amid speculation that the USA could go to war, Israel and Iran have continued their mutual attacks. According to the Israeli air force, it again attacked targets in the Iranian capital Tehran. Previously, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards - the Islamic Republic's elite military force - had fired two missile salvos at the Jewish state in the space of less than an hour. There were initially no reports of casualties from the latest attacks from either country.
18.06.2025, 05:30
SDA
A few hours earlier, US President Donald Trump had discussed further action with his national security team. The course of the war between Iran and Israel depends on how the USA behaves. The US military does support Israel in its defense. So far, however, the US government has always emphasized that it will not take part in the fighting between Israel and Iran. If the USA does decide to become actively involved in the war, a dramatic new level of escalation would be reached.
US military is apparently joining forces
According to media reports, the US military is sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East. In addition, the US is said to have recently moved dozens of tanker planes to Europe so that they can be deployed quickly in the Middle East if necessary. Due to the tense security situation, the US embassy in Jerusalem will also remain closed until Friday.
Since last Friday, Israel has been attacking targets in Iran - including nuclear facilities, leading military personnel, nuclear scientists, defense positions, oil and natural gas fields as well as targets in cities. According to Israel, the most important objective is to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons - a goal that the Iranian leadership has denied for years. However, there are international doubts about Tehran's denial, as Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons that produces the highly enriched uranium required for this type of weapon.
Israel could probably only destroy uranium facility with US help
However, Israel would have to rely on the support of the US army to take out the underground nuclear complex in Fordo - presumably the Israeli military's most important target. Among the Western states, only the USA, with its precision-guided "bunker buster" bombs, has a suitable weapon to destroy the uranium enrichment facility buried deep in the mountain.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said in a ZDF interview on the sidelines of the G7 summit that he suspected that Washington was currently discussing the use of such bunker-busting weapons in Iran. "Whether the American government will decide to do this, I cannot say at the moment."
G7 manage to reach a common position
Despite all the conflicts, the G7 countries were able to agree on a common position on the war between Israel and Iran at their meeting in Canada. In a declaration, the group of leading industrialized nations acknowledged Israel's right to self-defence, called for the protection of civilians and stressed that Iran must never be allowed to possess a nuclear bomb. However, the text does not indicate a possible way out of the escalation.
Nuclear power Russia, which was expelled from the then G8 group in 2014 following the annexation of Crimea in Ukraine, accuses Israel of heading the world towards a nuclear catastrophe. "The ongoing intensive attacks by the Israeli side on peaceful nuclear objects in the Islamic Republic of Iran are illegal from the point of view of international law," said a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
The attacks represented "an unacceptable threat to international security and are driving the world towards a nuclear catastrophe, the consequences of which will be felt everywhere, including in Israel itself". Unlike the G7 states, Russia maintains comparatively good relations with Tehran and has, for example, obtained masses of drones from Iran for its war of aggression against Ukraine.
Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei threatens Israel
In the midst of the escalating situation, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once again issued a threat to arch-enemy Israel. "We must give a strong response to the Zionist terror regime," he wrote on the news platform X. "We will show no mercy to the Zionists."
US President Trump had previously made an indirect threat to Khamenei, who, as head of state, has the final say in all strategic matters under the Iranian constitution. "We know exactly where the so-called "Supreme Leader" is hiding," Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform. "He is an easy target." For now, however, Khamenei is safe there. "We are not going to take him out (kill him!), at least not right now."
