Israel-Iran day 5 as it happened: Vance says Trump ‘may’ take further action to end Iran’s nuclear enrichment; Macron warns against seeking regime change

Donald Trump was acting “within his authorities” and “giving analysis to what may happen next” in Iran, the Senate’s top Republican said on Tuesday.

Majority leader John Thune said as commander-in-chief, Trump had “a lot of authority . . . to respond to incidents that happen around the world” but insisted the president remained open to brokering a diplomatic solution. 

“I think the president has made it abundantly clear to the Iranians that he would like to be part of helping negotiate a deal that would end their nuclear programme,” Thune told reporters on Capitol Hill. “One way or the other, they have got to end their nuclear programme.”

Thune spoke after vice-president JD Vance addressed Republican senators for a closed-door lunch. Some lawmakers have argued Trump cannot authorise military action against Iran without the approval of Congress.

US stocks closed lower on Tuesday, giving back their gains in the previous session, as the hostilities between Israel and Iran extended into a fifth day.

The blue-chip S&P 500 lost 0.8 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9 per cent as the dollar rallied and oil prices climbed. 

Treasuries rallied as stocks declined, with the 10-year yield down 0.07 percentage points at 4.39 per cent. Yields move inversely to prices.

The US state department has formed a Middle East task force to co-ordinate support for US citizens, diplomatic missions and personnel, but announced no plans to help Americans leave the region.

State department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Americans can call the task force’s number for information, but would not discuss any plans for getting US citizens out of the region, including Israel.

The US embassy in Jerusalem has said it is “not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel”.

Bruce would not comment on the military decisions Trump was weighing or on whether the US would like to see regime change in Iran.

Emmanuel Macron, president of France, warned it would be the “biggest error” to seek regime change in Iran, although he did not address Israel or the US by name. 

Speaking at the G7 summit in Canada, Macron said ousting the leaders of Iran “by military means . . . would lead to chaos” just as it had done elsewhere in the past, referring to Libya and Iraq. 

The remarks came as US President Donald Trump increased the rhetoric on Tehran on Tuesday and his vice-president appeared to suggest Washington might step up its involvement in Israel’s attack on Iran.

Macron instead urged Trump to catalyse peace talks. “We need the US to bring everyone back to the table,” he added.

Israel’s ambassador in London has said the UK will not be involved in defending the country against Iranian attacks.

Tzipi Hotovely said Israel had not held discussions with the UK government about defensive assistance, but indicated she was “happy” with “friends’” support for its aim of stopping Iran’s nuclear programme.

“The answer is no, they’re not going to be involved in that,” Hotovely told LBC’s Andrew Marr radio show on Tuesday when asked if she had any discussions with London about defensive help.

Israel “didn’t ask for anyone’s help” in its military operation against Iran, she said, adding “the UK is not involved”.

Hotovely said it was “absolutely not” Israel’s aim to foster regime change in Iran.

Iran’s top military commander has warned the residents of Tel Aviv and Haifa in Israel to leave the cities, saying further military operations will be carried out soon.

In a televised address on state TV, Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of general staff of the armed forces, said people should leave “in order to save their own lives and not sacrifice themselves because of [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s animal desires”.

“The operations carried out so far have been a warning for deterrence and punitive operations will be carried out soon,” he said, adding that Iran had not surrendered to Israel’s aggression and would punish Israel for its acts.

Donald Trump called for Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” in a series of bellicose comments that left the door open to the US joining Israeli strikes against Iran.

The US president said his patience was “wearing thin” and boasted Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was an “easy target” in a series of social media posts made a day after he left the G7 summit in Canada early to focus on the war.

“We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump said. “But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.”

The intervention from Trump came amid mounting fears that the war between two of the Middle East’s most powerful militaries, triggered by Israel’s surprise assault on Iran last week, could spill over into a broader regional conflict. 

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Iran’s missiles were aimed at Israel’s air bases, according to ISNA, an Iranian news agency, in the “tenth wave” of its operation.

The missiles targeted military air bases from which Israel’s jets have been flying over Iran, ISNA said.

Israel launched a cyber attack against Iran’s digital infrastructure, according to Iran’s cyber command.

“Cybersecurity teams are working to counter these operations in order to prevent damage to cyber networks and so far, many of these attacks have been successfully defended against,” Iran’s cyber command said on Tuesday, according to Iranian state media. It said technical teams were working to restore other services.

Iran targeted southern Israel with a salvo of missiles on Tuesday evening, as the two countries exchanged fire for the fifth day.

The barrage set off sirens in areas around the southern city of Be’er Sheva, but Israel’s paramedic service Magen David Adom said that there were no immediate reports of injuries.

The Israeli military earlier on Tuesday said Iran’s recent barrages had been its least impactful, as Israeli forces continued to destroy Iran’s missile launchers. But it said it was still prepared for Iran to mount bigger barrages in future.

US President Donald Trump said “we” know where Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding but “we are not going to take him out” for now, in a post to his social media platform Truth Social.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there,” Trump said.

“We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.”

Iran’s health minister has written to the heads of the UN and World Health Organization, calling on them to use diplomatic means to stop Israel’s aggression. 

Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi wrote on Tuesday that 1,481 people, “most of them women and children”, have been injured and killed in Iran, and the attacks on nuclear facilities posed the risk of radiation in the region.

“These actions not only contravene human rights and international laws, but also seriously threaten the mental and physical health of Iranian people,” he wrote to the heads of the UN, WHO and the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency.

Zafarghandi urged the agencies to use their responsibility on ensuring human health worldwide to condemn Israel’s attacks and use diplomatic tools to stop the attacks that are causing a health crisis in Iran. 

US President Donald Trump said “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran” in a post to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday afternoon, as questions grow over whether the US will join Israel in striking Iran.

“Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived and manufactured ‘stuff,’” the US president added. “Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.”

The US dollar was up 0.4 per cent on Tuesday against a basket of its peers, despite numbers showing poor US retail sales that would normally drag on the greenback.

Investors said anxiety over the risk of escalation in the Israel-Iran war was creating a bid for the dollar, traditionally a haven currency in times of global stress.

“I think the market is very nervous today that the US could get directly involved in the conflict after Trump’s comments,” said Lee Hardman, senior currency analyst at MUFG.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Israel was “doing the dirty work” for western nations by attacking Iran, as he accused Tehran of inflicting “death and destruction” on the world.

Merz told the German broadcaster ZDF that he was grateful and had the “greatest respect” for the Israeli government and military for having the courage to attack the Iranian regime.

“Otherwise we might have seen the terror of this regime go on for months and years — and possibly with a nuclear weapon in its hand.”

Merz also said that the complete destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme could be on the table if Tehran did not return to the negotiating table. While the Israelis did not have the necessary weapons, he said, the Americans did.

Donald Trump “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment”, his vice-president JD Vance said on Tuesday in a lengthy post on social media.

Vance, who has taken a more isolationist stance on foreign policy than many of his fellow Republicans, praised Trump on X, saying the president had “shown remarkable restraint in keeping our military’s focus on protecting our troops and protecting our citizens”.

But Vance also said Trump “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment”, adding: “That decision ultimately belongs to the president.”

Vance nodded to US voters’ concerns about “foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy”, but said he believed Trump had “earned some trust on this issue” and was “only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals”.

Iran has banned government officials and their security teams from using public phone networks, according to Iran’s state broadcaster.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said on Tuesday that Iran’s cyber security command had prohibited the use of public communication networks.

It also warned that WhatsApp was collecting users’ location data, and urged people to delete WhatsApp from their phones.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he believes US President Donald Trump is not about to join Israel’s conflict with Iran, arguing the president wants a wider peace in the Middle East rather than for the fighting to escalate.

Speaking to reporters at the G7 in Kananaskis, Canada, the morning after Trump left the event early, Starmer was asked whether the US president was about to get involved in a wider war.

“I don’t think anything that the president said either here or elsewhere suggests that,” Starmer said.

“There is nothing the president said that suggests he’s about to get involved in this conflict, on the contrary, the G7 statement was about de-escalation.”

Starmer added that he believed Trump’s comments about seeking something “better than a ceasefire” made on Monday evening did not imply the US might take direct action to help Israel end Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had identified a fresh wave of missiles launched by Iran towards Tel Aviv and central Israel.

The IDF said its “defensive systems” had intercepted most of the missiles.

Israel’s national medical emergency service said it had not yet received any calls, although four people had been injured while seeking shelter.

Qatar has said its facilities in the massive offshore gasfield it shares with Iran are safe, following Israeli attacks on two Iranian processing plants on Saturday, but condemned Israel’s strikes as “reckless”.

“Our facilities are secure . . . these attacks were 200km away,” said foreign affairs ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari on Tuesday.

“But these are certainly reckless attacks that do not take into consideration the safety of thousands of international workers” at Qatar’s offshore installations, he added. 

“We have made it very clear to our partners, regionally and abroad, that [attacks on energy supplies] shall not be accepted,” Ansari said.

The Gulf state is one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporters.

US stocks fell at Tuesday’s open as the price of oil climbed, with US President Donald Trump telling residents to evacuate Tehran.

The blue-chip S&P 500 index dropped 0.4 per cent in early trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.5 per cent. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was up 1.8 per cent to $74.57 a barrel.

“Uncertainty is very very high in the Middle East right now, and the range of outcomes is very wide,” said Kasper Elmgreen, head of fixed income and equities at Nordea Asset Management. “The key mechanism here is what happens with energy prices.”

US military involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict would “drag” the Middle East into “broader conflict”, the EU’s chief diplomat has warned.

“When it comes to the United States getting involved, then it will definitely drag the region into broader conflict,” Kaja Kallas told reporters after a virtual meeting of EU foreign ministers. “This is in nobody’s interest.”

Kallas said US secretary of state Marco Rubio had told her in a phone call that “it’s also not in their interest to be drawn into this conflict”.

Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel has urged the US president to listen only to the voice of God as he weighed further US military involvement in the Middle East.

Trump on Tuesday morning posted a screenshot of a text message on his Truth Social account, which he said was from Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and his current ambassador to Israel.

Huckabee, a Baptist minister, told Trump that God had “spared” him after last year’s assassination attempt “to be the most consequential president in a century”.

Huckabee wrote:

You have many voices speaking to you Sir, but there is only ONE voice that matters. HIS voice . . . I believe you will hear from heaven and that voice is far more important than mine or ANYONE else’s.

Some of Iran’s most prominent political prisoners have condemned Israel for its attacks on the country.

Zahra Rahnavard, who has been under house arrest for nearly 14 years, said “women are once again the victims of aggression and bombardment”.

She has been under house arrest alongside her husband, Mir-Hossein Moussavi, a former presidential candidate who challenged Iran’s leadership over alleged election fraud in 2009.

Mostafa Tajzadeh, a leading reformist and political prisoner held in Evin Prison, urged the Iranian leadership to make every effort to end the conflict and reach a nuclear agreement.

He blamed the country’s rulers for pursuing policies that have left Iran vulnerable to devastation by a “war criminal” — a reference to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iran’s foreign minister has warned of an Israeli “plot” to draw international and regional actors into the conflict and urged all parties to remain alert.

“Targeting Iran’s [oil and gas] installations in the Persian Gulf is part of this,” Abbas Araghchi told Poland’s foreign minister in a phone call. “The Iranian nation will stand firm in defence against this brutal aggression.”

Araghchi added that, since Israel had been targeting Iran’s economic infrastructure and nuclear facilities and was killing civilians, all countries — particularly in Europe — and international organisations such as the UN had a responsibility to stop the aggression and hold the Israeli government accountable for its violations of international law.

The International Atomic Energy Agency appears to be revising its earlier assessment that Iran’s underground uranium enrichment centre at Natanz was not hit by bombs during an Israeli attack on Friday, which damaged above-ground structures.

But the agency stopped short of estimating the extent of damage suffered at the centre.

The IAEA said that on further examination of imaging it had “identified additional elements that indicate direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls at Natanz”.

On Friday, Israel claimed the underground centrifuge complex was badly hit while Iran said it was not heavily damaged.

Fordow, another uranium enrichment facility buried deep under a mountain, has not been damaged, the agency has said, adding today there was no change to that assessment.

The price of oil continued to rise through the European morning on Tuesday, after Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had not approached Iran for peace talks. 

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 2.1 per cent, trading just below $75 a barrel. 

The rising oil price has sparked fear about a resurgence of global inflation, reminiscent of the 2022 rise after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Frances Donald, chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, suggested that oil at $75 a barrel could add half a percentage point to consumer price inflation by the end of 2025.

Futures tracking the S&P 500 index were down 0.5 per cent two hours before the Wall Street open. 

Iran’s overnight missile barrages at Israel were the “least impactful” so far, an Israeli military official said, as its forces continued to attack Tehran’s long-range missile capabilities.

Iran has now fired about 400 ballistic missiles since Israel ignited the war with a series of devastating air strikes last week, but the volleys it fired overnight were the first that did not cause casualties, according to Israeli paramedics.

The official said the Israeli military believed that its missile-hunting raids were the main reason for the decline in the effectiveness of Iran’s barrages, but said other factors, such as Iran rationing its missile launches, could also be at play, and that the Israel Defence Forces was prepared for bigger barrages in future.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have claimed to have struck the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, in Tel Aviv.

“This centre is currently in flames,” the statement said.

Alireza Talaei-Nik, spokesperson for Iran’s defence ministry, said that “one of our most advanced missiles” had been used for the first time in the operation and that “the enemy failed to intercept it”.

Iran has adopted an eye-for-an-eye policy, aiming to target sites equivalent to those hit in Israeli attacks.

An Iranian woman presenter who continued a live broadcast as the state television studios were attacked in an Israeli air strike has become a symbol of resistance and bravery.

“The sound you just heard is the sound of the aggressor attacking our homeland,” said Sahar Emami after the first projectile struck, while wagging her index finger in front of the camera. She had to disrupt the transmission moments later when a second explosion filled the studio with smoke.

She has received widespread praise from Iranian media and messages of acclaim from officials including parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

On Tuesday, a mural was unveiled in Tehran’s Vali-e Asr square, depicting her in a black chador, raising her index finger.

Three people were confirmed killed in the strike.

All hospitals across Iran must maintain “complete readiness” to treat individuals injured in Israeli strikes free of charge, the country’s health ministry has said.

“Providing medical services at both state-run and privately owned medical centres that receive emergency patients must be free of charge,” said deputy health minister Sajjad Razavi.

He added that contingency measures were in place to ensure the uninterrupted supply of water, electricity and gas to all medical facilities.

Iran previously said 200 people had been killed and about 1,500 injured, emphasising that Israeli strikes had hit residential areas, killing civilians including children. However, the Islamic republic has been cautious not to overly publicise casualty figures in an effort to avoid inciting public panic.

Donald Trump said he had not approached Iran for peace talks, and that Tehran should have taken an earlier “deal that was on the table” to save lives.

“I have not reached out to Iran for ‘Peace Talks’ in any way, shape, or form ,” the US president said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

He said Iranian government officials “know how to reach me” if they wanted dialogue.

“They should have taken the deal that was on the table — Would have saved a lot of lives!!!” he added.

Earlier, Trump had left open the possibility of US diplomacy, saying he “may” send his envoy Steve Witkoff or vice-president JD Vance to meet Iranian leaders.

Iran has set up a contingency centre to distribute essential goods, as supply chains are disrupted amid an influx of people seeking refuge in regions less affected by Israeli strikes.

According to the Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, the newly established Salami Center — named after the elite force’s top commander killed by Israel on Friday — has brought together officials from the ministries of trade and agriculture, along with representatives from private institutions involved in food production and distribution.

“Necessary measures will be taken to procure and distribute commodities before any shortages occur in the market,” the report said. “Any instances of failure, profiteering, or hoarding must be dealt with.”

Iran fired about 30 ballistic missiles at Israel in its latest barrage on Tuesday morning, the spokesperson for Israel’s military said, as the hostilities between the two sides stretched into a fifth day.

The barrage set off sirens across Tel Aviv and much of central Israel, as well as around Be’er Sheva in the south. Effie Defrin, the IDF spokesperson, said “most” of the missiles were intercepted but that “several impacts were identified”.

Israel’s paramedic service, Magen David Adom, said there were no reports of casualties caused by the missiles, but that 10 people had sustained minor injuries while running to shelters.

Iran also fired three barrages during the night; there were no reports of injuries from those missiles.

Iran’s judiciary has ordered prosecutors to take strong action against alleged Israeli spies and mercenaries, and pledged swift punishment for those already arrested.

Asghar Jahangir, the judiciary’s spokesperson, said:

The country’s prosecutors have been instructed to remain on full alert to safeguard public security and to deal firmly and legally with all spies and mercenaries of the Zionist regime, ensuring they face severe consequences. Those recently identified as spies will be punished as quickly as possible.

Iran’s government said previously that a significant portion of Israeli operations inside Iran had been carried out by opposition groups and Mossad agents operating in the country.

Oil prices rose on Tuesday morning amid concerns of a further escalation in the conflict between Iran and Israel.

Brent crude rose 1.4 per cent to more than $74 a barrel.

The international oil benchmark is more than 5 per cent higher than it was before Israel attacked Iran last week.

The escalating war between Israel and Iran could hit credit conditions for debt-issuing countries and banks in the Middle East, S&P Global Ratings has warned.

“We see a high risk of escalatory attacks between Israel and Iran that will likely hit business confidence in the GCC region,” the rating agency said on Monday, adding that it saw a “greater possibility” of the war hurting regional credit conditions.

It highlighted potential disruption to trade and tourism, on top of volatile energy prices and increases in government security spending.

S&P identified potential outflows of local and foreign funding, as well as defaults by borrowers, as the main risks to the Gulf’s banking systems. But it stressed that the GCC’s well-capitalised banks could largely cover outflows using external liquidity, and that regional banks were “starting from a strong position”.

Israel targeted the Iranian cities of Tabriz, Hamadan and Tehran in overnight strikes, according to data compiled by Liveuamap, which uses information published by media outlets and on social media.

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The International Energy Agency has predicted that global oil supply will substantially outstrip demand this year even as the escalating conflict in the Middle East raises fears of disruptions.

Global oil production is expected to rise by 1.8mn barrels a day in 2025 to 104.9mn b/d, outstripping forecast demand of 103.8mn b/d and leading to a rise in inventories over the course of the year, the agency said in its annual report on Tuesday.

The increase in supply is expected to come from both Opec+, which is in the process of reversing a series of production cuts, and from non-Opec+ producers, which will add an average of 1.4mn b/d over the year, it said.

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Emergency workers in the United Arab Emirates said they had rescued 24 crew members of an oil tanker after two vessels crashed in the Gulf of Oman, 100 miles south of the Strait of Hormuz.

A third of the world’s supplies of seaborne crude oil pass through the strait, and oil traders have been concerned Iran could try to block them. But the incident did not appear to be security related.

The UAE’s National Guard said that the people were retrieved from the oil tanker Adalynn. The National Guard did not name the other ship involved in the collision, which it said took place 24 nautical miles offshore.

Asked for comment on the incident, the UAE’s foreign affairs ministry referred the FT to an article by Reuters, citing a British maritime firm’s assessment that the incident was not security related.

Donald Trump has said he wants a “real end” to the crisis, with Iran “giving up entirely” on its nuclear programme.

Trump said he needed to be in Washington to help manage the US response to the crisis, according to a CBS reporter on board his plane back from the G7 summit in Canada.

The US president left the summit early to return to Washington as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensified.

Trump had earlier said his exit had “nothing to do with a Cease Fire”.

European stocks fell at Tuesday’s open, as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensified.

The broad Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.8 per cent. Unlike falls in previous days of the conflict, the decline was felt across all index sectors in a broad “risk-off” move.

The price of oil ticked higher after slipping at the open, with the international benchmark Brent crude up 0.8 per cent to about $73.80 a barrel.

The German Dax index lost 1.1 per cent. France’s Cac 40 index was down 0.8 per cent. In London, the FTSE 100 fell 0.5 per cent.

Israel’s military said it had killed a senior Iranian general “in the heart of Tehran” overnight.

The Israeli Air Force said it struck a command centre and killed Ali Shadmani, the commander of Iran’s main centre for designing, coordinating and overseeing military operations.

Israel said the killing “adds to a series of eliminations of Iran’s most senior military leadership and degrades the chain of command of the Iranian armed forces”. It said Shadmani was appointed following the killing of his predecessor at the start of Israel’s campaign on June 13.

Iran has not confirmed the Israeli claim.

Israel’s military said it had completed “extensive” strikes on targets in the west of Iran, including missile storage and launching infrastructure.

Donald Trump said his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron was wrong about the reason the US president left the G7 summit in Canada early, saying it was not to work on an Israel-Iran ceasefire.

“He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Much bigger than that.”

Earlier, Macron said Trump told G7 leaders that discussions were under way to obtain a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

Trump, who described Macron as “publicity seeking”, said: “Whether purposely or not, Emmanuel always gets it wrong. Stay Tuned!”

US President Donald Trump has left the G7 summit early and is flying back to Washington as the Iran-Israel conflict intensifies.

Trump boarded Air Force One in Calgary after a helicopter flight from Kananaskis, the Alberta resort where the G7 leaders are meeting.

US futures pointed lower on Tuesday while bond yields dropped as the Israel-Iran conflict entered its fifth day.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures both declined 0.4 per cent during trading in Asia.

Analysts and strategists have said markets are currently not pricing the conflict as a major economic shock as long as it remains localised.

Yields on US Treasuries fell on Tuesday. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped 0.02 percentage points to 4.43 per cent, while yields on the two-year fell 0.02 percentage points to 3.94 per cent.

The US dollar edged up 0.2 per cent against a basket of its key trading partners.

Oil prices moderated gains from earlier in the day, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, up just 0.4 per cent at $73.52 a barrel.

Asian markets were mixed, with Taiwan’s Taiex rising 0.9 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.3 per cent.