Israel-Iran day 11 as it happened: Donald Trump says Israel and Iran have agreed ceasefire; Tehran gave advance notice of strike against US military base in Qatar

Iran has claimed it shot down a second Israeli Hermes drone in the central province of Markazi.

State television broadcast footage showing the wreckage of the drone, including its engine, which was displayed by a member of the Revolutionary Guards.

“Once again, we issue a warning . . . you [Israel] will face our crushing response,” he said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi praised the country’s armed forces, saying they had done a “fantastic” job and had “paralyzed the enemy”. 

“I truly believe the Zionist regime has reached a point of deep frustration,” Araghchi was quoted as saying by domestic media.

“The fact that the United States felt compelled to assist this regime indicates they failed to accomplish any of their objectives.”

Donald Trump thanked Iran for giving the US advance notice of its intention to launch strikes on an American military base in Qatar and hoped the Islamic republic could now proceed towards peace in the Middle East.

Describing it as a “very weak response” to the “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear facilities by the US over the weekend, Trump said in a social media post: “they’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system,’ and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE.”

He thanked Tehran for “giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost”. No Americans or Qataris were harmed, he said.

“Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same.”

Read more here

The Pentagon said the Al Udeid air base in Qatar had not been damaged by the Iranian missile attack.

“We are not aware of any damage to the installation at this time,” the US defence department said.

Oil notched up one of its biggest one-day drops of the past five years as Iran launched strikes on a US military base in Qatar.

Brent crude, the international oil marker, settled 7.2 per cent lower on Monday. That was its biggest daily drop since August 2022.

Monday’s session was volatile. When trading resumed in Asia following the US’s weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Brent opened higher and at one point gained more than 5 per cent to hit a five-month high.

Read more here

Iran has launched retaliatory missile strikes at a US air base in Qatar, almost two days after American planes bombed Tehran’s big nuclear sites.

Qatar’s foreign ministry and a US defence official confirmed that the attack had targeted the Al Udeid air base near Doha, where about 10,000 American troops are typically stationed.

However, the US official said there were no reported casualties from the up to 10 short- and medium-range missiles. Qatar said its air defences “successfully thwarted the attack”, adding that “no injuries or human losses occurred”.

Most personnel were evacuated from the base last week.

The US and Qatar were aware of the imminent threat of an attack hours before the missiles were launched, a person familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.

Oil prices fell as traders calculated that the attack was largely symbolic and could signal an effort by Iran to de-escalate the conflict.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said three missiles hit the base, according to the state’s ISNA news agency.

The country’s state news agency Tasnim said that Tehran had dubbed the retaliatory strike the “annunciation of victory”.

Al Udeid serves as the regional headquarters of Central Command, which is responsible for US military operations throughout the Middle East.

Qatar earlier announced it was closing its airspace temporarily. The region had been braced for a potential retaliatory strike by Iran on US assets after the American attack on Iranian nuclear facilities at the weekend.

Read more here

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways said it would be “re-routing a number of” flights on Monday and Tuesday due to airspace closures in the region.

Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain temporarily halted air traffic in their skies on Monday, in response to an Iranian missile attack targeting a US military base near Doha. Tehran had pledged to retaliate against Washington, after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates condemned Iran’s missile attack on Monday evening against the Al Udeid US military base in Qatar.

Riyadh called the strikes an “aggression” against Doha and were “unacceptable and cannot be justified”.

The UAE said it condemned Iran’s attack in the “strongest terms”. It expressed solidarity with Qatar and called for a cessation of hostilities in the region.

With two 12,000-feet runways stretching into the Qatari desert, Al Udeid is the largest and arguably most important US military installation in the Middle East. 

Before it was targeted by an Iranian missile barrage on Monday, satellite imagery last week had showed the US relocating dozens of aircraft from the base after Israel’s assault on Iran. About 40 US military aircraft disappeared, shrinking the fleet at the base to just three by June 19.

Qatar’s defence ministry said it had “successfully intercepted” all the missiles fired at the base.

Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.

Read more here

Kuwait Airways said it was temporarily suspending departing flights from Kuwait due to “developments in the region”.

The country’s aviation authorities have temporarily closed its airspace, state news media reported.

Qatar and Bahrain have closed their airspace. Arrivals data for airports in Abu Dhabi and Dubai show some disruption but also some aircraft landing, while the United Arab Emirates has not made an official comment.

Bahrain on Monday confirmed the temporary closure of its airspace as a precautionary measure given regional developments.

Emergency sirens have sounded in the country, its interior ministry said, following Iran’s missile strikes on a US military in neighbouring Qatar.

Qatar’s defence ministry said that it had “successfully intercepted” the Iranian missile attack which on Monday evening targeted Al Udeid base, the region’s biggest US military installation.

Qatar condemned Iran’s attack on the US military base it hosts.

Foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said the country “reserves the right to respond directly,” raising the possibility of an expanding regional confrontation, but also called for an “immediate cessation” of military actions.

“The base had been evacuated earlier,” added Ansari, saying the attack caused no casualties.

Oil prices fell in volatile trading as Iran launched an attack on a US military base in Qatar.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was down 3.6 per cent at $74.25 a barrel during lunchtime trading in New York on Monday. Earlier in the session, it had been up more than 5 per cent at a five-month high of $81.40.

The sell-off in crude “looks a lot like the market is interpreting this latest move as inherently de-escalatory”, according to Rory Johnston, an oil market researcher at CommodityContext.com.

The market had “already priced in a response” by Iran to US attacks on its nuclear infrastructure, Johnston said, and the firing of missiles on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar was a replay of the January 2020 attack on US bases in Iraq.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that Iran’s missile attacks on US bases carry a clear message: any act of aggression will not go unanswered.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not tolerate any aggression against its territorial integrity, national sovereignty or security under any circumstances,” the statement read.

It added that the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities demonstrate that Israeli attacks are “a continuation of American planning”.

The Revolutionary Guards said: “We emphasise that in this national defence, we do not view US bases and assets in the region as strengths, but rather as major vulnerabilities — the Achilles heel of this warmongering regime.”

The state’s ISNA news agency reported that the Revolutionary Guards said three missiles hit Al Udeid air base, and that Iran’s jets and ships are retreating from the air and Gulf.

Additional reporting by FT reporters

French President Emmanuel Macron said there was “no legality” to the US strikes on Iranian nuclear bases, even if it was “legitimate” to neutralise the country’s nuclear programme.

“Even if France shares the objective of not seeing Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, we have always believed that this can be done through a diplomatic and technical route,” he said, in response to a question on whether the strikes ordered by US President Donald Trump broke international law.

The criticism comes after German Chancellor Friederich Merz expressed support for the US bombing and Israel’s attacks on Iran.

Iran’s president said aggression against the country will not remain unanswered.

“We did not start the war nor wanted it but we will not leave the aggression against the great Iran unanswered,” Masoud Pezeshkian wrote in a post on X on Monday.

“We will stand against the defence of our dear people with our whole being and respond to any wound against Iran’s body with faith, wisdom and will. People, God is looking after us.”

BP, TotalEnergies and Eni have begun to evacuate staff from oilfields in Iraq amid fears that neighbouring Iran may retaliate against Israel and the US by bombing energy infrastructure in the region.

The three European oil majors have “temporarily evacuated some foreign personnel” from the south of the country, although local staff were continuing to run operations and oil production had been unaffected, Iraq’s state-run Basra Oil Company said in statement on Monday.

The decisions follow US air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend and mark the first confirmation of international oil companies pulling staff from the region since Israel launched its first attacks on Iran ten days ago.

Read more here

France’s foreign minister criticised Israel for putting two of its citizens in danger during air strikes targeting the Evin prison in Tehran.

The prison is known for holding political prisoners, including Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who France has been pressuring Iran to release. Neither were harmed, and France called again for their immediate release and consular access.

“The strike targeting Evin prison in Tehran put our citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have been held for three years, in danger. It is unacceptable,” Jean-Noël Barrot said on X.

“All strikes must stop now to open the way for negotiations and diplomacy.”

Qatar has closed its airspace amid growing fears of retaliatory strikes by Iran against US assets in the region.

Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, and analysts say it could potentially be targeted after Washington’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure over the weekend.

Qatar’s foreign ministry announced on Monday the “temporary suspension of air traffic in the country’s airspace out of concern for the safety of citizens, residents and visitors”.

The US and UK embassies in Doha earlier advised their citizens in the country to shelter in place. Qatari authorities said those warnings did “not necessarily reflect the existence of specific or credible threats”.

About 10,000 American troops are typically stationed at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar but most personnel were evacuated last week.

The site serves as the regional headquarters of Central Command, which is responsible for US military operations throughout the Middle East.

The US Air Force deploys warplanes from Al Udeid and it also hosts US special operations and US space forces.

Maritime traffic “continues to flow” through the Strait of Hormuz despite a vote by the Iranian parliament in favour of closing the strategic waterway, according to the body co-ordinating maritime security information across the region.

The Joint Maritime Information Center said in its latest bulletin on Monday it has “no indication that commercial maritime activity will be targeted”.

The JMIC also acknowledged that a potential closure of the waterway was the “most discussed” potential way for Iran to hit back. A closure would have “severe consequences” for shipping, it said.

Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.

The bulletin said 117 vessels had transited the strait — linking the Arabian Sea to the Gulf — on Sunday. The figure is slightly above the 114 daily transits for the month so far.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy has warned Iran not to block the Strait of Hormuz, as he said the UK was ready to defend its own assets in the region and that “of its allies and partners”.

Lammy said he had told Iran that “any action to blockade the Strait of Hormuz would be a monumental act of economic self-harm” and to do so would make “a diplomatic solution even harder”.

“We are prepared to defend our personnel, our assets, and those of our allies and partners,” Lammy added.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy said one British citizen had been injured in Israel by the fighting with Iran, and that the first evacuation flight arranged by the UK had taken place.

“I know the whole House will have in their thoughts the many civilians impacted by the fighting,” Lammy said in a statement to the House of Commons.

The UK has been registering British citizens in Israel who wish to leave the country, with Lammy confirming the first flight left on Monday. A Royal Air Force A400 had flown into Tel Aviv and taken 63 British nationals and their dependants to Cyprus, he said.

“Further flights will follow in the coming days,” he added.

The UK has followed US advice by recommending British nationals in Qatar “shelter in place”.

The notification comes “out of an abundance of caution,” said the UK’s foreign office in updated travel advice for the Gulf state.

Doha earlier said that such advice does “not necessarily reflect the existence of specific or credible threats”.

Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the region, and analysts say it could potentially be targeted by Iran in retaliation for US strikes on its nuclear infrastructure over the weekend.

Russia’s foreign ministry has said Iran’s partnership with Moscow is “unbreakable”.

Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Iran had “the full right to defend itself”, RIA Novosti reported.

Ryabkov did not give details on what Russia would do to help Tehran after President Vladimir Putin met Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday.

Iran’s mission to the UN said the US, Israel, UK and France would “bear full responsibility” for the war in Iran, alongside Israel and the UN’s nuclear watchdog

They “will bear full responsibility for the death of innocent civilians in Iran, especially women and children, and for the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure”, the mission wrote on X.

It said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “an internationally wanted war criminal, had hijacked US foreign policy, dragging the United States into yet another costly war”

Israel and the US had “destroyed diplomacy”, Iran’s mission continued. “The so-called offer of diplomacy was nothing more than a deceitful ploy.”

British Airways, Finnair and Air France have cancelled flights to some destinations in the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.

• British Airways cancelled flights between London and Dubai and Doha scheduled for Monday.

• Air France has suspended flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh until June 24.

• Finnair suspended flights to Doha due to “the heightened safety situation” in the Middle East until June 30.

The moves highlight how the conflict is causing disruption to airlines across some of the world’s busiest flight paths.

At least three ships have received apparently hoax emails warning them they will be blown up unless they pay $100,000 to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a leading maritime security expert has said.

Martin Kelly, head of advisory for EOS Risk Group, wrote on X that crews on the vessels had received emails from an entity claiming to represent both the Iranian authorities and the Iranian-backed Houthi group in Yemen.

Kelly told the FT he knew of three ships that had received the message and that it was clearly a hoax.

“No negotiations, you got 2 hours for payment of 100,000 USD as both inbound and outbound transit,” Kelly quoted the message as saying. “If not, and resist to pass without out permission, serious armed actions will be taken. We will blow you up.”

Israel has launched air strikes against a series of regime-linked targets in Tehran, including the notorious Evin prison, after the US assault on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Israeli military said the apparent broadening of its aerial campaign against Iran had also targeted several other sites belonging to the country’s internal security forces and the Revolutionary Guards, as well as the headquarters of the Basij volunteer force linked to the guards.

Iran’s state television aired footage showing debris inside Evin Prison, which appeared to show rescue workers carrying out the injured and recovering bodies from beneath the rubble.

Separately, Israeli jets had struck routes to the Fordow nuclear facility, which was bombed by the US at the weekend, to obstruct access to the site, the military said.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said the strikes on regime targets in Tehran would continue as long as Iran kept firing missile barrages at Israel.

While Israel has not made regime change a formal goal of its war with Iran, numerous officials have suggested it could be a consequence of the campaign.

The strikes came after US President Donald Trump raised the possibility of such an outcome in Iran in a series of social media posts. Top US officials have said they are not seeking a different government in Iran.

Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel on Monday morning, which sent people to shelters across the country. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Iran’s top military commander has said his forces are entitled to retaliate against US interests after Washington struck the Islamic republic, while signalling the main response may be directed at Israel.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has expressed his full support for Israeli and US efforts to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, saying Tehran was “the world’s terror regime”.

Merz said he saw “no reason to criticise what Israel began a week ago”.

“There is still no reason to criticise what America did last weekend,” he said in a speech. “Yes, it is right. It is not without risk. But leaving it as it was wasn’t an option either.”

Israel had been under attack by Iran “for years, if not decades” and Tehran was funding “Hamas, Hizbollah, militias in Iraq and in many other parts of the world”, the German leader said. “Iran is the world’s terrorist regime,” he added.

The comments came after Merz said last week that Israel was doing the “west’s dirty work”. But they departed from European calls for a diplomatic solution.

The US and Israel were “doing something that is also in our interest”, Merz reiterated on Monday

US stocks slipped at Wall Street’s open bell as the dollar rallied, with traders awaiting further developments in the Middle East after the US bombed Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities over the weekend.

The blue-chip S&P 500 opened less than 0.1 per cent lower on Monday morning while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1 per cent. Energy stocks fared best, supported by a higher oil price.

The US dollar index, which tracks the currency against a basket of six international peers, rose 0.6 per cent.

France’s foreign minister said negotiations were the only durable way to restrict Iran’s access to nuclear weapons and suggested Europe should play a “major role” in any such talks.

“While the Israeli and American strikes have led to a delay, undoubtedly a considerable one . . . in Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear programme, nothing will prevent Iran from doing so in the future if we don’t succeed through negotiation,” Jean-Noël Barrot said ahead of an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Barrot said Europe should play a “major role” in talks given their experience obtaining rollbacks of Iran’s nuclear programme through the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action over the past decade.

He also said France did not participate in the US’s weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities nor assist with their planning.

Iran is considering whether to “create traffic restrictions” in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, a member of parliament said.

Ali Keshvari, an Iranian MP, told state news that parliament was weighing whether to “create traffic restrictions” in the strategically vital shipping lane, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency.

Top Iranian military and political officials have not said how they might retaliate against the US decision to bomb Iran, and any final decision regarding the Strait of Hormuz would be taken by Iran’s supreme national security council.

Keshvari also said parliament would debate whether to exit the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth-biggest container shipping line, has said it is continuing to send ships through the Strait of Hormuz but is ready to change its policy if risks increase.

While the strait is a particularly important chokepoint for oil and gas tankers, it is also a significant route for container ships, which handle mainly manufactured goods.

Dubai’s Jebel Ali port, inside the Gulf, is one of the 10 busiest container ports worldwide and acts as a hub distributing containers for many parts of the Middle East and western India.

Iranian authorities seized a container ship, the MSC Aries, in April last year as it transited the Strait of Hormuz.

Hapag-Lloyd wrote in a customer advisory about the strait on Monday: “We are actively evaluating potential risks and stand ready to adjust our operations should conditions change.”

Qatar has sought to downplay fears over threats to its security after the US embassy in Doha advised Americans to “shelter in place”.

Advice issued by embassies “to exercise caution or avoid certain locations in the State of Qatar fall within the general policies adopted by various countries regarding travel guidance”, foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said.

Such advice did “not necessarily reflect the existence of specific or credible threats” to safety in Qatar, he said in a post on X. “We would like to reassure the public that the security situation in the state remains stable.”

Since Israel — and more recently the US — launched attacks on Iran, Gulf states have pushed for a return to diplomacy, fearing a wider regional escalation and potential Iranian retaliation against US military bases on their soil.

Israeli intelligence agents sent dozens of messages in Farsi by phone and text to senior officials of Iran’s Evin prison ahead of air strikes on the facility’s gates, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Officials including the head of the prison were told they should flee the facility and release anti-government dissidents jailed inside, the person said. Calls were also placed to officials’ family members.

The Israeli strike damaged the entrance to the prison, according to footage aired on Iranian state television. The person said this was a deliberate move designed not to harm prisoners.

Iran’s judiciary confirmed that the prison, known for housing political prisoners, activists and foreigners accused of espionage, was damaged in the strike but said that “the situation is under control”.

A power facility in northern Tehran was hit in Monday’s air strikes, local media reported, causing electricity outages in several western neighbourhoods of the capital.

The blackout primarily affected the Shahrak-e Gharb and Saadat Abad districts of the city. Iranian media said blackouts in northern Tehran were resolved within an hour of the attack.

Broadcasts on the state television’s live news channel were also disrupted, although Iranian authorities have denied that this was a result of an attack.

The US dollar has continued to strengthen through the trading day as investors favour the haven currency. 

The currency was “catching a flight to quality on the back of escalation of geopolitical risks”, said Wee Khoon Chong, a senior strategist at BNY.

The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of peers, was up 0.7 per cent, following last week’s 0.5 per cent gain.

Asian currencies weakened sharply, with Japan’s yen 1.1 per cent weaker at 147.72 to the dollar, while the Korean won fell 1.3 per cent to 1,390 per dollar.

Iran’s foreign minister has thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s “strong” stance against Israeli strikes on Iran, calling it “totally in line with international regulations”.

During their meeting in Moscow, footage of which was broadcast by Iranian state media, Abbas Araghchi said the Middle East was in a “crucial situation” and that “the level of tensions is escalating” due to US and Israeli military actions. He added that relations between Iran and Russia had become “strategic” in recent years.

Western governments have accused Iran of supplying weapons, particularly drones, to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine, a claim Tehran denies. It was unclear from media reports whether Araghchi sought military support from Russia or a mediating role to help resolve the crisis.

The US embassy in Qatar has told Americans to “shelter in place”, signalling concern that Iran might retaliate against US strikes on its nuclear infrastructure by targeting the largest US military base in the region.

The embassy said Americans should stay where they were “until further notice” but did not cite a specific threat, saying the recommendation came “out of an abundance of caution”.

Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East.

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has suggested that the whereabouts of Iran’s stockpile of 400kg of uranium enriched at 60 per cent purity, which is close to weapons grade, was still unknown after the US used huge bunker bombs to strike the republic’s two main nuclear sites in the early hours of Sunday.

Rafael Grossi said International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors — who have been unable to visit the sites since Israel launched its assault on Iran 10 days ago — should be allowed to return to “account for the stockpiles”.

He added that Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to the IAEA on 13 June — the day Israel began its bombing campaign — warning that Tehran would “adopt special measures to protect our nuclear equipment and materials”.

Iranian officials have said the stockpile was moved before the US bombed the plants.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog warned on Monday that the war between Israel and Iran “risks collapsing the global nuclear non-proliferation regime”.

Speaking a day after the US bombed Iran’s main nuclear sites, Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called for a return to diplomacy, saying “otherwise violence and destruction could reach unimaginable levels”.

“And the global non-proliferation regime that has underpinned international security for more than half a century could crumble and fall,” he said in a statement to the agency’s board.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the US air strikes were expected to have caused “very significant damage” to Iran’s subterranean Fordow nuclear site.

US B-2 bombers dropped massive bunker-buster bombs on the site in the weekend attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors, Grossi said the agency could not “fully assess” the damage underground.

But he added:

Given the explosive payload utilised and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.

The EU is monitoring energy prices “very closely” amid concerns that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz.

“The prices have been volatile over the past few days and we are of course following very closely,” a spokesperson for the European Commission said.

But, the spokesperson added, “for the moment there is no action planned”.

European diesel and jet fuel prices hit their highest levels in 15 months over the weekend as a result of the hostilities.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday should reach a “clear position” on the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, an official said.

“What we should be looking at is a clear position from the EU on this conflict, the main elements being . . . that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon but that the solution must be diplomatic and negotiated,” said the senior EU official, tasked with preparing the leaders’ summit.

Europe’s support in negotiations with Iran “will continue”, the official said, given Tehran’s refusal to speak directly with the US while attacks continue.

Senior Iranian military commanders meet in the Iranian Army’s war command room, in pictures provided by the Iranian Army media office.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the US attack on Iran “unprovoked aggression” that “has no grounds and no justification”.

Putin told Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi during a meeting in the Kremlin on Monday that Russia was “making efforts to assist the Iranian people”, without elaborating.