US-Iran latest: Trump threatens regime change to ‘make Iran great again’

Iran will continue its uranium enrichment and “no one can tell us what to do”, said deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi.

“No one can tell us what to do as long as we act within the framework of our legal commitments,” he added.

Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official, said it appears Iran’s nuclear facilities have suffered “significant setback, though not entirely dismantled” following US strikes this weekend.

“The Iranian regime now faces two paths, both of which it perceives as choosing the lesser of two evils. One option is to continue the military confrontation. The other is to return to the negotiating table.

“The distinction is critical: the military path would dramatically escalate the threat to the regime’s survival, while a negotiated path—though requiring the regime to swallow a bitter pill and accept conditions it once refused to even discuss—could allow it to preserve a core power base and maintain its grip on power,” Mr Melamed added.

“In this context, China’s role is worth watching closely. It is likely that Beijing will exert quiet but deliberate pressure on Iran to de-escalate and resume negotiations. In either scenario, a period of intense internal turbulence within the regime is expected, with consequences that remain unclear at this time.”

Iran has executed a detainee named Mohammadamin Shayesteh, who was sentenced to death for collaborating with Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, according to local media.

Shayesteh was arrested in late 2023 for allegedly working as the “head of a cyber-team affiliated with Mossad”, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Iranian authorities yesterday executed another man named Majid Mosayebi, who was accused of spying for Israel.

Mosayebi was hanged after being convicted of attempting to provide “sensitive information” to Mossad, AFP reported.

The Israeli military said its air force downed a drone launched towards Israel overnight after Iran vowed retaliation following US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The drone was intercepted near the southern city of Eilat before it crossed into Israeli territory, the Israeli military said.

Bahrain’s foreign ministry said the nation was closely following the Iran-Israel conflict and emphasised the need for coordinated regional and international efforts to halt escalation and military operations.

It also calls for the “swift resumption of negotiations between the US and Iran to resolve the current crisis through diplomatic and peaceful means”.

“This approach aims to restore peace and security in the region and spare its people the horrors and dangers of war,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The US has ramped up its monitoring of Iranian sleeper cells after president Donald Trump’s strikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites decisively propelled the US into Israel’s war.

Following the strikes, which Mr Trump claimed “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, both White House and FBI officials have been on high alert for Iranian sleeper cells.

Sleeper cells comprised of spies or terrorists hiding out in the US or Western countries, remain inactive, often living quiet and unassuming lives working regular jobs until they are ordered to act on a mission.

(Think Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, the fictional Cold War-era KGB spies who pose as the typical American couple with kids in suburban DC in FX’s series The Americans.)

A satellite image revealed at least one crater at Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site after the US targeted the underground portion of the facility.

A hole of around 5m could be seen in images taken by Maxar Technologies on Sunday after the American strikes.

That hole sits directly over the underground portion of the site, which includes centrifuge halls.

Iran has offered no assessment of how much damage has been done at the site.

North Korea this morning said it strongly condemns the US strike against Iran as a grave violation of a sovereign state’s security interests and territorial rights, the North’s state media reported.

The US and Israel are the culprits of the current tensions in the Middle East, born out of Jerusalem’s “ceaseless war moves and territorial expansion” accepted and encouraged by the West, North Korea’s foreign ministry said.”

(We) strongly denounce the attack on Iran by the US, which … violently trampled down the territorial integrity and security interests of a sovereign state.”

“The just international community should raise the voice of unanimous censure and rejection against the US and Israel’s confrontational acts,” the foreign ministry statement said.