Live – Israel targets security sites in Tehran as Iran hits back across the region

The US Senate is headed towards a vote Wednesday on President Donald Trump’s decision to embark on a war against Iran, an extraordinary test in Congress for a conflict that has rapidly spread across the Middle East with no clear US exit strategy.

The legislation, known as a war powers resolution, gives lawmakers an opportunity to demand congressional approval before any further attacks are carried out. The Senate resolution and a similar bill being voted on in the House later this week face unlikely paths through the Republican-controlled Congress and would almost certainly be vetoed by Trump even if they were to pass.

After launching a surprise attack against Iran on Saturday, Trump has scrambled to win support for a conflict that Americans of all political persuasions were already wary of entering. Trump administration officials have been a frequent presence on Capitol Hill this week as they try to reassure lawmakers that they have the situation under control.

“We are not going to put American troops in harm’s way,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in a raucous news conference at the Capitol Tuesday. Six US military members were killed over the weekend in a drone strike in Kuwait.

Trump has also not ruled out deploying US ground troops. He has said he is hoping to end the bombing campaign within a few weeks, but his goals for the war have shifted from regime change to stopping Iran from developing nuclear capabilities to crippling its navy and missile programmes.

Almost all Republican senators were readying to vote Wednesday against the war powers resolution to halt military action, but a number still expressed hesitation at the idea of deploying troops on the ground in Iran.

The European Commission said Wednesday it was “ready” to defend EU interests after President Donald Trump threatened to sever trade with Spain for refusing to allow US use of its bases to attack Iran.

“We stand in full solidarity with all member states and all its citizens and, through our common trade policy, stand ready to act if necessary to safeguard EU interests,” said commission spokesman Olof Gill in a statement issued in response to Trump’s threats.

Iran’s judiciary chief threatened “those who say or do anything” in support of the US-Israeli airstrike campaign targeting the Islamic Republic.

Gholam Hosseini Mohseni Ejehei made the comments in an interview with Iranian state television.

His remarks raised the possibility of those detained facing death penalty charges, as cooperating with an enemy can carry execution if convicted.

“As we said during the unrest, riot cases are a priority,” Ejehei said, referring to January’s nationwide protests that Iran violently suppressed. “We have now also announced that those who cooperate with the enemy in any way will be considered an enemy.”

He added: “Those who say or do anything in line with the will of America and the Zionist regime are on the enemy’s side and must be dealt with on revolutionary, Islamic principles and in accordance with the time of war.”

The Israeli military said its air force shot down an Iranian fighter jet over Tehran.

“An Israeli Air Force F-35I fighter jet (‘Adir’) shot down an Iranian Air Force YAK-130 fighter jet a short while ago over the skies of Tehran,” a military statement said.

France is planning a meeting of G7 finance ministers on the Middle East crisis, with central bankers also in attendance, the country’s Economy and Finance Minister, Roland Lescure, announced.

“I have spoken with various counterparts, in particular Scott Bessent, who is the US Treasury Secretary. And we agreed to hold a meeting which will take place at the beginning of next week,” he told Franceinfo radio.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez retaliated against threats from the Trump administration to cut off trade with his country, reiterating his condemnation of the war in a televised address.

Tensions between the two countries remain high after Sánchez denounced the US and Israeli bombings of Iran and later banned US aircraft from using naval and air bases in southern Spain for the offensive against Tehran.

“Spain’s position is the same as in Ukraine or Gaza. No to the violation of international law that protects us all. No to resolving conflicts with bombs. No to war.”

Sánchez demanded the US, Israel and Iran cease hostilities “before it is too late”, adding that “one illegal act cannot be met with another, this is how the greatest disasters in human history begin.”

“We’re not going to be complicit in something that’s bad for the world nor contrary to our values and interests simply to avoid reprisals from someone,” Sánchez said, referencing Trump’s trade threats.

The Israeli military said it had begun a fresh wave of strikes on Tehran, with explosions reported in the northeast of the Iranian capital.

“The Israeli Air Force has begun a broad scale strikes targeting Iranian terror regime targets in Tehran, details to follow,” a brief army statement said.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he believes that Israeli-US strikes on Iran were not consistent with international law.

“It would appear, prima facie, not to be consistent or to be inconsistent with international law,” Carney told a gathering at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

Earlier, Carney said the war represented “another example of the failure of the international order”.

“Canada calls for a rapid de-escalation of hostilities and is prepared to assist in achieving this goal,” he said, adding that “Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerents.”

Carney has backed the Israeli-US strikes targeting Iran, saying Tehran had failed to dismantle its nuclear programme and cease support for militant groups, but expressed “regret” on Wednesday that international efforts had failed to disarm Iran.

He noted that “the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting with allies, including Canada”.

Qatar said it had dismantled two spy cells linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, its official press agency reported just after midnight Wednesday.

“Close surveillance made it possible to arrest 10 suspects: seven were tasked with spying and gathering information about vital and military infrastructure in the country, and three were meant to carry out sabotage operations,” the agency said.

It added the suspects “admitted during the investigation their links to the Revolutionary Guards and having been instructed to conduct espionage and sabotage activities”.

Authorities also found in their possession locations and coordinates of sensitive facilities and installations, along with communication devices and technological equipment.

During the investigations, the suspects confessed their links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and stated that they had been assigned to conduct espionage and subversion missions, QNA reports.

In a parallel development, Israeli media quoting Israeli officials is reporting that Israel quietly and covertly extracted part of its embassy staff in the United Arab Emirates after two Iranian attempts to attack Israeli diplomats were foiled in recent days.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the evacuation saying that “in light of concrete threats against Israeli missions in the UAE, and at the request of security authorities, non-essential staff were evacuated from the United Arab Emirates.”

A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 news that the two attacks were part of “a specific effort to hunt the Israeli diplomats” and “were already underway.”

Iran will hold a three-day-long state funeral starting on Wednesday evening for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, state TV said.

Hojjatoleslam Mahmoudi, head of Iran’s Islamic Propagation Council said “the Mosalla (prayer hall) will be receiving visitors and the dear people can attend and take part in the farewell ceremony and mark a strong presence once again,” in comments carried by Iranian media.

Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, was killed in the US-Israeli strikes that sparked the war on Saturday.

After the funeral’s announcement, Israel’s defence minister warned that any successor would be a “target for elimination”.

Israel’s defence minister threatened whoever Iran picks to be the country’s next supreme leader, saying he will be “a target for elimination” in a post on X.

“Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people — will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” he wrote. It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides.

Israel targeted a building Tuesday associated with Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which will select the new supreme leader. It killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a strike Saturday that started the war.

The US military commander in the Middle East said Tuesday that American forces had struck nearly 2,000 targets so far in Iran as part of the largest firepower buildup in the region in a generation.

“We’ve already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions. We have severely degraded Iran’s air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers and drones,” Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command said in a video message.

“The first 24 hours of this operation were nearly double the scale” of the first day of shock-and-awe strikes on Iraq in 2003, “and we continue with 24/7 strikes into Iran,” he added.

The US State Department has given its non-emergency personnel and their families in Cyprus permission to leave, the US embassy said Wednesday.

The department “authorised non-emergency US government employees and US government employee family members to leave Cyprus due to the safety risks.”

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on two towns south of Beirut, outside of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds, killed six people and wounded eight.

Later in the morning, Lebanese state media said Israeli strikes hit a hotel in the Beirut suburb of Hazmieh and a four-storey building in the eastern city of Baalbek. I added that four people were killed and six more were wounded in the strike.

Responding to the attack, Baalbek’s mayor said only civilians lived at the complex that hosts the building.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which earlier announced “broad-scale strikes” against Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south.