Archive June 23, 2025

Fighting

The largest military base in the Middle East, Qatar, is home to ballistic missiles launched from Iran by the country. Doha claimed that the attack had been stopped and that no one was hurt.
• Bahrain and Kuwait, two of the Gulf’s neighbors and also host US facilities, joined Qatar in robbing their airspace before opening it again.
• Israel earlier attacked Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, which housed political activists. The strike, which reportedly left the facility’s gate open, was documented on Iranian state television.
• According to the Fars news agency, explosions were reported on the western outskirts of Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province in southwest Iran.
• An electricity feeder station in the north Tehran Evin neighborhood was the subject of a report from the Tasnim news agency.
• Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier claimed that his country had attacked “regime targets and government repression bodies in Tehran,” including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command centers.
• A day after the US bombed the underground site south of Tehran with “bunker buster” bombs, Israel carried out an attack on the Fordow enrichment facility.
• Residents of Tehran were advised to stay away from weapons-producing facilities and military installations by the Israeli military’s evacuation threat.
• The country targeted Israel’s Haifa and Tel Aviv, according to Iranian state television on Monday. It claimed that the majority of its projectiles fired had successfully reached their intended targets as of early in the day.
• Before noon on Monday, sirens sounded throughout Israel, with numerous impacts being recorded in various locations, including the Ashdod region in southern Israel and the Lachish region south of Jerusalem.

Accidents and turbulence

• The 10 million people who live in Tehran are reportedly flee after 11 days of the conflict.
• A wounded man is being carried on a stretcher by rescuers after Israel launched an attack on Evin Prison, according to Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster.
• According to the Iranian capital, Tehran, there have been power cuts, according to the Iranian power company Tavanir.
• Prior to Iran’s attack on Al Udeid, Qatar’s US and UK had urged its citizens to “shelter in place” in the country.
• A Royal Air Force flight leaving Tel Aviv on Monday, according to Britain, had left on its own volition and carried 63 British nationals and their dependents.
• Operations in the Middle East have been suspended by a number of airlines, including Kuwait Airways, Finnair, and Singapore Airlines. Air India announced that it would stop operating flights to and from the US East Coast and Europe in addition to halting operations in the region.

diplomacy and politics

• US President Donald Trump thanked Tehran for giving him “early notice” of the Qatari airbase attack, which he described as a “very weak response” to the US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. He thanked Qatar’s emir for his efforts to broker a peace in a separate post.
• The Iranian attack was viewed as a surprise, according to a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson, who also stated that the country’s security was in question.
• A Khamenei adviser Ali Akbar Velayati earlier in the day claimed that bases used by US forces “in the region or elsewhere” could be attacked. That evening, Iran attacked Al Udeid in Qatar.
• Iran’s top envoy, Abdolrahim Mousavi, stated that the country would “firm action” in response to US strikes on important nuclear sites the day before. On state television, he declared, “This crime and desecration will not go unanswered.”
• In a video statement, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, a representative for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, said: “Mr. Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will put an end to it.
• A general plan to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been approved by a parliamentary committee, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
• According to Iran’s UN mission, Rafael Grossi, the head of Israel, the UK, France, Israel, and the US all contributed to the deaths of innocent civilians and the destruction of infrastructure.
• Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, met with Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran, to discuss “unprovoked” and “unjustified” attacks.
• Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister of Russia, stated that “our strategic partnership with Iran is unbreakable,” but he did not specify whether Iran had requested military assistance or whether any such assistance would be offered.
• Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar posted the phrase “Viva la libertad!” in Spanish, which means “long live liberty,” on X in response to Israel’s attack on Tehran’s Evin Prison.
• The Israeli attack on Tehran’s Evin Prison, which housed some French prisoners, was inadmissible, according to French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
• Fu Cong, the state broadcaster reported that the US’s credibility had “become damaged” as a result of its bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, warning that the conflict might “go out of control.”
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz remarked about the US’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday: “Yes, it is not without risk, but leaving it as it was wasn’t an option either.”
• British Foreign Secretary David Lammy stated that his nation was prepared to “defend our allies and partners, our personnel, and our assets.”
• An Iranian atomic bomb, according to NATO’s Mark Rutte, was the subject of a “greatest fear” among allies who have “long agreed that Iran must not develop nuclear weapons.”
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded assistance from China to stop Iran from stifling the Strait of Hormuz, which is a chokepoint for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and a potential trigger for retaliation.
• Kaja Kallas, the head of the European Union’s foreign policy, declared that the strait closure would be “extremely dangerous.”
• The US Department of Energy was encouraged to “drill, baby, drill,” according to US President Trump’s online message on oil production, which read “I mean now.”
• The long-distanced son of Iran’s toppled shah, Reza Pahlavi, who is not seen as a player with any real influence over Iran, cautioned the US and Europe against “laying a lifeline” to Iran’s current leadership. In an interview with the AFP news agency, he said, “This is our Berlin Wall moment.

Donald Trump, the president of the US, claims that Iran’s nuclear program has been completely destroyed by Sunday’s US air strikes on its nuclear sites.

The US Joint Chiefs of Staff claims that the final report is not yet complete.

The Iranian Atomic Energy Organization insists that its work has already been done and that the nuclear material has already been removed from the US.

What do we know about US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, then?

And could Iran quickly resurrect if the strikes were successful and used the appropriate technological skills?

Imran Khan, the presenter

Guests: 

Laura Rockwood, Senior Fellow at the Vienna Center for Non-Proliferation, is

Roxane Farmanfarmaian, senior associate fellow at the European Leadership Network, is the University of Cambridge’s director of global politics and international studies.