Middle East crisis live: China warns world cannot return to ‘law of the jungle’; Trump says Iran being ‘decimated’
Here are some images coming out of Lebanon and the border with Israel.
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran, a conflict that is rippling across the Middle East with devastating consequences as it enters its second week.
US President Trump has remained sanguine about the prospects of the war, saying that Iran is being ‘decimated’ even as he has refused to rule out deploying US troops.
Meanwhile China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has condemned the war, saying it never should have happened.
If you are just tuning in, here is a quick recap of events.
-
Donald Trump claimed the US and Israel had “decimated” the Iranian regime, but offered only a vague description of what he meant by his demand for an unconditional surrender. “It’s where they cry uncle, or when they can’t fight any long longer and there’s nobody around to cry uncle — that could happen too,” the US president said aboard Air Force One.
-
Trump left open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground. The US president addressed reporters hours after travelling to Dover air force base in Delaware to attend the so-called dignified transfer of six US service members killed in the opening days of his war against Iran.
-
The US-Israel war on Iran “should never have happened”, China’s foreign minister said on Sunday. “The world cannot return to the law of the jungle,” Wang Yi told a press conference in Beijing, calling for an end to military operations.
-
Iran can fight a war of this size and scale for “at least” another six months, a Revolutionary Guards official has claimed. The defiant statement was carried by the semi-official Fars news agency, which has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
-
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian previously apologised to neighbouring countries attacked by Iran. He also said Iran’s interim leadership council had approved that no attacks or missile strikes would be carried out against such countries unless an attack against Iran originated from them.
-
Vast plumes of smoke and fire have been seen rising over the Tehran skyline overnight. The Israeli military said it struck “several fuel storage complexes” across the city.
-
At least four people were killed after an Israeli strike on an apartment in the Ramada hotel building in central Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Ten people were injured. Israel said it conducted a “precise strike” on what it called “key commanders” in the IGRC’s Quds Force foreign operations arm.
-
In a post on social media, Trump renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” the US president wrote.
