AFP USA

When Donald Trump said on Thursday he’d give himself two weeks to decide on bombing Iran, critics wrote it off as the US president using a familiar timeframe to put off difficult decisions.The next evening he left the White House for a fundraising dinner at his New Jersey golf resort, and much of the world seemed to believe that there was still space for diplomacy.In reality, Trump was already on the verge of making his mind up. A few hours after his arrival at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on Friday night, the first B-2 stealth bombers took off from a US airbase.The next day, while the bombers were still in the air, Trump made the call on attacking three Iranian nuclear facilities, in the first direct US military strike on Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.”The president gave the final order to the Secretary of Defense on Saturday,” a senior White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity.”In the week leading up to the strike, the president was continuing to pursue diplomacy, mainly through Special Envoy (Steve) Witkoff’s efforts, while the Pentagon was simultaneously preparing the operation,” added the official.- ‘Misdirection’ -Trump’s “two weeks” gambit appeared to be part of a broader campaign of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called “misdirection,” which included several B-2s flying in the opposite direction as a decoy.Trump, the tycoon who prides himself as an expert on the “art of the deal,” had ladled on the strategic ambiguity all week.First he flew home early from the G7 summit for talks with his national security team. Then he unleashed a barrage of bellicose social media posts against Iran’s supreme leader. On Wednesday he said that “I may do it, I may not” when asked about striking Iran.Finally, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read out a statement from Trump in the White House briefing room on Thursday, saying there was a “substantial” chance of talks and that he would decide “whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”It played into a frequent criticism of Trump for setting two-week deadlines on everything from Ukraine to health care and then ignoring them. But behind the scenes, Trump was increasingly determined, US officials said.Trump had opposed Israel attacking Iran right up until it did so on June 13 — but afterwards he openly admired Israel’s success and was talking daily to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Israel’s achievement of air superiority over Iran presented Trump with a unique opportunity to hit the nuclear program that he had railed against since his first term.Trump was “briefed daily on the Israelis’ efforts and the operation itself as he decided whether to move forward,” the senior White House official said.The US commander-in-chief held daily meetings with his National Security Council in the White House’s basement Situation Room as he pondered his options.And to head off opposition in his “Make America Great Again” movement to another Middle Eastern “forever war”, he reportedly met his influential former aide Steve Bannon.- ‘Highly classified’ -In public, Trump and the White House took pains to keep things under wraps.The normally talkative Trump said nothing to reporters as he returned to the White House on Saturday night, just one minute after his scheduled 6 pm arrival.The timing was precise for a reason. The first B-2 bomber dropped its bombs just 40 minutes later, at 6:40 pm US time, or 2:10 am Sunday Iranian time. The last submarine-fired Tomahawk missiles struck at 7:05 pm.Trump announced the “very successful” strikes in a Truth Social post at 7:50 pm.The White House then released pictures of a pensive looking Trump in the Situation Room, wearing his red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap.”This was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan,” US Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said on Sunday.But the tough decisions are far from over for Trump, who was meeting his top team again on Monday in the Oval Office.How will he respond to Iran’s retaliation on Monday? If the US strikes did not completely destroy Iran’s nuclear sites as he claimed, will he launch more?Above all, will Trump go further than striking Iran’s nuclear plants? “If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.

Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran has been cheered by mainstream Republicans but it has exposed deep fissures between the hawks and the isolationists in the “MAGA” movement that swept the self-styled peacemaker US president back to power.Trump ran as an “America First” Republican who would avoid the foreign entanglements of his predecessors, tapping into his movement’s unease about prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as more recent conflagrations in Gaza and Ukraine.Establishment Republicans — and in particular the congressional party — rallied behind their leader after Saturday’s military action, welcoming what many see as an about-face and rejecting claims that the president had violated the Constitution. Beyond Washington’s Beltway, some of the die-hard members of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” coalition who follow him on the rally circuit also appear willing — for now, at least — to give him the benefit of the doubt.”I don’t think we’re going to end up in war. I think Trump is leader, and he’s going to just obliterate them, and there won’t be any war,” 63-year-old Jane Sisk, a retired mother-of-six from Richmond, Virginia, told AFP. But the louder, more visible, more online faction of MAGA influencers and media personalities who oppose their government reaching beyond the US shoreline are desperate to sway Trump’s supporters in the opposite direction.In a long post on X Monday, far-right lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene bemoaned having traveled the country campaigning for Trump, only to see him break his anti-interventionist covenant with his supporters.- ‘Bait and switch’ -“Only 6 months in and we are back into foreign wars, regime change, and world war 3,” she thundered on the social media site.”It feels like a complete bait and switch to please the neocons, warmongers, military industrial complex contracts, and neocon tv personalities that MAGA hates and who were NEVER TRUMPERS!”While the post was astonishing for its uncompromising language — Greene appropriated a Democratic talking point to add that Trump was “not a king” — it was far from the first sign of MAGA dissent.Thomas Massie — a House conservative who has piqued Trump’s irritation with anti-war posts — told CBS that members of his faction within MAGA were “tired from all these wars.”And as Trump gave his televised address confirming details of strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, his former top strategist Steve Bannon told viewers of his online “War Room” show that the president has “some work to do” to explain his decision.Other figures among Trump’s right-wing support base have started to come around after initially voicing shock.Far-right influencer Charlie Kirk — a leading MAGA anti-war voice before the weekend — warned his millions of YouTube viewers that US involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict would cause “a major schism in the MAGA online community.”- ‘Trust in Trump’ -But he appeared to have shifted his stance over the weekend, praising Trump for “prudence and decisiveness.” The U-turn is symptomatic of a broader trend, analysts argue, among the softer MAGA isolationists to fall into line and simply embrace the White House’s “trust in Trump” mantra now that they have lost the argument.Conservative Hoover Institution fellow Lanhee Chen believes the president will hold his coalition together as long as they see Saturday’s action as more akin to the 2020 US assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani than the start of a protracted war.”I think you saw some of that disagreement leading up to last night. I haven’t seen a lot of disagreement since then,” Chen told NBC on Sunday. Trust in Trump could be eroded, his allies warn, if Iran retaliates, dragging the United States into an escalating cycle of violence. But, for now, the president’s coalition is on board with his warnings over Iran’s nuclear threat.Polling conducted after the US strikes will take several days to filter through, but in the latest J.L. Partners survey just ahead of the mission, 67 percent of “MAGA Republicans” agreed that “Israel’s war is America’s war” while only 20 percent wanted the country to remain on the sidelines.”I don’t think Trump’s going to send soldiers over there,” said Sisk, the Virginia supporter interviewed by AFP. “I don’t think he’s gonna get us involved in the war, just like he said.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans Monday to build a nuclear power facility, enlisting a state agency for the first major new US nuclear construction since 2009.Hochul tapped the New York Power Authority to develop a nuclear plant with combined capacity of at least one gigiwatt of electricity, according to a New York state press release.The project is targeted for upstate New York where Hochul, in a speech unveiling the plan, described several communities as being receptive because they “know these are good paying, long-term jobs.” The move comes amid a revival in nuclear energy investments prompted in large part by large technology companies targeting the energy form as a source to fuel massive artificial intelligence data centers.Hochul referenced recent nuclear investments by tech giants Google, Amazon and Microsoft during her announcement. But she also tied the push to affordability concerns after a 2021 decision to permanently close a nuclear plant in Westchester County crimped supply.Hochul acknowledged that some residents had questions about safety but expressed confidence in “21st century nuclear design,” she said.”My friends, it’s coming and it’s back and if we don’t jump on, or lead this, they’re going to pass us by,” Hochul said. “These companies will go elsewhere.”Energy companies have struggled to add nuclear capacity in the United States since a 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. But in a sign of the shifting economic calculus around nuclear energy, the utility company Constellation, working with Microsoft, last year announced plans to reopen the facility due to the AI push. President Donald Trump last month signed an executive order last month to “reinvigorate” US nuclear energy, including by speeding up the building of new reactors and boosting domestic mining and enrichment of uranium.But Hochul said Trump will still need to take action to streamline federal permit issuance because getting US approval for nuclear plants can take 10 years or more. “I said it to the president. If you want energy dominance, I want energy dominance,” Hochul said. “This is how we do it.”

A federal judge, in a setback for the Trump administration, has said she plans to order the release of a wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges.Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, was summarily deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador in March and brought back to the United States this month.His case has become a key test of President Donald Trump’s hardline deportation policies.Abrego Garcia was immediately arrested on his return and charged in Nashville, Tennessee, with smuggling undocumented migrants around the United States between 2016 and 2025.Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the charges and a federal magistrate judge said in a ruling on Sunday that prosecutors had not made a convincing argument that he should be detained pending trial.”The government alleges that Abrego is a long-time, well-known member of MS-13,” the notorious Salvadoran gang, Judge Barbara Holmes said in her 51-page ruling.”But Abrego has no reported criminal history of any kind… and his reputed gang membership is contradicted by the government’s own evidence.””Overall,” the judge said, “the strength of the factors weighing in favor of release outweighs all other factors in favor of detention.”Holmes acknowledged, however, that even if she orders Abrego Garcia’s release at a hearing on Wednesday he would likely be immediately taken into custody by federal immigration agents to face potential removal proceedings.”That suggests the Court’s determination of the detention issues is little more than an academic exercise,” she said. “That suggestion is understandable. But the foundation of the administration of our criminal law depends on the bedrock of due process.”Abrego Garcia was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.Most of the migrants who were summarily deported were alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization.Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia — who is married to a US citizen — was wrongly deported due to an “administrative error.”Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.

Sales of existing homes in the United States were tepid in May, according to industry data released Monday, as high mortgage rates weighed on the market.Sales of previously-owned homes ticked up 0.8 percent in May from the prior month, to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.03 million, said the National Association of Realtors (NAR).”The relatively subdued sales are largely due to persistently high mortgage rates,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.”Lower interest rates will attract more buyers and sellers to the housing market,” he added in a statement.While the uptick exceeded analysts’ expectations, experts anticipate continued weakness in sales as mortgage rates remain elevated and the job market softens as President Donald Trump’s tariffs impact inflation and economic growth.From a year ago, existing home sales were down 0.7 percent.Yun told reporters that the 4.03 million pace meant the market is running at 75 percent of what it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, even though the United States has added jobs over the period.This is primarily due to affordability challenges, he said.The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage was close to 6.9 percent as of the end of May, according to Freddie Mac, slightly above the 6.8 percent in late April.The higher mortgage rates come as the US Federal Reserve has held the benchmark lending rate steady this year, keeping interest rates unchanged for a fourth straight policy meeting this month.Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, said a rise in the supply of homes on the market could help cushion risks for sales, especially if price hikes ease.But for now, the median sales price was up 1.3 percent from a year ago at $422,800, a record high for the month of May, the NAR said.”It’s a nearly impossible housing market for first-time buyers,” said Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long in a statement.She also warned that “Americans are watching what happens in the Middle East and paying close attention to rising prices at the gas pump.”The United States bombed Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend and Tehran has vowed to retaliate.This sent jitters across the oil market as traders gauged the possibility of whether Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for oil and gas.

The US Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear the case of a devout Rastafarian whose knee-length dreadlocks were forcibly shorn while he was in prison in the southern state of Louisiana.Damon Landor is seeking permission to sue individual officials of the Louisiana Department of Corrections for monetary damages for violating his religious rights.Landor, who had been growing his hair for nearly two decades, was serving the final three weeks of a five-month sentence for drug possession in 2020 when his hair was cut.Landor presented prison guards with a copy of a 2017 court ruling stating that Rastafarians should be allowed to keep their dreadlocks in line with their religious beliefs.A prison guard threw the document away and Landor was handcuffed to a chair and had his head shaved, according to court records.An appeals court condemned Landor’s “egregious” treatment but ruled that he is not eligible to sue individual prison officials for damages.Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill, in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court, acknowledged that the treatment of Landor by prison guards was “antithetical to religious freedom.””The State has amended its prison grooming policy to ensure that nothing like Petitioner’s alleged experience can occur,” Murrill said.But federal law does not permit “money damages against a state official sued in his individual capacity,” she added.The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case during its next term, which begins in October.Rastafarians let their hair grow, typically in dreadlocks, as part of their beliefs in the religion which originated in Jamaica and was popularized by the late reggae singer Bob Marley.

Breathtaking, swirling, multicolored galaxies and star-forming regions were revealed Monday in the first images of deep space captured by the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile.More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos.One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops.The image reveals these stellar nurseries within our Milky Way in unprecedented detail, with previously faint or invisible features now clearly visible.Another image offers a sweeping view of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.The team also released a video dubbed the “cosmic treasure chest,” which begins with a close-up of two galaxies before zooming out to reveal approximately 10 million more.”The Rubin Observatory is an investment in our future, which will lay down a cornerstone of knowledge today on which our children will proudly build tomorrow,” said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.It features an advanced 8.4-meter telescope and the largest digital camera ever built, supported by a powerful data-processing system.Roughly the size of a car and weighing 2.8 tons, the camera captures 3,200-megapixel images — more than three times the resolution of the next most powerful instrument, Japan’s Hyper Suprime-Cam, which records at 870 megapixels.- 10-year flagship project -Later this year, the observatory will begin its flagship project, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Over the next decade, it will scan the night sky nightly, capturing even the subtlest visible changes with unmatched precision.The observatory, which cost roughly $800 million, is named after pioneering American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, whose research provided the first conclusive evidence for the existence of dark matter — a mysterious substance that does not emit light but exerts gravitational influence on galaxies.Dark energy refers to the equally mysterious and immensely powerful force believed to be driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Together, dark matter and dark energy are thought to make up 95 percent of the cosmos, yet their true nature remains unknown.The observatory, a joint initiative of the US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, has also been hailed as one of the most powerful tools ever built for tracking asteroids.In just 10 hours of observations, the Rubin Observatory discovered 2,104 previously undetected asteroids in our solar system, including seven near-Earth objects — all of which pose no threat.For comparison, all other ground- and space-based observatories combined discover about 20,000 new asteroids per year.Rubin is also set to be the most effective observatory at spotting interstellar objects passing through the solar system.More images from the observatory were expected to be released later Monday.- Chilean pride -Chile hosts telescopes from more than 30 countries, including some of the world’s most powerful astronomical instruments — among them the ALMA Observatory, the most advanced radio telescope on Earth.The upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, slated to begin operations in 2027, will enable observations of previously unreachable cosmic distances.Northern Chile’s deserts, nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains, offer the clearest skies on the planet, thanks to minimal cloud cover and an arid climate.The Cerro Tololo Observatory has been the site of major discoveries, including the universe’s accelerated expansion — a breakthrough that earned Americans Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess, along with Australian Brian Schmidt, the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.

US rapper Kanye West, who released a song in May glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, will perform at a rap festival in Bratislava in July, the organisers said on Monday.Calling West’s appearance a “global sensation”, the organisers said it was his only confirmed live performance in Europe this year.West, the winner of 24 Grammys over the course of his career, has become notorious in recent years for his erratic behaviour and increasingly anti-Semitic and hate-filled rhetoric. The 48-year-old, who has legally changed his name to Ye, released “Heil Hitler” on May 8, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.”Hip-hop visionary, cultural icon and controversial genius YE will perform July 20, 2025 exclusively at the Rubicon Festival in Bratislava,” the organisers said on the event’s website.More than 3,000 people have signed a petition against West’s performance in the Slovak capital.The rapper — a vocal supporter of US President Donald Trump — is “repeatedly and openly adhering to symbols and ideology connected with the darkest period of modern global history”, two groups behind the petition said.”Kanye West’s concert in our city and our country is an insult to historic memory, a glorification of wartime violence and debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime,” the petition reads.In the “Heil Hitler” clip, dozens of Black men — wearing animal pelts and masks, and standing in a block formation — chant the title of the song, as West raps about being misunderstood and about his custody battle with ex-wife Kim Kardashian.The song ends with an extract of a speech by the Nazi dictator.West has also publicly endorsed fellow rapper and music mogul Sean Combs, who is on trial for alleged sex trafficking and racketeering. The line-up of the Rubicon festival, scheduled for July 18-20, also includes American rappers Ken Carson, Offset and Sheck Wes.

With its influence discredited and its budget in tatters, the United Nations is weathering a firestorm of criticism as it celebrates its 80th anniversary — and tries to convince a polarized and conflict-wracked world it is more vital than ever.The UN’s 193 member states will mark Thursday the signing of the organization’s foundational treaty, the UN Charter, on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco. After ratification, the United Nations came into being on October 24.The anniversary comes as the world body faces a multi-faceted crisis that has raised questions about its future.”Since the end of the Cold War, we have seen the organization struggle in cases from the Rwandan genocide to the Iraq war,” Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP.”When each big crisis comes, commentators announce that the UN is finished. And yet it still survives,” he added.”That said, this is an especially bad moment,” Gowan acknowledged, pointing to numerous countries that are “deeply frustrated” by the UN Security Council’s failure to act on major conflicts like those in Ukraine and Gaza.That inaction is largely due to the veto power of the council’s five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — which have competing interests.”The UN system as a whole has a credibility crisis, and it is not clear that the organization’s members have the resources or political energy to rescue it,” Gowan told AFP.For Romuald Sciora, a research fellow at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, the credibility issue can only result in the virtual disappearance of an organization that is already a political “dwarf” on the world stage.”I’m not sure the UN will cease to exist, even by its 100th anniversary,” Sciora told AFP. “I see a slow vanishing, and the UN becoming a bit of a ghost,” like “these old organizations whose names we have forgotten.”But experts say while the UN desperately needs to enact tough reforms, not all of its problems come from within, and it has become an easy scapegoat for its divided membership.- ‘Worse’ without UN -Gissou Nia of the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank says she fears that “the approach of might is right… is what is taking hold, and it brings us further and further away from the ideals” that led to the UN’s founding as World War II ended.Nia, a human rights lawyer, says she hopes enough people will remain committed to the set of ideals and values “that will keep the UN alive,” but still worries about the constant questioning of those values, notably from US ally Israel.”The constant berating from some very loud voices about the UN either being anti-Semitic, or the UN being a waste of funding, or the UN propping up dictators, actually has an impact,” Nia told AFP.In a world devastated by the largest number of ongoing conflicts since 1945, and ravaged by major humanitarian crises, “the United Nations has never been more needed,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said recently.”Our values have never been more relevant. And the needs have never been greater.”Funding has nevertheless grown scarce as donors — especially the United States under President Donald Trump — pull back.Given the financial constraints, Guterres launched the UN80 initiative in a bid to streamline operations. Those changes could include thousands of positions being cut.For Gowan, “the UN is a very big organization, and of course it suffers from a variety of bureaucratic problems, just as almost all big organizations do. (…) So of course it deserves scrutiny and criticism.”But, he added, “I think we have gotten a bit too accustomed to having this system at our service, and tend to spend too much time grumbling about its flaws and not enough time acknowledging its successes.”The United Nations remains a place where arch-rivals and enemies still sit at the same table to air grievances, and where the smallest member state can have its voice heard.The UN also does important work on the ground, from the World Food Programme bringing needed supplies to more than 100 million people in 120 countries last year, to the thousands of peacekeepers protecting civilians in conflict zones.”The UN was a magnificent tool,” Sciora said. “Obviously, it would be worse if it were to disappear from one day to the next.”

Aerial assaults raged between Iran and Israel early Monday, while Tehran vowed retaliation over the bunker-buster bombs American warplanes unleashed at the weekend on three nuclear sites. US President Donald Trump insisted the attack had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but other officials said it was too soon to determine how significantly Tehran’s nuclear programme had been impacted.As the world awaited Iran’s reply, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the bombing campaign Israel launched on June 13 “a big mistake”.”The Zionist enemy… is being punished right now,” Khamenei wrote on social media.Sirens sounded across Israel and Iran early Monday as the arch enemies exchanged their latest round of fire.The Israeli army said it was intercepting missiles from Iran, while Iranian state media Fars said the air defence system was working to counter a drone attack. In a sign of possible nervousness about the conflict spilling into a wider regional war, oil prices jumped by more than four percent in early trading on Monday.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged China to help deter Iran from shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial trade route through which one-fifth of global oil output passes. With Iran threatening US bases in the Middle East, the State Department issued a worldwide alert cautioning Americans abroad.”The conflict between Israel and Iran has resulted in disruptions to travel and periodic closure of airspace across the Middle East. There is the potential for demonstrations against US citizens and interests abroad,” the department’s security alert said. It made no mention of the US strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.- ‘Regime change’ -In central Tehran on Sunday, protesters waved flags and chanted slogans against US and Israeli attacks.In the province of Semnan east of the capital, 46-year-old housewife Samireh told AFP she was “truly shocked” by the strikes.”Semnan province is very far from the nuclear facilities targeted, but I’m very concerned for the people who live near,” she said.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said the US strikes revealed Washington was “behind” Israel’s campaign against the Islamic republic and vowed a response.After the Pentagon stressed that the goal of American intervention was not to topple the Iranian government, Trump openly toyed with the idea. “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “But if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”Hours later he doubled down on emphasising the success of his strikes.”Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term!” Trump wrote, without sharing the images he was referencing. “The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!” he added.At a Pentagon press briefing earlier in the day, top US general Dan Caine said that while it would be “way too early” for him to determine the level of destruction, “initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage.”Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said his country’s bombardments will “finish” once the stated objectives of destroying Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities have been achieved.”We are very, very close to completing them,” he told reporters.- ‘Grave consequences’ -In response to the US attack, which used over a dozen massive “bunker buster” bombs, Iran’s armed forces targeted sites in Israel including Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, with at least 23 people wounded.Nine members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed Sunday in Israeli attacks on central Iran, local media reported, while three people were killed after an ambulance was struck.Israeli strikes on Iran have killed more than 400 people, Iran’s health ministry said. Iran’s attacks on Israel have killed 24 people, according to official figures.Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that craters were visible at the Fordo facility, but it had not been possible to assess the underground damage.He added that “armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place and could result in radioactive releases with grave consequences within and beyond the boundaries of the State which has been attacked.”The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, which had been mediating Iran-US nuclear talks, criticised the US strikes and called for de-escalation, while France, Germany and Britain called on Tehran “not to take any further action that could destabilise the region.”North Korea, which is also at odds with Washington over its own nuclear weapons, condemned the US strikes as a violation of the United Nations charter.Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States of deciding to “blow up” nuclear diplomacy with its intervention in the war.He headed to Moscow on Sunday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.On Sunday, Russia, China and Pakistan circulated a draft resolution with other Security Council members that calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Iran.burs-lb/fox