Israel intensifying attacks, Iran shows defiance, nuclear site hit
An Iranian strike on a U.k.-U.s. base on Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, suggests Iran might have used a space launch vehicle for its missiles.
Israel’s defense minister threatened on Saturday that “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly” as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week.
Britain condemned Iran for targeting Diego Garcia, a joint U.K.-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean. The distance of Saturday’s attack suggests Tehran is able to send missiles much farther than Iran had acknowledged.
Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit in an airstrike, an official Iranian news agency reported Saturday, saying there was no radiation leakage. Israel denied responsibility.
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising, and the war shows no sign of abating.
The death toll has risen to more than 1,300 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel, and 13 U.S. military members in the region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Iran may have used space launch vehicle to aim missiles
The joint British-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean is almost 4,000 miles away. Iran previously limited the range of its ballistic missile program to 1,240 miles, but U.S. officials have said Iran’s system for satellite launches could extend their range.
Iran’s Simorgh space launch vehicle could offer greater range “at the likely cost of terminal accuracy,” said Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank.
“Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up, and they come down really fast,” said Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore. “If you’ve got a space program, you’ve got a ballistic missile program.”
Prest said the launches were likely a message of defiance, to say “look what we can do,” in response to President Donald Trump’s claims that Iran’s military has been obliterated.
The Diego Garcia air base is home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel and has supported U.S. military operations from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan and strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the tip of India. The islands have been under British control since 1814.
Israel says it’s not responsible for Natanz nuclear site attack
The Israeli military denied that Israel was responsible for a strike that hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. An official Iranian news agency reported on Saturday that the site was damaged in an airstrike but there was no radiation leakage. The Israeli military said it wasn’t aware of Israeli strikes in that region.
The denial came as Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a video statement that next week, “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called strikes on the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility “a brazen violation of international law.”
In a statement posted on the ministry’s website Saturday, Zakharova said such “irresponsible actions” posed a “real risk of catastrophic disaster throughout the Middle East” and were “clearly aimed at further undermining peace, stability, and security in the region.”
Egypt, Saudi Arabia say attacks endanger regional stability
Egypt’s president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed Saturday that the Iranian escalation against Gulf states endangers the safety and the stability of the region.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported that el-Sissi reiterated his country’s rejection of the Iranian attacks on the Gulf states, adding the Egyptian president expressed solidarity with the Kingdom against threats.
Also Saturday, Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit welcomed the visits of el-Sissi and his Jordanian counterpart King Abdullah II to multiple Gulf states over the past few days, saying that these visits “reflect full Arab solidarity.”
U.S. House speaker said mission is ‘all but done’
Trump’s fellow Republicans appear unlikely to directly challenge him, even as the conflict drags on. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the military operation will be over quickly.
“I do think the original mission is virtually accomplished now,” Johnson (R., La.) told the AP and others at the Capitol this week. “We were trying to take out the ballistic missiles, and their means of production, and neuter the navy, and those objectives have been met.”
Johnson acknowledged that Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the Strait of Hormuz is “dragging it out a little bit,” especially as U.S. allies have largely rebuffed the president’s request for help, but said, “As soon as we bring some calm to the situation, I think it’s all but done.”
The Republican president’s decision to launch the U.S.-Israel-led war with Iran is testing the resolve of the Congress, which is controlled by his party.
Under the War Powers Act, the president can conduct military operations for 60 days without approval from Congress. So far, Republicans have easily voted down several resolutions from Democrats designed to halt the military campaign.
But the administration will need to show a more comprehensive strategy ahead or risk blowback from Congress, lawmakers said, especially as they are simultaneously being asked to approve billions in new spending.
Trump took the United States to war without a vote of support from Congress, but lawmakers are increasingly questioning when, how, and at what cost the war with Iran will come to an end.
Three weeks into the conflict, the toll is increasing: At least 13 U.S. military personnel have died, and more than 230 have been wounded. A $200 billion Pentagon request for war funds is pending at the White House. Allies are under attack, oil prices are spiking, and thousands of U.S. troops are deploying to the Middle East with no endgame in sight.
“The real question is: What ultimately are we trying to accomplish?” Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) told the Associated Press. “I generally support anything that takes out the mullahs,” he said. “But at the end of the day, there has to be a kind of strategic articulation of the strategy, what our objectives are.”
Iran’s threat in Strait of Hormuz degraded, U.S. military leader says
The head of U.S. Central Command says in his latest video update on the war that U.S. forces “remain on plan to eliminate Iran’s ability to project meaningful power outside its borders.”
Adm. Brad Cooper also detailed steps taken to undermine Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway vital to international commerce such as oil shipments.
He said in a post on X that earlier in the week, multiple 5,000-pound bombs were dropped on an underground facility along Iran’s coastline that was used to store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers, and other equipment “that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping.”
Cooper says intelligence support sites and missile radar relays used to monitor ship movements were destroyed.
“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” he says in the video.
Cooper also said, “We have built the most extensive air defense umbrella in the world over the Middle East right now.”
Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and Australia have also condemned Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels as well as oil and gas facilities in the region.
“The effects of Iran’s actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable,” they said in a joint statement Saturday.
Iranians hold Eid al-Fitr prayers in Tehran’s grand mosque
Thousands of Iranian worshipers on Saturday converged on Tehran’s grand mosque for Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Associated Press footage showed worshipers lining up at Imam Khomeini Mosalla and in its vast courtyard for the prayers as Israel and the United States continued to launch massive airstrikes against Iran.
Masoud Alibenam, 50, said it’s “really a painful feeling” that the Eid prayers are being offered without Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first days of the war. “The leader (Khamenei) is no longer here, and we are offering the prayers in his absence.”
Worshipers also held funeral services for Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard, who was killed in an Israeli strike Friday. The funeral procession of Amir Hossein Bidi, a pro-government cultural activist, also was held after Eid prayers.