live Trump Says Netanyahu 'Won't Have Any Choice' But To Accept US-Negotiated Deal

The Israeli military on June 8 said it was working to intercept a missile launched from Yemen, where the Iran-allied Houthi rebels operate.

The Houthi rebels, who in March said they were joining the Middle East war in support of Tehran, have previously fired missiles toward Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on Telegram that it "has identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward Israeli territory, aerial defense systems are operating to intercept the threat."

"The IDF remains on high alert and is fully prepared to continue operations across all arenas against those who threaten the State of Israel," it added.

Earlier in the morning, the Israeli military said its forces targeted Iranian regime sites early in retaliation for Tehran's latest attacks on Israel, as the wobbly cease-fire in the Middle East again appeared to be in danger.

With reporting by AFP

The Israeli military said its forces targeted Iranian regime sites early on June 8 in retaliation for Tehran's latest attacks on Israel and shortly after US President Donald Trump said he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike back.

"The Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran a short while ago," the Israel Defense Forces wrote on X early on June 8 without immediately elaborating.

Iranian state TV said explosions were heard in cities throughout the country, including Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, and Isfahan. Details were not immediately available.

The strikes come after Iran fired a barrage of missiles toward Israel in its first attacks on the country since a shaky cease-fire took effect on April 8, saying it was in retaliation for Tel Aviv's military strikes on Beirut.

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WASHINGTON -- Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute focusing on national security, said the latest escalation between Iran and Israel “perhaps is the clearest indication yet that we are nowhere close to a long-lasting peace settlement with Iran.”

“It is also a reminder that Israel will do whatever it believes is necessary to defend its national interests, even if that means going against the reported wishes of the US president,” he told RFE/RL.

Trump -- who was spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey -- is understood to have called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 7 to urge him not to respond to Iran's attack.

Senior administration officials told reporters that the US president believed he had persuaded the Israeli leader to hold off on retaliating against Iran after its missile attacks on Israel.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the latest strikes or whether they were carried out in coordination with the US.

Coffey told RFE/RL that the situation "underscores that the different facets of Iran’s influence across the Middle East cannot be compartmentalized or viewed in isolation."

"In the eyes of the Israelis, the situation with Hezbollah in Lebanon is understandably linked to the broader challenge posed by Iran," he said.

Iran's hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) targeted what it called "terrorist" bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, Iranian state media reported on June 8.

"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has targeted the headquarters of terrorist groups in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq," Iran's IRNA news agency wrote on Telegram.

Tehran has accused armed Iranian-Kurdish parties -- which have established camps in Iraq's Kurdistan region -- of attempting to overthrow the Iranian regime and of working with Western and Israeli interests.

Tehran has repeatedly struck the Kurdish groups, although their posts and camps had largely been evacuated since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran beginning on February 28.

Rumors have occasionally arisen that the Iranian-Kurdish exile groups were planning to mount an armed incursion into Iran, but those reports have proved to be false.

Iranian-Kurdish groups, along based in nearby regions, generally operate separately from the US-allied Iraqi-Kurdish groups.

With reporting by AFP

US President Donald Trump said Israeli ⁠Prime ⁠Minister ‌Benjamin Netanyahu will have ⁠no choice but to accept whatever peace ⁠deal Washington negotiates with Tehran, according to an interview in The Financial Times.

“He won’t ‌have ⁠any choice,” ‌Trump was quoted as saying in the interview.

"I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn't call the shots." Trump said before he spoke by phone on June 7 with Netanyahu and urged the Israeli leader not to retaliate after the latest Iranian missile launches.

Trump said Iran's strikes did not affect the current negotiations with Tehran and that "the deal is going on."

Trump earlier said a deal with Tehran to turn a cease-fire into a peace settlement is still "very close," even after Iran launched its first wave of air strikes against Israel since the fragile April truce took effect.

Trump told Fox News in an interview that he was "not happy" about the Israeli attacks before being quoted by media outlet Axios that the Iranian strikes "didn't hit anyone. I hope Israel doesn't respond."

"We're very close. I would say an agreement would be signed on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week. And now this takes place," Trump told Fox, adding Iran needs to "get back to the table and make a deal."

Ahead of the phone call between Trump and Netanyahu, the US president said he would tell the Israeli leader not to retaliate for the June 7 Iranian attacks.

"I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate," Trump was quoted as saying by Axios global affairs correspondent Barak Ravid in a phone interview, using the Israeli leader's nickname.

With reporting by the Financial Times

The American Embassy in Jerusalem has directed all US government employees and their families to shelter in place following renewed Iranian missile attacks on Israel.

"As a result of the current security situation in Israel...the US Embassy has directed all US government employees and their family members to shelter in place, and be prepared to move to a protected shelter in the event of a red alert, until further notice," a notice on the embassy website stated.

Iran's hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on June 7 launched a fresh wave of missile strikes against Israel, calling them a "warning" after Israel struck Beirut's southern suburbs earlier in the day.

The US Embassy was not hit in the attacks.

The move threatened the already shaky cease-fire in the Middle East that took effect on April 8.

US President Donald Trump urged Israel not to retaliate as he attempts to forge a lasting peace settlement with Tehran.

Iran fired a fresh wave of air attacks at Israel on June 7, all of which the Israeli army said had so far been intercepted.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed that it had launched missiles toward Israel on June 7, saying they were in retaliation for Israeli attacks on Lebanon earlier in the day. It added that "more crushing and regretful blows" would follow if Tel Aviv continues.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said air raid sirens sounded in several areas across the country "following the identification of missiles launched from Iran toward the State of Israel."

"The IDF intercepted all missiles from Iran thus far. The IDF has currently identified additional launches fired toward the State of Israel," it said.

"The Aerial Defense Array is currently identifying and intercepting threats."

The development came hours after Israeli forces struck the suburbs of Lebanon's capital for the first time since Washington announced a renewed truce between Beirut and Tel Aviv last week.

While talks between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East have appeared to stall over key issues such as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Iranian officials have maintained that the conflict between Israel and Lebanon is also central to efforts to end the regional war.

Iran's Parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said on June 7 that Tehran viewed latest Israeli strikes on Beirut as evidence that the United States and Israel do not believe in dialogue and "only understand the language of power."

Israel has been launching strikes targeting militants in Lebanon from Hezbollah -- which has been labeled a terrorist organization by Washington, while the European Union has only blacklisted its armed wing -- since March 2, two days after the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, when Hezbollah forces opened fire in support of Tehran.

Hezbollah is a militant group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon.

A truce that has been in place since April has reduced fighting between Israel and Hezbollah but has not stopped it; hundreds of people have been killed in strikes since then, and each side has accused the other of numerous violations.

President Donald Trump said the United States would work with Iran to retrieve and destroy its highly enriched uranium if the two sides reach an agreement to end the war between them, or take military action to seize the material if diplomacy fails.

In an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press released on June 7, Trump described two possible paths. One would involve cooperation with Tehran. The other would rely on force.

“If we make a deal that now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” Trump said.

“And we will go with them, or without them. But we won’t have people shooting at us, OK?” he added. “Now, if we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily very harshly.”

Trump said that US forces would act only when conditions are safe. He also said Washington would be able to monitor Iran’s nuclear facilities using space-based surveillance.

Trump said the two sides are “very close” to a pact but that a few issues remain unresolved. He said Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons, but he wanted broader language in any deal.

“I want to put the word, ‘if they buy, purchase or acquire,’” the US president said. “You’ve got to have that in there, too.”

Trump also said he expects US troops to remain in the region until a deal is fully implemented. He said he does not consider deployed forces to be in danger.

The comments come as Washington continues efforts to secure limits on Iran’s nuclear program and clarify the status of its highly enriched uranium stockpile.

Contrary to earlier reports about the entry and exit of the Iranian soccer team into the United States for the 2026 World Cup, the head of Iran's soccer federation, Mehdi Taj, said that the national team is allowed to enter the country one day before each match.

The World Cup is being held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Iranian team, which will be based in Mexico for the tournament, will be playing its group games in California and Seattle. The team plays its first match against New Zealand on June 15.

Previously, Abolfazl Pasandideh, Iran's ambassador to Mexico, said that players and technical staff would only be allowed to enter the United States on the day of their matches and must leave the country on the same day.

However, speaking to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Taj said that "they have allowed our national team to enter one day before the match."

This marks the first time in World Cup history that a host nation will welcome the national team of a country with which it is currently at war.

The United States has not commented on how long Iranian players will be allowed in the country surrounding their games. In a statement, the State Department said that “the visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.”

Conflicting accounts continue to circulate over the condition of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was named as his father’s successor following his death in a US-Israeli air strike in February.

In remarks carried by Iranian media on June 6, senior cleric Ahmad Khatami repeated earlier claims that Khamenei was wounded in the attack, with amputation considered a possibility.

“Thanks to the effort by the medical staff [amputation] did not happen,” Khatami said, adding that the new supreme leader “is now in good health.”

Last month, the head of the Public Relations and Information Center of Iran’s Health Ministry claimed that "nothing significant” had happened to Khamenei in the attack that targeted the supreme leader’s residence in central Tehran, reportedly killing several of his family members and Iranian officials.

Khamenei, 56, has not made any verified public appearance since being announced as the designated successor in early March, with continued speculation that he had died from injuries sustained in the attack. No authenticated video or audio recordings of him have been released.

Iranian state media and supporters continue to publish statements attributed to him and circulate images, including AI-generated visuals, but none have been independently verified as recent or authentic.

International media, including Reuters, CNN, and The New York Times, have reported that Khamenei is receiving medical treatment for serious injuries affecting multiple parts of his body, including his face, arms, upper body, and leg.

The New York Times has also reported, citing Iranian officials, that he was awaiting a prosthetic for one leg.