Live Updates: Iran retaliates after U.S.-Israel strikes; Trump calls for regime change
An Israel military official told journalists Saturday that it was working with the U.S. to carry out dozens of strikes across Iran. The official said that the choice was made to act now after intelligence indicated an acceleration of Iran’s ballistic missile program.
The official also said Iran’s government was operating, as well as acting to conceal and fortify, its nuclear program to continue to advance it, and that the objective of the offensive was to significantly reduce the capabilities of the Iranian’s regime.
In an interview with French network TF1 posted online 10 days ago, Rafael Grossi, the director general of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, said most of Iran’s enriched uranium remained intact after the U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities in June 2025, but he said there was no indication Iran was working to develop a nuclear weapons capacity.
“No,” he told TF1 when asked if the IAEA saw evidence of Iran trying to work toward a weapon, adding: “On the contrary, I see, today, a willingness on both sides to reach an agreement.”
“Most of the material that Iran had accumulated up until June of last year, despite the [U.S.] bombings and the attacks, is still there, in large quantities, where it was at the time of the strikes,” Grossi told the French network. “Some of it may be less accessible, but the material is still there. From a non-proliferation standpoint, the material remains. That is why there is so much interest — I would say urgency — in reaching an agreement that would prevent new military action in the region.”
Grossi was directly involved in the latest rounds of indirect talks between U.S. and Iranian delegations in Geneva, Switzerland, last week.
The Israeli military official said Saturday that there were a variety of initial targets in the opening strikes, from practical ones that would create more freedom of operation to “essential personnel,” though the official declined to comment on who may have been targeted when asked by journalists.
