Key events23m agoOpening summaryThe EU’s top diplomat has urged calm after Iran and Israel traded strikes, testing the fragile truce and threatening to drag the Middle East region back into war.“Overnight, we have seen escalation again,” Kaja Kallas said on Monday.
double quotation markI think the region does not need an escalation, but actually that parties sit down to a negotiation table and agree.”
Opening summaryHello and welcome to our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.Israel launched airstrikes early on Monday targeting central and western Iran in response to missile fire from Tehran, attacks that threatened to drag the wider Middle East back into a regional war.Iranian state TV reported the sound of explosions being heard in Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran. A witness in Tehran described hearing at least one large blast somewhere to the west of the country’s capital city.Iran closed the airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International airport – the main airfield in the country – after the Israeli attack.Multiple explosions were heard over Jerusalem later on Monday as Israel said a new wave of Iranian missiles was incoming. The Israeli military said it “identified missiles launched from Iran” and was working to intercept the threat.An Israeli interceptor strikes an Iranian ballistic missile over the Jerusalem area on Monday. Photograph: Jim Hollander/UPI/ShutterstockIran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attack on Iran.The Israeli military at dawn in Iran issued a short statement as its strikes started, saying: “A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran.” It did not provide further details.US officials said Donald Trump earlier spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu and urged the Israeli prime minister not to immediately retaliate over Iran’s missile launches against Israel, which upended the fragile ceasefire in place since April.We will bring you all the latest developments here. Meanwhile:
