Image source, Getty Images

We've had a flurry of updates on the Israel-Iran conflict this morning, so let's take stock of what's been happening:

In Iran

• Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns that US involvement in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran would be "very very dangerous"
• Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is meeting Araghchi for diplomatic talks in Istanbul, says "Israel is the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East"
• The Iranian health ministry says at least 430 people have been killed since start of conflict on 13 June

In Israel

• Israel's military claim they have killed two Iranian commanders in targeted strikes - Hamas coordinator Saeed Izadi and Quds Force commander Behnam Shahriyari
• The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say eight Iranian drones flew into Israeli airspace over the course of just over one hour this morning
• Israel say 25 people have been killed, including one of a heart attack, and 2,517 wounded since the conflict began

Elsewhere, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says she now believes Iran could build nuclear weapons "within weeks".

This is a change of tune for Gabbard after US President Donald Trump told reporters yesterday that she was "wrong" about there being no evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon.

Iran's internet connection will be restored at 20:00 local time (17:30 BST) on Saturday, state media reports.

It has been nearly three days since the government imposed a nationwide internet shutdown, cutting off the majority of Iran’s 91 million people from the outside world.

Iranian state media now reports that the cyberattacks that caused the internet to be shut off have been repelled.

The internet blackout in Iran has been described as “the worst” in the country’s already troubled history of internet control.

On Thursday, BBC's Ghoncheh Habibiazad reported that internet had been "very unstable" across Iran, making contacting friends and family very difficult.

Image source, Getty Images

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Israel's attacks on Iran right before a new round of nuclear talks with the United States are aimed to "sabotage negotiations".

Speaking at a diplomatic conference in Istanbul, attended by Iran's foreign minister, Erdogan denounces Israel's "outright banditry", and accusing it of trying to destabilise the Middle East.

The Netanyahu government is proving it is the "most significant obstacle to peace in the region", the Turkish president says.

He adds: "The Netanyahu government actually aimed to undermine the negotiation process with its attacks on June 13."

Strikes highlight extent of Israeli intelligence inside Iranpublished at 10:51 British Summer Time

10:51 BST

Jiyar Gol
World affairs correspondent

If confirmed, the killings of Saeed Izadi - the commander responsible for links with Palestinian groups within the IRGC’s elite Quds Force - and Behnam Shahryari - the head of Unit 190, which handles the smuggling of weapons and funds to Iran’s proxies - mark a significant blow to the IRGC.

Izadi was targeted in an apartment in the Shia holy city of Qom and Shahryari targeted by a drone attack in his car on the road in Western Iran.

These strikes, following a series of assassinations of top Iranian military officials over the past week, highlight serious vulnerabilities within Iran’s intelligence services.

They also underscore the extent to which Israel's spy agency Mossad may have infiltrated the Iranian security apparatus.

Successfully targeting high-ranking officials who have strong protection within Iran requires both human intelligence on the ground and sophisticated electronic surveillance.

Years ago, former intelligence minister Ali Younesi revealed that then-president Hassan Rouhani had warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that “Mossad is closer to us than our own ears” - a statement that now seems more relevant than ever.

The Israeli military says eight Iranian drones have flown into Israeli airspace over the course of just over one hour this morning.

Between 10:16 and 11:27 local time (08:16 and 09:27 BST), the IDF says it identified Iranian drones across the country, from Eliat on Israel's southern tip to the northern region bordering Syria.

According to the IDF, five of them were intercepted, while details of the remaining three are under review.

At least 430 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since the conflict began on 13 June, the Nour news agency reports, citing Iran's health ministry.

It's the first official update on Iran's death toll in days.

Previously, Iran's health ministry said on Sunday that at least 224 people had been killed, while a human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, put the unofficial death toll at 657 on Friday.

• Israel say 25 people have been killed, including one of a heart attack, and 2,517 wounded since the conflict began

Image source, EPA

We've just been hearing from Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who tells reporters that his country "cannot go through negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardment".

He claims that "the US has been involved in the aggression since day one", though he does not provide evidence of this.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, where he is set to continue diplomatic talks, Araghchi warns that US involvement in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran would be "very very dangerous".

As a reminder, US President Donald Trump approved plans to attack Iran earlier this week but held off from strikes in case Iran agreed to abandon its nuclear programme.

The Iranian foreign minister says he is "absolutely ready for a negotiated solution for our nuclear programme".

In 2015, Iran agreed a long-term deal on its nuclear programme with a group of world powers after years of tension over the country's alleged efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

Araghchi adds: "Diplomacy has worked in the past and can work again in the future. In order for us to come back to diplomacy the aggression must be stopped."

Israel claims to have killed another Iranian commander from the same branch of the military as the one we reported killed earlier.

The IDF says its warplanes targeted and killed Behnam Shahriyari as he was travelling in a car through western Iran overnight.

Shahriyari was a commander in the Quds Force's weapons transfer unit, part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the IDF.

It adds he was responsible for transporting Iranian missiles and rockets to proxy groups across the region, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Jiyar Gol
World affairs correspondent

Mohammad Saeed Izadi was a senior commander, serving as the head of the Palestine Corps within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force - the IRGC's overseas operations arm, which has ties with armed groups in the region.

He was targeted in an Israeli attack on an apartment in the Iranian city of Qom. As we reported earlier, Israel says he was killed but the IRGC has not confirmed his death.

Known as a key liaison between Iran and Hamas, Izadi played a central role in co-ordinating Tehran’s support for Palestinian armed groups.

He was reportedly instrumental in arming and financing Hamas. Israel says he helped orchestrate a multi-front assault on Israel that culminated in the Palestinian group's attack on Israeli communities near Gaza on 7 October 2023.

In April 2024, Izadi narrowly survived an Israeli air strike targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria - an attack that killed several high-ranking Quds Force commanders.

We're hearing confirmation now of earlier reports that Israel's military say they assassinated an Iranian commander in the north-eastern city of Qom overnight.

The IDF says in a statement that its warplanes struck a "hideout in the heart of Iran, following a prolonged intelligence-gathering effort.

The statement adds that "Saeed Izadi was one of the founding figures and promoters behind the Iranian regime’s concrete plan to destroy Israel, which was revealed in the opening hours of Operation "Rising Lion."

There's been no official confirmation of Izadi's death from Iran.

Image source, Getty Images

A senior Iranian political figure initially thought killed in an Israeli strike on Tehran at the start of the nine-day exchange of strikes appears to have survived, Iranian state media reports.

Ali Shamkhani, a former security chief and an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was reportedly injured in an Israeli attack on 13 June.

According to the IRNA state news agency, Shamkhani is in recovering in hospital and now in a stable medical condition.

Shamkhani's X account posted this morning in English, saying that he had survived the attack.

"It was my fate to survive wounded—so I remain," the post reads. "Still the reason for the enemy’s hatred. I’d sacrifice myself a hundred times for Iran."

Image source, Reuters

Following Friday's meeting with European representatives in Geneva, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi is in Istanbul, Turkey, today to continue diplomatic talks.

The Tasnim state news agency reports Araghchi arrived in Turkey this morning to meet representatives from across the Arab and Muslim worlds.

"At this meeting, at the suggestion of Iran, the issue of the Zionist regime's attack on our country will be specifically addressed," Araghchi says, according to a Tasnim report.

We'll keep across developments today and bring you any important updates.

More now from US President Donald Trump, who spoke to reporters yesterday on the tarmac next to Air Force One.

He was asked what intelligence he has that suggests Iran is building a nuclear weapon, when his intelligence community has previously said they have no evidence.

"Well, then my intelligence community is wrong. Who in the intelligence community said that?" Trump asked.

The reporter replied that it was Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

"She's wrong," Trump quickly replied.

In March, Gabbard told Congress that US intelligence agencies determined Iran had not resumed its suspended 2003 nuclear weapons programme, even as the nation's stockpile of enriched uranium - a component of such weapons - was at an all-time high.

In our previous post, we reported on Gabbard's recent change of tune.

• Read more: What's behind the Trump and Gabbard split?

Jake Kwon
North America correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

In March Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Committee Iran was not building nuclear weapons. After Mr Trump said she was wrong, Ms Gabbard blamed the media for distorting her words and now says that she believes Iran could build nuclear weapons within weeks.

President Trump insisted that Iran had gathered a “tremendous amount of material” and could have a weapon within weeks - or if not weeks then months – and the US couldn’t let that happen.

On Thursday, Mr Trump said he would decide within the next fortnight whether the US should join the strikes on Iran.

He now says two weeks is the “maximum” time Iran has to reach a deal with the US – hinting that he could make a decision before the 14 days are up.

The IAEA earlier this month expressed concern that Iran had amassed enough uranium enriched up to 60% purity - a short, technical step away from weapons grade, or 90% - to potentially make nine nuclear bombs.

Image source, EPA

On Friday, top diplomats from the UK, EU, Germany and France held hours-long talks with their Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Geneva.

The Europeans had hoped to make progress on a diplomatic breakthrough at what UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy called a "perilous moment".

But the talks didn't yield the outcome they wanted.

Araghchi told reporters afterwards Iran was only "ready to consider diplomacy once the aggression is stopped" and Israel is held accountable "for the heinous crimes committed".

He added that Iran's nuclear programme was peaceful, and that Iran would continue to "exercise its legitimate right of self-defence".

"I make it crystal clear that Iran's defence capabilities are non-negotiable."

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday the IDF had killed a senior Iranian commander in a strike on an apartment in the city of Qom, local media and Reuters news agency reported.

Saeed Izadi was responsible for financing and arming Hamas ahead of its October 7 attacks on Israel, Katz said.

"This is a major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force," Katz said in a statement. "Justice for the murdered and the hostages. Israel's long arm will reach all its enemies."

Izadi was a member of Iran's powerful Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for overseas activities, including supporting Iran's proxies in the region.

The IRGC is yet to confirm Izadi's death.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent, reporting from Geneva

Yesterday, European foreign ministers met with their Iranian counterpart in Geneva. Here are the key takeaways from the discussions:

More than three hours of discussions in Geneva yielded no breakthrough.

But European ministers emerged convinced that Iran was ready to keep talking, and more willing to put issues on the table which hadn’t been there before.

They all emphasised that Iran has to resume its talks with the United States.

In his statement, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was ready to meet with the Europeans again, but would only consider diplomacy with the US once Israeli attacks stopped and, in his words, the aggressor was held accountable.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who flew straight to Geneva after meetings in Washington with US officials, came with tough messages – that the threat of U.S. military action was real, but a window for diplomacy was still open.

No one can say for sure for how long.

Lammy warned it was “a perilous moment”.

The message from Europe’s top diplomats was that only a negotiated agreement - not more military action - could provide a lasting solution to Iran’s nuclear programme, and to regional stability.

Israel says it has intercepted multiple Iranian drones that entered its airspace overnight and this morning.

Two were intercepted by the Israeli air force in Israeli-occupied Syrian territory roughly an hour apart, just just before 07:00 (5:00 BST) and 08:00 (06:00 BST) local time, according to the IDF.

It says a third was intercepted less than an hour later just north of the West Bank.

Israel has continued its military operation against Iran's nuclear infrastructure overnight.

Iranian state media reports an Israeli attack on a nuclear facility in Isfahan in the early hours of this morning.

Iranian air defences reportedly responded to the attack, causing loud explosions.

The attack did not cause the leakage of any hazardous material, Fars News Agency reports, although there has been no update yet from the UN's atomic agency, the IAEA, on the facility's status.

Overnight, the Israeli military said it launched a "series of strikes" against missile storage and infrastructure sites in central Iran.

Image source, Getty Images

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage as Israel and Iran continue to exchange strikes on the ninth day of the ongoing conflict.

Israel targets nuclear infrastructure in fresh strikes as Iranian media report an attack on a nuclear site in Ifsahan, in the centre of the country.

Israeli Defense Forces say they struck down several drone and missile attacks from Iran overnight.

It comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ruled out nuclear talks while under attack.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Aragchi said Iran is "ready to consider diplomacy once again once the aggression is stopped" and "the aggressor is held accountable for the heinous crimes committed".

We'll continue to bring you the latest developments and analysis throughout the day, stay with us.