Image source, EPA

US President Donald Trump has just posted on his Truth Social site saying the US caused "monumental damage" with its strikes on "all nuclear sites in Iran".

"Obliteration is an accurate term", he wrote.

Referring to a satellite image which he did not share in the post, Trump said a "white structure shown is deeply imbedded into the rock" and "completely shielded from flame", while "the biggest damage took place far below ground level."

"Bullseye!!!" he added at the end of the post.

Americans all over the world are asked to stay alert, in the wake of US strikes against Iran.

The US State Department has issued a worldwide security alert for US citizens.

"There is the potential for demonstrations against US citizens and interests abroad. The Department of State advises US citizens worldwide to exercise increased caution," it says.

Image source, EPA

Suranjana Tewari
Asia business correspondent in Tianjin, China

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on China to help stop Iran from shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a critical trade route, with almost a quarter of the world's oil and gas passing through it.

Rubio's comments followed reports on Iranian state TV that the country's parliament had approved a measure to close the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

"I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Strait of Hormuz for their oil," said Rubio on Fox News.

"If they do that, it will be another terrible mistake. It's economic suicide for them if they do it."

Any disruption to supply would have profound consequences for the global economy, sending oil prices higher with major importers, like China, India and Japan hard hit.

Analysts say the authority to close the Strait lies with regime security officials rather than parliament, and because Iran also depends on transit through the Strait for its own exports and economy, it would be a particularly risky retaliatory move.

Image source, Reuters

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted minutes ago on X that sirens were sounding across central Israel because of a missile launch from Iran.

The Israeli military let civilians know a short time afterwards that it was safe to emerge from their shelters, signalling the threat was over for now.

Over the past day, Israel and Iran have been trading attacks.

From Iran to Israel

Earlier on Sunday Tel Aviv was hit by Iranian ballistic missiles. Residential buildings were damaged.

At least 27 Iranian missiles were launched in two waves, some of which also struck northern and central Israeli areas, including Haifa, Nes Ziona and Rishon Lezion.

From Israel to Iran

Israel sent 20 fighter jets to conduct what it calls “intelligence-based strikes” across Tehran, Kermanshah and Hamedan.

The targets included missile storage and launch facilities, radar and satellite systems, and a surface-to-air missile launcher near Tehran, said Israeli officials.

Image source, Getty Images

Adam Hancock
BBC News, Singapore

Image source, Reuters

Energy markets have opened for the first trading session following the US attack on Iran.

The price of the benchmark Brent Crude rose more than 3% in early trading, climbing to over $79 a barrel.

Oil prices were expected to increase following the attack over the weekend, with traders concerned about potential disruptions to the supply chain.

Stock markets in Asia will open over the next few hours.

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

The big question in all of this is an even more worrying one than 'will Iran try to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz?', although that would certainly have major economic, political and military consequences.

Instead, the gravest question of all, to which almost none of us know the answer is this: Does Iran still retain enough Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU), hidden away at a secret underground location, plus the knowledge and the means to weaponise it, to now take a decision to race for a crude nuclear bomb?

In other words, have the combined US and Israeli attacks removed the threat of Iran becoming a nuclear-armed state – or made it more likely?

A military expert I have spoken to maintains that if Iran has managed to preserve enough of its HEU then its scientists should, if left to work unimpeded, be able to test a simple, first-generation gun-type device using a neutron initiator. This device, he says, is easier to engineer than an implosion device.

It has long been assumed that if Iran acquires the bomb then Saudi Arabia and other states in the Middle East will also try to acquire it, triggering a nuclear arms race.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

For decades, the United States and Iran have carefully avoided crossing a dangerous red line into a direct military confrontation.

One American president after another held back from deploying their military might against the Islamic Republic for fear of sinking the US into potentially the most perilous Middle East war of all.

Now, the commander-in-chief, who promised to be a president of peace, has crossed this Rubicon with direct military strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites.

It's an unprecedented moment provoking alarm in capitals the world over.

Iran's next move could be even more momentous.

Read more here

Alex Lederman
Reporting from the Pentagon

Image source, Carlos Barria/Reuters/Bloomberg via Getty Images

US President Donald Trump has posted on social media that "it’s not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???"

That's despite his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth saying this morning that "this mission was not and has not been about regime change" and Vice-President JD Vance telling ABC on Sunday: "Well, first of all, we don't want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear programme."

Regime change has been a point of contention within Trump's Republican Party.

The last Republican President, George W Bush, focused on regime change in Iraq, based on claims of weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be baseless.

Regime change and American entanglements in Middle East wars have largely fallen out of favour among the Republican base. President Trump capitalised on the unpopularity of the Bush-era neoconservatives, campaigning on a promise of "no new wars".

But many traditional national security hawks and supporters of Israel’s strikes remain in Republican politics.

Attacking Iran's nuclear sites wasn’t just a foreign policy decision for President Trump. He has to balance these competing constituencies in his domestic calculations, too.

Image source, Getty Images

In the last few hours, diplomats at the United Nations in New York have debated the US intervention in the Iran-Israel conflict.

In Sunday's session, Russia, China and Pakistan asked the 15-member UN Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.

Here's a roundup of what they said:

• Israel's ambassador Danny Dannon said the entire world should say "thank you" to Trump for attacking Iran, which he accused of having "turned negotiation into theatre"
• Iran's ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani criticised the "blatant US aggression" and said Washington had launched the attack under an "absurd pretext"
• China's ambassador Fu Cong said that Beijing "strongly condemns" the US attacks
• Russia's ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the US had "opened a Pandora's box" and Washington "is clearly not interested in diplomacy"

• UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres said US strikes constituted "a perilous turn in a region already reeling", and called for an end to "another cycle of destruction"

Following the comments from the Iranian representative at the UN Security Council, we heard from Israel's Danny Denon - who says the world should be thanking Donald Trump.

"The entire world should say on record here today thank you," Danny Danon says. "Thank you to Donald Trump for acting when so many hesitated."

He says that some at the UN have "denounced" the US and Israel, but queries "where were you when Iran enriched uranium far beyond the point of civilian usage, when it built a fortress beneath a mountain to prepare for our extermination?"

He says that it cannot be ignored that "diplomacy was tried" but says Iran "turned negotiation into theatre" and used it as "camouflage" to buy time to build missiles and enrich uranium.

Danon continues, saying that Iran negotiated agreements "it never intended to keep".

"The free world gave it every chance," he says, and that the cost of inaction would have been "a death sentence".

Image source, Reuters

Iran's representative to the UN Security Council has accused the US of having "waged a war" against Iran "under a fabricated and absurd pretext".

Amir Saeid Iravani says Iran reserves the right "to defend itself" against "blatant US aggression" before adding that the timing, nature and scale of "Iran's proportionate response" will be decided by its armed forces.

In a lengthy statement, Iravani also accuses Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pulling America into "another costly, baseless war" and says the actions by the US and Israel are a "flagrant breach of international law".

The Iranian representative says Israel has promoted the "deceitful and false narrative" his country was "on the cusp of acquiring a nuclear weapon".

He continues: "The silence, double standards, and complicity of international organisations and some Western countries, including France and the UK, are equally reprehensible."

Amir Saeid Iravani ends his address by calling on the council to hold the US and Israel "fully accountable".

Image source, Maxar Technologies / EPA

Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.

It's been almost 24 hours since the United States carried out strikes on three of Iran's nuclear sites - Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

On Sunday, in comments at the UN Security Council in New York, Iran accused the US of "waging war" under an "absurd pretext".

At the same time, US President Donald Trump hinted at regime change in Iran - despite the US, and Israel, saying the aim of their strikes was to stop Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

We'll bring you the latest developments over the course of the day, so stay with us. In the meantime, if you need a recap of the past 48 hours, you can get it in our previous page.