US President Donald Trump has approved plans for the US to strike at Iran but is still weighing a final decision, according to US media, including the BBC's US media partner CBS News.

At issue is the Fordo enrichment site, an underground facility vital to Iran's nuclear programme. Only the US has the capability to potentially destroy it.

Publicly, Trump has remained equivocal about what he plans to do. "I may do it, I may not do it. Nobody knows what I want to do," Trump has told journalists. "But I can say this: Iran's got a lot of trouble and wants to negotiate."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is planning to attend talks in Geneva with his UK, German and French counterparts on Friday.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing another night of attacks in Iran, conducting a series of strikes in Tehran while warning residents in Arak and Khandab to evacuate.

We are now pausing this live page, but do keep up-to-date on the BBC.

Image source, EPA

As speculation mounts that the US could join Israeli strikes on Iran, Washington has been redirecting military assets to the Middle East.

There are roughly 40,000 US troops in the region now, a US official said earlier this month.

At least 30 US military planes have been moved from bases in America to Europe in the past few days. The planes are all US military tanker aircraft used to re-fuel fighter jets and bombers.

The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier is sailing toward the Middle East from the South China Sea, along with several guided missile destroyers. Other warships are positioned in the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf, and have already helped Israel shoot down Iranian missiles.

Washington has also moved F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter jets to bases in the Middle East, according to the Reuters news agency.

Read more about the US military movements here.

Image source, Getty Images

As the world waits for Trump's decision on US strikes, Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House communications director during Trump's first term, explains the US president's decision-making process.

"There's no coherence, there's no principle based policy... it's policies on the fly without a lot of strategic thinking," he tells BBC Newsnight.

Scaramucci adds that he thinks Benjamin Netanyahu has played to Trump's "feelings of insecurity about looking tough" to try to persuade him to join the conflict.

Speaking on potential US involvement in a regime change in Iran, he says: "We haven't learned anything in two decades... It's not clear to me the Americans should be the ones pushing for regime change."

We have a little more on Putin's comments from earlier.

Asked by reporters about the possibility of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei being assassinated, the Russian leader says: "I do not even want to discuss this possibility. I do not want to."

"I hear all this, but I don't even want to discuss it," he tells journalists on the sidelines of an economic forum in St Petersburg.

Earlier he was asked by the AFP if Iran had asked for Russia's help. Putin responded: "Our Iranian friends have not asked us about this".

Image source, EPA

The Israeli military says it is currently conducting a series of strikes in Tehran and other areas in Iran.

The Israeli Air Force confirms on X that it has begun "a wave of attacks in Tehran and other areas" but did not provide further details on the targets of the strikes.

Israeli military has also issued an evacuation warning to residents in Arak and Khandab in Iran before it "targets military infrastructure".

This comes after Israel said it had intercepted an Iranian drone in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Much of the focus of a possible US strike is centred on Fordo - but why that one?

The underground plant is located about 96km (60 miles) south of Tehran and is one of Iran's two critical enrichment facilities - sites vital to Iran's nuclear programme.

It is estimated to be between 80-90m below ground, a depth which puts it out of reach of Israel's bombs. Only the US is considered to have a bomb powerful enough - a so-called "bunker buster" - to reach it.

Fordo is much deeper than Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, which Israel is believed to have severely damaged in strikes since last Friday.

Iran acknowledged the existence of the secretive Fordo site in 2009 after it was revealed by Western intelligence agencies.

It is believed to have two main tunnels that house centrifuges used to enrich uranium, which Israel fears could be used to make a nuclear weapon.

Read more about the Fordo enrichment site here.

Image source, Maxar via Getty Images

As Trump weighs a US strike on Fordo, an underground uranium enrichment facility in Iran, a former US National Security Council Chief of Staff has described to BBC Newsnight how the US could destroy it.

Fred Fleitz says there would be no need for troops on the ground and the US can drop a series of "bunker-buster" bombs on the underground plant.

"My understanding with an administration source is... multiple bunker busters will cause the mountain to collapse on itself... There will be nothing left," he said.

Fleitz added that the bombs would do enormous damage to "penetrate" the tunnels that house centrifuges to enrich uranium.

BBC World News

US Senator Tim Kaine has come out strongly against any planned US involvement in the conflict.

Kaine, who sits on the senate's Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, says while he has always been a supporter of military aid to Israel, he is against the US joining Israel in bombing Iran.

"They need to defend themselves but not try to buffalo the United States into a war that would be a catastrophe," he told the BBC's Sumi Somaskanda.

The Virginia senator says he is especially concerned about Iran's threats to target US bases in the Middle East if it joined the conflict.

Only the US Congress can greenlight war. Kaine says the fact none of his colleagues on Capitol Hill have introduced a war resolution is indicative of broad public opposition to US involvement.

"I'm not willing to risk Virginians' lives or Americans' lives on a fool's errand," he says.

The Israeli Air Force says it has intercepted a drone launched from Iran after alerts were triggered in the early hours of Thursday morning.

"The Air Force intercepted an unmanned aerial vehicle launched from Iran," it wrote on X.

It says alerts were activated following the "intrusion of a hostile aircraft in several areas in the north of the country".

How did Trump's view on conflict shift?published at 01:17 British Summer Time 19 June

01:17 BST 19 June

Bahman Kalbasi
BBC Persian Correspondent in New York

A New York Times report points to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s persistent efforts to persuade Trump as the main reason behind the shift in the US president's position.

The paper also noted that the success of the first night of Israel's assault - which led to the killing of senior Iranian military commanders - won Trump’s admiration and boosted his confidence in the effectiveness of the war effort.

On Wednesday evening, Trump confirmed part of that report: "The blow [Iranian officials] received on the first night and day was truly devastating for them… One side of the confrontation was toppled."

Trump’s growing belief that Netanyahu’s plan might work helped push him closer to the pro-war camp. But is this shift definitive?

The 5-6 minutes of remarks following his statement seemed to indicate that the momentum is leaning toward war.

Within the first few minutes, he said it was "too late" for an agreement or a meeting and added, "I wish Iran had accepted our offer during those 60 days".

Yet he didn’t rule out the possibility of reviving direct talks. "Maybe we’ll go in, maybe we won’t do anything at all," he said, adding that a decision on war would be made "at the last moment, because in war, things can change until the very end".

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday night approved plans to attack Iran, but he has not made a final decision on whether to strike the country, the BBC's US partner CBS reports.

Trump held off on initiating strikes in case Iran agreed to abandon its nuclear program, a senior intelligence source told CBS.

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

On Wednesday, Trump said, "I may do it, I may not do it", when asked a question about US involvement in Iran.

Trump is weighing a US strike on Fordo, an underground uranium enrichment facility in Iran, CBS earlier reported.

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has long warned that Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons.

After Israel launched attacks on Iran last week, Netanyahu said Iran could produce a bomb within months.

BBC Verify's Ros Atkins explains what we know about Iran's nuclear programme in the video above.

Shabnam Shabani
BBC Persian, reporting from London

Mediation in such a volatile conflict requires both the motivation and the leverage to succeed. It now appears that Tehran sees that potential in Europe. A resolution could offer a rare win-win, for both Tehran and Brussels.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said just hours ago that world leaders have been "impressed" by Israel’s "achievements". Germany’s new Chancellor, in a strikingly candid comment, went as far as to say Israel is doing the "dirty work".

Yet Europe is clearly uneasy. A war between Iran and Israel, so soon after Brexit, the Covid pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, could prove deeply destabilising for a continent already under strain. One of the immediate fears: a sharp surge in energy prices that could deliver yet another blow to fragile European economies.

Now, Reuters is reporting that the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and the UK, are expected to meet their Iranian counterpart in Geneva on Friday. The agenda: Iran’s nuclear programme, and, more pressingly, the escalating conflict with Israel.

European officials may welcome any pause or rollback in Iran’s nuclear activities. But the prospect of a full-blown war on the doorstep of Nato allies and American partners is likely keeping many of Europe’s leaders awake at night.

The UN's Security Council will convene an emergency session on Friday at the request of Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria, to discuss the ongoing conflict, BBC's US media partner CBS News reports.

Danny Dannon, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, said they will attend.

"Israel not only defended itself, it eliminated a major threat facing the entire free world," he said in a statement.

The session will take place at 10:00 EDT (15:00 BST).

While US President Donald Trump continues to weigh US involvement in Iran, the BBC asked Americans whether they think the country should get involved.

President Trump has been in a meeting in the Situation Room at the White House this afternoon, and it has recently finished.

The secure facilities are used to hold highly sensitive discussions and briefings on military and intelligence matters.

Trump has rallied his top military advisers in recent days as he weighs the US's next move in the Israel-Iran conflict.

Image source, Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin has addressed the conflict between Israel and Iran during a roundtable with news leaders today in Saint Petersburg.

According to the Associated Press, Putin said that Russia was "not imposing anything on anyone, we are simply talking about how we see a possible way out of the situation".

He said the decision should be left up to the "political leadership of all these countries, primarily Iran and Israel".

Asked by the AFP if Iran had asked for Russia's help, Putin responded, "Our Iranian friends have not asked us about this".

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian

Iran Police Commander Ahmad Reza Radan says that the police have made "heavy blows" to an Israeli "spying network" inside the country, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reports.

One person affiliated with Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, has been arrested in Iran’s western Kordestan province, he says.

Iran has had a major escalation in arrests linked to Israel in recent days.

An unspecified number of people have been detained on related charges since Israel’s attacks on Iran started.

The arrests have been made in several provinces in the country, including but not limited to Tehran, Isfahan, and Markazi.

Yesterday, Iranian outlets reported on the arrest of a “foreign national” allegedly filming the Bushehr nuclear plant for Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad. The person’s citizenship has not been announced yet.

Iran Attorney General’s Office warned on Sunday that anyone found cooperating with Israel would face the "severest punishments" under Iranian law.

On Monday, a man accused of spying for Mossad was executed in Iran.

The BBC cannot independently verify the accuracy of charges against those arrested in Iran on Israel-related accusations.

Image source, Reuters

Israel's Defense Forces (IDF) says it has struck more than 20 military targets in Iran's capital city.

It said it had hit "key nuclear and missile sites" in Tehran which it describe as sites that "fuel Iran’s weapons program and attacks on Israeli civilians".

Israel's military arm later added that they had identified missiles being launched from Iran, which they are working to intercept.

Israel's defence systems intercept most missiles launched towards it.

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump's insistence that Iran is developing a nuclear bomb contradicts an earlier assessment by the CIA that Tehran was no closer to building a nuke.

In March, Trump's handpicked Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress that the intelligence community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon", and that Iran's supreme leader "has not authorised the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003".

“I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Gabbard's assessment.

He maintained his view that Iran was "very close" to developing its own nuclear weapon.