Israel-Iran conflict: Xi and Trump comments, more Hungarian citizens evacuated from the Middle East

Today’s latest news on the Israel-Iran conflict:

Israel reports new missile attacks from Iran amid escalation

ISTANBUL (AA) – Iran launched a new missile barrage targeting central Israel on Tuesday evening, local media said.

Air-raid sirens sounded in a series of communities in the Greater Tel Aviv area, Gush Dan, Sharon, Shfela, and Samaria regions in central Israel, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said.

Israeli Channel 7 said that eight missiles were launched from Iran in the latest barrage.

Israel’s national emergency service, Magen David Adom, said four Israelis sustained minor injuries while rushing to shelters, Anadolu says.

Regional tensions have escalated since Friday, when Israel launched coordinated airstrikes on multiple sites across Iran, including military and nuclear facilities, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory strikes.

Israeli authorities said that at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds injured in Iranian missile attacks since Friday.

Iran, for its part, said that at least 224 people have been killed and over 1,000 others wounded in the Israeli assault.

Trump dismisses US intelligence, says Iran was ‘very close’ to having nuclear weapon

WASHINGTON (AA) – President Donald Trump dismissed the conclusions Tuesday of the US intelligence community after it assessed that Iran is not seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, maintaining that Tehran was “very close” to obtaining one before Israel carried out a series of strikes that have sparked reciprocal attacks from Iran.

“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

The president was responding to congressional testimony from the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard who told lawmakers in March that the intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”

“The IC continues to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program,” she said, using an acronym for the US intelligence community.

Gabbard told reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill that her March testimony aligned with Trump’s statements.

“What President Trump is saying is the same thing I said in my annual threat assessment in March to Congress,” Gabbard was quoted by US media.

“Unfortunately, too many people in the media don’t care to actually read what I said,” she added.

CNN separately reported Tuesday that US intelligence does not believe Iran is currently building a nuclear bomb and estimates it would take at least two to three years to produce and deploy one to target a country of its choosing. It cited four anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

Regional tensions have escalated since Friday when Israel launched airstrikes on multiple sites across Iran, including military and nuclear facilities, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory strikes.

Israeli authorities said at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds injured since then in Iranian missile attacks. Iran said at least 224 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the Israeli assault.​​​​​​​

US intelligence believes that Israel’s attacks may have only set Iran’s nuclear program back by a matter of months, one of the officials said. CNN said that while there has been significant damage to the enrichment site at the Natanz site, the heavily fortified facility at Fordow remains essentially untouched by Israel’s strikes.

‘We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran’: Trump

WASHINGTON (AA) – US President Donald Trump claimed to have “complete and total control” of Iranian airspace Tuesday after five days of Israel’s bombing that targeted military and nuclear sites.

“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” Trump said in a social media post. “Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured ‘stuff.’ Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.”

The comments come one day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the US deployed additional military assets to the Middle East, a move he and other senior Trump administration officials have maintained is “defensive” in nature amid speculation that American forces could join Israel’s military campaign.

A defense official told Anadolu on Monday that Hegseth directed the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group to the CENTCOM area of responsibility to sustain “our defensive posture and safeguard American personnel.”

Regional tensions have escalated since Friday when Israel launched airstrikes on multiple sites across Iran, including military and nuclear facilities, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory strikes.