this is bbc news - the headlines... the united states has bombed iran's main nuclear facilities, in what donald trump hailed as a very successful attack. the bombings early on sunday at isfahan, natanz, and fordo follow more than a week of israeli air strikes on iran. the iranian foreign minister has accused donald trump of betraying the american people, as well as iran, by bombing its nuclear facilities. abbas araghchi said the us had crossed "a big red line". the united nations' security council is due to meet shortly to discuss the crisis in the middle east. the un secretary-general, antonio guterres, has described the us strikes as a direct threat to international peace and security.

let's stay with the iran-israel conflict - and, after days of mixed messages from donald trump, the united states has attacked iran, bombing three major nuclear sites. in a national tv address, donald trump called the overnight action - dubbed midnight hammer - "a spectacular military success". he and the defence secretary claimed the strikes had "totally obliterated" iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, and he told tehran to "make peace" or face far greater attacks. one of iran's key uranium enrichment sites, fordo, was hit, as well as nuclear sites at natanz and isfahan. iran denied that it's dealt them a major blow, and warned that the us action will have "everlasting consequences" across the middle east. and in the next half an hour, the un security council is due to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the escalation. let's speak to our north america correspondent jake kwon, in washington. first of all, before we talk about what trump has been saying, let me ask you about

that un security council meeting and what we are expecting. well, this is something the un has called actually in response to of course america dropping the bomb on iran pots nuclear sites, and this is an emergency meeting where of course the iranians will try to plead their case, as well as we'll be able to hear what the other world countries will be saying. to be frank, the white house and donald trump don't give a lot of stock to the united nations, but it'll be a good barometer of the temperature of what the other world leaders feel. and there will be some kind of effort at trying to find a diplomatic off ramp here, of course, after trump has struck iran, his message has been very clear - he does not want iran to retaliate, he wants the conflict to stop right here, he's been making very clear that this is a one-off attack and that they can just drop the conflict

right here. but of course, from iran's perspective, it's difficult for them to stop pursuing any follow-up action, they need to save face and it's difficult to imagine did democrat negotiation starting at this point. let's talk about donald trump and what he's been saying in the last for a short while on his truth social website. talk me through what he said, because i'm hearing he's been criticising that republican congressman who criticised this attack. and his truth social post, trump has massively rebuked republican thomas massie. he compared this white house to the white house of george w. bush, which led america into the iraq invasion,

and he's been trying to stop american military action in iran. so donald trump was devoting his time trying to discipline and whip his own party into falling into rank behind him so they can support his action against iran, and he had threatened this congressman, saying all his supporters, all maga supporters should drop him now and he'll campaign hard to get him removed in that republican primary stage. and this is something that not just him, but the white house, his officials have been doing all day today - they were appearing on the sunday talk show trying to explain away and dispel some of the dissent and disappointment that may exist amongst his own support base, who have been saying, "you ran on the platform of no war, so why is america getting into possibly another protective war in the middle east?" and how are they justifying it? if you

listen to trump and his officials, what they're saying is trump has axley been very consistent in his message that iran must not have a nuclear weapon. we've heard from pete hegseth saying that this has been trump's position for 20 years, and it's now become absolutely necessary for trump to act because from his information he's gathered, the intelligence, the iranians were only a few weeks away from being able to put together this bomb, and that need to remove the bomb out of their hands really trumps everything else. so what they were trying to say is that this will be a one-time thing, won't really escalate, they're not looking for peace and by dems writing their strength, this is how they'll get that piece -- they are looking for peace. jake, thank you very much. more than 100 us warplanes, including stealth bombers, were used to carry out

the attack. here's bbc verify's merlyn thomas. the us attack on iran relied on secrecy, decoys and weapons that have never been used before. just after midnight eastern time, b2 bombers set off from the us whiteman airbase, in missouri, and headed west. that was a decoy. shortly afterwards, seven b2 bombers quietly flew east, with minimal communications on an 18-hour trip to iran. by 5pm, a us submarine launched two dozen land attack cruise missiles against key targets at the isfahan nuclear site. around an hour later, the bombers entered iranian airspace, where several deception tactics were used. between 6.40pm and 7.05pm, all three nuclear sites - natanz, isfahan, and fordo - were hit. and here's the aftermath at fordo, iran's underground nuclear enrichment facility. high-resolution images show six fresh craters, likely the entry points for us munitions.

there's no huge blast effect here because the bombs used aren't designed to detonate on entry, but deep underground in the facility. grey dust that can be seen scattered across the mountainside suggests concrete debris had been blown out by the explosions. images from the isfahan nuclear site also show some of the damage. and the facility in natanz, too, appears to show a crater. both nuclear sites have been previously hit by israeli strikes. how much damage the strikes have caused remains to be seen. merlyn thomas, bbc news. here, the prime minister has chaired a meeting of the government's emergency cobra committee. sir keir starmer said "all necessary measures" are being taken to protect british interests in the region - and again called for de-escalation. we have long had concerns about the iranian nuclear programme and been very clear that iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. the us has now taken action to alleviate that threat. it is important that we now de-escalate the situation,

stabilise the region, and get the parties back around the table to negotiate. joe pike told us more about the calls from the uk to france and germany on iran not to take action to destabilise the situation. that call between those three nations was one of many sir keir starmer has had here in recent hours. i think more in the coming hours, too. and, as you say, he also chaired cobra, the government's emergency committee. number ten never really explain what happens there. they don't summarise a discussion, or even give a sort of cast list. but we'd expect to the prime minister to have been joined by the defence secretary, military leaders, as well as representatives from the intelligence services. he's in a bit of a difficult position, the prime minister, here. him and his ministers have not

they've not endorsed the actions of the us last night - they've stopped short of endorsing those military strikes - but the results of those strikes uk ministers have said, ie delaying iran, getting hold of nuclear weapons, that is in the uk's national interest, they argue, because iran is a threat to the country. sir keir starmer has had a difficult week on this issue - as recently as tuesday at the g7, in canada, he seemed pretty confident in media interviews that the us would not intervene in iran. four days later, that is clearly what has happened. we know the uk got advance notice of those strikes but was not asked to take part. why not? well, perhaps because of high-level discussions here in recent days about the illegality - or legality, rather - of various different options and scenarios of uk involvement. donald trump talk to the press a little bit earlier today about that us action. have a listen. a short time ago, the us military carried out massive

precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the iranian regime - fordo, natanz, and isfahan. everybody heard those names for years, as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. our objective was the destruction of iran's nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number-one state sponsor of terror. tonight, i can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. iran, the bully of the middle east, must now make peace. if they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. for 40 years, iran has been saying "death to america, death to israel". they have been killing our

people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. that was their speciality. we lost over 1,000 people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the middle east and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate. in particular, so many were killed by their general, qasem soleimani. i decided a long time ago that i would not let this happen. it will not continue. trump is also posted something in the last few minutes on his truth social website. he wrote about the spectacular military success yesterday, saying, "taking the bomb right out of their hands, and they would use if they could. but as usual, and despite all the praise and accolades received, this lightweight congressman," talking about republican congressman thomas massie, he said, "despite all this praise

and accolades, this lightweight congressman is so against what happened in iran." he said congratulations to the military for what they did last night, he writes that it was special in big letters. us secretary of state, marco rubio, spoke to cbs's margaret brennan on face the nation sunday and said iran had every opportunity to negotiate. we have bent over backwards to make a deal with these people. steve witkoff has travelled the world extensively, met with them - not even met with them, met with the omanis and discussed back-and-forth. we even put in an offer to them and they wanted elements of it in writing. it a generous offer. we are prepared. if they call right now and say they want to meet right now, we will do that. the president has made that clear from the beginning. his preference is to deal with this issue diplomatically. but he also told them, we had 60 days to make progress, or something else was going to happen. i think they thought they were dealing with a different kind of leader,

like the kind of leaders they've been playing games with for the last 30-40 years. it was not an attack on iran or the iranian people, this wasn't a regime change move, this was designed to degrade or destroy three nuclear sites related to the nuclear weaponisation ambitions and that was delivered on yesterday. what happens next will now depend on what iran chooses to do next. if they choose the path of diplomacy we are ready and we can do a deal which is good for them and the iranian people and good for the world. and if they choose another route, there will be consequences for that. iran's immediate response was to launch more missile strikes on israel, which began direct hostilities when it attacked iran ten days ago. iranian missiles struck haifa and here in tel aviv, injuring more than 80 people. lucy williamson reports from tel aviv. iran once saw its ballistic missiles as a deterrent against israeli attacks. but even the intense barrage

that shook israel this morning isn't shaking israeli support for the war. a nearby care home, slowly evacuated, room by room. ten days into this war, israel's prime minister is determined to continue. buildings may be turned to rubble but there is no crack in public support. we got out of bed and we went to the safe room, heard a tremendous boom. when we came back we saw our apartment was not our apartment any more. we are ok, everybody's ok. they want us destroyed and we are not going to let it happen. this conflict has exposed iran's weaknesses, and has become more dangerous with america's intervention overnight. for ten days, iran has been bombarding israeli cities. israel hasn't blinked. tehran has already lost

the protection of its proxies in the region and its ballistic missiles are not the deterrent it had hoped. it now faces the critical decision of whether negotiations offer a better chance of protection than a nuclear weapon. israel's prime minister said today that america's intervention was a turning point in the war. history will record that president trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime the world's most dangerous weapons. his leadership today has created a pivot of history that can help lead the middle east and beyond to a future of prosperity and peace. but not all american intelligence agencies shared israel's assessment that iran had suddenly begun racing to build a nuclear weapon. all i know is that from an israeli perspective, our margin of error on iran and its nuclear programme is exactly zero. and all we have to do is make one mistake and we're dead. and if the israeli government concluded that it was going

to err on the side of survival, it was going to err on the side of survival. this is benjamin netanyahu's war. israel's prime minister has wanted to strike iran for decades and he's already drawn in an american president who wanted to avoid it. lucy williamson, bbc news, tel aviv. let's speak to dr patrick bury, who's a senior associate professor in security at the university of bath, specialising in warfare and counter-terrorism. patrick, thanks for joining us again. let me ask you this, we were talking to james walsh earlier, and he was saying there's no intelligence evidence that iran was intending to make that leap from nuclear power to nuclear weapons. do you know where that intelligence is? good evening - know, and just as your last reporter finished as well, to echo james's comments,

netanyahu at numerous times over the past 20 years has said iran was close to imminently breaking out, developing the capability to have a nuclear weapon, and it would obviously democrat honestly the first thing you would do is show you have it, so test it. that's happened on numerous occasions and the us and israel decided not to do anything on that - not saying there was intelligence, but there was the political will of the israeli side to potentially strike iran. what we saw three months ago was the director of national intelligence... lets cross over life to the un, we will hear now from danny down on, let's listen. it was a necessary act and a brave decision to remove the greatest threat to global security. the world and its

security council should say clearly and without hesitation, thank you. thank you to the united states and president trump for acting when others would not. thank you for standing firm when others looked away. thank you for protecting the free world with strength and royal clarity. i have no doubt that some will denounce the united states, some will continue to condemn israel. but where were they when iran throws the bomb? where were they when they built underground fortresses to house weapons of mass destruction? where were they when iran used diplomacy as camouflage while it prepared for our

extermination. they were silent, they were complicit, they were afraid. last night, the united states acted with incredible bravery and morality. now, the rest of the world must show its gratitude. it extends beyond our borders, arming militias in your rack, it funds houthis in yemen, it plots murder in europe and threatens every capital in the west with its growing arsenal of ballistic missiles. you cannot sit this one out. you cannot condemn the firefighters when the arsonist tries to light more fires. you cannot protect peace by appeasing evil. to the iranian regime, understand this. any further attacks against our civilians will be met with overpowering

righteous force. unlike your actions against our civilians, our strikes will continue to target military and nuclear facilities. we will defend our people, we will not hesitate. we will do everything necessary to secure our future. thank you. just one very simple question - do you think after this operation, israel is safer now? absolutely, not only israel. i think the entire world is safer without another radical regime that threatens to destroy the member state of the union, and today i think is an historic day secular now that the nuclear facilities were bombed, what's the next step for israel? are you going to continue targeting islamic

republic inside iran? and also, is there regime change in the plan for israel? is he personally a target for israel? we have many targets still. and i think today, the questions should go to iran. they should think very carefully about those steps. i think president trump set a very clearly, prime minister netanyahu was very clear about it. they should calculate their steps. regime changes up to the iranian people. i pray that there will be change for the people of iran, but that's for the iranian people to decide, not for us. are you know, we have very strong defence capabilities, we've proven it. the iranians target civilian cities, not military bases. unfortunately we have casualties. what's your response to the secretary general guterres who issued a

statement last night saying that he was alarmed by the us attacks on nuclear facilities, and that only diplomacy is the answer to achieve peace? it was very disappointing because the secretary-general failed in his remarks to mention the threat of a nuclear iran. he knows better, he knows that diplomacy has failed for the last decades, and he should thank the us for bringing stability and peace through power. wended the united states tell israel that was going to go ahead? and given that one of his stated aims has been to destroy the nuclear programme, has enough damage now been done that israel will stop at strikes on iran? we are in very close coronation with united states throughout the last few days. before that, during the attack and after, it will be the same

way. i think still, it's early to assess the attack, but we can tell you one thing. the united states are the strongest capability in the world, especially if you compare it to israel. so not only israel, but the entire world is grateful to the us for this very impressive operation. thank you very much. that was the envoy of israel, dany danon, talking to reporters briefly before that un security meeting taking place in a few minutes. he talked about the fact that you can't protect peace by appeasing evil, he talked about, any further attacks on iran by the people of israel, or civilians in israel being met by "overpowering righteous

force". he was asked by someone whether israel planned to take out the supreme leader in iran, to which he replied that there are many targets for israel within iran. then someone asked him about regime change as well, he talked about regime change being up to the iranian people. he also was asked interestingly whether he believed the israeli people were safer after this conflict has begun with the iran, and he said yes, he believes that people in israel are safer now than they were before. let's speak to mark lowen, who's in tel aviv. it's interesting that dany danon said that, i suppose, from talking to people in israel and tel aviv, talking to people all day today since that american attack, have you got the sense that people feel safer now than they were a week or so ago? i think they feel less threatened, let's put it

that way, because israelis have long felt a complete existential danger from iran, iran was the big one. yes, they felt a threat from hamas and hezbollah, threats from houthis and other parts of iran's security shield, which has been all but heavily decimated by israel over the last 20 months - but the actual regime in tehran, which was directing it all - which the israelis believe was weaponize singh, despite western intelligence not necessarily coming to the conclusion that iran was actively making a nuclear bomb - israelis believed that even if a decision had not made now, it was imminent and may be a matter of weeks or months. so what israelis will tell you is -1 chap said to me yesterday, "before the we knew the

americans have bombed, i just want the americans to come in. it'll be over in three days and will go back to a normal life here." so there's support a the political divide for their military action in iran. a recent poll showed 70% of israelis supported the war against iran. and if you look at the polls about the war in gaza, the majority of israelis now want that were to come to an end. so yes, the majority here want to pursue military action - and tonight, there was a projection of the us flag on the old city walls of jerusalem, the star-spangled banner was projected up onto those city walls - we can show you those pictures of the american flag and the israeli flag projected onto the city walls - very much a sign of gratitude from the israeli authorities to the american government for what they believe was something they've

been clamouring for for decades, but no previous us demonstration was willing to do until donald trump came back for a second term stop by and there were strong words from danny danon about continuing to use overpowering force against iran - do you get a sense, within the israeli government, of how long they expect things to go on for? i don't think they are putting any timescale on this. clearly they'll continue bombing, and they did continue launching strikes in various parts of iran today, and they do fully expect iran to continue firing ballistic missiles here into israel. this morning, as we started broadcasting, shortly after at about 7:30am local time - so 5:30pm where you are in london - we got an alert of an incoming missile here in tel aviv, then there was the sirens

that began wailing around us, and we rushed into our bunker and were there for a good 14 minutes -- 5:30am where you are in london. about ten direct impacts were fired at israel, and some 86 people were injured. so yes, iran is burning through its missile stockpile, and yes, israel is burning through its interceptors as well, so that is a worry here in israel. and yet despite the fact, what the majority of israelis say is that's worth doing if we can somehow completely crush the nuclear threat from iran. that's interesting because for so many people there, given the number of actual hits the country has taken, it must be really quite a frightening time for people in israel. we always talk about the israeli iron dome and other missile-defense shields here - there's three,

the iron dome, which accepts lower altitude rockets from gaza, then there's the david slaying, which intercepts missile as a medium altitude, then the arrow up at the top - it was always talked about being pretty much impregnable, but it's not. there are missiles that preach that defence shield. also remember hearing one of your guests earlier on talking about the sheer expense of all this, it's estimated that israel is spending about $200 million per night activating its interceptor missiles. so it is worried about the longer this war will drag on, so to return to your question about how long will this conflict drag on, that might be a matter of how long israel can continue to spend that kind of money. but of course, it could be potentially backed up by interceptors and us stockpiles when israel runs short. mark, stay there, we are seeing these

pictures live from the united nations, in new york, of the un security council room. we are expecting an emergency meeting to take place in the next few minutes, where we will be expecting to hear from a number of countries, including israel - we heard a minute or two ago from danny danon, we are expected to hear from the iranians. now this meeting was convened to discuss the latest. and of course, mark, if i can bring you back in here now, the un security council meeting today, we heard earlier from antonio guterres, who talked about the worrying escalation in the area and the problems this could cause of the element of the us. he feels very much like an outlier, we haven't heard many global leaders