Guy Taylor & Mallory Wilson | June 16, 2025

(The Washington Times) — Israel’s military campaign against Iran expanded dramatically Monday with a wave of strikes pounding central Tehran.

One strike destroyed the state-run television headquarters, a central apparatus of the Iranian regime’s tight control over information broadcast within the Islamic republic.

Debris flew during a live broadcast at the headquarters hours after Iran fired another wave of missiles into Israel, some of which penetrated air defenses. In Tel Aviv, powerful explosions sent black plumes into the sky, and at least eight people were killed.

The entire Middle East was on edge as the war churned through its fifth consecutive day.

Leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies, including President Trump, scrambled during a Group of Seven summit in Canada to find a way to contain the escalating conflict.

Mr. Trump made headlines early in the summit by warning that Iran must submit to a deal ending its nuclear program. The president told reporters that Iranian leaders would now “like to talk, but they should’ve done that before.”

“I had 60 days, and they had 60 days, and on the 61st day, I said, ‘We don’t have a deal,’” the president said. “They have to make a deal, and it’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war.”

Mr. Trump said Monday evening that Iran would be “foolish” not to sign a deal.

“What a shame, and waste of human life. … Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.

On Monday evening, Mr. Trump left the Group of Seven summit a day earlier than scheduled and returned to Washington.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr. Trump’s abrupt departure from the gathering in Canada was “because of what’s going on in the Middle East.”

Other signs indicated that Washington was preparing for something new in the Iran-Israel war. The Pentagon said the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier will head to the region and should arrive by the end of the month.

Israel opened the latest round of the conflict last week with an unprecedented air assault that decimated several of Iran’s uranium enrichment sites and killed dozens of top Iranian military officials. Speculation swirled Monday over how far Israel intends to go with the war.

Israeli strikes Sunday heavily damaged Iranian radar systems. The Israeli military said the strikes killed several of Iran’s top intelligence officers and that its forces had achieved “aerial superiority” over Tehran and could fly over the Iranian capital without facing major threats.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israeli strikes had set Iran’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time.”

Mr. Netanyahu said Israel is not attempting to topple the Iranian government but he would not be surprised if that happened as a result of the strikes. “The regime is very weak,” said the Israeli prime minister. He said he is in daily contact with Mr. Trump.

Although Mr. Trump has threatened that U.S. forces could become directly involved if the war spirals, he sought over the weekend to distance the U.S. from Israel’s campaign. Reports said he vetoed an Israeli plot to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader as part of the military campaign.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, has ruled over the Islamic republic since 1989, fostering successive governments that have maintained a hostile posture toward the U.S. and Israel. Over the years, Iranian officials have threatened to wipe Israel off the map.

The Iranian regime says its nuclear program is peaceful, but the United Nations nuclear watchdog has issued repeated warnings that Tehran has eluded international inspections and violated past U.N. Security Council resolutions by enriching uranium to levels indicative of an atomic bomb-making program.

Mr. Trump entered office this year vowing to pursue a new era of diplomacy with Iran and a deal to rid the Islamic republic of its uranium enrichment activities. Talks between U.S. and Iranian officials broke down during the days leading up to Israel’s strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency warned of possible radiological and chemical contamination within Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, but radiation levels outside the complex Monday were reported to be normal.

The nuclear aspect has factored into China’s and Russia’s high-stakes jockeying for influence over the direction of the war.

China, which leads the world in Iranian oil purchases and has emerged as a key strategic partner of Tehran in recent years, has vowed to support Iran.

Russian officials, meanwhile, said Monday that Moscow is prepared to mediate between Israel and Iran. The Kremlin also offered to store Iranian uranium at sites in Russia.

The status of those sites was unclear Monday night.

In addition to Natanz and the Isfahan nuclear research site, Israel said it destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers in central Iran, a third of Iran’s total, as well as two F-14 planes that Iran used to target Israeli aircraft and multiple launchers just before it launched ballistic missiles toward Israel.

Israeli military officials said fighter jets had struck 10 command centers in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, an elite arm of its Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.

Iran, meanwhile, vowed further retaliation for the Israeli strikes, which have killed at least 224 people in the Islamic republic since Friday.

Israeli officials said at least 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 injured after Iran launched more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones.

One missile fell near the U.S. Consulate in Tel Aviv, and the blast waves caused minor damage. U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on X that no American personnel were injured.

The damage and casualties come as violence continues in the Gaza Strip to the south of Israel. At least 34 Palestinians were killed Monday in shootings on the roads leading to Israeli- and U.S.-supported food distribution centers in the territory, where Israeli forces have waged war against Iran-backed Hamas militants since they attacked Israel in October 2023.

Meanwhile, the scale of damage wrought inside Iran during recent days has been hard to quantify because of the regime’s tight restrictions on independent international media outlets.

Turkey, which shares a roughly 350-mile border with Iran, has expressed deep concern over the war amid fears that a prolonged conflict could threaten regional security, cause regional energy disruptions and lead to refugee flows.

The Associated Press cited reports of an increase in arrivals from Iran in recent days, although Turkish officials have dismissed social media reports of a large-scale refugee influx.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey is ready to act as a “facilitator” toward ending the conflict and resuming nuclear negotiations in telephone calls with Mr. Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

However, the prospect of diplomacy remained dim Monday.

At the G7, Mr. Trump said Iranian officials should “talk immediately before it’s too late.”

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to make a veiled appeal for the U.S. to step in and negotiate an end to the hostilities. In a post on X, he wrote that if Mr. Trump is “genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.”

“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Mr. Araghchi wrote. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”

This article is based in part on wire service reports.