Israel strikes Iran despite Trump plea as Middle East crisis threatens to escalate

Israel launched airstrikes on central and western Iran on Monday in apparent defiance of Donald Trump after he urged restraint over a reprisal attack by Tehran in an escalation that threatens to drag the Middle East back into a regional war. It was the first exchange of direct strikes between the two enemies since a ceasefire paused the US-Israel war with Iran in April. Iran’s attack came in response to earlier strikes on Beirut by Israel . Israel’s strikes on Monday came just hours after Trump had called the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to urge him not to retaliate immediately for an Iranian missile attack on Sunday night , with the US president saying: “I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.” Iranian state media reported explosions in Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj and Tabriz, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel had used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attack. Iran closed the airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini international airport – the country’s main airfield – after the Israeli attack. The White House did not respond to messages about the strikes and whether they were done in coordination with the US. In a sign of further destabilisation after the trading of strikes, Saudi Arabia sounded missile alert sirens in an area home to Prince Sultan airbase that hosts US forces; and the Israeli army said it was working to intercept a missile launched from Yemen. …