Iran-Israel latest: Trump says US allies have ‘total control’ of skies over Iran on fifth day of missile strikes

The UK’s secretary of defence has said UK military jets have already begun to arrive in the middle east – with more to follow in coming days.

John Healey told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) that the jets served as an operational response to “protect our personnel, reassure our partners, reinforce the urgent need for de-escalation”.

He refused to be drawn on whether they would be used to defend Israel. When asked directly if they could be used alongside US aircraft in any future attacks on Iran, he avoided answering the question.

Sir Keir Starmer announced the military aircraft, including Typhoons and air-to-air refuelers, were being sent to the region over the weekend.

Donald Trump is reportedly now hosting a Situation Room meeting.

A White House official confirmed to CNN that the meeting would be taking place at 1pm local time (6pm UK time).

Israel has launched a “massive cyber war” against Iran’s digital infrastructure, Iranian media has reported.

Outlets quoted the country’s cybersecurity command on Tuesday reporting the attacks.

Many of the attacks were successfully repelled, the command added.

In another social media post, Donald Trump has demanded unconditional surrender from Iran.

Donald Trump has said the US “knows exactly” where Iran’s Supreme Leader is – and that he is an “easy target”.

The US president wrote on Truth Social: “We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.

“But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

It was reported previously that Trump refused to agree to an Israeli proposal to kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei due to fears it would escalate the conflict.

The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg reports:

It’s unclear what Trump means when he says “we have complete and total control of the skies over Iran” considering the administration’s strenuous denials of any American involvement in the days-old Israeli campaign against Tehran’s nuclear program and military capabilities.

But the president’s boast about the “American made, conceived, and manufactured ‘stuff'” used by Israel’s military suggests that his use of “we” refers to the U.S. defense contractors that supply the IDF — not American military forces.

JD Vance has warned that the US president “may decide he needs to take further action” to halt Iran’s nuclear programme.

The US vice president said Donald Trump could act in order to end Iran’s “enrichment” efforts in a social media post on Tuesday.

He claimed Iran has “enriched uranium far above the level necessary for any civilian purpose” and that he had yet to “see a single good argument for why Iran was justified in violating its non-proliferation obligations”.

Iran has denied allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons, the pretext upon which Israel began striking Iran on Friday morning.

Donald Trump has claimed the US and its allies have “complete and total control of the skies over Iran”.

In his latest social media post, the US president said: “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.”

More than 600 people of 17 nationalities have fled into Azerbaijan from Iran in the last five days, an Azerbaijani source said.

The flight from Iran has been prompted by surprise attacks that Israel began last Friday, to which Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks.

From Tehran to the crossing into Azerbaijan is a road journey of about eight hours, while reaching the Armenian border takes over 10 hours.

Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizadeh said more than 1,200 citizens from 51 countries had requested permission to cross from Iran into Azerbaijan.

He declined to say how many had already done so, but the Azerbaijani source put the number at more than 600.

The source said they came from Russia, the United States, Germany, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Romania, Portugal, China, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.