Iranian bridge which is tallest in Middle East destroyed by US-Israeli airstrikes after Trump threatens to bomb Tehran 'back to Stone Age'

by James Tapsfield, UK Political Editor

European powers dismissed Donald Trump's 'unrealistic' demands today after he told them to unblock the Strait of Hormuz by force.

Emmanuel Macron said the US President had to get 'serious', suggesting that a period of silence from the White House would be welcome.

The blunt response from the French President came as Britain hosted an international summit on reopening the Strait of Hormuz - with no American representation among more than 40 countries.

But Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper stressed it was just about mobilising the 'full range of diplomatic and economic tools' as well as finding ways of reassuring the shipping insurance market.

Mr Trump used a speech overnight to order other countries to 'take care of' the Strait - through which around a fifth of the world's oil flows - because they are the ones who need supplies.

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Iran is threatening to blow up key bridges and tunnels across the Middle East in retaliation for a strike on the B1 highway bridge earlier today, according to Iranian state media.

In a message published on Telegram, the Iranian military has identified several targets in Israel to attack.

They include routes which transport military equipment, fuel and ammunition from Haifa port and major roads between Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.

Corridors connecting Israel to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan will also be targeted, it is claimed.

by Jon Michael Raasch, US Political Reporter

Donald Trump charged his top military officials with crafting a plan to seize Iran's nuclear material, and what they created may be one of the most daring and dangerous missions ever.

The operation, which would heavily rely on US special forces like Navy SEALs or Army Rangers - both of which are already in the Middle East - calls for hundreds or thousands of boots on the ground in Iran to capture its nuclear material.

The Pentagon's plan for the President calls on these operators to capture nearly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium, according to multiple officials, who added the extraction plan could take weeks if green-lit.

Trump originally said Operation Epic Fury would last six weeks max, but the proposed plan could extend that timeline well beyond that. As of Thursday, the war has been raging for 4 weeks and 5 days.

In his speech to the nation Wednesday night, Trump said the Iran war would be over 'very shortly,' and he also promised the US would hit Iran 'extremely hard' over the next 'two to three weeks' if needed.

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The highest bridge in the Middle East between Tehran and the Iranian city of Karaj has been bombed in strikes, Iranian media is reporting.

Two people were reportedly killed in an initial strike on the B1 highway bridge earlier today and another attack was carried out while rescuers were helping people injured at the site, Iran's Fars news agency is reporting.

Video footage showed smoke blowing from the B1 which is considered to be the 'highest bridge and engineering masterpiece of the Middle East'.

by Phillip Nieto, US Political Reporter

JD Vance’s peace talks with Iran may have been blown up after a key figure helping plan the summit was wounded in US-Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday.

Kamal Kharazi, Iran’s former foreign minister, was injured when a residential building in Tehran was struck, according to the New York Times.

Kharazi, 81, is seen as a moderate and widely respected foreign policy figure within the regime.

Iranian state media said he had been overseeing engagement with Pakistani officials to help organize a meeting with Vance aimed at ending the war.

Iranian officials condemned the joint US-Israel strikes as an 'attempt to derail diplomacy,' even as Donald Trump insists he wants to wind down the conflict.

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RAF Regiment gunners have downed multiple Iranian drones overnight, according to the Ministry of Defence.

It is understood the gunners were operating in a high-threat area.

UK Typhoons and F-35 jets, together with Wildcat helicopters, have also been involved in defensive missions across the Middle East region overnight

Oil and gas tankers are sailing through the Strait of Hormuz after securing passage through “diplomatic channels”, a risk analyst has said.

senior risk and compliance analyst Bridget Diakun, who works at shipping news service Lloyd’s List, told BBC’s World At One vessels are entering the waterway when owners act through intermediaries to contact Iran's authorities for approval.

She said: 'We understand that, in two instances, the ship owners and operators have paid for passage, but those are the only cases where we understand that to be the case. We do think that, in other circumstances, the passings are being secured through diplomatic channels.'

Ms Diakun said that, from the 'traceable transits going through the Strait', most of them are taking a detour through the IRGC route, suggesting 'coordination', but that there have been several Omani-linked ships today taking a different route.

Donald Trump must not abandon 'a mess that he’s made' in the Middle East, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said.

Asked whether she thought the special relationship was under threat as a result of Britain’s decision not to enter the war, and the criticism from Mr Trump which has followed, the Tory leader told broadcasters: “The special relationship is between the UK and the US, not between Donald Trump and Keir Starmer or whoever happens to be holding those offices.

'We need to preserve it. We need the US. They are a close military ally. They help a lot on British security, we need to do what is in the British national interest.

'But if I was speaking to him, I’d be saying, ‘if you break it, you own it’. That’s what Colin Powell, a former secretary of state in the US, had said. ‘If you break it, you own it’.

'He started this war. We said that if he needed support against Iran, …use our air bases. That’s one of the things that Britain has done. He should now not be abandoning a mess that he’s made, if he thinks that it is a mess.'

Israel's defence minister Israel Katz has threatened to send Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem to the 'depths of hell' after the Lebanese extremists fired rockets into northern Israel.

'I have a clear message for Naim Qassem, Secretary-General of the Hezbollah terror organization: You and your associates will pay a very heavy price for the intensified fire toward Israeli civilians as they sit to celebrate the Passover Seder,' Katz said after speaking to military officials.

'You will not live to see this because you will be deep in the depths of hell together with Nasrallah, Khamenei, Sinwar and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil'.

It comes after Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets towards the Israeli port city of Haifa a short while ago.

According to the IDF, most of the rockets were intercepted and others were allowed to hit open areas.

by Tom Midlane and Joseph Palmer

Iranian drone strikes appear to have destroyed important US military assets and caused massive damage to vital energy infrastucture, the Daily Mail's Photo Evidence show has revealed.

Since the US and Israel launched the first wave of bombing on February 28 that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic has rained down drones on key strategic sites across the region.

In the latest episode of Photo Evidence, reporter Catherine Barnwell analyses satellite imagery to survey the effectiveness of the strikes and assess the scale of the damage.

Al Muwaffaq Air Base in central Jordan has become one of the most important hubs for US military operations in the region, she explains.

In the days leading up to the conflict, more than 60 US aircraft were spotted on the ground, among them some of the most advanced in America's arsenal: F-35 stealth fighter bombers, F-16 fighter bombers and F-15 air superiority fighters.

• Watch the full episode of Photo Evidence here

Iran's parliamentary speaker has claimed seven million Iranians are 'ready to pick up arms' and defend the nation.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf penned a message as Iran publicly declares it is preparing for a US ground invasion.'

'We are not warmongers. But when the time comes to defend our homeland, every last one of us becomes a soldier.'

Donald Trump has claimed Ghalibaf is among the Iranian leaders negotiating with the US for a peace deal through intermediaries.