US bases used to strike Iran are ‘legitimate’ targets, Khamenei’s advisor says

Military bases used by the US to strike Iran will be considered “legitimate” targets, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s advisor Ali Akbar Velayati said Sunday in a message carried by the official IRNA news agency. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.

A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker near the Strait of Hormuz, July 21, 2023.

Israel has “moved closer” to its goals in Iran after US President Donald Trump ordered overnight bombing raids on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

“We have achieved a great deal, and thanks to President Trump, we have moved closer to our goals,” Netanyahu said in a televised press conference, adding that “when they have been reached, the operation will finish”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Moscow on Sunday for talks after a US attack on key nuclear facilities, state media reported.

“Abbas Araghchi … arrived in Moscow to hold consultations with the (Russian) president and other senior officials of Russia regarding regional and international developments following the military aggression by the United States and the Zionist regime against Iran,” the official IRNA news agency said.

An advisor to Iran’s supreme leader said Sunday bases used by US forces to launch attacks on Iranian nuclear sites “will be considered legitimate targets”.

“Any country in the region or elsewhere that is used by American forces to strike Iran will be considered a legitimate target for our armed forces,” Ali Akbar Velayati said in a message carried by the official IRNA news agency.

More than 200 places in the Iranian capital have been hit in Israeli strikes since the start of the war 10 days ago, Tehran’s provincial governor said Sunday.

“More than 200 locations have been attacked by the usurping Zionist regime,” governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian told state TV.

He said more than 120 residential housing units “have been fully destroyed” while 500 others suffered “damages.”

At least nine members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed Sunday in Israeli attacks on central Iran, local media reported.

“Following the aggression of the barbaric Zionist regime and its mercenaries against two military centres in Yazd city, seven Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps personnel and two conscripts were martyred,” the Tasnim news agency reported, quoting an IRGC statement.

Others were injured in the attack, it added. The Fars news agency had earlier said Israeli strikes targeted two military sites in Yazd.

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that the country still had its stockpile of enriched uranium despite attacks by the United States on key nuclear sites.

“Even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn’t over, enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain,” said Ali Shamkhani in a post on X.

He added that the “political and operational initiative is now with the side that plays smart, avoids blind strikes. Surprises will continue!”

Shamkhani, who has played a key role in the nuclear talks between the US and Iran, was reportedly wounded in the first Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic on June 13.

Even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn’t over, enriched materials,#indigenous_knowledge, #political_will remain. With #legitimate_defense right, political and operational initiative is now with the side that plays smart, avoids blind strikes. Surprises will continue!

Iran said on Sunday that it was ready to defend itself by “all necessary means” after unprecedented US strikes on its nuclear facilities.

“Iran is resolutely determined to defend its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security and people by all necessary means,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X, condemning what he described as an “unconscionable act of aggression – perpetrated by a nuclear-armed state … against a non-nuclear weapon country”.

“It is now crystal clear that the U.S. administration has been colluding with a war criminal and genocidal warmonger to wage an unjust war of aggression against our beloved nation in flagrant violation of fundamental principles of international law, the UN Charter, and the Nuclear…” — Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) June 22, 2025

Iran maintains that it has the right as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium domestically for the purposes of a civilian nuclear programme.

Iran’s health ministry acknowledged Sunday that US strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities had wounded an unspecified number of people, but none “showed any signs of radioactive contamination” after seeking treatment.

“For years, the Ministry of Health has set up nuclear emergency units in the nearest medical facilities to nuclear sites,” ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said on X. “Fortunately, none of the injured individuals who were transferred to these centres following the American bombardment showed any signs of radioactive contamination.”