US must 'receive a response' to strikes Iranian president says

Tehran: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the United States must "receive a response" to its attacks on nuclear sites in Iran.

"The Americans must receive a response to their aggression," Pezeshkian told French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the official IRNA news agency.

In a post on X, Macron said that during the conversation with Pezeshkian, he "called for de-escalation and for Iran to exercise the utmost restraint in this dangerous context, to allow a return to diplomatic channels." 

Pezeshkian called on Iranians to unite in the face of the attacks from Israel and the US. He joined a march in Tehran where demonstrators chanted slogans against Israel and the US, the Fars news agency reported.

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said earlier Sunday that there would be "everlasting consequences" for the US attacks.

IAEA head warns of 'unthinkable levels' of destruction if diplomacy fails
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi has appealed to all parties involved to return to dialogue and diplomacy.

"If that window closes, violence and destruction could reach unthinkable levels, and the global non-proliferation regime as we know it could crumble and fall," he told the UN Security Council emergency meeting.

He said it hasn’t been possible to assess the damage at the Fordo facility, although craters were visible at the well-fortified underground uranium enrichment facility.

Grossi said the entrances to tunnels in Isfahan that had apparently been used to store enriched material had been hit, as well as a fuel enrichment facility in Natanz.

Iran informed the agency that there was no increase in radiation outside the three facilities, Grossi told the council.

UN chief warns of 'rathole of retaliation'
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned against "another cycle of destruction" during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council following the US bombing of nuclear sites in Iran.

"I have repeatedly condemned any military escalation in the Middle East," the UN chief said. "And yet, we now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation."

Guterres said the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities marks a "perilous turn in a region already reeling."