Israel says it launches new wave of strikes on Tehran, Isfahan

Japan said a second Japanese national is being detained in Iran and demanded the early release of both individuals.

The Foreign Ministry said the second person was detained before the Feb. 28 military strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel and is safe and in good health. It gave no further details.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said officials were able to contact both detainees after the strikes and confirm their safety. “The government is doing everything to support them, their families and others involved,” he told a parliamentary panel, adding that he had pressed for their protection and early release in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador this week.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has identified the first detainee as Shinnosuke Kawashima, the Tehran bureau chief of Japanese public broadcaster NHK, and called for his immediate release.

Prince Reza Pahlavi condemned Iranian missile strikes on several Arab countries and called for the end of the Islamic Republic.

“The Islamic Republic has launched missiles at the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. It is targeting our Arab neighbors,” Pahlavi wrote on X. “These violations of their sovereignty are unacceptable and we condemn them.”

He said such actions reflected decades of regional intervention by Iran’s leadership and added: “This is who the Islamic Republic has always been. And this is why it must end.”

Pahlavi said Iranians had asked him to lead a transition after the current system is gone and that he had accepted that responsibility. He called on Arab governments to prepare to recognize and engage a future transitional government in Iran, saying relations would be based on “mutual respect and shared interests.”

Israel’s military spokesperson said about 50 Israeli Air Force jets struck an underground bunker beneath Iran’s leadership compound in central Tehran on Friday, which he said had been built for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The spokesperson said the strike, carried out with intelligence guidance, targeted a subterranean shelter constructed under the compound and described it as an emergency command site intended for use during wartime. He said the facility was destroyed before it could be used.

He added that the complex had continued to be used by senior Iranian officials after Khamenei was killed earlier in the campaign. The spokesperson said the underground network extended beneath several streets in central Tehran and included multiple entry points and meeting rooms.

He said the compound functioned as a central headquarters for Iran’s leadership and that destroying the bunker would further damage Iran’s command and control capabilities.

Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Saleh Jokar said he hopes the war expands into a ground conflict so that American soldiers are killed, and vowed that the outcome will be decided on the battlefield, not through diplomacy.

“I hope this war turns into a ground war so we witness the burial of American soldiers in the Persian Gulf region,” Jokar told Didban Iran.

Referring to US President Donald Trump, he added: “America, which Trump boasted about and said we have the strongest army in the world — where is it now?”

He said Iran has not yet used its “new tactics and technologies” in the fight against the United States and Israel, adding: “We will determine the final result on the battlefield, diplomacy is no longer enough.”

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar condemned an Iranian attack on buildings in Bahrain that house members of the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces.

In a statement posted on X, the ministry called the strike a “blatant hostile act” and a “flagrant violation” of Bahrain’s sovereignty, saying it posed a direct threat to the country’s security and to regional stability.

It said the Qatari naval personnel stationed at the targeted sites, who were participating in a joint maritime operations center under the Gulf Cooperation Council’s unified military command, were safe and no injuries were recorded.

The ministry expressed full solidarity with Bahrain and urged an end to escalation and adherence to international law and the United Nations Charter.