‘Criminal explosion’ strikes synagogue in Belgium, official says
(PARIS) — A “criminal explosion” struck a synagogue in the Belgian city of Liège at around 4 a.m. local time on Monday in a “violent act of antisemitism,” a local government spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News.
The explosion caused “material damage” but there were no casualties and the site, the official said, “has been secured.”
An investigation by Belgium’s Federal Police force is “ongoing.”
Liège’s mayor, Willy Demeyer, strongly condemned the antisemitic attack and said “external conflicts” cannot be imported into the city.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A large flash is seen in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. (ABC News)
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to “knock the hell” out of Iran if it tries to rebuild its nuclear program.
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them,” Trump said as he took reporter questions while welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
“But hopefully that’s not happening,” Trump continued. “I heard Iran wants to make a deal. If they want to make a deal, that’s much smarter. You know, they could have made a deal the last time before we went through, you know, a big attack on them. And, they didn’t decide not to make a deal. They wish they made that deal. So I think, again, they should make a deal.”
Earlier this year, the U.S. attacked three of Iran’s nuclear facilities using bunker busting bombs and cruise missiles. Trump claimed that the U.S. “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities, yet it’s unclear how far back their nuclear program was actually setback.
Trump on Monday also said he would support an Israeli attack on Iran if Iran continues with their ballistic missile and nuclear weapon program.
“The missiles, yes. The nuclear, fast. Okay. One will be, yes, absolutely. The other was, we’ll do it immediately,” Trump said.
Asked if he would support an overthrow of the Iranian regime, Trump said he was not going to discuss it.
“I mean, I’m not going to talk about overthrow of a regime. They’ve got a lot of problems they are in. They have tremendous inflation. Their economy is bust, they’re economy is no good. And I know that people aren’t so happy,” Trump said.
President Trump’s comments come after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran is in a “full-scale” war with the U.S., Israel and Europe, describing the country’s diplomatic situation as “complicated and difficult.”
“In my opinion, we are in a full-scale war with America, Israel, and Europe; they do not want our country to stand on its feet,” Pezeshkian said in a lengthy interview posted to the official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
“This war is worse than the war in Iraq with us; if one understands well, this war is much more complicated and difficult,” Pezeshkian added, referring to the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Pezeshkian said that despite sanctions and foreign pressure, Iran remains steadfast and capable of defending its national interests.
The interview was published ahead of Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S., where Iran was among the topics expected to be under discussion.
Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump was expected to be on advancing the Gaza peace plan, disarming Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza and the fate of the last hostage still remaining in the Strip, a spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry said before the Israeli delegation departed on Sunday for the U.S. The spokesperson added that Netanyahu’s agenda is expected to include the “danger Iran poses” to both the Middle East and United States.
The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in June during a 12-day conflict that killed some 1,100 Iranians and saw strikes against Iran’s key nuclear facilities, its air defense network and prominent military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sites around the country.
Senior military, IRGC and nuclear research personnel were among those killed. Retaliatory missile attacks by Iran killed 28 people in Israel.
In the lead up to and during the June conflict, Netanyahu repeatedly hinted that Israel may pursue a regime change strategy in Iran, seeking to topple the Khamenei-led theocracy there. “This is your opportunity to stand up,” Netanyahu said in an address to Iranians during the war.
Trump even raised the prospect of killing Khamenei in the days before the U.S. joined Israel’s campaign. “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump wrote on social media. “He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”
The months since the conflict have seen little progress on a new deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear program or cap its ballistic missile arsenal — two goals long expressed by Trump.
Netanyahu met with Trump on Monday shortly after Iran conducted a major military exercise involving ballistic missiles. Referring to recent Iranian activity, Netanyahu warned last week that “any action against Israel will be met with a very severe response.”
At home, the Iranian regime faces serious economic challenges as the country’s currency — the rial — edged lower over recent weeks, causing widespread dissatisfaction and protests.
Over the weekend, groups of shop-owners closed their businesses in two large malls in downtown Tehran protesting the rapid drop in the value of the rial.
Pezeshkian was elected to replace late President Ebrahim Raisi — who died in a helicopter crash in 2024 — with the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s presidential election history. He was widely seen as a moderate alternative to hardliners aligned with the IRGC.
F-18 jet fighters are seen on the flight deck of USS Gerald R. Ford on Nov. 17, 2022, in Gosport, England. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A second American aircraft carrier — the USS Gerald R. Ford — is heading toward the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran, accompanied by destroyers and aircraft being redeployed from missions in the Caribbean region, a U.S. official told ABC News.
As negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program continue, American aircraft carriers are at the forefront of a major U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. The Ford is expected to join the USS Abraham Lincoln in the region, the latter having arrived there late last month.
The Ford briefly transmitted its location off the coast of Morocco on Wednesday as it approached the Mediterranean Sea, according to data from the MarineTraffic website. The carrier’s location was visible for around two hours.
Also visible on the FlightRadar24 website on Wednesday were two C-2A Greyhound aircraft, which in recent months have been operating off the carrier. The aircraft transmitted their locations off the coast of Portugal, around 230 miles from the Ford’s position.
The Ford is being accompanied by four destroyers as it sails east toward the Middle East.
Three of the destroyers are part of the Ford’s carrier strike group that have accompanied the carrier since it first deployed in June, the fourth destroyer had previously been a part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s surge of military forces in the Caribbean, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.
Each of the destroyers is armed with air defense systems that can shoot down incoming missiles and drones, plus Tomahawk cruise missiles that can be used to strike targets up to 1,000 miles away.
F-35 stealth fighter jets are among the U.S. assets heading toward the Middle East, including some that had been deployed to Puerto Rico ahead of the U.S. operation to depose Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
A spokesman for the Vermont National Guard confirmed to ABC News that the 158th Fighter Wing received a change in mission from U.S. Southern Command — which oversees operations in the Caribbean, Central and South America — but did not disclose their new deployment area.
In late January, online flight trackers noted a dozen F-35 fighters taking off from Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico and landing on the Azores islands in the mid-Atlantic, on their way to the Middle East.
Key Iranian nuclear personnel and facilities were targeted by Israeli and American forces during an intense 12-day conflict in June. But the strikes failed to resolve long-standing U.S. and Israeli grievances related to Tehran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile arsenal and its support for regional proxy groups.
U.S. and Iranian representatives met in Geneva, Switzerland, this week for talks regarding a possible deal related to Tehran’s nuclear program and its enrichment of uranium. Trump has demanded that Iran commit to “zero enrichment,” a proposal rejected by Iranian officials.
U.S. officials briefed on the negotiations said Iran indicated a willingness to suspend its nuclear enrichment for a certain amount of time, anywhere from one to five years.
The U.S. is also weighing lifting financial and banking sanctions and the embargo on its oil sales, according to a U.S. official.
Following the talks in Geneva, Iran is expected to submit a written proposal aimed at resolving the tensions, a senior U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday. It is unclear when the written proposal will be submitted to the U.S.
On Tuesday, a White House official said Iran would provide detailed proposals to address “some of the open gaps in our positions” in the next two weeks.
ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.
Automobiles pass a former postal and telegraph building, where Bank of America Corp. is leasing space for 400 workers, in Paris, France, on Wednesday April 10, 2019. (Photographer: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Authorities in France are investigating an attempted terror attack in which a man allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device in Paris, according to officials.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez congratulated French police for thwarting the “violent” attack in Paris overnight Saturday, where the suspect attempted to set off the explosive outside the Bank of America building in the central part of the city.
The “swift intervention” of police prevented the attack, which Nuñez described as “of a terrorist nature” in a post on X.
“Vigilance remains at a very high level,” Nuñez wrote. “I commend all the security and intelligence forces fully mobilized under my authority in the current international context.”
Police had noticed two men with a shopping bag outside the building, RTL France, a French radio station, reported.
One of the bags contained a bag of liquid taped to a large firework, according to the report. Police said they approached the pair when one of the suspects attempted to set fire to the device.
One suspect was arrested on Saturday in the early morning hours, but the other suspect escaped, RTL France reported.
Additional details were not immediately available.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office is leading in the investigation, Nuñez said.
