Evening Edition: Iran Talks To Resume Sunday Amid Concern Of Israeli Strike
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I'm Shannon Bream. I'm Will Kane. I'm Dana Perino, and this is the Fox News Rundown. Thursday, June 12th, 2025. I'm John Saucier. A curious move in the Middle East has world powers wondering if something big is about to happen. The United States is moving embassy workers out of Baghdad and offering voluntary removals from other areas. The backdrop to this, of course, are nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran, which haven't seemed to be going anywhere quite yet.

and Israel trying to get American support to go after Iran's nuclear development sites. If Israel decides to strike Iran, they may respond by not only launching ballistic missiles at Israel, but also targeting either directly or through their proxies U.S. bases and embassies in the Middle East. This is a Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. ♪

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Is something major brewing in the Middle East? Already so many conflicts in the area, but Israel doesn't want any more, and they also do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Neither does the United States, but the negotiations for that new Iran nuclear deal with the U.S. have been happening to no avail. President Trump, do you think an Israeli strike on Iran is imminent? Look, it's very simple, not complicated.

Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Other than that, I want them to be successful. I want them to be tremendous. We'll help them be successful. We'll trade with them. We'll do whatever is necessary. The U.S. now pulling non-essential staff from embassies and bases across the Middle East as a precautionary measure. This really started to heat up in the past 24 hours as the initial reports started to come in about the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, starting to partially evacuate Iraq.

non-essential personnel. We're speaking today with Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yinks. He's in Tel Aviv, Israel. And this is a sign that the Americans are preparing for a deteriorating security situation in the Middle East, understanding that if Israel decides to strike Iran, they may respond by not only launching ballistic missiles at Israel, but also targeting the

either directly or through their proxies, U.S. bases and embassies in the Middle East. And so it wasn't only that directive, but also a directive from the State Department allowing the voluntary evacuation of dependents and non-essential personnel from other U.S. missions in places like Kuwait and Bahrain. And yet again, just more information that the United States is preparing for the possibility that a strike takes place.

With all of this said, it doesn't mean that one is going to happen. And we do know that nuclear talks are set to resume on Sunday. And so this may be a bit of a backstop for the escalating tension across the region. Why is it, though, Trey, that Israel suggests that Iran is vulnerable right now? I know that Iran and Israel, they exchanged missile strikes last year. So why do you think Netanyahu thinks he's got a hand to play here? Well, Netanyahu understands that there is a

window in all of this and what he's referencing there about the vulnerability of the Iranian regime partially has to do with what Israel targeted during the last time they hit targets inside Iran and those were the S-300 air defense systems that they had protecting some of these nuclear facilities and so it weakens Iran's ability to protect these critical assets that we believe if Israel decides to strike they would go after and

And it raises a lot of questions about the path forward and if the Israelis are actually going to strike or if diplomacy will prevail. The bottom line here is that both the United States and Iran want a nuclear deal, a deal that would

basically cap uranium enrichment, one of the elements that Iran needs to create a nuclear weapon, and also create mechanisms that would give not only the United States, but of course Israel, reassurances about Iran's nuclear program, making sure that the country doesn't have a nuclear bomb.

What's interesting is that when you step back from this and you look at what the Iranians say publicly about their nuclear program, they say it is for peaceful purposes, for research purposes only. But of course, the international community wants reassurances to those promises. And that's part of what the International Atomic Energy Agency has been doing for the past few decades. But today, for the first time in 20 years,

They passed a resolution saying that the Iranians were not fulfilling their end of the bargain with the IAEA to not only ensure inspections, but also when it comes to the production of highly enriched uraniums. Well beyond the weapons grade material that's needed to produce a nuclear bomb.

That's the concern is that they'll get to that enrichment level that it is well beyond. Where it's at right now, according to the Iranians, is about 60%. Now, we're looking at 90% when we're talking about weapons. But again, without getting too into the weeds, the deal had to do with 3.67%. So they're certainly way above the nuclear deal that President Trump during his first term pulled out of.

And that is part of the discussion that's taking place about whether or not Iran will be able to have any enrichment in any sort of future agreement. Is there any path in which Israel could strike these nuclear sites, weaken Iran's ability to come up with a nuclear weapon, but not have some sort of larger conflict here? I think that is the big gamble Israel might take, that they don't want to see an all-out war. We know President Trump doesn't want to see an all-out war between Israel and Iran.

That was narrowly avoided the last time these two had a confrontation. Do you think Israel can go in and disable Iran's nuclear capabilities without starting a full war? It's an interesting question. And we heard today from the Iranian president, Massoud Pazesky, and he said that even if the facilities are damaged or destroyed, that they would be rebuilt. As for the possibility of a larger conflict in the region, of course, Israel and Iran don't share a land border, but...

Iran and Iraq do, and there are many U.S. assets in Iraq and other places like the Gulf and the UAE and Bahrain and Qatar. And that has to be part of the conversation and consideration not only for the Israelis, but also for the Americans as we look at unpredictable days and weeks ahead. A larger conflict in this frame would

initially at least look like Iran likely repeating what they did last April and last October, which was firing ballistic missiles at Israel in part of their response. Now, Israel was able to shoot down many of those incoming missiles, but as we saw in the videos from the second strikes, a lot of them actually hit Israeli territory, but they were targeting military bases outside of major population centers.

Today, there are reports that indicate that President Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitcough, has warned American lawmakers about the possibility of casualties in Israel if such an attack were to take place, just given the fact that with the amount of

that Iran has, they could overwhelm the missile defense system here. And you've got a number of Israeli systems that can take care of ballistic missiles, in part looking at things like the Aero system, the 2 and 3, and also David's Sling for more medium-range missiles.

but also you have to remember that there's a THAAD missile defense system deployed here and you also have two Patriot batteries that the United States has provided Israel. And so there is quite an array of missile defense when you look at how Israel is preparing for the possibility of Iranian retaliation to any sort of strike that could take place.

But even with all of those missile defense systems active, this is a country with a population of 9 million people, with major population centers not only in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, but also big cities like Haifa in the north and Beersheba in the Negev Desert. And even in the south, near to Gaza, you have cities like Ashdod and Ashkelon that have populations of more than a quarter million people. And so there are real concerns about that situation.

But as we speak right now, there are no special instructions from Israel's Home Front Command, which is the organization responsible for warning Israeli civilians about the possibility of any sort of incoming fire. We're on the line today with our guy in the Middle East, Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yinks in Tel Aviv, Israel. And ahead, we're going to ask him for an update on the situation in Gaza, where some 53 hostages remain in Hamas captivity. There are mixed ideas on what should happen next in this war. We'll get into it next.

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Our guest today is Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yinks. He's in Tel Aviv, Israel. Trey, you mentioned Gaza. I just want to focus on that for a moment. This war that continues on between Israel and Hamas, it continues to just stay as ugly as ever. And now more bodies of hostages were recovered this week. Do you have any insight on that? Yeah, we know that the Israelis continue to operate inside Gaza. And over the weekend,

there were bodies of hostages recovered. And then just yesterday, the Israelis announced that two more bodies of hostages were recovered. You have to remember, out of the 53 that remain inside Gaza, there are real concerns about the fate of those who are still believed to be alive. Around 20 of them are believed to be living and still held by Hamas in the tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip. And so as the Israelis recover,

occasionally recover the bodies of some of those who were murdered on October 7th or murdered later when they were inside Gaza, they have to think about those that are still alive. And that is part of the reason there's been so much pressure on the Israeli government to bring these hostages home. You see demonstrations in the streets of Israel. Certainly they're a demonstration that is divided in some ways. Oftentimes one demonstration is calling for an end to the war due to

a lot of events that have happened inside Gaza that have been disturbing to portions of the Israeli public. And then you have a larger demonstration at a place called Hostage Square where people gather from different ends of the political spectrum that are simply calling for the hostages to come home after more than 615 days in captivity. And so this is a society that does remain politically divided. There are conversations taking place about the possibility of early elections in Israel.

But to get into the weeds of that would, I think,

probably distract from what most Israelis are most concerned about. And that really is the hostages and those that remain in Hamas captivity. Yeah, really interesting getting your on the ground insight on that, because, you know, here in the United States, we don't exactly always know how Israel's reacting to this. I mean, this war is taking a toll on the entire world. But Israel, of course, thinking of the people inside of Gaza as well. So, Trey, thank you for painting that picture for us. And thanks, as always, for reporting and joining us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition podcast. Thank you.

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