The European Council says it "strongly condemns" Iran's "indiscriminate military strikes against countries in the region and expresses its solidarity with countries affected".

In a statement issued on behalf of EU leaders, the council says it recalls the need to safeguard regional airspace and ensure maritime security, and vows to contribute to de-escalation.

It also welcomes the increased efforts announced by member states to "ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, once the conditions are met".

It is "ready to fully mobilise its diplomatic, legal, operational and financial tools to prevent uncontrolled migratory movements to the EU and preserve security in Europe", the statement adds.

We'll have more from this statement in our next post.

US-Israel unity over war aims brought into question by strikes on Iran's gas fieldpublished at 21:40 GMT 19 March

21:40 GMT 19 March

Sebastian Usher
Global affairs correspondent, in Jerusalem

The attack on Iran's main natural gas field has raised questions over how united Israel and the US remain in their war aims.

Clearly mindful of this, Netanyahu sought to dismiss such speculation as fake news, especially claims that Israel dragged the US into the war.

As he has done many times before, the Israeli prime minister drew a stark picture of what he believes is the global threat that the Iranian regime has posed - and insisted that Trump had long shared the same view.

In Hebrew, he praised the Israeli public for their resilience and implied that the world needed to share a similar long-term view of the conflict.

He also claimed that after the first 20 days of war, Iran had no ability to enrich uranium and no capability of manufacturing ballistic missiles.

But Tehran has continued to launch rockets at Israel, with fragments of one missile hitting an oil facility in the northern city of Haifa.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

Strikes are happening on Tehran, two sources tell me.

Iranian media are also reporting a fresh attack on the Iranian capital.

BBC Persian

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Persian has been speaking to Iranians following Israel's attack on Iran's South Pars, part of the world's largest natural gas field.

“They’re not really thinking about the people, and their own objectives matter more to them", says one woman in her 20s, from Tehran.

"But even if you want to weaken the regime, there’s no need to attack infrastructure", she adds.

One man in his 20s, from Karaj, says he's "really sad about the attack on the gas field in Iran", adding that he is scared "nothing will be left of Iran besides burnt land" after the war.

Another man in his 30s, from Tehran, says "if either side ends up winning the war" it is "in their interest for the infrastructure to remain intact so they can make better use of it afterwards".

• BBC Persian is the Persian language service of BBC News, used by 24 million people around the world - the majority in Iran - despite being blocked and routinely jammed by Iranian authorities.

Image source, Reuters

During his earlier news conference, Netanyahu denied that the US had been dragged into a war in the Middle East by Israel.

"Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? Come on," he said.

The war in Iran began on 28 Feburary when the US and Israel launched a joint strike across the country, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The attack came after negotiations between the US and Iran over its nuclear programme, and Trump has consistently denied that his hand was forced by Israel.

Speaking at the White House at the start of March, Trump reiterated: "I might have forced their hands. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they [the Iranians] were going to attack first".

But, there have been questions about whether the US and Israel remain in lockstep, external, after Trump criticised Israel for its attack on Iran's South Pars gas field - which he said he "knew nothing" about.

Image source, US Central Command

US Central Command says it has destroyed the Iranian regime's surface-to-surface missile plant in Karaj, Iran.

The plant was used to "assemble ballistic missiles that threatened Americans, neighboring countries, and commercial shipping," Centcom says.

Image source, Getty Images

Iran has executed a young member of its national wrestling team who was accused of taking part in anti-establishment protests, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.

Before the war in Iran broke out, following US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, protesters had been taking to the streets in large numbers. The demonstrations were against the rising cost of living, as well as against the Islamic regime led by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - who has since been killed.

CBS reports that Saleh Mohammadi, a member of the Iranian wrestling team, was executed on Thursday after being accused of killing police officers during the January protests.

Mohammadi - who had just turned 19 - was executed along with two others.

Charity group Amnesty International had argued to halt the execution, saying Mohammadi and the fellow accused protesters had faced "expedited grossly unfair trials".

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's press conference touched on a number of topics. Here's a quick look at some of the key points:

• Iran is "weaker than it's ever been", Netanyahu said the country no longer has the capability to either enrich uranium or create ballistic missiles
• However, the Israeli prime minister refused to commit to a potential timeframe for the ending of the war, saying it will take "as long as necessary" - but he did say it could end faster than people think
• There are three goals to the US-Israeli operation - to remove the nuclear threat from Iran, remove the ballistic missile threat, and create conditions that enable Iranians to "grasp their freedom"
• Seeking to dispel "fake news", he insisted Israel did not drag the US into this war - telling reporters Trump makes his own decisions
• He said "Israel acted alone" in the recent attack on an Iranian gas field, and Trump asked them to "hold off on future attacks"

Netanyahu dismisses suggestion US and Israel are out of syncpublished at 19:48 GMT 19 March

19:48 GMT 19 March

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

Prime Minister Netanyahu was seeking to pour cold water on any suggestion that Israel had influence over Donald Trump's decision to launch Operation Epic Fury in Iran.

In the US, there has been considerable domestic debate over the reasons why the US entered this war, and the role Israel played.

That debate reached a fever pitch earlier this week with the resignation of Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

In his resignation letter, Kent - a longtime Trump ally and veteran of the US special operations community - said that "it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby".

He expanded on those views in a subsequent, two-hour long interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, saying that "Israel drove the decision" and that Israeli officials were circumventing normal channels to influence US lawmakers to push for war.

And just yesterday, Trump took to social media to deny previous reporting that the US had prior knowledge of an Israeli attack on Iran's South Pars field - a message which some interpreted as frustration by the US president.

With his remarks, Netanyahu is clearly trying to address, albeit indirectly, any suggestion that US and Israeli war aims are out of sync.

Asked what his plans are in relation to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Netanyahu says Israel now has a "security corridor" that prevents their forces from invading.

"And we have plans for the future", he adds.

"Our number one effort is geared towards Iran", he says. "If the [Iranian] regime goes, Hezbollah goes."

Netanyahu says there are rifts and internal tensions at the top of Iranian leadership, adding that the "authority and the hold" that the previous supreme leader had "is not going to be translated to anyone".

He says that they're seeing cracks in the Iranian regime, and "if it cracks enough" he thinks "the regime could change. Is it guaranteed? No."

"It's up to the Iranian people" to make use of the conditions Israel has created, he says.

With that the news conference has ended, stay with us for a closer look at what was said and some analysis from our White House reporter.

Image source, Getty Images

Moving on to oil prices, Netanyahu says that the US is working hard to open the Strait of Hormuz, with support from Israel.

"If they succeed, which I think they will, then oil prices will come down", he says.

However, he adds that if you succumb to blackmail and let Iran get on with developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, "you're going to be blackmailed in ways you can never even imagine".

"I misled no one", Netanyahu says, in response a question about the US involvement at the start of the war.

He says he didn't have to convince US President Donald Trump over the need to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear programme and putting it underground.

He says that his partnership with Trump is the "only way to avoid this catastrophic development".

Asked if Israel told Trump about the recent attack on Iranian gas fields, Netanyahu says that "Israel acted alone".

"President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks and we are," he adds.

Responding to a question on what signs there are that the Iranian regime is "cracking", he says "there are a lot".

"We're working to create the conditions for it to collapse, but it may survive it may not", he says.

If it survives, he says it "be at its weakest point".

We've just heard Netanyahu's objective to find alternative oil and gas routes, outside of the Strait of Hormuz, once the war ends.

Here's a closer look at the key shipping channel, and why it matters:

Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's busiest oil shipping channels, since the US and Israel attacked the country on 28 February.

About 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually passes through the strait and the war has sent global fuel prices soaring.

The oil comes not only from Iran but other Gulf states such as Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

About 3,000 ships usually sail through the strait each month but this has dramatically decreased recently, with Iran threatening to attack tankers and other ships.

Netanyahu is now taking questions from the media, and is asked how he sees the war ending.

He replies that the US and Israel have "achievable goals" but that he won't speak about the full battle plans.

Once those goals have been achieved, he continues, there need to be alternate routes for oil and gas outside of the Strait of Hormuz.

He argues for oil and gas pipelines going west through the Arabian peninsula so that we are "done away with the choke points forever".

He adds that he sees this war ending "a lot faster than people think".

In our next post, we'll bring you some more on the Strait of Hormuz and why it is significant.

Netanyahu starts listing all the things in Iran that the Israeli military is working on destroying, including its missile and drone arsenal, missile launchers, as well as nuclear infrastructure - like the factories that produce missile parts.

He says they're wiping out Iranian industry in a way "that we didn't do before", but "there's still more work to do, and we're going to do it".

Netanyahu says he wants to dispel another piece of "fake news" - that Israel dragged the US into conflict with Iran.

"Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? Come on," he says.

Trump "always makes his decisions on what he thinks is good for America" and for "future generations", he adds.

Netanyahu is now speaking in English, and says that America and Israel are acting together in Iran with "great determination", he says.

He outlines Israel's three goals: removing the nuclear threat, removing the ballistic missile threat (and removing both threats before they are buried deep underground and immune from aerial attack), and creating the conditions for Iranian people to "grasp their freedom".

In a direct message to Israelis who are asking how long the war will take, Netanyahu says "it will take as long as is necessary".

"We together will work, and we will win together", he says.

Image source, Reuters

Netanyahu says that they have destroyed Iran's capability "to such a degree" they can't achieve "what they have planned".

He says Iran wanted to topple thousands of buildings in Israel, but instead they're falling in Lebanon and Iran.

"We will change the Middle East, I promise you that", he says.

He says Iran is "weaker than its ever been", while Israel is stronger.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that after 20 days of war Iran no longer has the possibility either to enrich uranium or create ballistic missiles.

He begins by speaking in Hebrew, which has been translated into English. He adds: "We will crush them entirely, all those capabilities."