JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON: The second week of the Israel-Iran war started Saturday with a renewed round of strikes targeting an Iranian nuclear research facility near Isfahan.
Talks in Geneva on Friday between European foreign ministers and Iran’s top diplomat failed to produce a breakthrough.
US President Donald Trump continued to weigh his country’s military involvement as concerns spiked over potential strikes on Iranian nuclear reactors.
Still, European officials expressed hope for future negotiations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue but stressed Tehran wasn’t interested in negotiating while Israel continued attacking.
Iran president says will not halt nuclear activity ‘under any circumstances’
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday his country will not halt nuclear activity “under any circumstances” amid ongoing fighting with Israel which hit nuclear sites.
“We are ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities, however, we do not agree to reduce nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances,” said Pezeshkian during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Cyprus police arrest man on spying, terror charges
Cyprus police said they arrested an individual on espionage and terror charges on Saturday, with local media reporting the suspect had ties to Iran.
Police declined to provide extensive details, citing “national security,” but local media said the suspect was seen acting suspiciously near a British air force base at Akrotiri, outside the southern coastal city of Limassol.
Cypriot news outlet Philenews reported the man had links to “Iranian operatives” and had arrived on the Mediterranean island last month posing as a British tourist.
State Department starts assisted departure flights for US citizens in Israel, ambassador says
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Saturday that the State Department has started assisted departure flights from Israel amid its conflict with Iran.
He encouraged US citizens and lawful permanent residents in Israel and the West Bank, who want government assistance to department, to complete a form on the department’s website.
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Houthis threaten US ships if Washington joins strikes on Iran
Yemen’s Houthis will target US ships in the Red Sea if Washington becomes involved in Israeli attacks on Iran, the group’s military spokesperson said on Saturday.
In May, the US and the Houthis agreed to a ceasefire under which neither side would target the other.
Iran-Israel war must not become refugee crisis: UN
The United Nations said on Saturday the Iran-Israel war must not be allowed to trigger another refugee crisis in the Middle East, saying once people fled there was no quick way back.
“This region has already endured more than its share of war, loss and displacement. We cannot allow another refugee crisis to take root,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees.
“The time to de-escalate is right now. Once people are forced to flee, there’s no quick way back — and all too often, the consequences last for generations.”
Israel says struck military infrastructure in southwest Iran
Israel’s military said Saturday it was conducting strikes on “military infrastructure” in Iran’s southwest, on the ninth day of the war sparked by Israel’s attack on the Islamic republic.
“Fighter jets are currently striking military infrastructure in southwestern Iran,” the military said in a statement.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Israel’s attacks on Iran right before a new round of nuclear talks with the United States aimed to sabotage the negotiations, and it showed Israel did not want to resolve issues through diplomacy.
He also called on Muslim countries to increase their efforts to impose punitive measures against Israel on the basis of international law and United Nations’ resolutions.
Netanyahu using Iran war to stay in power ‘forever’: former US president Clinton
Former US president Bill Clinton said Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been wanting to fight Iran for a longtime because that way he can stay in the office forever.
Russia has told Israel there’s no evidence Iran wants nuclear weapons
Russia has repeatedly told Israel that there is no evidence Iran is aiming to get nuclear weapons, Sky News Arabia on Saturday quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying in an interview.
Israel says killed three Iranian commanders in fresh wave of strikes
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a veteran commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, in a strike in an apartment in Iran’s Qom province.
The commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the overseas arm, or Quds Force, Katz said in a statement.
The Israeli military later said that it killed a second commander of the Guards’ overseas arm, who it identified as Benham Shariyari, during a strike on his vehicle overnight in western Tehran.
It said the commander “was responsible for all weapons transfers from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East.”
Shariyari supplied missiles and rockets launched at Israel to Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemen’s Houthis, according to the Israeli military.
There was no confirmation from the IRGC on the killing of the two commanders.
22 arrested for links to Israeli spy services since start of conflict
Police in Iran’s Qom province said Saturday that 22 people “linked to Israeli spy services” had been arrested since June 13, Fars news agency reported.
“22 people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime’s spy services, disturbing public opinion, and supporting the criminal regime,” the agency stated, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran’s Qom province.
Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site targeted by Israel
Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site was targeted by Israel, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Saturday, adding that there was no leakage of hazardous materials.
At the same time, Israel launched a new wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites in Iran, the Israeli military said.
Sirens also sounded in southern Israel, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service. An Israeli military official said Iran had fired five ballistic missiles and that there were no immediate indications of any missile impacts.
There were no initial reports of casualties.
The emergency service released images showing a fire on the roof of a multi-storey residential building in central Israel. Local media reported that the fire was caused by debris from an intercepted missile.
Israel began attacking Iran last Friday, saying its longtime enemy was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel.
Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.
Its air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based human rights organization that tracks Iran. The dead include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists.
In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, according to authorities.
Reuters could not independently verify casualty figures for either side.
Talks show little progress
Iran has repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv, a metropolitan area of around 4 million people and the country’s business and economic hub, where some critical military assets are also located.
Israel said it had struck dozens of military targets on Friday, including missile production sites, a research body it said was involved in nuclear weapons development in Tehran and military facilities in western and central Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there was no room for negotiations with the US “until Israeli aggression stops”.
But he arrived in Geneva on Friday for talks with European foreign ministers at which Europe hopes to establish a path back to diplomacy.
US President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated that he would take as long as two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel’s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses”, he said.
Trump said he was unlikely to press Israel to scale back its airstrikes to allow negotiations to continue.
“I think it’s very hard to make that request right now. If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody is losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.
The Geneva talks produced little signs of progress, and Trump said he doubted negotiators would be able to secure a ceasefire.
“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this one,” Trump said.
Hundreds of US citizens have fled Iran since the air war began, according to a US State Department cable seen by Reuters.
Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on Friday his country would not stop its attacks “until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled”.
Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani called for Security Council action and said Tehran was alarmed by reports that the US might join the war.
Russia and China demanded immediate de-escalation.
A senior Iranian official said that Iran was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that it would reject any proposal that barred it from enriching uranium completely, “especially now under Israel’s strikes”.
