Israel and Iran trade fire as Europe's diplomatic effort yields no breakthrough
Israel and Iran have traded strikes a week into their war as President Donald Trump weighed US military involvement and key European ministers met Iran's top diplomat in Geneva in a scramble to de-escalate the conflict.
But the first face-to-face meeting between western and Iranian officials in the week-long war concluded after four hours with no sign of an immediate breakthrough.
Advertisement
To give diplomacy a chance, Mr Trump said he would put off deciding for up to two weeks whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran.
US participation would most likely involve strikes against Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility, considered to be out of reach to all but America's 'bunker-buster' bombs.
Whether or not the US joins, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's military operation in Iran would continue 'for as long as it takes' to eliminate what he called the existential threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. Israel's top general echoed the warning, saying the Israeli military was ready 'for a prolonged campaign'.
As the talks ended in Switzerland, European negotiators expressed hope for more negotiations in the future. Iran's top diplomat said he was open to further dialogue.
Advertisement
But foreign minister Abbas Araghchi emphasised that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the US while Israel continued attacking. Israel said its warplanes hit dozens of military targets in Iran early Friday, including missile-manufacturing facilities.
'Iran is ready to consider diplomacy if aggression ceases and the aggressor is held accountable for its committed crimes,' he said in a statement.
Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the US, France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief.
But after Mr Trump pulled the US unilaterally out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60% – a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90% – and restricting access to its nuclear facilities.
Advertisement
As negotiations kicked off in Geneva, Iranian missiles crashed into the northern city of Haifa, sending plumes of smoke billowing over the Mediterranean port and wounding at least 31 people.
The war between Israel and Iran erupted on June 13, with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.
Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's multi-tiered air defences, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded.
Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.
Advertisement
'I want to make it absolutely and completely clear: In case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity to the environment,' said Rafael Grossi, chief of the UN nuclear watchdog. 'This is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be most serious.'
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi (Hassan Ammar/AP)
Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor south-west of the capital.
Mr Grossi has warned repeatedly that such sites should not be military targets.
After initially saying there was no damage visible from Israel's strikes on Thursday on the Arak heavy water reactor, the IAEA on Friday reported that 'key buildings at the facility were damaged', including the distillation unit.
Advertisement
The reactor was not operational and contained no nuclear material, so the damage posed no risk of contamination, the watchdog said.
Although strikes on uranium enrichment facilities can carry some risk of radiological and chemical contamination, the chance of a serious incident is far lower than at reactors such as the Russian-built Bushehr power plant.
After a call with Mr Netanyahu, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he has secured Israel's promise to keep Russian workers at the plant out of harm's way.
Smoke rises from the Soroka hospital complex (Leo Correa/AP)
Iran has long maintained its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. But it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60%. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons programme but has never acknowledged it.
Dozens of Israeli warplanes struck targets across the country early Friday, including industrial sites in the north, missile storage and launchers in the west and the headquarters of an advanced research institute in Tehran, known by its acronym SPND.
The US alleges SPND has conducted research and testing that could be applicable to the development of nuclear explosive devices.
Iranian state media reported explosions from Israeli strikes in an industrial area of Rasht, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Israel's military had warned the public to evacuate the area around Rasht's Industrial City, south-west of the city's downtown. But with Iran's internet shut off – now for more than 48 hours – it's unclear just how many people could see the message.
While praising the Israeli military's 'significant achievements' in the conflict with Iran, army Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir warned that 'difficult days still lie ahead'.
'We are preparing for a wide range of possible developments,' he told the public in recorded remarks, describing the offensive against Iran as the most complex in Israeli history. 'The campaign is not over.'
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would last 'as long as it takes' (Jack Guez/AP)
From the ruins of the Weizmann Institute of Science hit in an Iranian missile barrage this week, Mr Netanyahu also vowed that Israel would fight as long as necessary to destroy Iran's nuclear programme and ballistic missile arsenal.
'We face an existential danger,' he said.
The Israeli military believes it has destroyed most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, contributing to the steady decline in Iranian attacks.
But several of the 35 missiles that Israel said Iran fired on Friday slipped through the country's vaunted aerial defence system, setting off air-raid sirens across the country and sending shrapnel flying into a residential area in the southern city of Beersheba, a frequent target of Iranian missiles where a hospital was hit on Thursday.
A handful of cars were set ablaze in the attack but no one was seriously wounded, as residents had hunkered down in bomb shelters. The Israeli military said Iran had fired a missile rigged with fragmenting cluster munitions in its attack on Beersheba on Friday for the second time.
In northern Israel, a projectile fell in downtown Haifa, wounding at least 31 people, according to the city's Rambam Medical Centre. Black smoke rose over the city's main port. The windows and walls of several buildings, including a mosque, were blown out by the blast.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
38 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Iran strikes back: Foreign minister brands Trump a 'lawless bully' who 'betrayed diplomacy' after US blew up three nuclear bases in overnight strike
Iran 's foreign minister has branded Donald Trump a 'lawless bully' who 'betrayed' diplomacy after the US blew up three nuclear bases overnight - as he warned the world is facing an 'unprecedented level of danger'. In a press conference after the strikes, US President Trump said he had 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear weapons programme, and warned of the possibility of more attacks to come. In return, Iran targeted Israel in a set of attacks this morning - with emergency services reporting at least 16 people are injured, including a young man with shrapnel wounds to his upper body. The US will be braced for Iranian attacks on its forces in the region. Iran foreign minister Abbas Araghchi furiously condemned the US strikes during a press conference today, in which he attacked Trump and threatened to act on the attack. 'Humanity has come too far as a species to allow a lawless bully to take us back to the law of the jungle,' he said. Araghchi added that 'urgent and decisive action' must now be taken, warning that 'silence' will 'plunge the world into an unprecedented level of danger'. Digital billboards display a message thanking US President Donald Trump for his administration's strikes on Iranian nuclear sites Top US officials urged Iran to surrender today after strikes on the nation's nuclear sites 'severely damaged' its nuclear capabilities overnight. Trump broke his two-week deadline on Saturday night as he launched 'Operation Midnight Hammer', sending a fleet of B-2 bombers to key nuclear sites. The US strikes included 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a morning press conference that the strikes were 'bold' and 'brilliant', and warned Iran that there would be dire consequences if it does not come to the negotiating table. Officials admitted that the strikes on the Fordow site, a deep underground nuclear enrichment facility, may not have been entirely destroyed in the operation, but described it as significantly damaged. A view shows damage to buildings and vehicles after a missile fired by Iran, in retaliation for Israeli attacks, struck the city of Ness Ziona, near Tel Aviv The press conference came as world leaders condemned Trump's decision to wade into the conflict, with Chinese President Xi Jinping saying Trump 'violated international peace'. Iran's foreign minister branded Trump a 'lawless bully' who 'betrayed' diplomacy after the US blew up three nuclear bases. Early this morning, Iran retaliated by targeting Israel in a devastating set of attacks - with emergency services reporting more than a dozen people injured. Horrific photos showed entire buildings obliterated while cars were crushed by debris and residents forced to evacuate their homes.
The Guardian
39 minutes ago
- The Guardian
How effective was the US attack on Iran's nuclear sites? A visual guide
Donald Trump was quick to claim that US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities had 'completely and totally obliterated' them. Still, it remains unclear how much physical damage has been done or what the longer-term impact might be on Iran's nuclear programme. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) confirmed that attacks took place on its Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites, but insisted that its nuclear programme would not be stopped. Both Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination around the three locations after the strikes. The Iranian Red Crescent also reported no deaths in the US strikes on the nuclear sites, appearing to confirm Iranian claims they had been evacuated in advance. In the immediate aftermath, US military officials suggested the three sites had suffered 'severe damage' after an operation that had been weeks in planning, suggesting that it was fully coordinated in advance with Israel. The Pentagon said a battle damage assessment was still being conducted. Long regarded as the most difficult military target among Iran's nuclear sites, the uranium enrichment facilities at Fordow – the primary target of the operation – are buried beneath the Zagros mountains. Reports have suggested that the site was constructed beneath between 45 and 90 metres of bedrock, largely limestone and dolomite. Some experts have suggested that the layering of the sedimentary rocks, including faults, would also make it more difficult to strike the centrifuge array, providing a kind of geological cushioning against a blast wave. The attack – codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer – was carried out by seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers flying from the US, after a deception flight by other B-2s into the Pacific. Tomahawk missiles were also fired from US ships in waters south of Iran. The site was hit by a dozen 13,600kg massive ordnance penetrators – known as bunker busters – at around 2.10am Iranian time. It was the massive weapon's first operational use. The number used suggests some lack of confidence that a smaller strike could penetrate to the target. The result would to a large extent depend on the kind of concrete inside the facility, with estimates of the bunker busters' penetration based largely on reinforced concrete resistant to 5,000psi. Iran is believed to have used more resistant concrete. While video from the site showed evidence of a fire in the immediate aftermath, satellite images published on Sunday were inconclusive. The Open Source Centre in London highlighted what appeared to be at least two locations where the weapons appeared to have penetrated. While the main support building at the site appeared to be undamaged, the topography of a prominent area of ridgelines and small wadis appeared to have altered and been flattened out, with some evidence of rock scarring exposing damaged bedrock near an area that could show fresh cratering. While analysts had previously suggested that a strike could hit the main entrance tunnel to the site, the main effort appears to have been in a different location. There was speculation that the main aim of the strikes may have been to bury access to Fordow. Isfahan's nuclear technology centre was struck by cruise missiles as opposed to bunker busters. Video posted on social media showed a distant detonation from the site on Saturday night. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in addition to four hit by Israeli strikes, six other buildings had now been attacked, including a fuel rod production facility. The IAEA said facilities targeted at Isfahan either contained no nuclear material or small quantities of natural or low-enriched uranium. Natanz had previously been damaged by the first Israeli strikes of the conflict, with assessments then suggesting they had hit the power plant supplying the main centrifuge hall. Uranium had been enriched to up to 60%, short of weapons-grade material. It appears that Natanz's underground enrichment hall was targeted, but it is unclear how much damage was inflicted. In response to the US strikes, Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel on Sunday, triggering countrywide air raid sirens and injuring 16 people. Iran has claimed that it evacuated the sites several days ago, and satellite imagery from several days ago suggests there was unusual truck traffic at Fordow. That appears to confirm the movement of some material from the site, possibly including the uranium stockpile – or parts of it – which remains unaccounted for. Hassan Abedini, the deputy political head of Iran's state broadcaster, said Iran had evacuated the three sites – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – some time ago. 'The enriched uranium reserves had been transferred from the nuclear centres and there are no materials left there that, if targeted, would cause radiation and be harmful to our compatriots,' he said. Three days before the US attacks, 16 cargo trucks were seen near the Fordow entrance tunnel. The head of the AEOI, Mohammad Eslami, claimed this month that Iran had another enrichment site 'in a secure and invulnerable location' where centrifuges could be. Analysts have long argued that while it is possible to disrupt the physical function of a nuclear facility and limit the scope of a programme through, for example, the Israeli assassination of scientists, the breadth of technical knowledge acquired during the decades-long programme is impossible to destroy. Ultimately, the question is whether the US-Israeli attacks are seen as sufficient for Iran to capitulate, or whether they instead encourage the regime to accelerate its efforts to produce a viable nuclear weapon.
BBC News
40 minutes ago
- BBC News
Retaliate now, later or never: How Iran could respond to the US strikes
Iran has responded furiously to the overnight US airstrikes on three of its nuclear sites, vowing what it calls "everlasting consequences".But beyond the words, there will be feverish discussions taking place at the highest level inside Iran's security and intelligence they escalate the conflict through retaliation against US interests, or, as US President Donald Trump has called on them to do, negotiate, which in practice means giving up all nuclear enrichment inside Iran? This internal debate will be taking place at a time when many senior Iranian commanders will be looking over their shoulders, wondering if they are about to be the next target of an Israeli precision airstrike or whether someone in the room has already betrayed them to Mossad, Israel's overseas spy speaking, there are three different strategic courses of action now open to Iran. None of them are risk free and uppermost in the minds of those taking the decisions will be the survival of the Islamic Republic regime. Retaliate hard and soon Many will be baying for blood. Iran has been humiliated, first by Israel, now by what it has often in the past called 'the Great Satan', its term for the US. Iran's ongoing exchange of fire with Israel continues into its tenth day but retaliating against the US brings a whole new level of risk, not just for Iran but for the whole region. Iran is believed to retain about half of its original stock of around 3,000 missiles, having used up and lost the remainder in exchanges of fire with latest on US strikes on IranWhat we know about US strikes on IranIran has a target list of around 20 US bases to choose from in the broader Middle East. One of the nearest and most obvious is the sprawling headquarters of the powerful US Navy's Fifth Fleet at Mina Salman in Bahrain. But Iran may be reluctant to strike at a neighbouring Gulf Arab state. More likely perhaps, would be to use its proxies in Iraq and Syria to attack any one of the relatively isolated US bases at At-Tanf, Ain Al-Asad or Erbil. Iran has form here. When Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Iran's Quds Force leader, Qassim Suleimani, in 2020 Iran responded by targeting US military personnel in Iraq but avoided killing any by giving prior notice. It may not do so this time. Iran could also launch 'swarm attacks' on US Navy warships using drones and fast torpedo boats, something that the Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy has practiced exhaustively over the years. The aim, if it went down this route, would be to overwhelm US naval defences through sheer numbers. It could also ask its allies in Yemen, the Houthis, to resume their attacks on Western shipping passing between the Indian Ocean and the Red secretive nuclear site that only a US bomb could hitThere are also economic targets Iran could strike, but this would antagonise its Gulf Arab neighbours who have recently reached an uneasy modus vivendi with the Islamic Republic. The biggest and most damaging target here would be choking off the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which over 20 per cent of the world's oil supplies pass daily. Iran could do this by sowing sea mines, creating a lethal hazard for both naval and commercial there is cyber. Iran, along with North Korea, Russia and China, has a sophisticated offensive cyber capability. Inserting destructive malware into US networks or businesses is doubtless one option under consideration. Retaliate later This would mean waiting until the current tension has subsided and launching a surprise attack at a time of Iran's choosing, when US bases were no longer on maximum alert. Such an attack could also target US diplomatic, consular or trade missions, or extend to the assassination of individuals. The risk here for Iran, of course, is that it would likely invoke renewed US attacks just as ordinary Iranians are returning to normal life. Don't retaliate This would take enormous restraint on Iran's part but it would spare it from further US attacks. It could even choose the diplomatic route and rejoin negotiations with the US, although Iran's Foreign Minister points out that Iran never left those negotiations, that it was, in his words, Israel and the US that blew them up. But restarting the US-Iran negotiations in Muscat, Rome or wherever, would only be worth doing if Iran was prepared to accept the red line that both the US and Israel are insisting on. Namely that for Iran to keep its civil nuclear programme, it must send all uranium outside the country for nothing after taking such a battering also makes the Iranian regime look weak, especially after all its warnings of dire repercussions if the US did attack. In the end it may decide that the risk of weakening its grip on its population outweighs the cost of any further US attacks.
