Israel says it killed top Iran commander during attacks by both sides
JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON: I srael said on Saturday it had killed a veteran Iranian commander during attacks by both sides in the more than week-long air war, while Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear programme while under threat. Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' overseas arm, was killed in a strike on an apartment in the Iranian city of Qom, said Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz. Calling his killing a "major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force", Katz said in a statement that Izadi had financed and armed the Palestinian militant group Hamas ahead of its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
The Revolutionary Guards said five of its members died in attacks on Khorramabad, according to Iranian media. They did not mention Izadi, who was on U.S. and British sanctions lists. Iranian media said earlier on Saturday that Israel had attacked a building in Qom, with initial reports of a 16-year-old killed and two people injured. At least 430 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since Israel began its attacks on June 13, Iranian state-run Nour News said, citing the health ministry. In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missile attacks, according to local authorities, in the worst conflict between the longtime enemies. Israel says Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, while Iran says its atomic programme is only for peaceful purposes. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.
IRAN: NO TALKS DURING ATTACKS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Israel's aggression, which he said had indications of U.S. involvement, should stop so Iran can "come back to diplomacy". "It is obvious that I can't go to negotiations with the U.S. when our people are under bombardments under the support of the U.S," he told reporters in Istanbul where he was attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). On Friday in Geneva, Araqchi met European foreign ministers who were seeking a path back to diplomacy.
President Donald Trump has said he would take up to 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. He said on Friday he thought Iran would be able to have a nuclear weapon "within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months", adding: "We can't let that happen." Iran's Fars news agency said Israel had targeted the Isfahan nuclear facility, one of the nation's biggest, but there was no leakage of hazardous materials. Israel said it had launched a wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites. Ali Shamkhani, a close ally of Iran's supreme leader, said he had survived an Israeli attack. "It was my fate to stay with a wounded body, so I stay to continue to be the reason for the enemy's hostility," he said in a message carried by state media.
INTERCEPTIONS OVER TEL AVIV
Early on Saturday, the Israeli military warned of an incoming barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens across parts of central Israel and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Interceptions were visible in the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing as Israel's air defence systems responded. There were no reports of casualties. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based rights organisation that tracks Iran, gave a higher death toll than Tehran, saying Israeli attacks have killed 639 people there. Those killed in Iran include the military's top echelon and nuclear scientists. Israel said it also killed a second commander of the Guards' overseas arm, whom it identified as Benham Shariyari, during an overnight strike. Nour News on Saturday named 15 air defence officers and soldiers it said had been killed in the conflict with Israel. Iran's health minister, Mohammadreza Zafarqandi, said Israel has attacked three hospitals during the conflict, killing two health workers and a child, and has targeted six ambulances, according to Fars. Asked about such reports, an Israeli military official said that only military targets were being struck, though there may have been collateral damage in some incidents. An Iranian missile hit a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Thursday.
At the OIC meeting, where the Israel-Iran conflict topped the agenda, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Israel's attacks on Iran right before a planned new round of nuclear talks with the U.S. aimed to sabotage negotiations and showed Israel did not want to resolve issues through diplomacy. Turkey, Russia and China have demanded immediate de-escalation. The Geneva talks produced little signs of progress, and Trump said he doubted negotiators would be able to secure a ceasefire because "Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us." Trump said he was unlikely to press Israel, its close ally, to scale back its air strikes to allow negotiations to continue in part because it was "winning". "But we're ready, willing and able, and we've been speaking to Iran, and we'll see what happens," he said. Israel has said it will not stop attacks until it dismantles Iran's nuclear programme and ballistic missile capabilities, which it views as an existential threat. A senior Iranian official told Reuters 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".
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