Israel-Iran war stretches into a second week without diplomatic breakthrough
Hours of talks aimed at de-escalating fighting between Israel and Iran failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough as the war entered its second week with a fresh round of strikes between the two adversaries.
European ministers and Iran's top diplomat met for four hours on Friday in Geneva, as President Donald Trump continued to weigh US military involvement and worries rose over potential strikes on nuclear reactors.
European officials expressed hope for future negotiations, and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue while emphasising that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the US while Israel continued attacking.
'Iran is ready to consider diplomacy if aggression ceases and the aggressor is held accountable for its committed crimes,' he told reporters.
No date was set for the next round of talks.
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 Iran's nuclear programme and arsenal of ballistic missiles.
Israel's top general echoed the warning, saying the Israeli military was ready 'for a prolonged campaign'.
But Mr Netanyahu's goal could be out of reach without US help. Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered to be out of reach to all but America's 'bunker-buster' bombs.
Mr Trump said he would put off deciding whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran for up to two weeks.
The war between Israel and Iran erupted on June 13, with Israeli airstrikes 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.
Israel's defence minister said on Saturday it killed a commander in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the October 7 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza.
Israel said Saeed Izadi was commander of the Palestine Corps for the Iranian Quds Force, an elite arm of the Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran, and that he was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom.
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Reuters
15 minutes ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: Israel seeks swift action on Iran, sources say, with a split U.S. administration
WASHINGTON/DUBAI/JERUSALEM, June 21 (Reuters) - Israeli officials have told the Trump administration they do not want to wait two weeks for Iran to reach a deal to dismantle key parts of its nuclear program and Israel could act alone before the deadline is up, two sources said, amid a continuing debate on Trump's team about whether the U.S. should get involved. The two sources familiar with the matter said Israel had communicated their concerns to Trump administration officials on Thursday in what they described as a tense phone call. The Israeli officials said they do not want to wait the two weeks that U.S. President Donald Trump presented on Thursday as a deadline for deciding whether the U.S. will get involved in the Israel-Iran war, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Israeli participants on the call included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and military chief Eyal Zamir, according to a security source. The Israelis believe they have a limited window of opportunity to move against the deeply buried site at Fordow, the crown jewel of Iran's nuclear program, said the sources. The United States is the only country with the bunker-busting bombs powerful enough to reach the facility, which is dug into the side of a mountain. Reuters reported on Saturday that the United States is moving B-2 bombers to the Pacific island of Guam, reinforcing the possibility that the U.S. could participate directly in an attack. The B-2 can be equipped to carry America's 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, designed to destroy targets deep underground, such as the one at Fordow. A person in Washington familiar with the matter said Israel has communicated to the U.S. administration that it believes Trump's window of up to two weeks is too long and that more urgent action is needed. The person did not say whether the Israelis made that point during the high-level call. During the call, Vice President JD Vance pushed back, saying the United States shouldn't be directly involved and suggesting that the Israelis were going to drag the country into war, said the sources. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also participated in the call, said a security source. Reuters could not determine who else took part in the call. The Jerusalem Post reported earlier that a phone call had taken place on Thursday. The prospect of a U.S. strike against Iran has exposed divisions in the coalition of supporters that brought Trump to power, with some prominent members of his base urging him not to get the country involved in a new Middle East war. Vance has frequently criticized past U.S. involvement in conflicts, including Iraq and Afghanistan, but has lately defended Trump against Republican critics who urge the administration to stay out of the Iran conflict. Other Republicans, including Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have said they hope Trump will help Israel finish destroying Iran's nuclear program. Trump, who campaigned on a promise to keep the U.S. out of what he called "stupid" foreign wars, has himself seemed conflicted at times about whether to join the Israeli attack on Iran or focus on diplomatic efforts to end Tehran's nuclear program. But his rhetoric in recent days has become increasingly aggressive toward Iran. Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. The White House declined to comment for this story. The Israeli Prime Minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Iran's mission to the United Nations also did not immediately respond. Publicly, Netanyahu has not ruled out Israel attacking Fordow alone, though officials have not provided any details on how that would be achieved. Four sources said it is now increasingly likely that the country will launch a solo military operation. Israeli air superiority over much of Iran makes an operation more feasible, though still risky, said two of the sources. The Israelis feel they have the momentum and have limited time given the costs of the war, one source added. "I don't see them waiting much longer," said the source. It is not clear whether such an operation would involve bombing, ground forces, or both. Two of the sources said that rather than attempting to destroy the entire site Israel could instead do significant damage to it. That could mean focusing on destroying what is inside the site rather than the site itself, said one of the sources, declining to elaborate. Some analysts have speculated that Israel could use special forces to enter Fordow and blow it up from inside. Another scenario being considered, according to a source familiar with the matter, would be to drop a series of munitions in rapid succession in an attempt to breach the fortified site, similar to how the Israeli military killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last year. Such a strike could be followed by an incursion by special forces, the source said. It is not clear that Israel has munitions powerful enough to penetrate the fortified facility. It is widely believed that to have a high chance of success, U.S. intervention would be needed. But even with the massive firepower of a joint U.S.-Israeli military action, military and nuclear experts believe that a military operation would probably only temporarily set back a program the West fears is already aimed at producing atom bombs one day, although Iran denies it.
Telegraph
19 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Trump deploys B-2 stealth bombers as he considers striking Iran
US B-2 stealth bombers have been moved to the American military base in Guam, as Donald Trump prepared to meet with his national security team and discuss whether to join Israel's attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. As many as four B-2 stealth bombers took off from the Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri on Saturday, heading towards the US naval station in the Pacific. The B-2 is designed for long-range missions and is the only aircraft capable of delivering the 30,000-lb 'Massive Ordnance Penetrator' precision-guided bunker busters that could be used to destroy Iran's underground nuclear plant at Fordow. The US president was expected to call a national security meeting on Saturday night as he decides whether or not to join the conflict. The relocation of the B-2 stealth bombers, which puts them in striking distance of Iran with the support of refuelling tankers, appears to be a clear demonstration of US military might as it ramps up pressure on Iran to strike a nuclear deal. From Guam, they could fly to the US base on Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands, which is within striking distance of Iran. The movements come amid reports that the US president tried to arrange a meeting with Iranian officials but couldn't get through to Ayatollah Khamenei, the country's supreme leader. Mr Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, quietly sought to organise face-to-face talks with Iranian officials in Istanbul this week, but efforts collapsed when Khamenei, who is in hiding, could not be reached, three US officials told Axios. The backchannel effort reveals the extent the US president was willing to go to seek a diplomatic solution with Iran and avoid US military intervention. On Saturday, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, vowed that Europe would step up its diplomatic efforts, a day after Mr Trump dismissed European efforts to end the war between Iran and Israel. After speaking with Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, Mr Macron wrote on X: 'I am convinced that a path exists to end war and avoid even greater dangers. 'To achieve this, we will accelerate the negotiations led by France and its European partners with Iran.' 'Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons,' he added. 'It is up to Iran to provide full guarantees that its intentions are peaceful.' His comments followed criticism from Mr Trump, who dismissed the role of European partners in brokering a ceasefire after Friday's talks with top Iranian officials ended with no breakthrough. Mr Trump told reporters: 'Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us.' Iran and Israel continued to trade missile barrages on Saturday, with a senior Israeli military official saying that IDF strikes would continue for 'as long as possible' and anyone saying otherwise was making 'empty promises'. Israeli government officials had originally publicised a 'two-week' time frame for the campaign, saying its objectives could be met in that period. Overnight on Friday, 50 Israeli jets hit targets across Iran with 150 munitions, killing three senior Iranian military commanders, including the new commander of its drone force. The three senior Iranian commanders killed were named by the IDF as Saeed Izadi, head of the Palestinian Division in the IRGC Quds Force, Behnam Shahriyari, head of the Quds Force's Unit 190, and Aminpour Joudaki, head of the IRGC Aerospace Force's drone unit. Izadi had been killed 'hiding' in a location that was not his home, indicating the power of Israel's intelligence, said the IDF. Israel also hit the Isfahan nuclear site in Iran for the second time, further degrading its capacity to manufacture the centrifuges required to produce weapons-grade uranium. A senior military official said Israel had dealt a 'severe blow to centrifuge production' in Iran and had taken out '50 per cent or more' of its ballistic missile launchers. They added that missile launchers were a 'bottleneck' for Iran, with the country having many more missiles than launchers. Israeli officials trumpeted the success of their air strikes, claiming they had set back Tehran's development of nuclear weapons by 'years'. 'According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,' Gideon Saar, Israel's foreign minister, said in an interview with Bild on Saturday. Streaks of smoke were also visible in the sky over Tel Aviv on Saturday as Israel's air defence responded to a fresh onslaught of projectiles from Tehran. During the barrage, an Iranian drone hit a home in Israel's Beit She'an valley region, marking the first time a drone has hit a residential area in Israel since the conflict began on June 13. In a message to American officials, Iran's top diplomat warned that it would be 'very dangerous for everybody' if the US were to join Israel's strikes. Speaking on his way back from talks in Geneva, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, said: 'Unfortunately, we have heard that the US may join this aggression. 'That would be very unfortunate and very, very dangerous for everybody.' The Islamic Republic has so far ruled out further nuclear talks with the US until Israel halts its attacks. In a sign of how precarious the current conflict has left the Iranian regime, the supreme leader is said to have named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, according to The New York Times. Buried 300ft inside a mountain, the Fordow enrichment plant is one of three key pieces of nuclear infrastructure in Iran, alongside the Natanz enrichment plant and research facilities in Isfahan. If the US were to launch a strike on the nuclear plant from Diego Garcia, it would need permission from the UK, which maintains sovereignty over the islands. On Thursday, Mr Trump said that the decision on whether to strike Iran would be made 'in the next two weeks'.
Rhyl Journal
28 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
Ministers ‘abusing' anti-terror laws against Palestine activists
A protest organised by groups under the Palestine Coalition banner marched to Whitehall from Russell Square in central London on Saturday afternoon. Organisers estimated that 350,000 people attended the protest, with those marching waving Palestinian flags and chanting 'free, free Palestine' and 'stop bombing Iran'. Many protesters chanted 'shame on you' as they walked past dozens of counter-protesters, organised by pro-Israeli group Stop The Hate, near Waterloo Bridge. The Metropolitan Police said a person was arrested after a bottle was thrown towards the counter-protesters. They added that 'a group appeared on Waterloo Bridge trying to block traffic' following the protest, with officers intervening to clear the road. The demonstrations come after reports on Friday that the Home Secretary will ban Palestine Action after the group vandalised two aircraft at RAF Brize Norton. Yvette Cooper has decided to proscribe the group, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action, after footage posted online showed two people inside the RAF base, with one appearing to spray paint into an aircraft's jet engine. Addressing crowds at the national march for Palestine in Whitehall, former SNP leader Mr Yousaf said: 'While we stand a stone's throw from Downing Street, let's make it clear to the Prime Minister: You try to intimidate us with your anti-terror laws by abusing them, but you'll never silence us as we speak out against the genocide that you're supporting. 'We're not the terrorists – the ones that are literally killing children, they are the terrorists.' A pro-Palestine protester said it was 'absolutely horrendous' that the Government is preparing to ban Palestine Action. Artist Hannah Woodhouse, 61, told the PA news agency: 'The Government, since yesterday, have said they're also going to start to try to proscribe peace activists who are trying to take action against the genocide – so Palestine Action are now being targeted by our Government, which is absolutely horrendous.' Ms Woodhouse, who is from London, added: 'Counter-terrorism measures, it seems, are being used against non-violent peace protesters. 'The peace activists are trying to do the Government's job, which is to disarm Israel. The duty of any government right now is to disarm a genocidal state.' Musician Paloma Faith told pro-Palestine campaigners that she would not 'stick to music and stay away from politics'. Speaking to crowds at the march, the songwriter, 43, added: 'Those who facilitate these crimes against humanity need to be made accountable, not those of us who are compassionate and humane enough to stand against it.' Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told protesters that politicians were seeking to 'turn people who protest against the invasion of Iran or the occupation of Palestine into terrorists'. Some protesters were carrying Iran flags, with others hoisting signs – distributed by the Islamic Human Rights Commission – that read 'choose the right side of history' alongside a photo of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Human rights group Liberty said banning Palestine Action 'would be a huge step change in how counter-terror laws are applied'. Sam Grant, its external affairs director, said in a statement: 'Targeting a protest group with terrorism powers in this way is a shocking escalation of the Government's crackdown on protest and we urge the Home Secretary to rethink. 'It's clear the actions of Palestine Action don't meet the Government's own proportionality test to be proscribed as a terrorist group, but the consequences for the group's supporters if ministers go ahead would be heavy – with things like wearing their logo carrying prison sentences. 'This move needs to be viewed in light of the sustained crackdowns on protest we have seen from successive governments over recent years, and the worrying fact that there are more and more non-violent protesters spending years in prison.' The Palestine Coalition is comprised of a number of different groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop The War.
