By Maayan Lubell, Parisa Hafezi and James Oliphant
JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Israel stated on Saturday it had killed a veteran Iranian commander throughout assaults by each side within the greater than week-long air conflict, whereas Tehran stated it could not negotiate over its nuclear programme whereas beneath menace.
Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Drive, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ abroad arm, was killed in a strike on an condominium within the Iranian metropolis of Qom, stated Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz.
Calling his killing a “main achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Drive”, Katz stated in an announcement that Izadi had financed and armed the Palestinian militant group Hamas forward of its October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, which triggered the conflict in Gaza.
The Revolutionary Guards stated 5 of its members died in assaults on Khorramabad, in accordance with Iranian media. They didn’t point out Izadi, who was on U.S. and British sanctions lists.
Iranian media stated earlier on Saturday that Israel had attacked a constructing in Qom, with preliminary studies of a 16-year-old killed and two folks injured.
No less than 430 folks have been killed and three,500 injured in Iran since Israel started its assaults on June 13, Iranian state-run Nour Information stated, citing the well being ministry.
In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missile assaults, in accordance with native authorities, within the worst battle between the longtime enemies.
Israel says Iran was on the verge of creating nuclear weapons, whereas Iran says its atomic programme is just for peaceable functions.
Israel is extensively assumed to own nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.
IRAN: NO TALKS DURING ATTACKS
Iranian International Minister Abbas Araqchi stated Israel’s aggression, which he stated had indications of U.S. involvement, ought to cease so Iran can “come again to diplomacy”.
“It’s apparent that I can not go to negotiations with the U.S. when our individuals are beneath bombardments beneath the help of the U.S,” he advised reporters in Istanbul the place he was attending a gathering of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
On Friday in Geneva, Araqchi met European overseas ministers who had been in search of a path again to diplomacy.
President Donald Trump has stated he would take as much as two weeks to determine whether or not the USA ought to enter the battle on Israel’s facet, sufficient time “to see whether or not or not folks come to their senses”, he stated.
He stated on Friday he thought Iran would have the ability to have a nuclear weapon “inside a matter of weeks, or actually inside a matter of months”, including: “We will not let that occur.”
Iran’s Fars information company stated Israel had focused the Isfahan nuclear facility, one of many nation’s greatest, however there was no leakage of hazardous supplies. Israel stated it had launched a wave of assaults in opposition to missile storage and launch infrastructure websites.
Ali Shamkhani, a detailed ally of Iran’s supreme chief, stated he had survived an Israeli assault. “It was my destiny to stick with a wounded physique, so I keep to proceed to be the rationale for the enemy’s hostility,” he stated in a message carried by state media.
INTERCEPTIONS OVER TEL AVIV
Early on Saturday, the Israeli navy warned of an incoming barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens throughout elements of central Israel and within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution.
Interceptions had been seen within the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing as Israel’s air defence programs responded. There have been no studies of casualties.
The Human Rights Activists Information Company, a U.S.-based rights organisation that tracks Iran, gave the next loss of life toll than Tehran, saying Israeli assaults have killed 639 folks there.
These killed in Iran embody the navy’s high echelon and nuclear scientists. Israel stated it additionally killed a second commander of the Guards’ abroad arm, whom it recognized as Benham Shariyari, throughout an in a single day strike.
Nour Information on Saturday named 15 air defence officers and troopers it stated had been killed within the battle with Israel.
Iran’s well being minister, Mohammadreza Zafarqandi, stated Israel has attacked three hospitals throughout the battle, killing two well being staff and a baby, and has focused six ambulances, in accordance with Fars.
Requested about such studies, an Israeli navy official stated that solely navy targets had been being struck, although there could have been collateral injury in some incidents.
An Iranian missile hit a hospital within the southern Israeli metropolis of Beersheba on Thursday.
On the OIC assembly, the place the Israel-Iran battle topped the agenda, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan stated Israel’s assaults on Iran proper earlier than a deliberate new spherical of nuclear talks with the U.S. aimed to sabotage negotiations and confirmed Israel didn’t wish to resolve points by way of diplomacy.
Turkey, Russia and China have demanded rapid de-escalation.
The Geneva talks produced little indicators of progress, and Trump stated he doubted negotiators would have the ability to safe a ceasefire as a result of “Iran does not wish to converse to Europe. They wish to converse to us.”
Trump stated he was unlikely to press Israel, its shut ally, to reduce its air strikes to permit negotiations to proceed partially as a result of it was “profitable”.
“However we’re prepared, prepared and in a position, and we have been chatting with Iran, and we’ll see what occurs,” he stated.
Israel has stated it won’t cease assaults till it dismantles Iran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile capabilities, which it views as an existential menace.
A senior Iranian official advised Reuters that Iran was prepared to debate limitations on uranium enrichment however that it could reject any proposal that barred it from enriching uranium fully, “particularly now beneath Israel’s strikes”.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Enhancing by William Mallard)
