Alexander Cornwell and James Oliphant
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israel said it killed a senior Iranian commander on Saturday when the state trades attack occurred, the day after Tehran said it would negotiate in a threatened nuclear program, as Europe attempted to maintain peace talks.
Israel Defense Minister Israel Defense Minister Kates said Saeed Izadi, the Palestinian army leading the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quaid’s troops, was killed in an apartment in the Iranian city of QOM.
Katz said in a statement that he called the killing of him a “major achievement of Israeli intelligence and the air force.”
The Revolutionary Guard said five of its members were killed in the attack on Horamabad, a report that did not mention Izadi on the U.S. and British sanctions list, according to Iranian media reports.
Iranian media said earlier on Saturday that Israel attacked a QOM building, initially reported that a 16-year-old man was killed and two were injured.
Iran’s Fars news agency said Israel targeted the Isfahan nuclear facility, one of the largest nuclear facilities in the United States, but did not leak hazardous materials.
The Israeli military said it had launched a wave of attacks on missile storage and launched infrastructure in Iran.
Ali Shamkhani, a close ally of Iran’s supreme leader, said he survived the Israeli attack. He said in a message conveyed by the state media: “My destiny is mine, so I continue to be the cause of the enemy’s hostility.”
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military warned that Iran’s upcoming missile barrage triggered air raid sirens in central Israel, including Tel Aviv, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Interceptions were visible in the sky in Tel Aviv when Israel’s air defense system responded. No casualties were reported.
Iran’s nuclear program
Israel began attacking Iran on June 13, saying its long-term enemy is on the brink of developing nuclear weapons. Iran said its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes only and retaliated against Israel’s attacks with missiles and drones.
Israel is widely regarded as nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.
Its air strikes killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Bureau of Human Rights Activities, a U.S. human rights group that tracks Iran. The dead included top echelons of the army and nuclear scientists.
Iranian Health Minister Mohammadreza Zafarqandi said on Saturday that Israel attacked three hospitals during the conflict, killing two health workers and a child and targeting six ambulances.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, an Iranian missile attacked a hospital in Bershepba, southern Israel.
On Saturday, Iran’s Nournews named 15 air defense officers and said it was killed in a conflict with Israel.
Israeli authorities say 24 civilians were killed in Israel during an Iranian missile attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he believes Iran will have nuclear weapons “in a few weeks, or certainly within a few months.” “We can’t let that happen,” he told reporters at Morristown Airport in New Jersey.
He said his National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has suggested there is no evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons.
Geneva has made little progress
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there was no room for negotiations with the United States “until Israeli aggression ceased.” But he arrived in Geneva on Friday for talks with European foreign ministers, who hoped to establish a path to return to diplomacy in Europe.
He said Trump reiterated that he would take up to two weeks to decide whether the United States should commit conflicts around Israel, which is enough time to “see whether people have mastered their senses.”
Trump said he is unlikely to urge Israel to reduce its air strikes to allow negotiations to continue.
“I think it’s hard to make that request right now. If someone wins, it’s much harder than someone losing it, but we’re ready, willing and capable, and we’re talking to Iran all the time, we’ll see what happens.”
There were few signs of progress in the Geneva talks, and Trump said he doubted whether negotiators could secure a ceasefire.
“Iran does not want to talk to Europe. They want to talk to us. Europe will not be able to help with this,” Trump said.
According to the U.S. State Department cable seen by Reuters, hundreds of U.S. citizens have fled Iran since the start of the air war.
Israel’s special envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on Friday that his country would not stop attacking “Iran’s nuclear threat is being removed.” Iran’s U.S. envoy Amir Saeid Iravani called for the Security Council’s action and said Tehran was shocked by the reports that the United States might join the war.
Russia and China demand immediate downgrade.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran is ready to discuss restrictions on uranium enrichment, but it will reject any proposals to ban the uranium from fully enriching uranium, especially under Israel’s strike.
(Reuters report; James Olyphant’s writing in Washington; William Mallard’s editor)
