Israel and Iran trade fire as Europe's diplomatic effort yields no breakthrough

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4 hours ago

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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'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.
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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.