Israel says it killed three Iranian commanders in fresh wave of strikes
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JERUSALEM - Israel said on June 21 that it had killed three Iranian commanders in its unprecedented bombing campaign across the Islamic republic, which Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed had already delayed Tehran’s presumed nuclear plans by two years.
Israel’s military said its fighter jets successfully targeted top Iranian official Saeed Izadi, in charge of coordination with Palestinian militant group Hamas, in Qom, south of Tehran, and announced the deaths of two other commanders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
As Israel continued to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and military targets, in an interview published on June 21, Mr Saar said, by the country’s own assessment, it had “already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb”.
“We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat,” he told German newspaper Bild, asserting that Israel’s onslaught would continue.
Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes, after Israel launched its aerial campaign on June 13, fearing Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon – an ambition Iran has denied.
Israel said it had attacked Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site for a second time, after its air force said it had also launched salvos against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran. The military later said it struck military infrastructure in south-west Iran.
US President Donald Trump warned on June 20 that Tehran has a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to join Israel’s bombing campaign
Aggression continues
Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said: “We invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for.”
But Mr Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that “we’re not prepared to negotiate with them (the US) any more, as long as the aggression continues”.
Mr Trump was dismissive of European diplomacy efforts, telling reporters: “Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”
Mr Trump also said he is unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table.
“If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do,” he said.
Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo.
On the streets of Tehran, many shops were closed and normally bustling markets largely abandoned on June 20.
A US-based non-governmental organisation, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on June 20 that, based on its sources and media reports, at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.
Iran’s Health Ministry said on June 21 that more than 400 people had been killed and over 3,000 wounded in the Israeli strikes, which began on June 13
Ms Nasrin, 39, who gave only her first name, explained she had been thrown across a room in her Tehran home by an Israeli strike.
“I just hit the wall,” she told AFP as she received treatment at Hazrat Rasool hospital in the Iranian capital. “I don’t know how long I was unconscious. When I woke up, I was covered in blood from head to toe.”
‘Perilous moment’
Traffic police and the Fars news agency reported congestion on roads into Tehran on June 21, indicating some inhabitants were returning.
Internet access remained highly unstable and limited in Tehran, with slow connections and many sites still inaccessible, according to AFP journalists.
Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 25 people in Israel, according to official figures.
Israeli rescuers said there were no casualties after a missile struck a residential building in Beit She’an.
At the site of the strike in the north of Israel, mounds of soil had been gouged from the ground and the wall of a ground-floor room destroyed.
Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate said more than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air force bases.
In Tel Aviv, some expressed growing fatigue under the constant threat from Iran. “In the middle of the night, we have to wake the children and take them to the shelter,” said Mr Omer, who gave only his first name.
“They are tired all the day after that,” he added, explaining he still supported Israel’s war aim of denying Iran a nuclear weapon.
Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country’s accelerated uranium enrichment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s chief Rafael Grossi has said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 per cent.
But he added that there was no evidence Tehran had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead. Mr Grossi told CNN it was “pure speculation” to say how long it would take Iran to develop weapons. AFP
