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Iran, Israel launch new attacks after Tehran rules out nuclear talks

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Iran and Israel exchanged fresh attacks early on Saturday, a day after Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear programme while under threat and Europe tried to keep peace talks alive.

Shortly after 2:30 a.m. in Israel (2330 GMT on Friday), the Israeli military warned of an incoming missile barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens across parts of central Israel, including Tel Aviv, as well as in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Reuters reported.

Interceptions were visible in the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing across the metropolitan area as Israel’s air defence systems responded.

At the same time, Israel launched a new wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites in Iran, the Israeli military said.

Sirens also sounded in southern Israel, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service. An Israeli military official said Iran had fired five ballistic missiles and that there were no immediate indications of any missile impacts.

There were no initial reports of casualties.

The emergency service released images showing a fire on the roof of a multi-storey residential building in central Israel. Local media reported that the fire was caused by debris from an intercepted missile. Israel began attacking Iran last Friday, saying its longtime enemy was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes, retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel.

Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.

Its air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based human rights organisation that tracks Iran. The dead include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists.

In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, according to authorities.

Reuters could not independently verify casualty figures for either side.

TALKS SHOW LITTLE PROGRESS

Iran has repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv, a metropolitan area of around 4 million people and the country’s business and economic hub, where some critical military assets are also located.

Israel said it had struck dozens of military targets on Friday, including missile production sites, a research body it said was involved in nuclear weapons development in Tehran and military facilities in western and central Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there was no room for negotiations with the U.S. “until Israeli aggression stops”. But he arrived in Geneva on Friday for talks with European foreign ministers at which Europe hopes to establish a path back to diplomacy.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated that he would take as long as two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel’s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses”, he said.

Trump said he was unlikely to press Israel to scale back its airstrikes to allow negotiations to continue.

“I think it’s very hard to make that request right now. If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody is losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

The Geneva talks produced little signs of progress, and Trump said he doubted negotiators would be able to secure a ceasefire.

“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 one,” Trump said.

Hundreds of U.S. citizens have fled Iran since the air war began, according to a U.S. State Department cable seen by Reuters.

Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on Friday his country would not stop its attacks “until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled”. Iran’s U.N. envoy Amir Saeid Iravani called for Security Council action and said Tehran was alarmed by reports that the U.S. might join the war.

Russia and China demanded immediate de-escalation.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that it would reject any proposal that barred it from enriching uranium completely, “especially now under Israel’s strikes”.

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Armed men kidnap, kill nine bus passengers in Pakistan, say officials

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Armed men killed nine bus passengers after kidnapping them in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Friday.

The passengers had been kidnapped from multiple buses on Thursday evening, said the provincial government spokesman Shahid Rind, Reuters reported.

Their bodies with bullet wounds were found in mountains overnight, another government official Naveed Alam said.

No one has claimed responsibility.

Separatist Baloch militants have in the past been involved in such incidents, killing passengers after identifying them as coming from the eastern Punjab province.

The Baloch Liberation Army is the strongest of a number of insurgent groups long operating in the area bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region.

The ethnic Baloch militants blame authorities in Pakistan for stealing their regional resources to fund spending in Punjab province.

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Russia’s Lavrov meets Iran’s Araqchi, renews offer to help solve conflict

Russia has said it is ready to act as a mediator in the crisis pitting Iran against Israel and the United States and has offered to store Iranian uranium.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart at the BRICS summit, and restated Moscow’s offer to help resolve disputes around Tehran’s nuclear programme, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

A ministry statement said Lavrov, in his talks in Rio de Janeiro with Abbas Araqchi, issued a new denunciation of Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran last month, “including the bombing of nuclear energy infrastructure under safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

Lavrov, the statement said, stressed that all issues surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme had to be resolved through diplomacy, Reuters reported.

“Moscow expressed its readiness to offer its assistance in finding mutually acceptable solutions, including the corresponding initiatives put forward earlier by the Russian president,” it said.

Araqchi held talks in Moscow in the middle of the 12 days of conflict last month.

Iran denies it has any intention of developing nuclear weapons. Russia, which has a strategic partnership with Iran, though without a mutual defence provision, says Tehran has the right to a peaceful nuclear energy programme.

Russia has said it is ready to act as a mediator in the crisis pitting Iran against Israel and the United States and has offered to store Iranian uranium, read the report.

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Iran’s Khamenei attends public event after weeks of war with Israel

For apparent security reasons, Khamenei had issued pre-taped messages during the war which started on June 13, and avoided public appearances.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attended a religious event on Saturday, according to a video carried by state television, after reports that he was in a “secure location” since the start of a 12-day air war with Israel in which top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists were killed, Reuters reported.

The video carried by state media showed dozens attending a ceremony to mark Ashura, the holiest day of the Shi’ite Muslim calendar, standing chanting as Khamenei entered a hall where many government functions are held.

For apparent security reasons, Khamenei had issued pre-taped messages during the war which started on June 13, and avoided public appearances.

On June 26, in pre-recorded remarks aired on state television, Khamenei promised that Iran would not surrender despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s calls, read the report.

 

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