Israel: 3 Iranian commanders killed

Israel said Saturday it had killed three Iranian commanders in its unprecedented bombing campaign across the Islamic Republic, which Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed has 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.

It also announced the deaths of two other commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Saar said that in Israel’s 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 we can in order to remove this threat,” Saar 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 13 June, fearing Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon — which Iran has denied.

Israel said it had attacked Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site for a second time after its air force said it had launched salvos against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran.

US President Donald Trump warned a day earlier Tehran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to join Israel’s unprecedented bombing campaign.

Top diplomats from Britain, France, and Germany met with their Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Geneva on Friday, and urged him to resume the talks with the United States that had been derailed by Israel’s attacks.

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 Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that “we’re not prepared to negotiate with them (United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues.”

Trump was dismissive of the European diplomatic 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.”

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 Fordow.

On the streets of Tehran, many shops were closed and normally bustling markets were largely abandoned on Friday.

A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday that based on its sources and media reports, at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.

Iran has responded with barrages which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people. WITH AFP

Overnight, Iran said, in an eighteenth wave of strikes, it targeted central Israel with drones and missiles.