Israel says delayed Iran's presumed nuclear program by two years
TEL AVIV
This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on June 19, 2025 and taken on June 19, 2025, shows damage at the Iranian nuclear facility at Arak in central Iran, after an Israeli strike.
Israel claimed on Saturday it has already set back Iran's presumed nuclear program by at least two years, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Tehran has a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes.
Trump has been mulling whether to involve the United States in Israel's bombing campaign, indicating in his latest comments that he could take a decision before the two week deadline he set this week.
Israel attacked Iran's Isfahan nuclear site in the early hours of Saturday, the Fars news agency reported, saying there were no hazardous leaks or risk to the population.
Quoting a security official, it said Israel carried out multiple attacks including on the Isfahan site, saying "most of the explosive sounds heard in these attacks were related to air defence activity". There was no "leakage of hazardous materials," the official was quoted as saying.
Israel said Saturday it's air force had launched fresh airstrikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran, as it kept up a wave of attacks it says are aimed at preventing their rival from developing nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran has denied.
Israel's first responders said Saturday that a residential building in north Israel had been hit by a drone after the army reported an intrusion in the Beit She'an valley.
"A drone strike hit a two-storey residential building in northern Israel", the Magen David Adom said in a statement, adding that its rescue teams found no visible casualties as they arrived.
Israel's military said Saturday it had killed a top Iranian official in charge of military coordination with Palestinian militant group Hamas in a strike on Qom, south of Tehran.
Israeli "fighter jets struck and eliminated in the area of Qom the commander of the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, and the key coordinator between the Iranian regime and the Hamas terrorist organisation, Saeed Izadi," the military said in a statement.
"According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb," Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published Saturday.
Saar said Israel's week-long onslaught will continue. "We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," he told German newspaper Bild.
Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume 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 (the United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues."
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."
Trump also said he's 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 U.S. 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 busting markets largely abandoned on Friday.
450 missiles
A U.S.-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday based on its sources and media reports that at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.
Iran has not updated its tolls since Sunday, when it said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.
Since Israel launched its offensive on June 13, targeting nuclear and military sites but also hitting residential areas, Iran has responded with barrages which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people.
A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 wounded, including one person in a serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo.
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.
A senior adviser for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, vowed in a social media post Saturday to make the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency “pay” once the war with Israel is over.
Ali Larijani's threat comes as IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has become a major target for many Iranian officials who say his conflicting statements about the status of Iran’s nuclear program incited the Israeli surprise attack last week.
Grossi told the United Nations’ Security Council Friday that while Iran has the material to build a nuclear bomb, it appears they have no plans to do so.
Iran arrests 22 over Israeli spy links
Police in Iran's Qom province said 22 people "linked to Israeli spy services" had been arrested since June 13.
"22 people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime's spy services, disturbing public opinion and supporting the criminal regime," Fars news agency reported, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran's Qom province.
A European national was also arrested for spying, Tasnim reported on Friday, without giving their nationality or the date of the arrest.
Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said at least 223 people have been arrested nationwide on charges related to collaboration with Israel, cautioning that the actual figure was likely higher.
'Madness'
Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran's nuclear program, questioning in particular the country's accelerated uranium enrichment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent.
However, it added that there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.
The agency's chief Rafael Grossi told CNN it was "pure speculation" to say how long it would take Iran to develop weapons.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the conflict was at a "perilous moment" and it was "hugely important that we don't see regional escalation".
Arab League foreign ministers gathered in Istanbul late Friday to discuss the war, Turkish state news Anadolu Agency said, on the eve of a weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing U.S. interests in Iran.
