Israel on Saturday claimed its week-long bombing campaign has already set back Iran’s presumed nuclear program by at least two years. This assertion comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a stern warning, stating that Tehran has a “maximum” of two weeks to avert potential American air strikes.
Trump has been deliberating on whether to involve the United States in Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign. His latest comments suggest he could make a decision before the two-week deadline he set earlier this week.
Israel announced on Saturday that its air force had launched fresh airstrikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran. These attacks are part of a continuous wave that Israel maintains is aimed at preventing its rival from developing nuclear weapons – an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.
“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 affirmed that Israel’s offensive, which began on June 13, will continue. “We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat,” he told German newspaper Bild.
The conflict has seen both sides trading severe blows. Iran’s Health Ministry reported on Saturday that Israeli strikes, which commenced on June 13, have killed over 400 people and wounded more than 3,000, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities stated that Iran’s retaliatory barrages have killed at least 25 people in Israel.
In a diplomatic effort to de-escalate the crisis, top diplomats from Britain, France, and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday. They 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.”
However, 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.”
President 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 indicated he is unlikely to ask Israel to cease its attacks to bring Iran back to the negotiating table, stating, “If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do.”
Any potential US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs, which only the United States possesses, designed to destroy deeply buried facilities such as Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo. While Israel has targeted Fordo in its ongoing strikes, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported no significant damage to the subterranean facility as of yet.
On the streets of Tehran, many shops were reportedly closed and normally bustling markets largely abandoned on Friday, reflecting the tense atmosphere.
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