Israel pounded Iran for a second day on Saturday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said its campaign would intensify, while Tehran called off nuclear talks that Washington had held out as the only way to halt the bombing.
A day after Israel wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command with a surprise attack, it appeared to have hit Iran’s oil and gas industry for the first time, with Iranian state media reporting a blaze at a gas field.
Netanyahu said Israel’s strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear programme possibly by years and rejected international calls for restraint.
“We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs’ regime, and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days,” he said in a video message.
In Tehran, Iranian authorities said around 60 people, including 29 children, were killed in an attack on a housing complex, with more strikes reported across the country. Israel said it had attacked more than 150 targets.
Iran had launched its own retaliatory missile volley on Saturday morning, killing at least three people in Israel. Air raid sirens sent Israelis into shelters as missiles and interceptors streaked across the sky.
Early on Sunday, Israel’s military said more missiles were launched from Iran towards Israel, and that it was also attacking military targets in Tehran. Iranian state television reported that Iran had launched missiles and drones at Israel.
Several projectiles were visible in the sky over Jerusalem early on Sunday morning. Air raid sirens, which warn of a potential missile or drone attack, did not sound in the city but were heard in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in Israel.
US-Iran nuclear talks cancelled
US President Donald Trump has lauded Israel’s strikes and warned Iran of much worse to come. He said it was not too late to halt the Israeli campaign, but only if Tehran accepted a sharp downgrading of its nuclear programme at talks with Washington which had been scheduled for Sunday.
Host Oman confirmed on Saturday that the next round of talks had been scrapped. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said holding talks was unjustifiable while Israel’s “barbarous” attacks were ongoing.
In the first apparent attack to hit Iran’s energy infrastructure, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran partially suspended production at the world’s biggest gas field after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.
The South Pars field, offshore in Iran’s southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran.
Fears about potential disruption to the region’s oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9 per cent on Friday even though Israel spared Iran’s oil and gas on the first day of its attacks.
An Iranian general, Esmail Kosari, said Tehran was reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz controlling access to the Gulf for tankers.
Putin condemns Israel’s strikes in call with Trump
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Trump for 50 minutes on Saturday, focusing on hostilities between Israel and Iran and calling for efforts to bring them to an end.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin condemned the Israeli military operation against Iran and expressed concern about the risks of escalation.
Trump, in his account on Truth Social, said most of the discussion centred on the Middle East, but that he also told Putin that Russia’s war in Ukraine should end.
“Vladimir Putin condemned Israel’s military operation against Iran and expressed serious concern about a possible escalation of the conflict, which would have unpredictable consequences for the entire situation in the Middle East,” Ushakov told reporters.
Ushakov said Trump described events in the Middle East as “very alarming”. But the two leaders said they do not rule out a return to the negotiating track on Iran’s nuclear programme, Ushakov said.
Israel sees Iran’s nuclear programme as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.
Tehran insists the programme is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. However the UN nuclear watchdog reported it this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.
