Explosions were heard Friday morning in the Iranian capital, state TV reported, adding that Iran’s air defence were at “100 percent operational capacity”.
Israel declared a state of emergency, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying that retaliatory action from Tehran was possible following the operation.
“Following the State of Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future,” Katz said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s attack on Iran would “continue for as many days as it takes” after Israel announced it had carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites.
“This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” Netanyahu said in a video statement, naming the operation “Rising Lion”.
“We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme. We targeted Iran’s main enrichment facility at Natanz… We also struck at the heart of Iran’s ballistic missile programme,” he said, adding that Israel had also hit Iranian nuclear scientists “working on the Iranian bomb”.
Iran’s Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri was “likely eliminated”, said an Israeli security official. Iranian state media said residential buildings in Tehran were also hit, killing a number of civilians, including women and children.
Fire and smoke were seen at a key site for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, state TV reported, while explosions were also heard in Natanz city in Iran’s central province. The Guards’ leader Hossein Salami was killed in the strikes, Iranian media said.
Air traffic was halted at Tehran’s main international airport, Imam Khomeini, while neighbouring Iraq has also closed its airspace and suspended all flights at all airports, state media reported.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Iran not to respond to Israeli strikes by hitting American bases, saying Washington was not involved.
“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement.
“Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel.”
“Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense,” Rubio said, without offering support or criticism of the strikes by the close US ally.
“President Trump and the administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners,” he said.
Oil prices surged as much as 6 percent on the strikes, which came after Trump warned of a possible Iranian attack and said the US was drawing down staff in the region.
“I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” Trump earlier told reporters at the White House Thursday when asked if an Israeli attack loomed.
Trump said he believed a “pretty good” deal on Iran’s nuclear programme was “fairly close”, but said that an Israeli attack on its arch foe could wreck the chances of an agreement.
The US leader did not disclose the details of a conversation on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but said: “I don’t want them going in, because I think it would blow it.”
Trump quickly added: “Might help it actually, but it also could blow it.”
The United States on Wednesday said it was reducing embassy staff in Iraq — long a zone of proxy conflict with Iran.
Israel, which counts on US military and diplomatic support, sees the cleric-run state in Tehran as an existential threat and hit Iranian air defences last year.
Netanyahu has vowed less restraint since the unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Tehran-backed Hamas, which triggered the massive Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The United States and other Western countries, along with Israel, have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, which it has repeatedly denied.
Israel again called for global action after the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Iran on Wednesday of non-compliance with its obligations.
The resolution could lay the groundwork for European countries to invoke a “snapback” mechanism, which expires in October, that would reinstate UN sanctions eased under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by then-US president Barack Obama.
Trump pulled out of the deal in his first term and slapped Iran with sweeping sanctions.
Iran’s nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, slammed the resolution as “extremist” and blamed Israeli influence.
In response to the resolution, Iran said it would launch a new enrichment centre in a secure location.
Iran would also replace “all of these first-generation machines with sixth-generation advanced machines” at the Fordo uranium enrichment plant, said Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal and close, though still short, of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.
Via: Agence France-Presse
