Iran The supreme chief rejected on Wednesday American surrender calls faced with more Israeli The strikes and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage”. European diplomats prepared for interviews with Iran on Friday.
The second public appearance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since the Israeli strikes began six days ago came when Israel has raised certain restrictions on daily life, suggesting that the threat of Iran’s missiles was relaxed.
Khamenei spoke one day after the American president Donald Trump demanded in a position of social media that Iran goes without conditions and warned Khamenei that the United States knows where he is but does not intend to kill him, “at least not for the moment”.
Trump initially moved away from Israel’s surprise attack on Friday which sparked the conflict, but in recent days, he has referred to greater American involvement, saying that he wanted something “much bigger” than a cease-fire. The United States has also sent more military planes and warships to the region.
Friday, senior European diplomats were to organize nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva, according to a European official familiar with the issue.
The official, who was not authorized to comment on publicly and asked anonymity to freely discuss questions, said that the meeting would include high-ranking diplomats from Germany, France and the United Kingdom, as well as the first diplomat of the European Union.
In a video address to the Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his appreciation for Trump’s support in the conflict, calling him “great friend of Israel” and congratulates us to help defend the sky of Israel.
“We are talking constantly, including last night,” he said on Wednesday. “We had a very warm conversation.”
“ The Iranian nation is not one to surrender ” ‘
Khamenei rejected “threatening and absurd statements” by Trump.
“The sages who know Iran, its people and its history never speak to this nation with the language of threats, because the Iranian nation is not one to go,” he said in a low-resolution video, his voice echoing.
“Americans should know that any military involvement in the United States will undoubtedly lead to irreparable damage.”
Iran published the Khamenei Declaration before the video broadcast, perhaps as a safety measure. Its location is not known, and it was impossible to discern tight shot, which showed only beige curtains, an Iranian flag and a portrait of the great Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the immediate predecessor of Khamenei, who died in 1989.
An Iranian diplomat warned on Wednesday earlier that the American intervention would risk “total war”.
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The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baghaei, has not developed, but thousands of American troops are based in neighboring countries within Iranian weapons. The United States has threatened a massive response to any attack.
Another Iranian official said that the country would continue to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, apparently excluding Trump’s requests that Iran abandoned his disputed nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday evening that it was under a cyber attack by Israel.
Social media users have indicated that the regular broadcast on state television has been briefly interrupted and replaced by an antigan video urging people to descend into the street. After the normal broadcast has resumed, a message on the screen said: “If you see an unrelevant message on the screen, this is due to a cyber attack of the Zionist diet.”
Strike in Tehran and the surrounding area
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. General Effie Defrin declared on Wednesday at a press conference that Israel had launched three waves of air attacks in the last 24 hours, deployment of dozens of war planes to strike more than 60 targets in Tehran and western Iran, including missile launchers, arms production sites and an anti-Tank military group for the Hezbollah military group.
The Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that the soldiers had also struck the headquarters of Iran’s internal security forces, without specifying the agency or the place. The strike marks a change towards targeting the internal security apparatus of Iran, which has long suppressed dissent and abolished the demonstrations.
Iran’s police forces recognized the strike a few hours later, saying that Israel struck its central command buildings in Tehran and injured certain officers, without saying how much.
In addition, the United Nations Nuclear Supervisory Agency said: Israel has struck two centrifuge production facilities in Tehran and near Tehran.
Israel’s air campaign has struck several nuclear and military sites, killing the best generals and nuclear scientists. An Iranian human rights group based in Washington said that at least 585 people, including 239 civilians, had been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 injured.
In retaliation, Iran pulled some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and injuring hundreds. Some have struck apartments in the center of Israel, causing heavy damage.
Israeli military officials said their defenses intercepted 10 missiles overnight and several others on Wednesday evening while Iran’s reprisal dams decreased. The air raid sirens forced the Israelis to run for a shelter. There was no injury report.
Iran has pulled fewer missiles when the conflict has worn. He did not explain the decline, but Israel has targeted launchers and other infrastructures related to missiles.
Wednesday, Israel attenuated some of the restrictions it had imposed on civilians when Iran launched its reprisal attack, allowing gatherings of 30 people and leaving the workplaces to reopen as long as there is a nearby shelter.
Schools are closed and many cases remain closed, but Israel’s decision to reverse its ban on rallies and office labor signals the confidence that its attacks have limited the missile capacities of Iran.
Human rights activists based in Washington said they had identified 239 of people killed in Israeli strikes as civilians and 126 as security staff.
The group, which also provided detailed figures during the 2022 demonstrations against the death of Mahsa Amini, checks the local reports against a network of sources it has developed in Iran.
Iran has not published regular death tasks during the conflict and minimized the victims in the past. His latest update, published on Monday, tolls 224 people killed and 1,277 others injured.
The Internet service, which has faced repeated disturbances in Iran in the last six days, crashed on Wednesday. The Internet Netblocks surveillance group reported an “almost total internet sealing”.
The Iranian Ministry of Communications has announced that the government is limiting internet access to prevent “Israeli’s engineering abuse from the country’s communication network for military purposes”.
The stores have been closed through Tehran, including in its famous big bazaar, while people expect gas pipes and put roads leading to the city to escape the assault.
Witnesses said that more than 10 powerful explosions shook the center of Tehran around 8 p.m., sending white smoke to the air. The authorities of Iran offered no recognition of the attacks, which have become increasingly common as Israeli air strikes intensified.
At least one strike seemed to target the eastern district of Tehran in Hakimiyeh, where the paramilitary revolution goalkeeper has an academy.
Iran says it will continue to enrich uranium
Israel says that he launched strikes to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, after talks between the United States and Iran about a diplomatic resolution made little visible progress over two months but was still underway. Trump said the Israel’s campaign came after a 60 -day window that he set for talks.
Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful, although it is the only non -nuclear non -nuclear state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short technical step in the level of weapons of 90%. American intelligence agencies said they did not think Iran actively pursued the bomb.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons but has never recognized them publicly.
Iranian ambassador to Geneva, Ali Bahreini, told journalists that Iran “will continue to produce uranium enriched how much we need for peaceful purposes”.
He rejected any discourse on a setback in Iran’s nuclear research and development of Israeli strikes, saying: “Our scientists will continue their work.”
Frankel reported in Jerusalem. The writers of the Associated Press Amir Vahdat, Nasser Karimi and Mehdi Fattahi in Iran, Jamey Kealen in Geneva, Aamer Madhani in Washington and Isabel Debre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.