Iran’s deputy foreign minister warned European nations that they will become legitimate targets if they become involved in the US and Israel’s war on Tehran. If any country “joins America and Israel in the aggression against Iran, they will be also legitimate targets for Iran’s retaliation,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi told France 24. He said Iranian officials had been “negotiating in good faith” with the US before Washington decided to attack with Israel on Saturday. “We do not trust the Americans. Not only did they betray us, but they betrayed diplomacy.”
Iran’s UN ambassador said that at least 1,332 Iranian civilians have been killed so far in the US-Israeli war on Tehran, with thousands more injured, and accused the US and Israel of war crimes. Amir Saeid Iravani told reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York that the US and Israel “have demonstrated that they recognise no red line in committing their crimes”. He accused the two countries of “indiscriminate” attacks that were “deliberately” targeting “densely populated” civilian areas and infrastructure, including schools, medical, recreational and sports facilities. “These acts constitute clear war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he said.
Meanwhile, the US military campaign against Iran may take as long as four to six weeks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that the US is “well on its way” toward controlling Iranian airspace. It comes as Trump met with leading US weapons manufacturers at the White House and said they had agreed to “quadruple Production of ‘Exquisite Class’ Weaponry”.
Leavitt added that the US would consider Iran in a state of “unconditional surrender” once Donald Trump determines the country no longer “poses a threat” to the United States. Trump said on Friday that only Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” will bring an end to the joint US-Israeli offensive launched seven days ago.
The Russian and Iranian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian, held a phone call today in which they agreed to continue contacts, the Kremlin said. It comes amid reports that Moscow has been providing Tehran with the locations of US military assets, including warships and aircraft, in the region. The White House earlier declined to confirm those reports.
The UN secretary-general called on nations to “stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations”, warning that the situation “could spiral beyond anyone’s control”. “The stakes could not be higher,” António Guterres wrote in a post on X.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Iranian military told Iranian state TV that Tehran does not plan to close the strait of Hormuz, but will target any ship belonging to Israel or the United States. It comes as the US-Israeli war on Iran has driven the oil price past $90 a barrel to its highest weekly gains since the Covid-19 pandemic six years ago, threatening a fresh rise in global inflation.
French president Macron condemned an Israeli strike that directly hit a United Nations site in Lebanon earlier today, critically injuring two Ghanaian soldiers serving with the UN’s peacekeeping mission there.
Qatar’s defence ministry said that the country’s air defence systems were “subjected to waves of attacks” from Iranian drones on Friday, starting at dawn and continuing until evening. It said that of the 10 drones that were launched towards Qatar, nine were intercepted while the tenth hit an uninhabited area, causing no injuries.
Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said his country was drawn into a war “it did not seek or choose”. In a speech during a meeting with Arab and foreign ambassadors, he warned that “a humanitarian disaster is looming”.
US investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion, according to a Reuters report citing two unnamed US officials.
Iranian forces fired seven attack drones at residential neighbourhoods in Bahrain overnight, said US Central Command (Centcom), which accused the Iranian government of attacking 12 different countries and “deliberately” targeting civilians.
