WASHINGTON: Iran said on Friday it would not discuss the future of its nuclear programme while under Israeli attack, as Europe sought to draw Tehran back to the negotiating table, with a decision on potential U.S. involvement expected within two weeks.
Israel began attacking Iran last Friday, saying it aimed to prevent its longtime enemy from developing nuclear weapons. Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel. It says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
Israeli air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, the Human Rights Activists News Agency said. Those killed include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists. Israel has said at least two dozen Israeli civilians have died in Iranian missile attacks. Reuters could not independently verify the death toll from either side.
Israel has targeted nuclear sites, missile capabilities, while also hitting civilian areas, as it tries to shatter the government of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Western and regional officials.
“Are we targeting the downfall of the regime? That may be a result, but it’s up to the Iranian people to rise for their freedom,“ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Iran has said it is targeting military and defence-related sites in Israel, although it has also hit a hospital and other civilian sites.
Israel accused Iran on Thursday of deliberately targeting civilians through the use of cluster munitions, which disperse small bombs over a wide area. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran’s emergency services said on Friday that five hospitals had been damaged in Israeli strikes.
With neither country backing down, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany along with the European Union foreign policy chief were due to meet Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Geneva to try to de-escalate the conflict on Friday.
“Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one,“ said British Foreign Minister David Lammy.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also met Lammy on Thursday and held separate calls with his counterparts from Australia, France and Italy.
The U.S. State Department said Rubio and the foreign ministers agreed that “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Lammy said the same on X while adding that a “window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution.”
However, Araqchi told Iranian state television on Friday that Tehran would not agree to talks while Israeli strikes continued.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping both condemned Israel and agreed that de-escalation is needed, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
The role of the United States remained uncertain. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, has spoken with Araqchi several times since last week, sources say.
The White House said Trump will take part in a national security meeting on Friday morning. The president has alternated between threatening Tehran and urging it to resume nuclear talks that were suspended over the conflict.
MISSILE STRIKES
At dawn on Friday, the Israeli military issued a fresh warning of an incoming barrage of missiles from Iran. At least one made a direct impact in Beersheba, Israel’s largest southern city, which has been targeted in recent days.
The missile struck near residential apartments, office buildings, and industrial facilities, leaving a large crater and ripping off the facade of at least one apartment complex while damaging several others.
“We have a direct strike next to one of the buildings. The damage here is quite (extensive),“ paramedic Shafir Botner said.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan aired footage showing cars engulfed in flames, thick plumes of smoke and shattered windows at apartment buildings.
At least six people sustained light injuries in the blast, according to Botner, who said that first responders were still searching apartments for casualties.
On Thursday, Iran hit a major hospital in Beersheba, Israel’s largest city in the south. Iran said it was targeting Israeli military headquarters near the hospital but Israel has denied there were any such facilities in the area.
Israel’s military also said it had carried out several overnight strikes in the heart of the Iranian capital. The targets included missile production sites and a facility for nuclear weapons research and development, it said.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned of action against Iranian ally Hezbollah on Friday, a day after the Lebanese militant group suggested it would come to Iran’s aid.
Trump has mused about striking Iran, possibly with a “bunker buster” bomb that could destroy nuclear sites built deep underground. The White House said Trump would decide in the next two weeks whether to get involved in the war.
That may not be a firm deadline. Trump has commonly used “two weeks” as a time frame for making decisions and allowed other economic and diplomatic deadlines to slide.
With the Islamic Republic facing one of its greatest external threats since the 1979 revolution, any direct challenge to its 46-year-long rule would likely require some form of popular uprising.
But activists involved in previous bouts of protest say they are unwilling to unleash mass unrest, even against a system they hate, with their nation under attack.
“How are people supposed to pour into the streets? In such horrifying circumstances, people are solely focused on saving themselves, their families, their compatriots, and even their pets,“ said Atena Daemi, a prominent activist who spent six years in prison before leaving Iran.
