Iran accused the Group of Seven nations on Tuesday of siding with Israel in its call for “de-escalation” in their intensifying conflict, now in its fifth day. “The G7 must give up its one-sided rhetoric and tackle the real source of the escalation — Israel’s aggression,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said. “Israel has launched an unprovoked war of aggression against Iran... in violation of... the UN Charter,” the spokesman said. “Hundreds of innocent people have been killed, our public and state facilities and people’s homes are brutally demolished. “Iran is defending itself against a cruel aggression. Does Iran really have any other choice?” he asked.
At a G7 summit in Canada on Monday, leaders including US President Donald Trump had called for “de-escalation” of the conflict while stressing Israel had the right to defend itself. In a concluding statement, the G7 leaders said they were committed to “peace and stability” in the Middle East. “We affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel,” said the statement. “Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror,” it said. “We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. “We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East,” the G7 statement added.
US President Donald Trump said he wants a “real end” to the conflict between Israel and Iran, not just a ceasefire, as the arch foes traded fire on Tuesday. The escalating clashes saw Israeli warplanes target military sites in Iran, killing a senior commander and drawing retaliatory missile fire from Iran.
Explosions were heard over Tel Aviv shortly after air raid sirens sounded in many parts of Israel following missile launches from Iran, the Israeli military said. The air force was “operating to intercept and strike where necessary to eliminate the threat”, the military said. About 20 minutes later, it said people could leave shelters as police reported debris fell in the Tel Aviv area and the fire brigade said it was tackling a blaze in the surrounding area.
The Israeli military said it killed senior Iranian commander Ali Shadmani in an overnight strike on a “command centre in the heart of Tehran”, just four days after his predecessor, Golam Ali Rashid, was killed in a similar Israeli attack. It also said it targeted multiple missile and drone sites in west Iran, including infrastructure, launchers and storage facilities, with black-and-white footage showing some of them exploding.
Despite mounting calls to de-escalate, neither side has backed off from the missile blitz that began on Friday, when Israel launched an unprecedented aerial campaign targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities. A new wave of Israeli strikes on Tehran — including a dramatic hit on state television headquarters that the broadcaster said killed three people — prompted both sides to activate missile defence systems overnight. A cyberattack on Tuesday crippled Sepah Bank, one of Iran’s main state-owned banks, the Fars news agency reported.
Trump said on Tuesday that he wanted a “complete give-up” by Iran in return for peace. “I’m not looking for a ceasefire, we’re looking at better than a ceasefire,” he told reporters on the plane home after cutting short his attendance at a Group of Seven summit in Canada. Trump again warned Iran against targeting US troops and assets in the Middle East, saying “we’ll come down so hard, it’d be gloves off”. Trump had earlier issued an extraordinary warning on his Truth Social platform, saying: “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” Trump has repeatedly declined to say if the United States would participate in Israeli military action, although he has said Washington was not involved in initial strikes.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the United States was deploying “additional capabilities” to the Middle East. The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz left Southeast Asia on Monday, scrapping a planned Vietnam port call, amid reports it was heading to the region.
After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel launched its surprise air campaign last week, saying it aimed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran denies. Iran has responded with multiple missile salvos. The Revolutionary Guards vowed on Monday night the attacks would continue “without interruption until dawn”. State television said the Tel Aviv headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency was among the Guards’ targets.
The escalation has derailed nuclear talks and stoked fears of broader conflict. At least 24 people have been killed in Israel and hundreds wounded, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. It has not issued an updated toll since then. Netanyahu said Israel was “changing the face of the Middle East, and that can lead to radical changes inside Iran itself”. Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted a medical official saying all doctors and nurses had their leave cancelled and were ordered to remain at medical centres.
International calls for calm have mounted.
The United States and Iran had engaged in several rounds of indirect talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme in recent weeks, but Iran said after the start of Israel’s campaign that it would not negotiate while under attack. — AFP
Evacuees from Israel arrive in Slovakia and Czech Republic
TEL AVIV: Flights carrying evacuees from Israel have arrived in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, authorities said on Tuesday, putting the two countries among the first to bring citizens home to flee the conflict between Iran and Israel. Another Central European country, Poland, said on Tuesday that the evacuation of Poles from Israel was planned for Wednesday and Thursday.
Slovak authorities said the first evacuation flight with 73 people, including 25 Slovak tourists and five family members of Slovak diplomats working in Tel Aviv, had arrived in the capital Bratislava late on Monday. Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said Slovakia had also helped bring citizens of other countries to Europe, including 15 Poles, mainly children, 14 Czechs, nine Austrians, two Slovenians and one citizen each of Estonia, Spain and Malaysia. “Our partners are contacting us and we are preparing another flight on Tuesday, which should include citizens of the Slovak Republic, as well as citizens of the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Latvia and France,” Blanar said.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Slovakia had helped evacuate seven Hungarians. Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said that a flight with 66 people evacuated from Israel had landed near Prague. Poland said on Monday that it was organising the evacuation of around 200 of its citizens from Israel via Jordan.
On Tuesday, the Polish foreign ministry said it planned to use two planes from Egypt and Jordan for the evacuation, the first of which would take off on Wednesday.
“The plane from Sharm El Sheikh will take off first, the one from Amman will take off second, most likely on Thursday morning,” said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Henryka Moscicka-Dendys. “We want to service this connection with a military plane, because we see that there are not as many people willing to evacuate as it might seem.” — Reuters
Qatar monitors radiation levels as Israel hits nuclear sites
DOHA: Qatar has been monitoring radiation levels in the Gulf as Israeli air strikes pound Iranian nuclear facilities, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
“We are monitoring this on a daily basis,” foreign ministry spokesman Majed al Ansari told a news conference. “We have nothing to be concerned about right now, but obviously prolonged escalation will have unpredictable consequences.”
Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure on Friday, triggering deadly missile exchanges between the arch foes, which are now in their fifth day. “We have to emphasise, when we are talking about the waters of the Gulf, it’s the main source of water for all of us here in the region,” Ansari said. “The international community has to make it very clear that any targeting of nuclear facilities, any targeting of fuel or energy facilities in this region, would have ramifications that are unknown to us in the Gulf.” Iran has a nuclear power plant at Bushehr on the Gulf coast, though its uranium enrichment facilities, which have been targeted by Israel, lie hundreds of kilometres (miles) inland.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Friday it had been informed by Iran that the Bushehr plant had not been targeted. On Saturday, Israel struck a major Iranian gas facility on the Gulf coast serving the South Pars gas field, which is shared with Qatar.
Ansari said Qatar’s own facilities in the field were “secure” but condemned the Israeli strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure as “reckless”. Journalist heard a series of loud explosions in north Tehran on Tuesday, as Israel kept up its strikes on Iran’s military and nuclear facilities for a fifth day. It was not immediately clear whether the blasts were the result of incoming Israeli strikes or Iranian air defence fire. — AFP
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