AP, DUBAI: Iran launched a second night of missiles against Israel late Saturday while Israel’s military kept up attacks inside Tehran and elsewhere, a day after Israel’s blistering attack on Iranian nuclear and military sites over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. The latest U.S.-Iran talks will not take place Sunday, officials said.
Both Israel’s military and Iran state television announced the latest round of Iranian missiles as explosions were heard in parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv, less than an hour before midnight — while the security cabinet was meeting. Fire officials reported a collapsed building in the north. Within the hour, Israel’s military said people could leave shelters.
The military noted it was currently striking “military targets” in Tehran, where Iranian state television said explosions were heard in the city’s east and west.
Israel’s ongoing “widespread strikes” across Iran have left the country’s surviving leadership with the difficult decision of whether to plunge deeper into conflict with Israel’s more powerful forces or seek a diplomatic route.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has confirmed to Al Jazeera that the next round of Iran-United States nuclear negotiations, scheduled for Sunday in Oman, has been cancelled.
Asked on Saturday, “Can we have a clear confirmation that Sunday’s talks are cancelled?”, Araghchi responded, “Yes”.
Shortly after that, Oman also confirmed the talks “will not now take place”.
Earlier, Iran had clearly intimated that the continuation of nuclear talks with the US was unjustifiable while “barbarous” Israeli attacks target the nation, Iranian state media reported, quoting Araghchi.
It seemed inevitable that the talks would fall victim to the sudden, massive escalation by Israel and Iran’s retaliation.
Tehran branded dialogue over its nuclear programme with the US as “meaningless” after Israel launched its biggest-ever military strike against Iran, which Tehran accuses Washington, DC, of supporting.
“The other side [the US] acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime [Israel] to target Iran’s territory,” Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency quoted Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying on Saturday.
The US has denied the Iranian allegation of being complicit in Israel’s attacks and told Tehran at the United Nations Security Council that it would be “wise” to negotiate over its nuclear programme.
US President Donald Trump has called the Israeli attacks on Iran “excellent” after initially warning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against action that could jeopardise nuclear talks.
Trump on Friday framed the volatile conflict with Israel as a possible “second chance” for Iran’s leadership to avoid further destruction, “before there is nothing left and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire”.
The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was set to be held on Sunday in Oman.
Iran denies that its uranium enrichment programme is for anything other than civilian purposes, rejecting Israeli allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. Netanyahu has pledged to continue the attacks for “as many days as it takes” to stop Iran from developing a “nuclear threat”.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he had warned Iran’s leaders that “it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come”.
“And they [Israelis] know how to use it,” he added.
Trump has blamed Iran for rejecting US proposals on uranium enrichment and has warned of more brutal Israeli strikes ahead.
