The Israeli army said on Saturday that it had struck an Iranian nuclear research installation overnight and had killed three high Iranian commanders in targeted attacks, while stressing that it was preparing for the possibility that the conflict could turn into a long campaign.
Early on Saturday, smoke could be seen rising from an area near a mountain in Isfahan, where a local official said that Israel had attacked the nuclear research installation in two waves.
The objective was of two centrifuge production sites, and the attacks have come in addition to strikes on other centrifuge production sites elsewhere in recent days, according to an Israeli military official speaking under the cover of anonymity under the guidelines of the army to brief journalists. It was the second attack on Isfahan, which was affected in the first 24 hours of the war as part of Israel’s objective to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.
The Israeli air defense system is triggered to intercept the missiles during an Iranian attack on Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday June 21, 2025.
Leo Correa / The Associated Press
Akbar Salehi, assistant to Isfahan Province for Security Affairs, confirmed that Israeli strikes had caused the installation damage, but said there were no human victims.
Iran has launched a new wave of drones and missiles in Israel, but there has been no immediate report of significant damage, and the Israeli manager called him “small dam” which was largely intercepted by the defenses of Israel.
The manager said that part of the reason why the attack on Iran’s night had been relatively low was that the soldiers were targeting his launchers and estimated that he now withdrew more than 50%.
“We have been able to eliminate a large quantity of their launchers, creating a bottleneck-we make them more difficult for them to pull towards Israel,” he said. “After saying all of this, I mean that the Iranian diet obviously has capacity.”
Magen David Adom Service of Israel said on Saturday that an Iranian drone had struck a two -story building in northern Israel, but there were no victims.
Later, the head of the Israeli army, Brig. General Effie Defrin, said the army had been informed by General Eyal Zamir’s chief of staff to be prepared for an “prolonged campaign” to destroy his objectives, including nuclear sites, enrichment facilities and missile infrastructure.
“We deepen our strikes night after night and we have incredible achievements,” he said. “We will continue until the threat is deleted.”
Talks in Switzerland fail to produce a breakthrough
The discussions in Geneva on Friday failed to produce a breakthrough. European officials expressed the hope of future discussions, and the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Arabhchi said that he was open to a dialogue more while stressing that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the United States while Israel continued to attack.
The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi listens to speeches as he attended the Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Reunion of the Islamic Cooperation Organization in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 21, 2025.
Khalil Hamra / The Associated Press
“Iran is ready to consider diplomacy again and once the assault has been arrested and the attacker is held responsible for committed crimes,” he told journalists.
Get daily national news
Get the best news of the day, the titles of political, economic and current affairs, delivered in your reception box once a day.
No date has been set for the next series of discussions.
Iran warns against US military participation
US President Donald Trump weighs an active American military involvement in the conflict, which said that Araghchi said on Saturday “would be very unhappy.”
US President Donald Trump looks at La Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, the United States, on June 20, 2025. Trump said on Friday that it would be difficult to ask Israel to stop his air strikes in Iran, even though he was pursuing a diplomatic solution to end the conflict.
Hu Yousong / Xinhua via Zuma Press
“I think it would be very, very dangerous for everyone,” he told Istanbul, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the organization of Islamic cooperation.
The war between Israel and Iran broke out on June 13, with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, superior generals and nuclear scientists. At least 722 people, including 285 civilians, were killed in Iran and more than 2,500 injured, according to an Iranian human rights group based in Washington.
Iran retaliated by pulling more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones in Israel, according to estimates by the Israeli army. Most were shot dead by aerial defenses on several levels of Israel, but at least 24 people in Israel were killed and hundreds injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli military operations in Iran would continue “as long as she takes” to eliminate what he called the existential threat of the Iranian nuclear program and the arsenal of ballistic missiles.
But Netanyahu’s objective could be out of reach without the help of us. Less than a commando raid or even a nuclear strike, the installation of the underground enrichment of uranium of Iranium of Iran is considered to be out of the reach of all the “bunker-letters” bombs in America. Trump said he would leave whether to join the opportunity to join the Israel air campaign against Iran for a period of up to two weeks.
Israel continues targeted attacks on Iranian military commanders
In the opening attack of Israel, he killed three of the main Iranian military leaders: the one who supervised all the armed forces, General Mohammad Bagheri; Whoever managed the Revolutionary’s paramilitary guard, General Hossein Salami; And the head of the goalkeeper’s ballistic missile program, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
The targeted murders of senior commanders continued, the Israeli Minister of Defense saying on Saturday that the soldiers had killed a commander in the Iranian paramilitary guardian who financed and armed in Hamas in preparation for the war of October 7, 2023 against Israel who sparked the 20 -month war in Gaza.
Israel said that Saeed Izadi was commander of the Palestine body for the Iranian force Quds, an elite of the guard who conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran, and that he was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom.
Iranian officials did not immediately confirm the death, but the office of the governor of Qom said that there had been an attack on a four -story building and that the local media reported that two people had been killed.
Israel also said that he had killed the commander of the Iron Transfer Unit of Quds Force, who, according to him, was responsible for providing weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas. Behnam Shahriyari was killed in his car while traveling in western Iran, the army said.
A commander of the Iranian drone force was also killed overnight, said the Israeli official who informed the journalists.
Iran threatens the head of the United Nations nuclear guard dog
On Friday, the head of the United Nations nuclear custody warned an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council against attacks against Iranian nuclear reactors, in particular his only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.
“I want to make it absolutely and completely clear: in the event of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct blow would lead to a very great release of radioactivity to the environment,” said Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. “It is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be the most serious.”
Israel has not targeted Iran’s nuclear reactors, rather concentrating its strikes on the main installation of uranium enrichment in Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, Laboratories in Isfahan and heavy water reactor in the country southwest of the capital.
DOSSIER – Managing Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi at a meeting with the Japanese government in Tokyo on Thursday, March 14, 2024.
Eugene Hoshiko / The Associated Press
Iran had previously agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium and allow international inspectors to access its nuclear sites under a 2015 agreement with the United States, France, China, Russia, Great Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions. But after Trump withdrew the United States unilaterally from the agreement during its first mandate, Iran began to enrich uranium up to 60% – to a short technical step in the quality of weapons of 90% – and restricted access to its nuclear installations.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only non -nuclear state to enrich uranium up to 60%. Israel is largely considered to be the only country in the Middle East with a nuclear weapon program but has never recognized it.
The leaders in Iran blamed the roughly of the status of the Iranian nuclear program for prompting the attack on Israel.
On Saturday, a main advisor for the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamanei, Ali Larijani, said in a brief article on social networks without elaborating that Iran would “pay” the Grosi once war with Israel.
_____
Rising reported in Dubai United Arab Emirates. The writers of the Associated Press Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul, Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Farnoush Amiri in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
