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Iran’s foreign minister on Friday condemned the Israeli attacks against the Islamic republic as a “betrayal” of diplomatic efforts with the US, saying Tehran and Washington had been due to craft a “promising agreement” on the Iranian nuclear programme.”We were attacked in the midst of an ongoing diplomatic process,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva ahead of a crunch meeting with European foreign ministers.Araghchi, making his first trip abroad since the strikes began, denounced Israel’s attack as an “outrageous act of aggression”.US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had planned to meet Araghchi in Oman on June 15 but the meeting was cancelled after Israel began the strikes days before.”We were supposed to meet with the Americans on 15 June to craft a very promising agreement for peaceful resolution of the issues fabricated over our peaceful nuclear programme,” said Araghchi.”It was a betrayal of diplomacy and unprecedented blow to the foundations of international law,” he said.Israel began its campaign on Friday saying the operation was aimed at halting Tehran from obtaining an atomic bomb, an ambition Iran denies having.Iran said 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.Iranian strikes launched in response have also caused damage in Israel, where at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded, according to the government.Araghchi described the attacks by Israel as an “unjust war imposed on my people” that had killed “hundreds”.Pointing to the risk of radiation after strikes on atomic plants, he said: “Attacks on nuclear facilities are grave war crimes.””Iran rightfully expects each and everyone of you to stand for justice and rule of law,” he added.

Thousands of people rallied in Tehran, Baghdad and Beirut on Friday after weekly prayers to protest Israel’s strikes on Iran, chanting slogans against Israel and its main backer, the United States.Images on Iran’s state television showed protesters in Tehran holding up photographs of commanders killed since the start of the war, while others waved the flags of Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.”This is the Friday of the Iranian nation’s solidarity and resistance across the country,” the news anchor said.”I will sacrifice my life for my leader,” read a protester’s banner, referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.According to state television, protests took place in other cities around the country, including in Tabriz in northwestern Iran and Shiraz in the south.Last week, Israel launched a blistering attack on Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with barrages of missiles aimed at Israel.Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari, the Imam leading Tehran’s prayers, told worshippers that Israel had attacked Iran out of “despair”, the official IRNA news agency reported.He accused Israel of launching a “psychological war” to “pit the people of the country against the government”.”Their plans were precise, but their calculations were laughable,” the Imam said.With warnings of all-out regional war intensifying, fears are growing over an intervention by Iran-backed Iraqi factions, who have threatened Washington’s interests in the region if it were to join Israel in its war against Iran. – ‘No right’ -In Iraq, thousands of supporters of powerful cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied after Friday prayers in Baghdad and other cities, AFP correspondents said.Sadr, who has previously criticised Tehran-backed Iraqi armed factions, retains a devoted following of millions among Iraq’s majority community of Shiite Muslims.”No to Israel! No to America!” chanted demonstrators gathered in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, the cleric’s stronghold in the capital.”It is an unjust war… Israel has no right” to hit Iran, said protester Abu Hussein.”Israel is not in it for the (Iranian) nuclear (programme). What Israel and the Americans want is to dominate the Middle East,” added the 54-year-old taxi driver.In the city of Kufa, protesters set fire to Israeli and American flags.Iraq is both a significant ally of Iran and a strategic partner of the United States.In Lebanon, hundreds of Hezbollah supporters took to the streets in the group’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Men, women and children waved the flags of Iran, Hezbollah and Lebanon, with some holding pictures of Khamenei.”It is my duty to stand with (Iran) against the Zionist Israeli enemy,” said Adnan Zaytoun, 60.Hezbollah, which suffered heavy blows in its latest confrontation with Israel last year, has not expressed any intention to intervene militarily on Iran’s side.To supporters like Zaytoun, ‘”if anyone attacks us, we will defend ourselves, but we do not support war.”Fadel Saad, an 18-year-old student, “We are here to show the American and Israeli enemies that we are resilient and will not be defeated… even if they destroy our homes over our heads.”In Yemen’s capital Sanaa and other areas, tens of thousands of people gathered for protests organised by the Iran-backed Huthis, according to their official media outlets.burs/tgg-rh/jsa

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 31 Palestinian aid seekers were among at least 60 people killed Friday by Israeli forces, the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid distribution sites.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 26 others near a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli-controlled strip of land that bisects the Palestinian territory.Thousands of Palestinians have gathered there daily in the hope of receiving food rations, as famine looms across Gaza after more than 20 months of war.The Israeli army told AFP that its troops in the Netzarim area had first fired “warning shots” at “suspects” approaching them.When the individuals continued advancing, “an aircraft struck and eliminated the suspects in order to remove the threat,” the army said.Similar incidents have occurred in that area regularly since late May, when the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation opened its distribution centres, as Israel eased a two-month aid blocakde.The privately run foundation’s operations in Gaza have been marred by chaotic scenes. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.Elsewhere in the territory on Friday, Bassal said 14 people were killed in two separate strikes in and around the central city of Deir el-Balah, and 13 others in three Israeli air strikes in the Gaza City area.One of those strikes, which killed three people, hit a phone charging station in the city, Bassal said.In southern Gaza, two people were killed “by Israeli gunfire” in two separate incidents, he added.Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.The armed wing of Palestinian miliant group, Al-Quds Brigades, said on Friday it had targeted an Israeli military post in the southern city of Khan Yunis, claiming “dead and wounded” Israeli troops as a result.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not comment.Much of Khan Yunis, like vast areas across Gaza, is under Israeli military evacuation orders.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said France and other European powers would make an offer to Iran of a comprehensive diplomatic solution to end the escalating conflict with Israel.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will later Friday meet Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva “to make a complete diplomatic and technical offer for negotiations,” Macron told reporters, adding that France and allies Germany and the UK were “putting a diplomatic solution on the table”.”Iran must show that it is willing to join the platform for negotiations we are putting on the table,” Macron said on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget outside the French capital.”It is essential to prioritise a return to substantive negotiations (with Iran) which include nuclear — to move to zero enrichment (by Iran of uranium) — ballistics, to limit Iranian capacities, and the financing of all the terrorist groups that destabilise the region,” Macron said.He said that the offer to be made by Barrot and his German and UK counterparts to Araghchi later Friday would have four aspects.The first would forsee a resumption of work by the UN atomic agency, with “the capacity to go to all the sites”, so that Iran moves to zero enrichment of uranium, Macron said.The second and third aspects would comprise oversight of Iran’s ballistics activities and how it finances proxies in the region, he added.The fourth would be the liberation of “hostages” by Iran, said Macron, referring to the foreigners jailed by the Islamic republic who include two French citizens.Macron said that “no-one should neglect the risk that an Iran with nuclear weapons would present”, adding that the Islamic republic presented an “existential risk” for Israel.But the French president also criticised the scope of the military action by Israel which has hit targets beyond nuclear and ballistics facilities.”I consider that strikes that hit civilian or energy facilities and hit civilian populations must absolutely stop. Nothing justifies this.”Macron also warned Israel that military action alone would not be sufficient to degrade the Iranian nuclear programme.”No one seriously thinks that this risk (posed by the Iranian atomic drive) can be responded to only through the operations that are currently underway,” he said.”There are facilities that are extremely well protected we do not know exactly where the uranium enriched to 60 percent is.”

Since launching air strikes on Iran last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working to pull President Donald Trump into the war, and sway a sceptical American public.In his daily calls and public statements, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister has mixed praise and deference for the US leader, while also arguing that the strikes on Iran benefit Americans. “Do you want these people to have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to you?” he asked during an interview on Fox News last Sunday. “Today, it’s Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it’s New York,” he told ABC News a day later, arguing that Iran was working on longer-range missiles that would be able to reach US shores in the future.His media blitz came after intensive and not always harmonious exchanges between Netanyahu and Trump this year, with the Israeli leader welcomed twice to the White House since the Republican’s return to power in January.The New York Times, citing unnamed US administration sources, reported Tuesday that Netanyahu had asked Trump for US-made bunker-busting bombs capable of reaching Iran’s underground Iranian nuclear facilities in an April meeting — but had been refused.Having been elected in opposition to US entanglements overseas and supposed “war-mongers” in the Democratic party, Trump was seen as reluctant to commit Washington to another unpopular war in the Middle East.Much of his right-wing Make America Great Again (MAGA) coalition is staunchly anti-interventionist, including Vice President JD Vance, his head of national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, and influential media figures such as Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson.But speaking Wednesday, the former tycoon stated clearly that he was considering joining the Israeli campaign directly, raising the possibility of the bunker-busting GBU-57 bombs being deployed against Iran’s main underground uranium stockpile facility in Fordo.”I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he had decided on US air strikes.His final decision will come “within the next two weeks”, he said Thursday.- Influence -Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East expert at the London-based Chatham House think-tank, said Netanyahu had been clever in his dealings with Trump, appealing to his “vanity” with charm as well “using his weaknesses”.Once he had received an “amber light” in private from the US leader to launch the attacks last Friday, “he knew Trump’s personality and knew that Trump might come on board if there was a chance of claiming glory in some way or claiming some sort of credit,” he told AFP.Trump has openly praised the success of the Israeli military campaign which has combined targeted assassinations of key military personnel, destruction of Iran’s air defences and repeated strikes on nuclear sites. Eliot A. Cohen, a veteran former US State Department advisor and international relations expert at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, cautioned against overstating Netanyahu’s personal influence, however.”I suspect this is much less about Netanyahu’s influence than Trump’s own view of the Iranian nuclear programme, his memory of the assassination plot against him in 2024 by Iranian agents and the success of the initial Israeli operations,” he told AFP.An Iranian man has been charged in connection with an alleged plot to kill Trump before his election last November.Cohen said Netanyahu’s lobbying could succeed for several reasons.”They are not asking for anything other than the bombing of Fordo,” he said, referring to the deeply buried underground uranium enrichment facility. “Nobody is talking about an invasion or anything like that.””Many if not most Americans understand that a nuclear Iran is particularly dangerous, and that the regime is deeply hostile to the US,” he added.  – Public opinion -A poll by the survey group YouGov for The Economist magazine conducted last weekend found half of Americans viewed Iran as an “enemy” and another quarter said it was “unfriendly.” But it found that only 16 percent of Americans “think the US military should get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran”.It found that majorities of Democrats (65 percent), independents (61 percent) and Republicans (53 percent) opposed military intervention.Speaking on his War Room podcast Wednesday, former Trump strategist Bannon seethed that Netanyahu had “lectured” America and started a war he couldn’t end on his own.”Quit coming to us to finish it,” he said.

European powers hope to offer a “diplomatic solution” to end the Iran-Israel war at talks in Geneva with Iran’s foreign minister, French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday.It comes as US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of entering a war now in its second week. Israel, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, launched a massive wave of strikes a week ago, triggering an immediate retaliation from Tehran.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will meet his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva “to make a complete diplomatic and technical offer for negotiations”, Macron told reporters.France and its allies Germany and Britain were “putting a diplomatic solution on the table”, he added.On the ground, Israel’s military said it struck dozens of targets in Tehran overnight, including what it called a centre for the “research and development of Iran’s nuclear weapons project”.In Israel, sirens sounded after missiles were launched from Iran, the army said, while police said they, emergency response teams and bomb disposal experts were operating “at the site of a projectile impact” in a southern city.Trump has said he would decide “within the next two weeks” whether to involve the United States in the fighting.Israel, the United States and other Western powers accuse Iran of seeking an atomic weapon, a charge that it denies.Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent — far above the 3.67-percent limit set by a 2015 deal, but still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.- ‘A window now exists’ -Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said “a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution”, while agreeing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon”.German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the United States was both aware and supportive of the meeting taking place in Geneva.”Iran should be mindful that it needs to show a new level of seriousness and trustworthiness if it wants to avoid a prolongation” of the war,” he said.France’s foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said the diplomatic route would be the only way to ensure Iran respects its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”Military solutions are not long-term solutions,” he told French radio station Cnews.Iran’s Araghchi, however, rejected any prospect of talks with the United States so long as Israel continues its attacks.”The Americans have repeatedly sent messages calling seriously for negotiations. But we have made clear that as long as the aggression does not stop, there will be no place for diplomacy and dialogue,” he said.Araghchi is also due to address the UN Human Rights Council Friday, the body’s spokesman said.- ‘Speculation’ -The UN Security Council is also due to convene on Friday for a second session on the conflict, which was requested by Iran with support from Russia, China and Pakistan, a diplomat told AFP on Wednesday.Speaking to CNN, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi said that while Iran is the world’s only non-declared nuclear power to enrich uranium to 60 percent, there was currently no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.”So, saying how long it would take for them, it would be pure speculation because we do not know whether there was somebody, you know, secretly pursuing these activities,” Grossi said. “We haven’t seen that and we have to say it.”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran was “a couple of weeks” away from producing an atomic bomb.”If there’s a chance for diplomacy the president’s always going to grab it, but he’s not afraid to use strength as well,” Leavitt said. Any US involvement in Israel’s campaign would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground nuclear facility in Fordo, using powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses.- ‘Collateral damage’ -Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supports the prospect of US involvement in the war, has sworn Iran will pay a “heavy price” after 40 people were wounded and several hospital wards destroyed in a missile attack.World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called attacks on health facilities “appalling”, while UN rights chief Volker Turk said civilians were being treated as “collateral damage”.In Iran, people fleeing Israel’s attacks described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages and limited internet access.”Those days and nights were very horrifying… hearing sirens, the wailing, the danger of being hit by missiles,” University of Tehran student Mohammad Hassan told AFP, after returning to his native Pakistan.Protests broke out in Tehran and other cities after Friday prayers, with demonstrators chanting slogans in support of their leaders, state television showed.”I will sacrifice my life for my leader,” read a protester’s banner, a reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The death toll in Israel from Iranian missile strikes since June 13 was 25 people, according to authorities.Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.burs-ser/jsa/dcp

European foreign ministers will hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday, as President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of US involvement in the Iran-Israel war.Israel, saying Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched a massive wave of strikes a week ago, triggering an immediate retaliation.On the ground, Israel’s military said it struck dozens of targets in Tehran overnight, including what it called a centre for the “research and development of Iran’s nuclear weapons project”.In Israel, sirens sounded after missiles were launched from Iran, the army said, while police said they, emergency response teams and bomb disposal experts were operating “at the site of a projectile impact” in a southern city.European leaders have urged de-escalation in Iran’s war with Israel, while Trump has said he would decide “within the next two weeks” whether to involve the United States in the fighting.Israel, the United States and other Western powers accuse Iran of seeking an atomic weapon, a charge that it denies.Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent — far above the 3.67-percent limit set by a 2015 deal, but still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.- ‘A window now exists’ -Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet with his French, German, British and EU counterparts in Geneva on Friday to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme.He will also address the UN Human Rights Council, the body’s spokesman said.Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said “a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution”, while agreeing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon”.German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the United States was both aware and supportive of the meeting taking place in Geneva.”Iran should be mindful that it needs to show a new level of seriousness and trustworthiness if it wants to avoid a prolongation” of the war,” he said.France’s foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said the diplomatic route would be the only way to ensure Iran respects its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”Military solutions are not long-term solutions,” he told French radio station Cnews.Iran’s Araghchi, however, rejected any prospect of talks with the United States so long as Israel continues its attacks.”The Americans have repeatedly sent messages calling seriously for negotiations. But we have made clear that as long as the aggression does not stop, there will be no place for diplomacy and dialogue,” he said.- ‘Speculation’ -The UN Security Council is also due to convene on Friday for a second session on the conflict, which was requested by Iran with support from Russia, China and Pakistan, a diplomat told AFP on Wednesday.Speaking to CNN, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi said that while Iran is the world’s only non-declared nuclear power to enrich uranium to 60 percent, there was currently no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.”So, saying how long it would take for them, it would be pure speculation because we do not know whether there was somebody, you know, secretly pursuing these activities,” Grossi said. “We haven’t seen that and we have to say it.”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran was “a couple of weeks” away from producing an atomic bomb.”If there’s a chance for diplomacy the president’s always going to grab it, but he’s not afraid to use strength as well,” Leavitt said. Any US involvement in Israel’s campaign would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground nuclear facility in Fordo, using powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses.- ‘Collateral damage’ -Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supports the prospect of US involvement in the war, has sworn Iran will pay a “heavy price” after 40 people were wounded and several hospital wards destroyed in a missile attack.World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called attacks on health facilities “appalling”, while UN rights chief Volker Turk said civilians were being treated as “collateral damage”.In Iran, people fleeing Israel’s attacks described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages and limited internet access.”Those days and nights were very horrifying… hearing sirens, the wailing, the danger of being hit by missiles,” University of Tehran student Mohammad Hassan told AFP, after returning to his native Pakistan.”People are really panicking,” a 50-year-old Iranian pharmacist who did not want to be named told AFP at a crossing on the border with Turkey.- Nuclear sites -On Thursday, Israel said it struck “dozens” of Iranian targets, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.Iranian atomic energy agency chief Mohammad Eslami confirmed in a letter to the UN nuclear watchdog that the Arak reactor was hit, demanding action to stop Israel’s “violation of international regulations”.In the central Israeli city of Bat Yam, the body of a woman was found at a site hit on Sunday, taking the death toll in Israel from Iranian missiles since June 13 to 25 people, according to authorities.Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.burs-ser/dcp