More Stories
President Donald Trump was prepared to personally meet his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Istanbul this week in a secret US-Turkey effort to de-escalate the Iran conflict, Axios reported Saturday.
“But the effort collapsed when Iran's supreme leader — in hiding due to fears of assassination — couldn't be reached to approve it," Axios reported citing three US officials and a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
US officials said Trump hoped to secure a nuclear deal and avoid military action, but after the effort failed, the White House grew more inclined to consider direct intervention to stop Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran is targeting Israeli civilians both inside the country and abroad, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Saturday, after Cypriot authorities foiled a suspected Iranian-linked plot in Limassol.
“The Iranian criminal regime is deliberately targeting Israeli civilians both in Israel and abroad,” Sa’ar wrote on X, thanking Cyprus for its swift action and coordination with Israeli security services.
“The terror attack was thwarted,” he said.
Police in Cyprus arrested an Azerbaijani man with alleged ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on suspicion of planning an imminent attack, local media reported Friday.
Sa’ar vowed Israel would continue countering threats from the Islamic Republic.
The resumption of US-Iran nuclear talks is the only path to resolving the standoff with Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday, according to the Turkish Presidency.
Erdogan said Israel must be stopped immediately, offering Turkey’s support in facilitating renewed negotiations.
“Steps should be taken as soon as possible to open up diplomacy via technical and leaders-level talks between Iran and the US,” his office said.
Araghchi and Erdogan met on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman says Tehran is committed to negotiation and has never missed an opportunity to reach a deal.
"We didn't walk away from the negotiating table. It was Israel that betrayed diplomacy," Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday.
Israeli airstrikes across Iran on Saturday killed senior military personnel and a nuclear scientist while the United States moved heavy B-2 bombers to a Pacific airbase as it weighs attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.
Israel escalated its military campaign against Iran, striking nuclear facilities and missile infrastructure while killing members of a military unit responsible for foreign operations, the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force
A new wave of Israeli airstrikes late Saturday targeted multiple cities across Iran—from Bandar Abbas, Ahvaz and Marvdasht in the south to Tabriz, Salmas and Babol in the north, Sanandaj and Kermanshah in the west and Tehran, Qom, and Isfahan in the center, according to eyewitnesses and media reports.
Iranian state media confirmed the deaths of five Revolutionary Guards members in Khorramabad and released the names of 15 air defense personnel killed in recent strikes.
Saeed Izadi, commander of the Quds Force’s Palestine Corps, was killed in a strike in Qom, Israeli defense minister said early Saturday. Israel Katz described Izadi as a key figure behind Hamas's October 7 attack and a central node in Iran’s funding of armed allies in the region.
Israel said it had also taken out senior Revolutionary Guards drone commander Aminpour Joudaki and Quds Force arms transfer chief Behnam Shahriari.
An attack in Tehran killed Iranian nuclear scientist Isar Tabatabaei Ghomsheh and his wife.
Hezbollah forces killed in Tehran
An Israeli airstrike in Tehran killed Abu Ali al-Khalil, who had served as slain Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s personal bodyguard for decades, Al Arabiya reported citing sources in the Lebanese group.
Al-Khalil's son was also killed in the attack, Palestinian news agency Quds News Network reported.
In addition to Al-Khalil, Haider al-Musawi, a senior member of the Iran-linked militia group Sayyid al-Shuhada, was killed in the airstrikes, according to Israel's Channel 12.
Among the locations hit were the Isfahan nuclear facility and a centrifuge production site within the same complex, which the Israeli military said is central to Iran’s nuclear weapons development.
Other targets included drone launch vehicles, missile infrastructure, radar installations, and air defense systems.
The Iranian government confirmed that the Isfahan site had been struck but reported no casualties or radiation leaks.
Explosions were also heard in many cities including Shiraz, Mashhad, Tabriz, and Tehran, where the cyber police headquarters was severely damaged. Cyber police is known for its role in online surveillance and repression.
Iran in turn continued its retaliatory missile launches against Israel while imposing a near-total internet blackout which has effectively halted the flow of information.
Iranian missile impacts were reported in Tel Aviv, the Negev and Haifa. Israel said its air defense systems successfully intercepted multiple incoming salvos.
US moves B-2 bombers
The Pentagon is deploying stealth B-2 bombers across the Pacific from their base in Missouri, officials cited by US media reported, signaling that the Trump administration is positioning them for a possible strike on Iran.
The aircraft are capable of carrying the 30,000-pound GBU-57 bunker buster, which defense experts believe is the most likely conventional weapon to inflict damage on Iran’s fortified Fordow uranium enrichment site.
US President Donald Trump says he will make his decision about joining the Israeli war on Iran in two weeks to give diplomacy a last chance.
However, Israeli officials have told the United States they may not wait until the end of the two-week deadline to strike Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility and could act alone, Reuters reported Saturday, citing two sources familiar with what they described as a tense phone call.
“The Israeli officials said they do not want to wait the two weeks that US President Donald Trump presented on Thursday as a deadline for deciding whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran war," the report said citing the sources.
The White House is expected to hold a national security meeting on Saturday afternoon on Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Saturday that any US involvement would be dangerous, insisting Tehran would not negotiate under bombardment.
