No meet as Iran calls N-talks meaningless

Oman’s foreign minister says planned talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme “will not now take place” after Israel’s strikes targeting the Islamic Republic.

Oman has been mediating the talks.

A sixth round was due to happen in Muscat, Oman’s capital, before the Israeli strikes began Friday.

Iran’s top diplomat said on Saturday that talks with the United States were “unjustifiable” after Israeli strikes on his country, likely signalling no negotiations this weekend with Washington.

However he had stopped short of saying the talks were cancelled. The comments by Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, came when he spoke by phone with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat.

The Israeli airstrikes were the “result of the direct support by Washington”, Araghchi said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency.

The US has said it isn’t part of the strikes.

Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman called further nuclear talks with the United States “meaningless” after Israeli strikes on the country, state television said.

“The US did a job that made the talks become meaningless,” Iran’s Baghaei was quoted as saying. He added that Israel had passed all Iran’s red lines by committing a “criminal act” through its strikes.

The Mizan news agency, which is run by Iran’s judiciary, quoted him as saying: “It is still not clear what we decide about Sunday talks.”

Iran has warned the United States, United Kingdom and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help stop Tehran’s strikes on Israel.

Tehran no longer immune

Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Brig Gen Effie Defrin on Saturday claimed that the Israeli Air Force has achieved aerial freedom of action over Tehran, which is “no longer immune.”

Defrin said that over 70 Israeli Air Force fighter jets participated in the overnight operation in Tehran to achieve aerial freedom of action over the Iranian capital.

Some 40 sites were targeted, including air defence systems and related assets, Defrin said.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson stressed that Israel Air Force jets and drones flew over Tehran for some two and a half hours during the operation and that dozens of aircraft continue to fly freely thanks to the opening blow that removed the threat of Iranian air defence systems.

“It is the deepest area in Iran that the IAF has operated in so far,” Defrin emphasised.

“Tehran is no longer immune; the capital is exposed to Israeli strikes,” he asserted. Netanyahu vows to strike ‘every target of Ayatollah’s’ regime.

Will delay N-plan by years

After claiming great success following the opening airstrikes deep inside Iran on Friday morning, the IDF on Saturday said that it is executing a planned operation aimed at dismantling Iran’s military and nuclear capabilities.

“We are moving forward according to a plan that has been prepared for months,” the Israeli army said.

“We’re dismantling threat after threat, step by step. We’ve applied lessons from ground combat in Gaza and coordination with Northern Command to operate effectively even in distant Iran, just as we did over Gaza and Lebanon,” it added.

Also, the IDF noted that while the Air Force alone cannot neutralise all components of Iran’s dispersed nuclear infrastructure, it is targeting missile production, key national infrastructure, regime leadership, and nuclear facilities.

“This combination will delay the nuclear programme by years,” it asserted.

Anger, anxiety on streets

Anger mixed with worry as Iranians in the capital of Tehran woke up to images of their country’s retaliatory attacks on Israel.

Iranian state television, long controlled by hard-line supporters of the country’s theocracy, repeatedly aired footage of missile strikes on Tel Aviv throughout the morning. The broadcaster also showed people cheering in front of a large screen set up in Tehran to follow the strikes as if they were watching a soccer match.

Traffic was lighter than normal on the capital’s streets. The change was due in part to the Shi’ite holiday of Eid al-Ghadir commemorating the Prophet Muhammad picking his successor, Ali, who is beloved as the first Shi’ite imam and whose assassination set in motion the splintering of Sunni and Shiite Islam.

Even before the attacks began, many Iranians had travelled outside the city to enjoy days off in places along the nearby Caspian Sea.

The holiday mood made news of the assaults that much more shocking, particularly when the strikes killed many ranking members of Iran’s military and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, something unseen since Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Proxies stay out

Hezbollah has long been considered Iran’s first line of defence in case of a war with Israel. But since Israel launched its massive barrage against Iran this week, the Lebanese militant group has stayed out of the fray.

A network of powerful Iran-backed militias in Iraq, the Kataib Hezbollah, has also remained mostly quiet — even though Israel allegedly used Iraq’s airspace, in part, to carry out the attacks.

Many Hezbollah members believe “they were sacrificed for Iran’s greater regional interests” and want to focus on “Lebanon-centric” interests rather than defending Iran, the analyst said. He added Iraq’s Iran-allied militias had all along tried to avoid pulling their country into a major conflict. — Agencies

Hints of bigger goal: Regime Change

Israel’s choice of targets, and its politicians’ own words suggest a longer-term objective: toppling the regime.

In killing Iran’s top brass, the blows aimed at diminishing Iran’s credibility both at home and among its allies in the region.

“Israel would like to see the people of Iran rise up,” an analyst said, adding that the limited civilian casualties in the initial round of attacks also spoke to a broader aim.

PM Netanyahu said, “I believe that the day of your liberation is near. And when that happens, the great friendship between our two ancient peoples will flourish once again.”

But analysts remain sceptical that Israel will have the munitions needed to obliterate Iran’s nuclear project on its own.

Gaza war rages on

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 45 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said.

Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.

The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added.

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