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Israel hits Iranian nuclear research facility as war continues into second week
Israel hits Iranian nuclear research facility as war continues into second week

CTV News

time21-06-2025

  • Politics
  • CTV News

Israel hits Iranian nuclear research facility as war continues into second week

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel's military said Saturday it struck an Iranian nuclear research facility overnight and killed three senior Iranian commanders in targeted attacks as the war between the two nations continued into a second week. Early Saturday, smoke could be seen rising from an area near a mountain in Isfahan, where a local official said Israel had attacked the nuclear research facility in two waves. The target was two centrifuge production sites, and the attacks came on top of strikes on other centrifuge production sites elsewhere in recent days, according to an Israeli military official speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines to brief reporters. It was the second attack on Isfahan, which was hit in the first 24 hours of the war as part of Israel's goal to destroy the Iranian nuclear program. Akbar Salehi, Isfahan province's deputy governor for security affairs, confirmed the Israeli strikes had caused damage to the facility but said there had been no human casualties. Iran launched a new wave of drones and missiles at Israel but there were no immediate reports of significant damage, and the Israeli official called it a 'small barrage' that was largely intercepted by Israel's defences. The official said part of the reason that Iran's overnight attack had been relatively small was that the military had been targeting its launchers, and estimates it has now taken out more than 50 per cent of them. 'We've been able to take out a large amount of their launchers, creating a bottleneck — we're making it harder for them to fire toward Israel,' he said. 'Having said all that, I want to say the Iranian regime obviously still has capabilities.' Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said Saturday an Iranian drone hit a two-story building in northern Israel, but there were no casualties. Talks in Switzerland fail to produce diplomatic breakthrough The ongoing fighting comes after talks in Geneva on Friday failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough. European officials expressed hope for future discussions, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue while emphasizing that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the U.S. while Israel continued attacking. 'Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again and once aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed,' he told reporters. No date was set for the next round of talks. Iran warns against U.S. becoming militarily involved U.S. President Donald Trump is weighing active U.S. military involvement in the conflict, which Araghchi said Saturday 'would be very unfortunate.' 'I think that it would be very, very dangerous for everyone,' he said in Istanbul, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The war between Israel and Iran erupted June 13, with Israeli airstrikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. Iran has retaliated by firing more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's multitiered air defences, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel's military operation in Iran would continue 'for as long as it takes' to eliminate what he called the existential threat of Iran's nuclear program and arsenal of ballistic missiles. But Netanyahu's goal could be out of reach without U.S. help. Barring a commando raid or even a nuclear strike, Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered to be out of reach to all but America's 'bunker-buster' bombs. Trump said he would put off deciding whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran for up to two weeks. Israel continues targeted attacks on Iranian military commanders In Israel's opening attack, it killed three of Iran's top military leaders: one who oversaw the entire armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the Guard's ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh. The targeted killings of senior commanders continued, with Israel's Defence minister saying Saturday that the military had killed a commander in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza. Israel said Saeed Izadi was commander of the Palestine Corps for the Iranian Quds Force, an elite arm of the Guard that 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 Qom governor's office did say there had been an attack on a four-story apartment building and local media reported two people had been killed. Israel also said it had killed the commander of the Quds Force's weapons transfer unit, who it said was responsible for providing weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas. Behnam Shahriyari was killed in his car while traveling in western Iran, the military said. A commander of Iran's drone force was also killed overnight, the Israeli official who briefed reporters said. Iran threatens head of UN nuclear watchdog On Friday, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog warned at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. 'I want to make it absolutely and completely clear: In case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity to the environment,' said Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 'This is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be most serious.' Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital. Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the U.S., France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60 per cent — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent — and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60 per cent. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons program but has never acknowledged it. Leaders in Iran have blamed Grossi's statements about the status of Iran's nuclear program for prompting Israel's attack. On Saturday, a senior adviser for Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei, Ali Larijani, said in a brief social media post without elaboration that Iran would make Grossi 'pay' once the war with Israel is over. Rising reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul and Farnoush Amiri in Dubai contributed to this report. David Rising And Sam Mednick, The Associated Press

Can the Israeli and Iranian economies survive a war?
Can the Israeli and Iranian economies survive a war?

Al Jazeera

time19-06-2025

  • Business
  • Al Jazeera

Can the Israeli and Iranian economies survive a war?

As Israel and Iran carry out strikes against each other for a seventh straight day, the region is anxiously bracing for a potentially wider conflict. But question marks remain over the two sides' ability to finance a sustained war effort. On Friday, Israel killed several of Iran's top military commanders and nuclear scientists and damaged some of its nuclear sites. It has since damaged parts of Iran's fossil fuel sector. In response, Iran has launched missile attacks at government buildings and metropolitan areas in Israel. As of Thursday, the Israeli attacks have killed 240 people while Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people. But the conflict is also costing both nations billions of dollars and could choke their economic growth and trigger concerns over long-term fiscal planning. Israel's prolonged military operations in Gaza since October 2023 and the recent escalation with Iran have plunged the country into the most expensive period of conflict in its history. According to a January report by the Israeli business newspaper Calcalist, the cumulative cost of the Gaza war alone had reached 250 billion shekels ($67.5bn) by the end of 2024. A June 15 report by the Israeli news outlet Ynet News, quoting a former financial adviser to the Israeli military's chief of staff, estimated that the first two days of fighting with Iran alone cost Israel 5.5 billion shekels (roughly $1.45bn). At that rate, a prolonged conflict with Iran could see Israel surpass the end-2024 Gaza war expenses within seven weeks. Even before the current escalation with Iran, Israel had dramatically increased its defence budget amid its multiple regional conflicts and the war on Gaza. From 60 billion shekels ($17bn) in 2023, it grew to 99 billion ($28bn) in 2024. Projections for 2025 suggest it could reach 118 billion shekels ($34bn). The Ministry of Finance set a deficit ceiling of 4.9 percent of Israel's gross domestic product (GDP) for this fiscal year, equating to 105 billion shekels ($27.6bn). Higher military spending would put that to the test. Despite a recent increase in projected tax revenues – from 517 billion to 539 billion shekels ($148bn to $154bn) – Israel's 2025 growth forecast has been revised down from 4.3 to 3.6 percent. According to the business survey company CofaceBDI, roughly 60,000 Israeli companies closed in 2024 due to manpower shortages, logistics disruptions and subdued business sentiment. In addition, tourist arrivals continue to fall short of pre-October 2023 levels. Those trends could be aggravated in the event of a full-fledged war with Iran. S&P Global Ratings issued a stark warning about the vulnerability of the Israeli economy on Tuesday. The agency stated that a continued Israeli war campaign, particularly if met with a sustained and strategic Iranian response, could lead to a downgrade of Israel's credit rating from A to A-. Were that to happen, it would likely raise borrowing costs and soften investor confidence in the Israeli economy. In recent days, Iran's oil exports appear to have fallen dramatically. Total Iranian crude and condensate oil exports are forecast to reach 102,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the week ending on Sunday. That's less than half the 242,000 bpd it was averaging in exports this year, according to data from the analytics firm Kpler. Critically, exports from Kharg Island, from which Iran exports more than 90 percent of its oil, appear to have completely halted since Friday. No tankers were anchored at Kharg Island on Monday, according to LSEG satellite ship tracking data. In 2025, Iran has produced an average of 3.4 million bpd of crude, according to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), with China appearing to be the main foreign buyer. Most of the oil Iran produces is for domestic consumption. On Saturday, Iran partially suspended gas production at the South Pars gasfield in the Gulf after it was hit by Israeli missiles. South Pars, which Iran shares with Qatar, is the world's biggest gasfield. It produces about 80 percent of Iran's total gas output. For now, the extent of the damage to the South Pars field is unknown. In addition, Israel has targeted the Shahr Rey refinery outside Tehran as well as fuel depots around the capital. The full impact of these strikes on production is unknown. Iran has faced economic sanctions from the US after the Islamic Revolution and the US embassy hostage crisis in 1979 and then over its nuclear programme. In a bid to pressure Tehran to agree to a deal on its nuclear programme, the administration of then-US President Barack Obama coaxed multiple major economies around the world to cut down or stop their oil purchases from Iran, using a wave of additional sanctions. Those sanctions were relaxed after Iran struck the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal in 2015 with the US, Russia, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The following year, Iran exported 2.8 million bpd of petroleum products. But US President Donald Trump reimposed the sanctions in 2018 during his first term as president and added more, again pressuring most other nations to stop buying Iranian crude. The result, according to the EIA, was that Tehran generated only $50bn in oil export revenue in 2022 and 2023, which amounts to roughly 200,000 bpd of crude exports, less than 10 percent of 2016 levels. The upshot is that sanctions have gutted Iran's foreign exchange earnings. Iran has staved off economic collapse in part thanks to China, the main buyer of its oil and one of the few nations still trading with Tehran. Still, the loss of revenue because of the sanctions has deprived the country of long-term economic development and has hit Tehran's ability to fix dilapidated infrastructure. President Masoud Pezeshkian has repeatedly highlighted the severity of the economic situation facing the country, stating that Tehran's situation is more challenging than during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. In March, he openly criticised the latest round of US sanctions targeting tankers carrying Iranian oil. Iran also faces a string of other constraints – energy and water shortages, a collapsing currency and military setbacks among its regional allies – all amplified by the sanctions. A lack of investment, declining natural gas production and inefficient irrigation are all leading to power blackouts and water shortages. Meanwhile, the rial, Iran's currency, has shed more than 90 percent of its value against the dollar since the sanctions were reimposed in 2018, according to foreign exchange websites. And while the official inflation rate hovers around 40 percent, some Iranian experts said it is actually running at more than 50 percent. 'Precise numbers are hard to come by,' said Hamzeh Al Gaaod, an economic analyst at TS Lombard, a political research firm. 'But what we can say is that years of sanctions have triggered inflationary pressure, including through devaluations of the rial. In turn, that makes goods imports from abroad more expensive,' Al Gaaod told Al Jazeera. In January, the Tasnim news agency quoted the head of Iran's Institute of Labor and Social Welfare, Ebrahim Sadeghifar, as saying 22 to 27 percent of Iranians were now below the poverty line. Unemployment is running at 9.2 percent. However, Iran's Supreme Assembly of Workers' Representatives, which represents labour interests, estimated the true figure of people without access to subsistence-level work is far higher. According to Al Gaaod, Tehran has a 'relatively small budget for military purposes'. He estimated that anywhere from 3 to 5 percent of Iran's GDP is spent on defence, which amounts to roughly $12bn. Tehran does have $33bn in foreign exchange reserves it could theoretically draw on. But Al Gaaod said: 'This is where Iran is on the backfoot. To use reserves for short-term military conflict would cripple them over the longer term.' 'We've seen a 'rally under the flag' sentiment in recent days. But if Iran experiences more strikes and civilian evacuations, that could easily unwind,' he said.

Russia fears Israel's war on Iran could cost it another Mideast ally
Russia fears Israel's war on Iran could cost it another Mideast ally

Washington Post

time16-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Washington Post

Russia fears Israel's war on Iran could cost it another Mideast ally

As the direct conflict between Israel and Iran stretches into its fourth day, members of the Russian establishment are coming to the realization that it could destroy the country's closest ally in the Middle East — the second to fall in less than a year. When Israel began bombarding Iran's nuclear facilities early Friday and killing its commanders, some in the Moscow elite initially saw it as an opportunity for Russia.

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