Iran and Israel exchange airstrikes for third day after nuclear talks called off
Israel and Iran traded more missile attacks Sunday despite calls for a halt to the fighting, with neither country backing down as their conflict raged for a third day. The exchange of fire comes as talks on Iran's nuclear program in Oman between the U.S. and Iran were called off.
Iran said Israel struck its oil refineries, killed the intelligence chief of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and hit population centers in intensive aerial attacks that raised the death toll in the country since Israel launched its major campaign Friday to 224 people. Health authorities also reported that 1,277 were wounded, without distinguishing between military officials and civilians.
Israel — widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — has aimed its missiles at Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear program and military leadership. Israel said Iran has fired over 270 missiles since Friday, 22 of which had slipped through the country's sophisticated multi-tiered air defenses as of Sunday and caused havoc in residential suburbs, killing 14 people and wounding 390 others.
Warning sirens sounded again in Israel early Monday morning as Israel's military said Iran had again launched another wave of missiles. Local Israeli media reported multiple injuries after at least one appeared to break through the country's air defenses.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that if the Israeli strikes on Iran stop, then "our responses will also stop." He said the United States "is a partner in these attacks and must take responsibility."
Explosions echoed across Tehran and were reported elsewhere in the country early Sunday.
In Israel, at least 10 people were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service. It brought the country's total death toll to 14, including a 10-year-old and a 9-year-old in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, since the strikes began on Friday night.
Israel's defense minister warned Saturday that "Tehran will burn" if Iran continues firing missiles at Israel.
Speaking after an assessment meeting with the army's chief of staff, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iran will pay a heavy price for harming Israeli citizens.
"If (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front — Tehran will burn," Katz said.
Following Israel's expanded assault, Katz followed up early Sunday morning with a post that read, "Tehran is burning."
Claiming to operate almost freely in the skies over Iran, Israel said its attacks Sunday hit Iran's Defense Ministry, missile launch sites and factories producing air defense components.
Iran also acknowledged Israel had killed three more of its top generals, including Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, the Revolutionary Guard intelligence chief.
But Israeli strikes have increasingly extended beyond Iranian military installations to hit government buildings including the Foreign Ministry and several energy facilities, Iranian authorities said, most recently sparking huge fires at the Shahran oil depot north of Tehran and a fuel tank south of the city.
Those new targets Sunday, coming after Israel attacked Iran's South Pars, the world's largest natural gas field, raised the prospect of a broader assault on Iran's heavily sanctioned energy industry that remains vital to the global economy and markets.
Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh and other Iranian diplomats shared photos of the Foreign Ministry's offices and library laid to waste by flying shrapnel.
Iran's state TV broadcast footage of a dust-covered man carrying a baby away from the ruins of a residential building and a woman covered in blood making panicked phone call from the site of an Israeli missile strike in downtown Tehran. The spokesperson for Iran's Health Ministry, Hossein Kermanpour, said 90% of the 224 people killed were civilians.
The Washington-based rights advocacy group, called Human Rights Activists, reported a far higher death toll in Iran from Israeli strikes, saying the attacks have killed at least 406 people and wounded another 654.
State TV reported that metro stations and mosques would be made converted into bomb shelters beginning Sunday night. Tehran residents told of long lines at gas stations and cars backed up for hours as families fled the city.
Traffic police closed a number of roads outside the city to control congestion. Energy officials on state TV sought to reassure the jittery public there was no gasoline shortage despite the long lines.
Iranian state-linked media acknowledged explosions and fires stemming from an attack on an Iranian refueling aircraft in Mashhad deep in the country's northeast. Israel described the attack on Mashhad as the farthest strike it has carried out in Iranian territory.
Urgent calls to de-escalate
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the destruction of Iran's nuclear program his top priority, brushed off urgent calls from world leaders to de-escalate, saying Israel's strikes so far are "nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days."
Israel's initial assault used warplanes — as well as drones smuggled into the country in advance, according to officials — to hit key facilities and kill top generals and scientists.
"The individuals who were eliminated played a central part of the progress toward nuclear weapons," the IDF said in a news release. "Their elimination represents a significant blow to the Iranian regime's ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction."
Iran retaliated by launching waves of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, where explosions lit the night skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook the buildings below. The Israeli military urged civilians, already rattled by 20 months of war in Gaza sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, to head to shelter for hours. U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News that U.S. forces helped Israel intercept Iranian missiles on Friday.
Iran calls nuclear talks "unjustifiable"
Israel's ongoing strikes have halted — for now — diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran. Oman's foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, said on social media that talks on Sunday "will not now take place," but he added that "diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace."
A senior administration official told CBS News, "While there will be no meeting Sunday, we remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon."
Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, said Saturday that the nuclear talks were "unjustifiable" after Israel's strikes, which he said were the "result of the direct support by Washington."
President Trump, who has expressed full support for Israel's actions, offered a stark warning to Iran against retaliating against U.S. targets in the Middle East. He also predicted Israel and Iran would "soon" make a deal to end their escalating conflict.
In a post on his Truth Social account early Sunday, Mr. Trump reiterated that the U.S. was not involved in the attacks on Iran and warned that any retaliation directed against it would bring an American response "at levels never seen before."
"However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!" he wrote.
Hours later, Mr. Trump took to social media again to predict, "Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal."
The president claimed he has built a track record for de-escalating conflicts, and that he would get Israel and Iran to cease hostilities "just like I got India and Pakistan to make" after the two countries' recent cross-border confrontation.
Mr. Trump also pointed to efforts by his administration during his first term to mediate disputes between Serbia and Kosovo and Egypt and Ethiopia.
"Likewise, we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran!" he wrote. "Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that's OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!"
One of Mr. Trump's allies in the senate, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, told "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday morning that Mr. Trump "sent a clear message to the Ayatollahs, that if you hit America in any way, whether our troops or our citizens or our ships, for instance, then you're going to feel the full force and strength of the U.S. military in a way no one's ever seen."
Above-ground section of Natanz facility destroyed
Among the key sites Israel attacked was Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, where black smoke could be seen rising into the air. It also appeared to strike a second, smaller nuclear enrichment facility in Fordo, about 60 miles southeast of Tehran, according to an Iranian news outlet close to the government that reported hearing explosions nearby.
Israel said it also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan, and said it destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran confirmed the strike at Isfahan.
U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged the infrastructure there, he said.
Israel also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan. The International Atomic Energy Agency said four "critical buildings" were damaged, including its uranium conversion facility. It said there was no sign of increased radiation at Natanz or Isfahan.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official procedures, said that according to the army's initial assessment, "it will take much more than a few weeks" for Iran to repair the damage to the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. The official said the army had "concrete intelligence that production in Isfahan was for military purposes."
On "Face the Nation," Cotton said Iran is "close to having enough pure weapons-grade uranium for several weapons," and that's why both Mr. Trump and Netanyahu thought "things were coming to a head" with Thursday night's launch.
"A second reason is Iran is rapidly producing ballistic missiles, both medium range to target Israel, and short range to target our troops, and they add substantially to those stockpiles every single month," Cotton added. "And at a time when Iran is both continuing its work on its nuclear program and trying to rebuild its offensive missile capacity, that the window to actually stop Iran from entering that zone of immunity was rapidly closing."
