Iran’s foreign minister has rejected the prospect of negotiations with the United States as the war in the Middle East entered its third week, with escalating attacks leaving hundreds dead and raising international concern.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran was not interested in talks with the United States, pushing back on President Donald Trump’s stance that Tehran wants a deal to end the war.
“We are stable and strong enough. We are only defending our people,” Araghchi told CBS’s Face The Nation programme.
Araghchi also claimed Tehran has “ample evidence” that US bases in the Middle East have been used to target the Islamic republic, telling Arabic-language news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that satellite imagery and electronic surveillance demonstrate US bases in the region are being used for attacks. He claimed missiles had been launched from the United Arab Emirates to attack Kharg Island, a vital Iranian oil hub.
At least eight people were injured in Israel following repeated missile launches from Iran, at least two of which contained cluster munitions according to Israeli authorities. Iran’s army said it had targeted a police unit called Lahav 433 and the Gilat Defence satellite communications centre in Israel with drone strikes.
Italy’s military said there had been a drone attack on the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait hosting Italian and US forces, but said all its personnel were safe.
Lebanese authorities reported that Israeli attacks have killed 850 people in the country during two weeks of war between Israel and Hezbollah. The health ministry statement said the toll included 66 women, 107 children and 32 health workers, with 2 105 other people wounded.
Overnight strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least four more people. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israel struck an apartment in a residential building in a northern district of the coastal city of Sidon, killing one person and causing a fire. Three people were killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the village of Al-Qatrani, southeast of Sidon, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said its fighters targeted Israel’s Palmachim air base south of Tel Aviv with an advanced missile, as Israel kept up strikes on Lebanon.
An Israeli strike in south Lebanon’s Sidon area killed a Hamas official, a source from the Palestinian militant group told AFP. The source, requesting anonymity, said the strike killed Hamas official Wissam Taha.
Israel has approved an $827-million emergency budget allocation for military purchases, Israeli media reported.
International calls for de-escalation have intensified, with Pope Leo XIV renewing his appeal for peace in the Middle East, calling for an end to the war and reopening of dialogue.
“Violence can never lead to the justice, stability and peace that people await,” he said.
In a phone call with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Araghchi urged other countries to refrain from any action that could widen the scope of the war with Israel and the United States, calling on them to “refrain from any action that could lead to escalation and expansion of the conflict”, according to an Iranian foreign ministry statement.
A British minister said it was essential to calm the situation in the Middle East after US President Donald Trump demanded that other nations help protect world oil supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
“The plan now has to be to de-escalate the conflict,” Energy Security Minister Ed Miliband told the BBC.
Iranian authorities have arrested at least 20 people in the country’s northwest province of West Azerbaijan on suspicion of cooperating with Israel, Iranian media reported. Authorities have carried out sweeping raids across Iran, arresting hundreds of people in recent days suspected of cooperating with Israel and the United States.
In a separate development, the captain of the Iranian women’s football team, which played in the Asian Cup in Australia, has withdrawn her bid for asylum, state media said, making her the fifth member of the delegation to change her mind. Zahra Ghanbari is expected to fly from Malaysia to Iran, the IRNA news agency said. Three players and one backroom staff member had already withdrawn their bids for asylum in previous days and travelled to Malaysia.
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