“Israel” says delayed Iran's presumed nuclear programme by two years

“Israel” claimed on Saturday it has already set back Iran's presumed nuclear programme by at least two years, a day after US President Donald Trump warned that Tehran has a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes.

Trump has been mulling whether to involve the United States in “Israel's” bombing campaign, indicating in his latest comments that he could take a decision before the two week deadline he set this week.

“Israel” said Saturday its air force had launched fresh airstrikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran, as it kept up a wave of attacks it says are aimed at preventing their rival from developing nuclear weapons – an ambition Tehran has denied.

"According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb," foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published Saturday.

Saar said “Israel's” week-long onslaught will continue.

"We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," he told German newspaper Bild.

Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume talks with the United States that had been derailed by “Israel's” attacks.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said "we invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for."

But Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that "we're not prepared to negotiate with them (the United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues."

Trump was dismissive of European diplomacy efforts, telling reporters, "Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this."

Trump also said he's unlikely to ask “Israel” to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table.

"If somebody's winning, it's a little bit harder to do," he said.

Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo.