Iran threatens “more devastating” response to “Israeli” attacks

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian warned Saturday of a "more devastating" retaliation should “Israel's” nine-day bombing campaign continue, saying the Islamic republic would not halt its nuclear programme "under any circumstances".

“Israel” said on Saturday it had killed three more Iranian commanders in its unprecedented offensive, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Tehran's alleged progress towards a nuclear weapon had been set back by two years.

"We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," Saar told the German newspaper Bild, asserting “Israel” would keep up its onslaught.

“Israel” and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes since “Israel” launched its aerial campaign on June 13, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

On Saturday, “Israel” said it had attacked Iran's Isfahan nuclear site for a second time, with the UN nuclear watchdog reporting that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop had been hit.

Iran denies seeking an atomic bomb, and on Saturday Pezeshkian said its right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme "cannot be taken away... by threats or war".

In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Pezeshkian said Iran was "ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities".

"However, we do not agree to reduce nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances," he added, according to Iran's official IRNA news agency.

Referring to the “Israeli” attacks, he said: "Our response to the continued aggression of the Zionist regime will be more devastating."

Iran's armed forces threatened to strike shipments of military aid to “Israel” from any country.

“Israel's” main arms supplier is the United States, whose President Donald Trump warned on Friday that Tehran had a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes as Washington weighed whether to join Israel's campaign.

“Not prepared to negotiate”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Istanbul on Saturday for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the conflict.

Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume nuclear talks with the United States that had been derailed by the war.

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

Trump, dismissive of European diplomatic efforts, said he was 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 of Israel's campaign.

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

US B-2 stealth bombers capable of carrying bunker busters were flying across the Pacific Ocean, according to tracking data and media reports, fuelling speculation over their intended mission.

Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen on Saturday threatened to resume their attacks on US vessels in the Red Sea if Washington joined the war, despite a recent ceasefire agreement.