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Iran’s Araghchi says it will be ‘very dangerous’ if US gets involved in war
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said it would be “very, very dangerous for everyone” if the United States becomes actively involved in the war with Israel, reports the Associated Press (AP).
He spoke to reporters in Istanbul on his way home from talks in Geneva.
Araghchi said American military involvement “would be very unfortunate”.
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William Christou
Here is the Guardian’s latest news story on the Israel-Iran conflict:
Israel’s military has said it killed two top Iranian military officials in overnight strikes as Iran warned it would be “very dangerous for everyone” if the US intervened in the conflict.
An Israeli military official said on Saturday that Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestine Corps of al-Quds, the foreign branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, had been killed in a strike on a flat in the city of Qom, central Iran.
The Israeli military said Izadi had played a key role in the financing and arming of Hamas before its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
The official said Behnam Shahriyari, another senior official in al-Quds force responsible for helping finance the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, had also been killed in a strike.
After talks between the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and European counterparts in Geneva ended on Friday evening with no breakthrough, Iran launched a salvo of missiles at Israel in the early hours of Saturday morning. A building in central Israel caught fire after being hit by the shrapnel of an intercepted Iranian missile. Later on Saturday a drone strike hit a residential building in north Israel, damaging the building. No casualties were reported from the missile barrage or the drone strike.
Speaking in Istanbul on Saturday, Araghchi said it would be “very, very dangerous for everyone” if the US intervened militarily in Israel’s war with Iran. Donald Trump has said that he will decide within two weeks whether or not the US will join Israel in its bombing of Iran, saying he is waiting to give diplomacy a chance.
Macron and Pezeshkian agree to 'accelerate negotiations' between Europe and Iran on nuclear programme
French president Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that he had received a call from his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian and that they had agreed to accelerate negotiations between European powers and Iran over its contested nuclear programme.
The French president said he expressed his “deep concern” to Pezeshkian about the country’s nuclear programme.
He said in a post on X:
I also expressed my deep concern about Iran’s nuclear program. Here again, my position is clear: Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons, and it is up to Iran to provide full guarantees that its intentions are peaceful.
I am convinced that a path exists to end war and avoid even greater dangers.
To achieve this, we will accelerate the negotiations led by France and its European partners with Iran.
Macron also said he had reiterated his “firm demand” to the Iranian president for Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris to be released and returned to France, calling their detention “inhumane” and “unjust”.
The couple were arrested at Tehran airport in May 2022 as they waited to fly back from a 14-day holiday.
They have also been accused of spying and are being held in the capital’s notorious Evin prison, which holds westerners, dual nationals and political prisoners often used by Tehran as bargaining chips in negotiations with the west.
An estimated 1,500 young people who had been visiting Israel were evacuated by cruise ship on Saturday to Cyprus, the closest European country to Israel, at about 270 kilometers, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
It was the second such trip by the cruise ship bringing people out while ferrying stranded Israelis back to their homeland.
Noah Page says it’s one thing to watch missiles crisscrossing the sky on the news and another to experience it first-hand.
The Ohio-native told AP:
You see it on the news, you see everything, but you never really expect it to actually hit you when you’re there
Florida native Alex Rosenblum had been in Israel before in times of war, when the sounds of sirens urging citizens to rush to shelters had become almost routine. But he says this time it was different.
He said:
This situation with Iran has been a lot scarier because there’s a big difference between a rocket and a missile.
The pair found safety in underground shelters when digital alerts were sent out.
Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors have expressed concerns to UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi about the safety of nuclear facilities close to their countries amid the Israeli-Iranian crisis, Qatar state news agency reported on Saturday.
Reuters reports that the ambassadors warned Grossi during a meeting in Vienna about the “dangerous repercussions” of targeting nuclear facilities.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency previously warned that attacks on nuclear facilities could result in “radioactive releases with great consequences within and beyond boundaries” of the state attacked.
The potential consequences of an attack on the Bushehr facility on the Gulf coast, Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant, have long been a concern in the Gulf states.
Iranians on Saturday began to see some internet access restored, giving people the opportunity to call friends and family for the first time in days, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Those in the diaspora posted on social media about connecting to FaceTime or WhatsApp to call relatives they had been worried about.
Government officials had disconnected phone and web services earlier in the week for the more than 90 million people who live in Iran, citing cybersecurity threats from Israel.
The move left civilians unaware of when and where Israel would strike next, despite Israeli forces issuing warnings through their Persian-language online channels.
When the missiles landed, lack of internet connection meant not knowing for hours or days if their family or friends are among the victims.
Tasnim news agency, which is closely affiliated with Iran’s government, quoted the information minister as saying that access to “international” internet should be restored across the country by 8pm.
Syria’s security forces have detained Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of toppled leader Bashar al-Assad, state news agency Sana said on Saturday, according to Reuters.
Wassim al-Assad was sanctioned by the United States in 2023 for leading a paramilitary force backing Assad’s army and for trafficking drugs including the amphetamine-like drug captagon.
Bashar al-Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led rebel insurgency in December and fled to Moscow. Most of his family members and inner circle either fled Syria or went underground.
Syria’s new security forces have been pursuing members of the former administration – mainly those involved in the feared security branches accused of rights abuses.
Rights groups have called for a fully fledged transitional justice process to hold them to account.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said it would be “very unfortunate and very dangerous for everyone” if the US got involved in the war with Israel. He said Iran was exercising its right to self-defence against Israel’s “unprovoked” bombardment, which would need to stop before Iran returned to negotiations.
He spoke to reporters in Istanbul on his way home from talks in Geneva, which failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough. You can listen to his comments here:
Four Revolutionary Guards killed in north-west Iran: media
Four members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in an Israeli attack on a training centre in north-west Iran, the ISNA news agency reported.
“Four people have died as martyrs and three others were wounded in an Israeli attack against a training camp of the Revolutionary Guards in Tabriz,” ISNA reported.
The city has been repeatedly targeted since Israel began striking Iran more than a week ago.
The UNHCR said on Saturday that the intensity of the attacks is already triggering population movements in Israel and Iran: Some from Tehran and other parts of Iran have crossed into neighboring countries while shelling has caused people in Israel to seek shelter elsewhere in the country and, in some cases, abroad.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the UN agency urged states in the region to respect the right of people to seek safety where needed and to facilitate humanitarian access.
“This region has already endured more than its share of war, loss, and displacement — we cannot allow another refugee crisis to take root,” the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said.
He added:
The time to de-escalate is right now. Once people are forced to flee, there’s no quick way back – and all too often, the consequences last for generations.
