Israel ‘will not stop’ attacks until Iran’s nuclear threat is ‘dismantled’, says Israel’s UN ambassador
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations has vowed “we will not stop” attacks on Iran until the “nuclear threat is dismantled” and “its war machine is disarmed”.
The two countries traded angry accusations at the United Nations Security Council, as its secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that expansion of the Israel-Iran conflict could “ignite a fire no one can control”.
Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon vowed: “We will not stop. Not until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled, not until its war machine is disarmed.”
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Israel-Iran latest: UK warns of perilous moment
His Iranian counterpart Amir Saeid Iravani said Iran would continue to respond to Israeli airstrikes targeting nuclear sites that Israel sees as part of a weapons programme.
Donald Trump is seeking advice about whether to support Israel’s military involvement and is expected make a decision in the next two weeks.
But he told reporters in New Jersey on Friday that his director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, was wrong in suggesting there is no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon.
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Trump: US intelligence ‘wrong’ on Iran
Talks between Iranian and European ministers took place on Friday, but the US president was dismissive of the discussions.
“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 one”.
But he added that he might support a ceasefire between Iran and Israel “depending on the circumstances”.
Lammy on ‘perilous moment’
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy warned “this is a perilous moment, and it is hugely important that we don’t see regional escalation of this conflict”, after he and his German, French and EU counterparts met Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva.
He also referred to the role of the US in potential negotiations: “There is a… short window to find a diplomatic solution for the Iranians to… end their nuclear programme.
“We’re urging diplomacy. It’s important they get back into serious talks with the United States.”
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Lammy warns of ‘perilous moment’
Iran says attacks are ‘grave war crimes’
But the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict, did not reveal any indication of an immediate breakthrough.
Mr Araghchi described the talks as “a very serious but respectful discussion” but condemned what he called Israel’s “atrocities”, adding that “Iran will continue exercising its legitimate right of self-defence against the regime”.
“Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again… once aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed. In this regard, I made it clear that Iran’s defence capabilities are not negotiable,” he added.
Earlier, he called Israel’s attacks on nuclear facilities “grave war crimes”.
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On Friday, the Foreign Office announced that UK staff had also been evacuated from Iran, with the embassy continuing to operate remotely.
Meanwhile, the UK government has announced it will use charter flights to evacuate Britons stranded in Israel once the country’s airspace reopens.
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Iran wants ‘endless negotiations’
Jason Brodsky, policy director at the US-based pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran, told Sky News the talks in Geneva would not satisfy the US president.
He said: “It seems that the maximum that the Islamic Republic is prepared to give still does not meet the minimum that President Trump is able to accept.
“I think the Islamic Republic wants to lure the United States back into an endless negotiating process. They think they can dominate this process and manipulate President Trump.
“President Trump has made it very clear that a deadline means a deadline. And he has red lines as well. And his red lines is zero enrichment in Iran.”
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Iran ‘wants to lure US into an endless negotiating process’
Protests over Israeli strikes
On Friday, thousands of people protested in Iran’s capital Tehran after a week of Israeli strikes which have killed at least 657 people and wounded 2,037 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists.
Anti-Israeli protest in Tehran after Friday prayers. Pic: Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters
Israel’s military says 25 fighter jets carried out airstrikes on Friday morning targeting “missile storage and launch infrastructure components” in western Iran.
In the Israeli city of Haifa, at least 19 people were wounded by an Iranian missile barrage.
UN issues nuclear warning
Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned against attacks on Iran’s nuclear reactors.
Rafael Grossi, who heads the UN nuclear watchdog, has warned about Israeli attacks on nuclear sites. Pic: Reuters
“A direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity,” said Rafael Grossi, chief of the UN nuclear watchdog.
Israel has not targeted Iran’s nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the country’s uranium enrichment sites.
Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, although it enriches uranium up to 60%, well beyond the level required for an atomic power station and a step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the IAEA.
Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.
Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.
“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.
It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.
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Trump says Putin ‘talks nice and then bombs everybody’
During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”
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Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.
He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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UK aims to build relationship with Syria
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
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