‘Tehran will burn,’ Israel warns after missile strikes as Iran threatens UK, US and France regional bases – live

From 7h ago 05.27 EDT 'Tehran will burn': Israeli defence minister warns Iran over missile strikes Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz warned Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “Tehran will burn” if it keeps firing missiles at Israeli civilians. “The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage, bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Teheran’s residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel’s citizens. “If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” Katz said in a statement. Israel Katz (pictured in Brussels last year) has warned Iran ‘Tehran will burn’ Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images It comes after Iran warned the UK, US and France against helping to stop its strikes on Israel. We reported in our post at 09.47 BST how they threatened Western bases in the region. Share Updated at 06.40 EDT 1m ago 12.25 EDT Iranian media reported a “massive explosion” on Saturday following an Israeli drone strike on the South Pars refinery in the southern port city of Kangan, Agence France-Presse reports. “An hour ago, an Israeli drone hit one of the South Pars Phase 14 refineries, causing a massive explosion and fire in the refinery,” the Tasnim news agency said, while the Fars agency reported firefighters were working to extinguish a blaze that had erupted as a result of the attack. Share 25m ago 12.01 EDT China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, spoke to both his Israeli and Iranian counterparts on Saturday, according to a statement from Beijing’s foreign ministry. Wang told Iran’s Abbas Araghchi that China would support Tehran in “defending its legitimate rights and interests”, the ministry said, while he told the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, that Beijing opposed Israel’s actions of “attacking Iran with force”, the statements said. Share Updated at 12.16 EDT 50m ago 11.37 EDT Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has told Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman that Israel’s attack on Iran demonstrated that Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat was the greatest threat to regional stability, according to Erdogan’s office. In a phone call on Saturday, Erdogan told bin Salman that Israel must be stopped to reduce tensions that that the nuclear dispute could only be resolved through negotiations. A potentially devastating war could create waves of irregular migration to all countries in the region, Erdogan also said, according to the statement. Share 1h ago 11.14 EDT Iran: Israeli airstrikes kills at least 30 military personnel in east Azerbaijan province Iranian authorities said that Israel’s airstrikes on Friday killed at least 30 military personnel in East Azerbaijan province, according to news agency ISNA. “Following the Zionist regime’s aggression against this province since Friday morning, 30 military personnel and one Red Crescent member have been martyred in defence of the Islamic homeland, and 55 people have been injured,” ISNA reported on Saturday, quoting East Azerbaijan provincial authorities. Share 1h ago 11.00 EDT Netanyahu: Israel will strike 'every site and every target of the Ayatollahs' regime' Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel’s strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back, possibly by years, and that heavier blows were yet to come. “We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs’ regime and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days,” Netanyahu said in a video message. He added that the military was now destroying Iran’s ability to manufacture ballistic missiles. Share 2h ago 10.52 EDT Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi in a phone call on Saturday that Moscow condemns Israel’s use of force against Iran and is ready to help de-escalate the situation in the Middle East. Russia is prepared to continue to work to resolve issues surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Iran and Israel traded missiles and airstrikes on Saturday, the day after Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against its old enemy, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it building an atomic weapon. Lavrov expressed his condolences to Araghchi for the Iranians killed in the strikes, the statement said. Share 2h ago 10.44 EDT Germany said on Saturday that the danger of further escalation in the Middle East is real and that Iran’s nuclear programme poses a threat not just to Israel but also to Saudi Arabia and the stability of the entire region. The foreign ministry issued its statement on X after a visit by German foreign minister Johann Wadephul to Saudi Arabia where he met with his counterpart. Share 2h ago 10.19 EDT Emma Graham-Harrison In the hours after Israel attacked Iran, food shipments and distribution in Gaza stopped and a French-Saudi summit meant to pave the way for wider recognition of a Palestinian state was postponed indefinitely. International pressure over starvation and civilian killings in Gaza had apparently dissipated in little more than the time it took for the smoke of the first missile strikes to clear over Tehran. Israel’s military moved fast to declare Iran its top priority, with the battle for Gaza relegated to second place. That shift was echoed in foreign ministries and newsrooms around the world. “The fact that Israel attacked Iran doesn’t mean [the war in] Gaza ended. Today we had dozens of people killed, the only difference is this will have far less attention than yesterday,” said Xavier Abu Eid, a political scientist and former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organisation. “Israel’s message [with these attacks] is that there is no political solution for anything in the region. By striking Iran they want to sabotage the US-Iran negotiations as well as the international wave of support for concrete measures on Palestine.” The decision by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to take out the security threat posed by Iran’s nuclear programme had also defanged a significant diplomatic and economic threat to his government. Some of Israel’s closest allies in Europe had become increasingly outspoken about both the impact of the war in Gaza on civilians, and escalating violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Even historically strong alliances with countries such as the Netherlands and Germany had been faltering in the face of an 11-week siege of Gaza, UN warnings of a looming famine and repeated mass killings of hungry crowds trying to reach food distribution sites. Israel’s attack on Iran slows diplomatic momentum to halt Gaza war Read more Share 3h ago 09.26 EDT Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said. Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor. The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added. There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday’s incidents, Reuters reported. Share