Tehran is weighing its military options as it follows up internationally on the US and Israeli strikes.
Iran continues to promise retaliation for United States strikes on critical nuclear facilities, as it launched a new wave of missiles and drones against Israel.
Abdolrahim Mousavi, the new chief of staff of Iranian armed forces, said in a short statement on Monday morning that the US violated Iran’s sovereignty when it attacked the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites on Sunday and had “entered the war clearly and directly”.
“The criminal US must know that in addition to punishing its illegitimate and aggressive offspring, the hands of Islam’s fighters within the armed forces have been freed to take any action against its interests and military, and we will never back down in this regard,” he said, in reference to Israel.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, who is acting as the spokesman of Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel, said in his latest televised statement on Monday that the US’s attacks were meant to “revive the dying Zionist regime” but will actually serve to “expand the scope of the legitimate and various targets of Iranian armed forces, and create the grounds for expanding war in the region”.
Referring to US President Donald Trump, Zolfaghari said in English: “Gambler Trump, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to finish it.”
Iran’s army announced on Monday it had fired dozens of one-way drones with anti-fortification explosive warheads at Israel. It claimed the majority of the projectiles fired since the early hours of the day had successfully reached their targets.
Sirens also began sounding across Israel before noon on Monday, with a large number of impacts recorded in several areas, including the Ashdod area in southern Israel and the Lachish area, south of Jerusalem.
The attacks came after the X account of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei republished an excerpt of a televised speech he made last week from an unknown location, which said Israel “must be punished and it is being punished right now”.
The Israeli military continues to launch air attacks across Iran as well, saying in an announcement on Monday it hit at least six airports in western, eastern and central Iran, including the Mehrabad airport in the capital, Tehran.
“The strikes damaged runways, underground bunkers, a refuelling plane and F-14, F-5, and AH-1 aircraft belonging to the Iranian regime,” it said, adding that 15 of its air force jets also carried out attacks in Kermanshah to target launch and storage sites for Iranian surface-to-surface missiles.
Later on Monday, Iranian officials said the Fordow nuclear site was attacked again, without specifying who was behind the attack. Morteza Heydari, spokesman of Qom’s crisis management organisation, said “no danger is posed to citizens” in the area.
Massive Israeli air raids, meanwhile, targeted Tehran and nearby Karaj around noon local time, with large plumes of rising visible in areas across the capital.
The live feed of state television was cut for several minutes, and it was confirmed that a technical building supporting live broadcasts for several channels was hit. The entrance of the Evin Prison was also bombed, as was a building of the Red Crescent Society. The prestigious Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran was targeted, as well.
According to the latest figures by Iran’s Ministry of Health, as of Saturday, more than 400 people have been killed in the Israeli attacks, mostly civilians. At least 24 people have been killed in Israel by Iranian projectiles, according to Israeli authorities.
After the US strikes on the three nuclear facilities, which Trump claimed “obliterated” them, Iranian officials have threatened to hit US military bases across the region. There have also been discussions about the possibility of trying to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz and a potential exit from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Iranian lawmakers have signalled they would back a bill to leave the NPT and suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the final decision will lie with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
The Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen had also pledged to restart their maritime attacks if the US entered the war in favour of Israel. The group had reached an agreement with Trump in early May to stop attacking if the US halts its daily air raids on Yemen, but they have kept up missile attacks on Israel in opposition to its war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 56,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Moscow on Monday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Upon arriving in the Russian capital, Araghchi told Iranian state media that Tehran appreciates the Kremlin’s condemnation of the US strikes, and hopes that it can be backed by “practical steps” in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and other international forums.
The UNSC late on Monday held its third meeting on the attacks on Iran since the start of the war, where UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he remains concerned about “dangerous developments” across the region and called for an immediate halt to hostilities.
The IAEA’s Board of Governors is also holding an exceptional meeting on Monday in light of the attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, while European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels, where they will discuss Iran and Gaza conflicts, among other matters.
Iranian newspapers on Monday dedicated their front pages to the US attacks on Iran, as well as the missile attacks on Israel.
“Iranian Kheibar Shekans set Israel ablaze,” read a headline from ultraconservative Keyhan, in reference to the advanced ballistic missiles that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used in its wave of attacks on Sunday.
Reformist Ham-Mihan newspaper published an image of Trump with a demonic appearance, saying he was heavily relying on “bullying diplomacy”, while the Shargh newspaper wrote, “Hello world, we are here”, to report on the civilian toll of the Israeli attacks.
Source: Al Jazeera
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