Netanyahu promises to attack Iran for ‘whenever necessary’

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised to attack Iran during “whenever necessary” after his forces launched devastating air attacks against the nuclear program and the military facilities of Tehran, which caused a new war in the Middle East.

The assault, which occurred after years of tensions between the two states, reached the facilities in the heart of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, killed the three main military commanders of Iran, as well as the main scientists, and tried to disable the country’s aerial defenses.

The Israeli army on Friday night said Iran had launched retaliation strikes using ballistic missiles. Israel’s defense systems were operating to intercept missiles and the public had received instructions to enter protected spaces, he added.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatolá Ali Khamenei, threatened Israel with “heavy blows” and said it would not be allowed to escape unscathed after causing a war.

“They should not assume that we were beaten (we) and it’s over. No. They were the ones who started and fought a war,” he said in a televised message pre -recorded on Friday night.

In a video broadcast on Friday, Netanyahu said that Israel’s attacks would continue during “whenever necessary, distance and eliminate the threat as much as we can.”

In his social platform of truth, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, warned Tehran that the next “already planned attacks” would be “even more brutal”, and added that “Iran must make an agreement (in its nuclear program), before there is nothing left.”

In a later publication, he added: “Two months ago I would give Iran an ultimatum 60 days to” make a deal. “They should have done it! Today is 61.”

For more than two decades, Israel has seen Iran’s nuclear activities as an existential threat and for a long time it has opposed the efforts of the United States and other powers to negotiate with Tehran, which insists that its program is purely peaceful.

A series of American administrations returning to George W Bush have tried to avoid an Israeli strike against the Islamic Republic for fear of escalation in a broader conflict, but Trump has pointed out less doubts.

Speaking to ABC News, he said about the Israeli attack: “I think it has been excellent.”

An Israeli military official said the attacks could last up to two weeks, while another said that dozens of strikes had already been carried out.

After the mass explosions shook Tehran around 3.30 am local time on Friday, state television also showed smoke leaving the headquarters of the main command of the revolutionary guards, the most powerful military force of the regime, in eastern Tehran.

Other strikes took place later on Friday, according to local media reports.

Iran’s state news agency said that several upper military figures, including Major General Hossein Salami, head of the elite revolutionary guards, were killed. The chief of Cabinet of the Armed Forces of Iran, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, was also killed, state television reported, while Israel said he had killed the commander of the IRGC Air Force.

Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a prominent professor of Physics, and Fereydoon Abbasi, former head of the Atomic Organization of Iran, also died, said the state news agency.

Unofficial estimates cited by the Iranian media suggested that 78 people were killed and 329 wounded by Israeli attacks in military sites and residential areas in the province of Tehran. But they did not specify how many of the victims were civilians.

The S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent, its lowest level in more than a week, after reports of Iran’s retaliation strikes. Brent Crude, the international oil reference point, previously increased to 12.5 percent before negotiating 5.4 percent higher than $ 73.08 per barrel in London after Israel’s attack.

Israel’s defense forces said he had damaged an underground installation in Natanz, the country’s main site for uranium enrichment, which can produce nuclear fuel and gun material.

Iran’s atomic energy organization said that there had been some radiation and chemical pollution in underground facilities.

On Friday night, the IDF added that it had also hit Isfahan, another important place in Iran’s nuclear program.

In an indication that Israel was trying to establish aerial supremacy, IDF said that a large -scale strike had also carried out against Iran’s air defenses.

Israeli security officials added that Mossad agents had hired explosive drones and precision weapons in Iran who were later used to attack missile launchers and superficial missile systems.

The attack was ahead of a sixth round of negotiations on Sunday between the Trump administration and will go in an effort to resolve the nuclear crisis.

Trump said Thursday that Washington was “quite close to a pretty good agreement,” and added that he did not want Israel to attack Iran because he could “exploit” the possibilities of an agreement. But in the comments before and after the attack, he also suggested that the attacks could help progress towards an agreement.

Netanyahu, who had been pressing the United States to support military action against Iran, said in a video statement that Tehran was buying time, referring to the United States and Israel, demands that they will stop their nuclear enrichment program.

“That is why we have no choice but to act and act now,” he said.

Israel’s strikes caused a rapid sentence of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Türkiye. Riad said the attack violated international laws.

The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, said that Washington “was not involved in strikes against Iran and that our highest priority is to protect US forces in the region.”

“Israel advised us to believe that this action was necessary for their self -defense,” Rubio added. “Let me be clear: Iran should not point to the interests or personnel of the United States.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strikes could not have happened without a green light from the United States, he added that Washington was “responsible for the dangerous repercussions of this aggression.”

Earlier this week, Tehran reiterated warnings that the Republic could also point to US bases throughout the region if it was attacked.

Tehran has been enriching for several years near the degree of weapons. Both Israel and the United States have promised to prevent the Republic from developing nuclear weapons.

While Tehran says that its program is for civil purposes, it has the ability to produce sufficient fisitive material required for a nuclear weapon in less than two weeks.

The Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN Atomic Control Agency, declared on Thursday that they will breach their non -proliferation obligations, the first censorship of this type in two decades.

The strikes crown almost two years of conflict in the Middle East that began with the war between Israel and Hamas caused by the attack of the Palestinian militant group of October 7, 2023 against Israel.

Additional reports by Bita Ghaffari in Tehran and Jamie Smyth and Steff Chávez in New York