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<\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Israel has struck Iran\u2019s nuclear facility near Isfahan, pressing ahead with its aerial assault while President Donald Trump decides whether the US will enter the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had launched a big overnight assault involving 50 warplanes, with some targeting two centrifuge production facilities at Isfahan.<\/p>\n<p>However, the crown jewel of the Islamic Republic\u2019s nuclear programme, a sprawling uranium enrichment facility built deep under a mountain in Fordow, remains out of reach of Israel\u2019s conventional weapons. American \u201cbunker-buster\u201d bombs carried by B-2 Stealth fighters are considered to have the best chance of destroying the facility, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted at clandestine capabilities, including sabotage.<\/p>\n<p>The White House said on Thursday that Trump would decide \u201cwithin the next two weeks\u201d if the US would strike Iran, a decision that would mark a significant escalation in the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s near-complete domination of Iranian skies has severely diminished the Islamic Republic\u2019s missile launch capabilities and eliminated much of its senior military leadership since its surprise attack on June 13. <\/p>\n<p>Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rarely been seen in public since Israel\u2019s defence minister said that he too could be assassinated. <\/p>\n<p>The Israeli military\u2019s success has left Trump reluctant to agree to an Iranian demand that any talks take place under the cover of a ceasefire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to stop when you look at it, Israel\u2019s doing well in terms of war and I think you would say that Iran is doing less well,\u201d Trump said on Friday, describing the first round of Europe-led negotiations in Geneva as ineffective. \u201cEurope is not going to be able to help with this.\u201d The US did not attend the talks. <\/p>\n<p>A person briefed on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/dddd5869-3f5a-4cff-ae77-cf78c27ae295\" data-trackable=\"link\">Friday\u2019s negotiations<\/a> said the French, German and UK foreign ministers warned their Iranian counterpart that Tehran may have to give up its red line of refusing to negotiate with Washington while under Israeli attack to \u201cprevent the US from joining the operation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe sent them away to think very carefully about their red line,\u201d the person said. \u201cWe told [the Iranians] that US military intervention is something that is actually being planned right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump has dismissed the US intelligence community\u2019s assessment that Iran was not using Fordow\u2019s uranium enrichment capabilities to build material for a nuclear weapon. Instead, he has agreed with Netanyahu\u2019s claims that Tehran was weeks from building a bomb.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"5c3c9971-20dd-416c-a4ca-6235d344f762\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/5c3c9971-20dd-416c-a4ca-6235d344f762\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2048\/1152\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s wrong,\u201d Trump told reporters when asked about national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard\u2019s testimony to Congress this year, which contradicted Netanyahu\u2019s insistence that Iran was building a bomb.<\/p>\n<p>Gabbard said in March that the US intelligence community believed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei had not revived the programme he suspended in 2003. <\/p>\n<p>But late on Friday night, Gabbard wrote on X that if Iran decided to finalise the assembly of a bomb, it could \u201cproduce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Iranian Fars news agency, Israel\u2019s overnight military actions appear to have hit some parts of the nuclear facility, but there were no signs of radiation leakage.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli military also said it had killed two senior leaders in the Quds Force, an arm of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard. It said that both leaders were involved in financing and training Iran\u2019s proxy militias in the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/f27a6684-f500-4606-85b4-9bf1804becf3\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}