Iran has warned it’s going to exact a ‘heavy price’ for a brand new wave of Israeli strikes targeting power and nuclear sites.
State media reported strikes on Iran’s decommissioned heavy-water nuclear research reactor and a factory producing yellowcake uranium late on Friday.
The strikes didn’t cause any casualties or risk of contamination, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said.
But Tehran quickly threatened to retaliate.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X: ‘Israel has hit 2 of Iran’s largest steel factories, an influence plant and civilian nuclear sites amongst other infrastructure.
‘Israel claims it acted in coordination with the US.
‘Attack contradicts POTUS prolonged deadline for diplomacy. Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes.’
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Iran would retaliate for the attacks.
Seyed Majid Moosavi, IRGC’s Aerospace Force commander, posted on X that employees of corporations tied to the US and Israel should abandon their workplaces.
‘You tested us once before; the world has once more seen that you simply yourselves began twiddling with fire and attacking infrastructure,’ he said.
‘This time, the equation will now not be “an eye fixed for an eye fixed”, just wait.’
Yellowcake is a concentrated type of uranium after impurities are faraway from the raw ore. Heavy water is used as a moderator in nuclear reactors.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran had not decided whether to answer a 15-point proposal the US sent this week after attacks on industrial and nuclear infrastructure on Friday.
The official said Iran had expected its response to be delivered on Friday or Saturday but said the continuing strikes while the US was searching for talks was ‘intolerable’.
The US proposal, sent via Pakistan two days ago, is reported to incorporate demands starting from dismantling Iran’s nuclear and missile programs to relinquishing control of the world’s most vital trade route for energy supplies.
The war has spread across the Middle East, killing hundreds of individuals and causing the most important disruption ever to energy supplies, hitting the worldwide economy with soaring oil, gas and fertiliser prices which have fuelled inflation fears.
In Iran, greater than 1,900 people have been killed and not less than 20,000 injured, said Maria Martinez of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Attacks on Israel by Iran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah have also prompted an Israeli onslaught that has displaced a fifth of Lebanon’s population.
The US said it expects its operation against Iran to conclude inside weeks, not months, and Washington can meet all its objectives without using ground troops.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Friday that america was hopeful that there could be meetings with Iran this week.
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