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United States-Israeli attacks have hit several cities across Iran with no sign of de-escalation, even as US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington was in talks with Tehran to end the war.
Huge explosions were reported overnight on Tuesday in the Iranian capital, Tehran, while attacks also targeted the cities of Tabriz, Isfahan and Karaj. Iranian media reported on Tuesday that Israeli-US strikes hit two gas facilities and a pipeline, hours after Trump postponed planned attacks on power infrastructure.
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“As part of the ongoing attacks carried out by the Zionist and American enemy, the gas administration building and the gas pressure regulation station on Kaveh Street in Isfahan were targeted,” said the Fars news agency.
The facilities in central Iran were “partially damaged”, added Fars, which was Iran’s only news outlet to report the incident. It said an attack also hit the gas pipeline of the Khorramshahr power plant, in the country’s southwest.
“A projectile hit the area outside the Khorramshahr gas pipeline processing station,” Fars reported, quoting the governor of the city bordering Iraq.
A leading scholar and professor at a science university in Tehran was killed alongside his two children in an attack on his residence north of the capital, according to local media.
Iran’s English-language news channel Press TV identified the victim as Saeed Shamaghdari, who taught at the engineering department of the Iran University of Science and Technology.
Israel had previously attacked several Iranian academics, whom it accused of having links to the development of Iranian weapons.
The head of Iran’s emergency service, Jafar Miadfar, said 208 children were killed since the war began on February 28. Among them, 168 were from the US missile strikes on the girls’ school in Minab city at the start of the war. Rights groups say the Minab attack should be investigated as a war crime.
More than 1,500 civilians have been killed across the country so far, according to the Iranian government.
Attacks on the Gulf continue
The attacks come along with signs of a diplomatic channel opening. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abass Araghchi has held calls with several countries in the last 24 hours, including Egypt, Pakistan and Oman.
Senior Iranian officials on Monday denied that Iran held talks with the US, just hours after Trump claimed “very good and productive conversations” had taken place towards ending the war.
Esmaeil Kowsari, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency that Iranian officials “need to think wisely” before entering into any talks with the US.
“This is not the first time they have lied about negotiations,” said Kowsari, who is also a major-general in the military. “Their nature is to create division so that they can make people sceptical of the authorities and feel that something has been done, when nothing has been done.”
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said it was unclear whether diplomacy would be given a chance.
“Based on what we’re hearing from diplomats and other official sources in Iran, we’re not sure whether a pause would be welcome,” he said. “They say they want to make sure the country’s long-term security is guaranteed.”
The US-Israel war on Iran has expanded across the Middle East and led to a spike in oil prices, triggering a global energy crisis.
Meanwhile, the Gulf region continued to face direct military spillover. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed a total of 19 drones, launched in separate attacks, targeting the country’s Eastern Province.
The Kuwaiti army said its air defences responded to “hostile missile and drone attacks”. Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina, reporting from Kuwait City, said alarms went off 12 to 13 times from midnight until the early morning hours.
“I think a lot of people were very hopeful or optimistic when they heard President Trump talk about a possible deal,” Traina said.
“Anyone who was hopeful that we would see an immediate decrease in attacks last night just proved that it is not the case.”
Amazon said on Monday its Amazon Web Services region in Bahrain has been “disrupted”, according to the Reuters news agency.
The death toll from the US air attack on the Iran-aligned Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in Anbar has risen to 14. Monday’s attack on the PMF operations command headquarters in Anbar targeted the head of the group, Saad Dawai, who was among those killed.
Iran has launched multiple strikes across Israel, including Haifa. At least six people are reported injured after missile shrapnel hit a building in Tel Aviv. The Israeli military says search and rescue operations are under way at several sites in the south.
Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said while on a visit to Australia that a negotiated solution must be found to the conflict in Iran.
“It is of utmost importance that we come to a solution that is negotiated, and [that] this puts an end to the hostilities that we see in the Middle East,” she said.
Von der Leyen warned that the situation was “critical” for energy supplies and said Iran’s efforts to block energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz “must be condemned”.
