Iran has launched a barrage of retaliatory missiles aimed at Israel and US bases across the middle east region, denouncing the two countries’ airstrikes as a breach of the UN charter and an act of flagrant aggression designed to end any possibility of a diplomatic resolution.
Iran’s foreign ministry called on Muslim and non-aligned states to demand an urgent meeting of the UN security council, pointing out that the US-Israeli strikes on Saturday were the second such attack in a year while Iran was in the middle of sensitive negotiations over its nuclear programme.
The talks were designed to set up a verifiable process whereby Iran could not acquire the materials for a nuclear bomb. The chief mediator in the talks, Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, had said on Friday that he believed peace was in reach.
After the first wave of Israeli attacks in Tehran on Saturday morning, officials insisted the leadership, including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Masoud Pezeshkian, were safe, despite an attempt to assassinate them in the bombings. Khamenei’s office in the capital looked to be a charred ruin, according to satellite images.
Despite rumours that the commander-in-chief of the army, Maj Gen, Amir Hatami, had been killed, it did not initially appear that the attacks had managed to target its leadership on the same scale as it did last June. But the fate of the Revolutionary Guards commander, Mohammad Pakpour, was in doubt, and the home of the leading reformist and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi was badly damaged.
Forty schoolchildren in a girl’s elementary school in Minab Hormozgan province were reportedly killed and 48 injured. Ambulances were seen taking injured people to hospital in central Tehran.
Pictures showed numerous Revolutionary Guards weapons warehouses had been hit, as well as missile sites.
The foreign ministry issued a statement, saying the country “will not hesitate” in its response. In a statement posted on X, the ministry said: “The time has come to defend the homeland and confront the enemy’s military assault.”
The national security council called on the public to relocate away from cities under attack, and the government information council insisted “people should not worry about shortages or deficiencies”.
THE GUARDIAN.
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