Doctors of Israel Army fighters have bombarded this morning many “military objectives” of Iran, in the first phase of a “preventive attack” ordered by the Tel Aviv government against it, as reported by the Israel Defense Forces (FDI).
Specifically, it has been attacked in the capital, Tehran, as well as “different areas” of the country, inform the IDF with a statement released in its social network X, in which it has justified these actions explaining that “today, Iran is closer than ever to obtain a nuclear weapon”, which “represents an existential threat to Israel and the world in general.”
Iranian authorities have not provided information about the attack that began at 3:30 local time (an hour and a half ahead of Madrid) when strong explosions sounds were heard in the Iranian capital.
“The State of Israel has no choice but to fulfill the obligation to act in defense of its citizens and will continue to do so in all the places where we have done in the past,” added the government of, while ordering its population to suspend all non -essential activity.
The attacks are especially significant because they have ended the life of the commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran, the general, as well as other high Iranian positions, the state agency Irna reported. “General Hossein Salamí, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard, and several commanders were killed in the attacks of the Zionist regime,” said this media and the Tasnim agency, linked to the elite military body.
Salamí said yesterday that the Islamic Republic was prepared for a “war at any level” and would respond to any aggression, given the information that Israel was preparing to attack the Persian country, now executed. According to local media, the headquarters of the powerful revolutionary guard was one of the objectives of the Israeli attack. The nuclear scientists Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi also died at the barrage. Irna also reported the death of an undetermined number of civilians in attacks on residential areas of northern Tehran.
Archive Photography of November 18, 2023 of the Commander in Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) of Iran, General Hossein Salami, speaking in Tehran.
The Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, has declared “the state of emergency” throughout the territory of the country, an announcement that has made after meeting with the military authorities “hours before the start of the operation ‘Am Kalavi’ in Iran”. “After the preventive attack of the state of Israel against Iran, an attack with missiles and planes notmanship against the state of Israel and its civilian population is expected in an immediate future,” he explained in a note released by his office.
The Prime Minister, Netanyahu, on the other hand, has indicated that the objective of the Israeli army is “to hit the military infrastructure of Iran, the Iranian factories of ballistic missiles and the military capabilities” in a video speech spread in X in which he has defended this aggression at “a decisive moment of history.” He said Israel has attacked “the core of the Iran Nuclear Enrichment Program.” “Today, our strong and brave soldiers and our people join ourselves to defend ourselves from those who seek our destruction, and by defending ourselves, we defend many others and make the murderous tyranny back,” Netanyahu concluded in one of the phrases that close their message.
Several Iranian media, including TV television, have confirmed an attack against Natanz’s nuclear facilities, in the center of the country and about 300 kilometers south of Tehran. The Mehr news agency, meanwhile, has also mentioned attacks in Khandab and Khorramabad, while in Tehran have been affected are residential areas, activating the Iranian air defense system after penetration into the airspace of the capital province.
The airport authorities have announced the suspension, until new notice, of all flights with exit or destination to the Imán Jomeini de Tehran airport, as the Irna news agency points out.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA) has confirmed that Natanz’s Iranian nuclear plant was reached by bombings. “The OIEA closely monitors the worrying situation in Iran. The agency can confirm that Natanz’s plant is among the objectives achieved,” the agency wrote in an X message signed by its general director, Rafael Grossi.
The OIEA also claimed to be “in contact with the Iranian authorities” to monitor the “radiation levels” and be in contact with the entity’s inspectors in the country. Natanz is the main uranium enrichment plant in Iran – with thousands of gas centrifuges, of different models and speeds – that was supposedly protected by anti -aircraft batteries. Together with the underground plant of Fordow, Natanz is the center of the controversial Iranian atomic program.
According to IEA inspectors, Iran had achieved in recent months accelerated its highly enriched uranium production, up to a purity of 60 %, close to the necessary for the manufacture of atomic bombs.
Through rotations of its teams, the OIEA maintains a constant presence in Iran for a decade, when the great atomic pact known as JCPOA was signed, which limited the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
But the night does not end here, because the chief of the General Staff of the Israeli army, Eyal Zamir, warned early this Friday that they are in the midst of “an unprecedented historical campaign” against Iran, so there may be new blows.
“We are in the midst of an unprecedented historical campaign. This is a crucial operation to prevent an existential threat, by an enemy that intends to destroy us. We begin this operation because the time has come: we are at a point of no return. We cannot allow ourselves to wait,” Zamir added in a vide -communicated. “The attack on Iran will follow the time needed to eliminate the threat,” Netanyahu then stressed.
“Bitter and painful”
The Iranian army said, in response, that Israel and the United States will receive a “blunt slap” by the Israeli attack, said Iran’s armed forces spokesman, General Shekarchi. He said that the armed forces of Iran “will respond soon with counterattacks, if God wants.” The military indicated that Israel has attacked residential areas in the Iranian capital, but did not offer more details about the Israeli offensive.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Jameneí, promised, in turn, a “bitter and painful” destination for Israel for his aggression. “With this crime, the Zionist regime prepared a bitter and painful destination, and will undoubtedly receive it,” Jameneí said in a statement published on his website.
Iran’s highest political and religious authority assured that Israel will receive a “severe punishment” after revealing its “evil nature” with attacks against residential areas of the Iranian capital. The religious confirmed the death of an undetermined number of military and nuclear scientists in the Israeli attack this morning and said that his “successors will immediately resume their duties.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abás Araqchí also defended that his country has the “legitimate right” to respond. “Iran has the legitimate and legal right to respond to this aggression according to article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, and the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to defend the Iranian nation with all its power and in the way that they determine more convenient,” he wrote in a statement.
In the middle of negotiations with the US
The attacks arrive hours after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, a few days after a new round of contacts between the Iranian and American delegations in the capital of Oman, Mascate, on Tehran’s nuclear program. It will be Sunday when the parties are seen, now in a completely new context.
“I do not want to say that it is imminent, but it seems that it is something that could happen very well. It is very simple, not complicated: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” said the Republican tycoon in statements to the press from Washington.
The Pentagon has confirmed that the US has not participated in this operation or has given “assistance” to Tel Aviv. The US Secretary of State, said that “Israel took unilateral measures against Iran”, that American diplomacy Jerusalem considers necessary “for his own defense.” “Tonight, Israel took unilateral measures against Iran. We did not participate in attacks against Iran and our main priority is to protect US forces in the region,” says Rubio’s statement.
“Israel informed us that he believes that this action is necessary for his own defense. President Trump and his administration have taken all the necessary measures to protect our forces and maintain close contact with our regional partners. Let’s be clear: Iran should not attack the interests or personnel of the United States,” adds the short text.
Although he has come to guarantee the role of his partner, it must be remembered that just hours before Trump had asked – and it was not the first time – that there were no attacks on Israel, because an agreement on its nuclear program can be “close.” “We are quite close to a good agreement,” Trump told reporters. “I don’t want them to intervene, because I think that would ruin it,” he said referring to Israel. Even so, as such an attack was imminent, USA has moved its staff in areas like Iraq in the last hours, by caution.
Trump left the historic agreement on nuclear investigations of Iran of 2015. He did it in 2018, already in his first stage in the White House. Now he has resumed contacts and for two weeks he insisted on the proximity of positions, even though Washington and Tehran are insistently threatened on the road. The Ayatolás regime has always defended the exclusively civil use of its investigations, but yesterday the Board of Governors of the OIEA, the UN Atomic Agency, for its nuclear activities, opening the road to an eventual complaint of the Islamic Republic before the UN Security Council.
The Republican has a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) in relation to the Israeli attack on Iran. The meeting called in the White House Crisis Room is scheduled for 11:00 on Friday, local time of Washington (six more hours in peninsular Spain), according to the schedule shared by the US presidential office.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, said he felt “particularly concerned about the attacks,” when conversations between Iran and the US are running about the Iranian nuclear program. “The Portuguese issued this morning a statement through its attached spokesman Farhan Haq, two hours after the Israeli attack against Iran was known, still imprecise but has already made the Supreme leader of Iran, Ali Jamenei, to promise Israel a “bitter and painful” destination.
In their brief statement, Guterres recalls that the UN Member States have “the obligation to act in accordance with the UN Founding Charter and with the International Law”, a phrase that seems an answer to what minutes before the Iranian Ministry of Exteriors had said that the Israeli attack involved a violation of article 4 of that foundational chart.
Guterres asked the two parties (Iran and Israel) “maximum containment” and that “avoid at all costs sink into a deeper conflict, a situation that the region cannot barely allow.”
