Israel’s military warned people Thursday to evacuate the area around Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, as hostilities continued between the rival nations amid fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East.
The warning came in a social media post on X. It included a satellite image of the plant in a red circle like warnings that preceded other recent strikes.
Israel’s seventh day of airstrikes on Iran came a day after Iran’s supreme leader rejected U.S. calls for surrender and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage to them.” Israel also lifted some restrictions on daily life, suggesting the missile threat from Iran on its territory was easing.
Already, Israel’s campaign has targeted Iran’s enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran and a nuclear site in Isfahan. Its strikes have also killed top generals and nuclear scientists.
A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 wounded. In retaliation, Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds. Some have hit apartment buildings in central Israel, causing heavy damage.
The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometres southwest of Tehran.
Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces the byproduct plutonium, which can be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another way to make such weapons without enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon.
Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns.
In 2019, Iran started up the heavy water reactor’s secondary circuit, which at the time did not violate the deal.
Britain at the time was helping Iran redesign the reactor to limit the amount of plutonium it produces, stepping in for the U.S., which under U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14.
Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s heavy water production — meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran’s production and stockpile.
Trump and Iran
Iran’s supreme leader spoke a day after Trump demanded in a social media post that Iran surrender without conditions and warned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the U.S. knows where he is but has no plans to kill him, “at least not for now.”
Trump initially distanced himself from Israel’s surprise attack on Friday that triggered the conflict, but in recent days he has hinted at greater American involvement, saying he wants something “much bigger” than a ceasefire. The U.S. has also sent more military aircraft and warships to the region.
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Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. State Department adviser and negotiator, reads Trump’s shifting stances on Iran as evident uncertainty about what course of action to ultimately pursue.
“It reflects, frankly, a degree of confusion and the absence of an effective strategy,” he told CBC’s Power & Politics.
Senior European diplomats were set to hold nuclear talks with Iran on Friday in Geneva, according to a European official familiar with the matter.
There are no plans for American involvement in the talks, although that could change, according to another U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic communications.
Separately, the UN Security Council scheduled a second emergency meeting on the Israel-Iran conflict for Friday at the request of Russia, China and Pakistan. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to help mediate a resolution, suggesting Moscow could help negotiate a settlement allowing Tehran to pursue a peaceful atomic program while assuaging Israeli security concerns.
Israeli PM highlights Trump’s support
In a video address to Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed appreciation for Trump’s support in the conflict, calling him “a great friend of Israel” and praising U.S. help defending Israel’s skies.
U.S. President Donald Trump has consistently denied his country’s involvement in the intensifying conflict between Israel and Iran. But Andrew Chang explains the role the U.S. has already played — and the extent to which that involvement may still increase.
Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.
“We speak constantly, including last night,” Netanyahu said Wednesday.
Khamenei dismissed the “threatening and absurd statements” by Trump.
“Wise individuals who know Iran, its people and its history never speak to this nation with the language of threats, because the Iranian nation is not one to surrender,” he said in a low-resolution video.
“Americans should know that any military involvement by the U.S. will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage to them.”
Iran released Khamenei’s statement before the video was aired, perhaps as a security measure. His location is not publicly known.
An Iranian diplomat had warned earlier Wednesday that U.S. intervention would risk “all-out war.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei did not elaborate, but thousands of American troops are based in nearby countries within range of Iran’s weapons. The U.S. has threatened a massive response to any attack.
Another Iranian official said the country would keep enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, apparently ruling out Trump’s demands that Iran give up its disputed nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Iranian state TV reported late Wednesday that it was under a cyberattack by Israel.
As It Happens6:32Why this professor is staying in Tehran as Israeli bombs rain down
Since Israel began bombing Iran on Friday, both it and the U.S. have told people in Tehran to pack up and leave the capital. Foad Izadi, a professor of international affairs at the University of Tehran, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal he’s not going anywhere.
