DUBAI: Israel attacked a key petrochemical plant at Iran’s massive South Pars natural gas field and killed a top Revolutionary Guard commander, putting into question the negotiations aimed at getting the U.S. and Tehran to reach a ceasefire.
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed what he called “a powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran” that's responsible for half of the country's petrochemical production. Israel’s military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said there would be “no immunity” for Iran as talks progress.
The gas field shared with Qatar is the world’s largest and sits under the waters of the Persian Gulf.
The White House did not immediately respond when asked about the strike. After Israel’s attack in March on South Pars, Trump said Israel would not attack it again but warned that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the United States would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.
Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz looms while mediators scramble to get the U.S. and Iran to agree to a new ceasefire proposal.
Explosions rang out in Tehran and low-flying jets could be heard for hours as the capital was pounded. Thick black smoke rose near the city’s Azadi Square after one airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology.
Among those killed in one of the attacks on Tehran was the head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media and Israel's defense minister.
Israel’s military said it also killed the leader of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.
Iranian missiles hit the northern Israeli city of Haifa, where four people were found dead in the rubble of a residential building.
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia all activated their air defenses to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and drones, as Tehran kept up the pressure on its Gulf neighbors. Iran's regular attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is shipped in peacetime, has sent global energy prices soaring.
Under pressure at home as consumers are growing increasingly concerned, Trump gave Tehran a deadline that expires Monday night Washington time, saying if no deal was reached to reopen the strait, the U.S. would hit Iran's power plants and other infrastructure targets and set the country “back to the stone ages.”
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he threatened in a social media post, adding that if Iran did not open the strait “you'll be living in Hell.”
In an effort to stop the fighting, Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators have sent Iran and the U.S. a proposal calling for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to give time to try and find a way to end the war, two Mideast officials have told The Associated Press.
Iran and the U.S. have not responded to the proposal, sent late Sunday night to both Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.
