Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, on Wednesday called on Iran to resume talks over its nuclear programme, AFP reports.
Wadephul said he had delivered the message to his Iranian counterpart in a phone call on Monday together with the French and British foreign ministers and the European Union’s chief diplomat.
“We, the E3 states, remain ready to negotiate a solution,” Wadephul said, with reference to the European grouping of Britain, France and Germany.
“Iran must now act urgently,” he said, calling for “verifiable and confidence-building measures”, such as a commitment from the government in Tehran not to pursue nuclear weapons capabilities.
“It is never too late to come to the negotiating table if you come with honest intentions,” Wadephul said in a press conference alongside the Jordanian foreign minister.
Israel will ease domestic restrictions imposed on its population due to the ongoing war with Iran and will “reopen its economy”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.
“While we continue our intense fight against Iran until the threats are removed, we will also reopen the economy, ease restrictions, and restore Israel to paths of creativity, activity, and security,” Katz was quoted as saying in a statement after approving the changes for most of the country starting Wednesday evening.
Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, on Wednesday called on Iran to resume talks over its nuclear programme, AFP reports.
Wadephul said he had delivered the message to his Iranian counterpart in a phone call on Monday together with the French and British foreign ministers and the European Union’s chief diplomat.
“We, the E3 states, remain ready to negotiate a solution,” Wadephul said, with reference to the European grouping of Britain, France and Germany.
“Iran must now act urgently,” he said, calling for “verifiable and confidence-building measures”, such as a commitment from the government in Tehran not to pursue nuclear weapons capabilities.
“It is never too late to come to the negotiating table if you come with honest intentions,” Wadephul said in a press conference alongside the Jordanian foreign minister.
PA News is reporting that UK prime minister Keir Starmer will chair a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee on Wednesday to discuss the security situation in the Middle East
Israeli gunfire and strikes have killed at least 140 people across Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said in an update, AFP reports.
At least 40 of the total number killed in the past day died as a result of Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Wednesday, Gaza’s health ministry said.
Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp, the Zeitoun neighbourhood and Gaza City in central and northern Gaza killed at least 21 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on an encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Fourteen more people were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, called the current system for distributing aid “a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness”, in a post on X on Wednesday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” and “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
The leaders of Russia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday warned of “extremely negative consequences” from the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict , as President Vladimir Putin pushed himself as a possible mediator, AFP reports.
In a phone call with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Putin “confirmed Russia’s readiness to provide mediation assistance to promote dialogue between the parties to the conflict,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
The two leaders “expressed deep concern over the continuing escalation of the Iranian-Israeli conflict, which could have extremely negative consequences for the entire region,” Moscow added.
The family members of British diplomatic staff in Israel have been “temporarily withdrawn”, the UK Foreign Office said on Wednesday.
Relatives of staff working at the UK embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem were “temporarily withdrawn as a precautionary measure”, the it said, adding that staff at the mission remain.
Multiple explosions have been heard in different areas of East Tehran, Reuters is reporting, citing Iran’s Nournews.
AFP reports that black smoke is visible in east.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described on Wednesday as “unacceptable” an ultimatum from US president Donald Trump calling for the nation’s “unconditional surrender”, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The president of America in an unacceptable statement explicitly urged Iranians to surrender but we tell him: first threaten those who are afraid of being threatened. Threats will not affect the thinking and behaviour of the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said in a speech read on state television.
Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi, who won the top prize at the Cannes film festival this year for his drama It Was Just an Accident, has called on the United Nations and the global community to “immediately and decisively, and without consideration or deal, to force the two regimes” to “halt military attacks and end the killing of civilians”.
In a post on Instagram, written in Farsi and translated by the platform into English, Panahi said attacks on Iran were “in no way acceptable” and that Israel had “violated” his home country. He added that Israel should be tried in “an international war trial as an aggressor”.
However, he also criticised the Iranian government and appeared to push for Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be toppled, reports Variety. According to the translated Instagram post, Panahi wrote:
This position does not mean in any way ignoring four decades of mismanagement, corruption, oppresssion, tyranny and incompetence of the Islamic Republic. This government has neither the power, will, nor legitmacy required to run the country or manage crises.
Staying in this regime means the continued fall, the continuation of the repression, and the continuation of the flock! The only way to escape is the immediate dissolution of this system and [to] initiate a people’s, responsive and democratic government.
He added that “both regimes” should be condemned “for their persistence of violence, warfare, and absolute indifference to human dignity”.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that the world was “millimetres away from catastrophe” due to daily Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported, according to Reuters.
Israeli troops raided two Palestinian refugee camps in the occupied West Bank’s north overnight, the military told Agence France-Press (AFP), as Israel presses offensives on multiple fronts.
The military told AFP that at “around 4am Israeli forces entered Balata camp”, near the northern city of Nablus, for “a routine counter-terrorism operation”. It added that the troops had been deployed to the nearby Askar camp prior to the operation in Balata camp.
Imad Zaki, head of the popular services committee of Balata camp, also told AFP that the military began its raid at 4am (1am GMT) on Wednesday.
“They closed all entrances to the camp, seized several homes after evicting their residents, and ordered the homeowners not to return for 72 hours. These homes were turned into military outposts and interrogation centres,” Zaki said.
“The soldiers are conducting house-to-house and neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood searches, destroying the contents of homes and physically assaulting the residents,” Zaki told AFP. He added that life had been “largely paralysed” for the camp’s residents but that no injuries were reported.
According to AFP, in a separate statement, the military said that its forces had “neutralised” one Palestinian overnight in the West Bank village of al-Walaja near Jerusalem.
They said that as the troops were deployed in the area, a Palestinian armed with a knife “attempted to stab (Israeli) soldiers who were operating in the area and steal their weapons”. “The soldiers responded with fire and neutralised the terrorist,” the army said, using a term it normally uses when someone has been killed.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that his country will not accept US President Donald Trump’s call for an unconditional surrender.
In his first remarks since Friday, Khamenei said peace or war could not be imposed on the Islamic Republic, Reuters reports.
“Intelligent people who know Iran, the Iranian nation, and its history will never speak to this nation in threatening language because the Iranian nation will not surrender,” he said in a statement read by a television presenter on Wednesday.
“The Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.”
Thousands of people were fleeing Tehran on Wednesday after Israeli warplanes bombed the city overnight, and a source said Trump was considering options that include joining Israel in attacking Iranian nuclear sites.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday Iran had the “legitimate” right to defend itself in the face of Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign, AFP reports.
“It is a very natural, legitimate and legal right for Iran to defend itself against Israel’s thuggery and state terrorism,” the Turkish leader said, a day after referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “the biggest threat to the security of the region”.
“These attacks were organised while the Iranian nuclear negotiations were taking place,” Erdogan said.
“Israel, which possesses nuclear weapons and does not recognise any international rules … did not wait for the negotiations to end, but carried out a terrorist act without waiting for the result.
“We are closely following Israel’s terrorist attacks on Iran. All our institutions are on high alert regarding the possible effects of these attacks on Turkey.
He added: “We are making preparations for every kind of scenario.
“Nobody should dare to test us.”
On Monday, Erdogan said he had ordered the defence industry to increase production of medium and long-range missiles to “increase its level of deterrence” in light of the air war between Israel and Iran.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov warned on Wednesday that direct US military assistance to Israel could radically destabilise the situation in the Middle East.
Ryabkov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Russia cautions the US against supplying such assistance to Israel – or even considering it. He said Moscow was in contact with both Israel and Iran, Reuters reports.
The first flight bringing stranded Israelis back home has landed at Ben Gurion airport after making the short journey from Cyprus.
The El Al carrier flew in from Larnaca where thousands of Israeli citizens have gathered since the conflict erupted early Friday. Cyprus is the nearest EU member state to the Middle East.
“It’s been crazy,” said Dimitris Michaelides, who owns Larnaca Marina’s Agistri seafood restaurant. “Hundreds have come here trying to get on private boats to get back to Israel too.” People were prepared to fork out “lots of money” for the sea journey, he said.
Israel’s Transportation Ministry estimates around a third of the 150,000 Israelis now stranded abroad want to get home.
After suspending flights last week, El Al announced it would start “rescue flights” to repatriate Israelis stranded in a number of capitals including Athens, Rome, Milan and Paris. Repatriation efforts will be managed in stages “based on the level of risk and current security assessments,” airport authorities said.
Some residents in Gaza have expressed concern that the latest escalations in the Israel-Gaza war that began in October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel’s conflict with Iran.
“People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days,” said Adel, a resident of Gaza City told Reuters via a chat app.
“Whoever doesn’t die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won.”
We have more comments from Ali Bahreini, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in Geneva (see earlier post), coming from AFP.
Ali Bahreini told a press conference:
“We will respond strongly and we will stop aggression from any side, be it Israel or the United States.
“And we have given a message to the United States that we will respond very firmly and will stop the aggression by anybody – including the United States.”
A televised message by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be aired shortly, Iran’s state media reported on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Khamenei’s last appearance was on Friday shortly after Israel attacked Iran.
Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 30 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health authorities said
The deaths included the latest in near-daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on Gaza that it had imposed for almost three months, AFP reports.
Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp and Zeitoun neighbourhood in central and northern Gaza killed at least 14 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Eleven others were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” and “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
