Iran and Israel have traded fresh air attacks as their conflict pushes into a second week, with diplomatic efforts showing no signs of meaningful progress.  This follows fruitless efforts to de-escalate the conflict in Geneva, where top European diplomats met with their Iranian counterpart yesterday, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi maintaining that Iran would not re-enter negotiations with the US while it remains under attack from Israel.

Tensions continue to rise in the region as Israel escalates its military campaign against Iran. Reports indicate that on Saturday, Israeli forces targeted  Iran’s largest nuclear facility, the Isfahan nuclear research complex in central Iran. But no leakage of hazardous materials were reported.  Authorities, however, have urged residents to avoid the area as a precaution.

In the Iranian city of  Qom, a direct hit on a residential building left two people dead and four others injured, according to state media.
The Israeli Defense Forces say the latest strikes targeted Iranian missile storage and launch sites. This comes after Iran fired missiles toward central Israel, with explosions heard near Tel Aviv and missile interceptions lighting up the sky above the country’s second-largest city.

In a video address, Israeli Chief of the General Staff, Eyal Zamir, warned that the country should prepare for a “prolonged campaign” against Iran , a signal that this conflict may extend well beyond the coming days.

The diplomatic blowback from the Israeli-Iran skirmish deepened, exposing profound divisions within the US administration about Tehran’s nuclear pursuits. President Donald Trump openly rebuffed evidence provided by his own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to Congress in March that Iran was not actively engaged in building a nuclear weapon, contrary to Israeli claims that Iran was engaged in a dash for the bomb. Speaking to reporters, Trump claimed that Gabbard was ‘wrong’, and accused the intelligence community of downplaying Iran’s abilities.

But within less than two hours of Trump’s remarks, Gabbard appeared to make a U-turn. In a brief statement on social media, she said that she also supported what the president said.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, representing 57 member states, held a meeting in Istanbul on Saturday, and Iran’s foreign minister was in attendance. In Geneva, talks between Iran and Britain, France, and Germany, collapsed. Tehran made it clear that negotiations on its nuclear programme cannot proceed in the face of Israeli attacks.