Iran urges US to make Israel halt war as TV studio hit
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Iran has called on US President Donald Trump to force Israel to cease fire as the only way to end the four-day-old aerial war while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country is on the “path to victory” and an Israeli strike hit an Iranian television studio.
Israeli forces stepped up their bombardment of Iranian cities while Iran proved capable of piercing Israeli air defences with one of its most successful volleys yet of retaliatory missile strikes.
“If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X.
“Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue. It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”
Sources told Reuters that Iran had asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to press Trump to use his influence on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire.
In return, Iran would show flexibility in nuclear negotiations, said the two Iranian and three regional sources.
Netanyahu told Israeli troops at an air base that Israel was on its way to achieving its two main aims: wiping out Iran’s nuclear program and destroying its missiles.
“We are on the path to victory,” he said.
“We are telling the citizens of Tehran: ‘Evacuate’ – and we are taking action.”
Israel launched its air war on Friday with a surprise attack that killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran’s military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists.
It has said it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate its campaign in coming days.
An Iranian state television reporter had to stop a live broadcast on Monday when an explosion occurred an hour after Israel issued a warning to leave a part of Tehran where the TV studios are located.
Presenter Sahar Emami of the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network rushed off-camera as the screen behind her cut out, and people were heard saying “Allahu akbar,” the Arabic phrase for God is great.
The broadcast quickly switched to pre-recorded programs.
Soon, Emami came back live from another studio and was seen speaking with another anchor.
She said that “bodies of reporters” were at the site of the initial broadcast, and images showed smoke and flames in the sky.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz took credit for the attack.
“The Iranian regime’s propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority was attacked by the IDF after a widespread evacuation of the area’s residents,” Katz said in a statement.
“We will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere.”
Iran’s retaliation is the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that missiles fired from Iran have pierced Israeli defences in significant numbers and killed Israelis in their homes.
Iran says more than 224 Iranians have been killed, most of them civilians.
Media published images of wounded children, women and the elderly from cities across the country.
State TV broadcast scenes of collapsed presidential buildings, burned-out cars, and shattered streets in Tehran.
Many residents were trying to flee the capital, describing queues for petrol and bank machines that were out of cash.
“I am desperate. My two children are scared and cannot sleep at night because of the sound of air defence and attacks, explosions. But we have nowhere to go. We hid under our dining table,” Gholamreza Mohammadi, 48, a civil servant, told Reuters by phone from Tehran.
In Israel, 24 people have been killed so far in Iran’s missile attacks, all of them civilians.
“It’s terrifying because it’s so unknown,” said Guydo Tetelbaum, 31, a chef in Tel Aviv who was in his apartment when the alerts came in shortly after 4am.
with AP
Reuters
