Israel & Iran trade blows as Trump insists peace talks to continue

HEADLINES

• Israel said on Monday it hit a petrochemical plant in Iran's southwest, along with strikes elsewhere on military targets. READ MORE BELOW

• US President Donald Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks. READ MORE BELOW

• Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps blamed the US for the latest exchange of fire with Israel. READ MORE BELOW

• The IRGC said it had targeted Ramat David air base, near Nazareth and said further attacks on non-military and energy targets would have consequences for the global economy.

• Iran has denied attacking the Al-Kharj airbase in Saudi Arabia, with state broadcaster IRIB citing a military official as saying that "Iran has not fired any shots."

• Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced a missile attack on Israel on Monday and declared a ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea.

• EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas urged calm on Monday after Iran and Israel traded strikes.

• Investors reacting to the conflict are helping fuel a downturn in the world's financial markets, with the price of Brent crude oil shooting up by about 5 percent to more than $97 a barrel.

Tit-for-tat strikes resume

Sunday (June 7) marked the 100th day of the US-Israel-Iran war but peace feels as far away as ever as hostilities resumed between Israel and Iran after a new round of tit-for-tat air strikes.

Israel said on Monday it hit a petrochemical plant in Iran's southwest, along with strikes elsewhere on military targets, after US President Donald Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps blamed the US for the latest exchange of fire with Israel and said further attacks on non-military and energy targets would have consequences for the global economy.

In the first hit on an energy site inside Iran since the April 8 ceasefire, Israel said it struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex, while a provincial official told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency parts of the plant were damaged.

The Israeli military later said it had also carried out a large-scale strike on Iranian defense systems to dismantle air defense capabilities that Tehran had been deploying.

Iranian media reported the sound of explosions in Tehran on Monday, and the semi-official Mehr news agency said air defenses had shot down a drone over the capital. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Iran hits back

The IRGC said that in retaliation they had launched a missile attack on a similar plant in the Israeli city of Haifa.

Iran fired nearly 30 missiles towards Israel since Sunday night, an Israeli military official said, marking the first exchange of fire between the two countries since a truce in April.

"Last night the Iranian regime began firing ballistic missiles towards Israel... they fired close to 30 ballistic missiles towards Israel," the official told journalists on Monday, adding that Yemen's Houthi rebels separately fired two missiles at the country.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis pledged in a statement to stop Israel's maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and said it was behind the first missile attack on Israel since the ceasefire, which spurred Israel to activate aerial defense systems.

Trump dismisses effects on talks

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday the new strikes by Israel and Iran would not affect the US peace talks with Tehran.

Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including rebuking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last week.

However, earlier on Sunday Israel launched strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in the Beirut area for the first time since the US announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.

"It's not going to have any impact on the deal," Trump told the Financial Times. "I call the shots. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn't call the shots."

Trump spoke with Netanyahu by telephone from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a little less than half an hour on Sunday, an Israeli official said, without giving details.

Trump told Netanyahu during the call to refrain from further strikes because "we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal," according to a US official quoted by Axios.

Since the start of the talks, Israel has kept up attacks in Lebanon in a conflict with Hezbollah that Israeli officials insist should be treated separately from any Iran ceasefire.

Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who fired across the border in solidarity with Tehran.