Israel kills Iranian commanders, says nuclear plans delayed

Israel said on June 21 that it had killed three Iranian commanders in its unprecedented bombing campaign across the Islamic republic, which Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed had already delayed Tehran's presumed nuclear plans by two years.

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Israel's military said its fighter jets successfully targeted top Iranian official Saeed Izadi, in charge of coordination with Palestinian militant group Hamas, in Qom, south of Tehran, and announced the deaths of two other commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

As Israel continued to strike Iran's nuclear facilities and military targets, Mr. Saar said in an interview published on June 21 that by Israel's own assessment, it had "already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb."

"We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," he told German newspaper Bild, asserting that Israel's onslaught would continue.

Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes, after Israel launched its aerial campaign on June 13, fearing Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon – an ambition Iran has denied.

Israel said it had attacked Iran's Isfahan nuclear site for a second time, after its air force said it had also launched salvos against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran. The military later said it struck military infrastructure in south-west Iran.

US President Donald Trump warned on June 20 that Tehran has a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to join Israel's bombing campaign.