Iran says no negotiations until Israel stops attacks

Tehran’s foreign minister in Geneva dampens hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough as Tel Aviv continues airstrikes

- SAM KILEY IN TEL AVIV

Iran and Israel traded daytime missile attacks yesterday to cap a week of relentless bombing as talks involving Iran's foreign minister and his European counterparts showed no sign of a breakthrough.

Abbas Araghchi said Iran would not negotiate with the US as long as Israel continued to carry out airstrikes, and insisted his country's nuclear programme was entirely peaceful.

Israeli emergency services reported that at least 17 people were injured, including a teenager who is in a serious condition, after Iranian ballistic missiles yesterday slammed into a building near the port city of Haifa in the early afternoon. Israel said it had conducted multiple strikes on Iran earlier in the day.

After the attack on Haifa, images from the scene showed the building in ruins as people were stretchered away. Moments earlier, Iran's religious ruler, Ali Khamenei, had posted on social media warning that Israel was about to see revenge. "The Zionist enemy is getting his comeuppance; he is getting his comeuppance now," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Israel's military issued a rare nationwide warning on social media following Ayatollah Khamenei's post as it urged civilians to head for shelters. It later said Iran had fired around 25 ballistic missiles. Israeli cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs said Iran had fired a total of 525 missiles at Israel over the past week.