Israel also issues air raid warning in Tel Aviv and other areas… “Iran fires 5 ballistic missiles”

Iran Foreign Minister: “No Negotiations Without Cessation of Attacks”… Turkey Fiercely Condemns Israel

(Seoul·Johannesburg=Yonhap News) Reporter Shin Jae-woo and Correspondent Yoo Hyeon-min = Israel and Iran have continued their armed conflict for the ninth day, exchanging assassinations of key figures and missile attacks without finding a breakthrough to resolve the nuclear conflict.

According to Reuters, Israel on the 21st (local time) eliminated a veteran commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said on Monday that the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force, the foreign operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in an attack on an apartment building in the Iranian city of Qom.

The slain commander was identified as Said Izzadi, who led the Palestinian unit of the Quds Force, and two other IRGC commanders were also killed, AFP reported.

The Israeli military announced that it had launched a series of strikes targeting Iranian missile storage and launch facilities on the day, and again attacked the Isfahan nuclear facility in central Iran.

Iran's Fars news agency reported that Israel attacked Iran's Isfahan nuclear facility, one of its largest, but that no hazardous materials were released.

The attack targeted two centrifuge production facilities at the Isfahan nuclear complex, an Israeli military official said.

The Israeli strike also killed nuclear scientist Isartavatabai-Hamshe and his wife, Iran's semi-official news agency Mehr reported.

The Israeli Navy also struck the pro-Iranian militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon on the same day.

The attack, targeting a Hezbollah facility in the southern Lebanese city of Naqura, came a day after Israel warned Hezbollah not to get involved in the conflict with Iran.

Iran also responded with new missile attacks.

At around 2:30 a.m. that day, as Iranian missiles approached Israel, air raid sirens sounded in the central region, including the capital Tel Aviv, and the West Bank.

Explosions were reportedly heard across the capital as Israeli air defenses responded to the Iranian missiles.

Israel's emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) said air raid sirens were also heard in the south.

An Israeli military official said Iran fired five ballistic missiles, but there was no indication that the missiles directly hit their targets.

However, local media reported that debris from an intercepted Iranian missile also started a fire on the roof of a building in the central region.

The Associated Press reported that at least 657 people, including 263 civilians, were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded in Iran as a result of Israeli airstrikes that began on the 13th. Iran's state-run Nour News reported that at least 430 people were killed and 3,500 were wounded, citing the Iranian Health Ministry.

In Israel, at least 24 people were killed and hundreds wounded in an Iranian counterattack that included 450 missiles and 1,000 drones, the AP added.

The international community is concerned about an all-out war between Israel and Iran and has been working to resolve the issue, but no significant results have been achieved.

The three European countries of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, Switzerland the previous evening to hold nuclear negotiations, but failed to reach a breakthrough.

Minister Araghchi said he would continue consultations with Europe and others, but reiterated that Iran would continue to exercise its right to self-defense and would not negotiate as long as Israel's attacks continued.

At the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Istanbul, Turkey on the same day, Minister Araghci again emphasized that negotiations with the United States are impossible without Israel ceasing its attacks, warning that"if the United States gets involved in a war with Israel, it will be very dangerous for everyone."

US President Donald Trump, who is weighing whether to intervene militarily in the conflict, has repeatedly pressured Iran to"give up its nuclear weapons."

President Trump, who gave Iran a two-week deadline to end the situation, emphasized that two weeks was the"maximum," saying it was time to see whether the "Iranian people" would come to their senses.

"I think it's very difficult," he said of Iran's demand that the US step in to persuade Israel to stop its airstrikes.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged Islamic countries to stand in solidarity with Iran in its resistance to Israel, saying at the OIC Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the same day that"Israel's attack on Iran has brought the region to a complete disaster."

He pointed out that "the problem is not Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen or Iran (all of which have been attacked by Israel)," and that "what is clear is that Israel is the problem."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government as the biggest obstacle to peace in the region in his keynote speech at the OIC foreign ministers' meeting on the same day, Reuters reported.