• US president open to Putin ‘being a mediator’, urges Iran to ‘make a deal’
• Iran says it has proof US is helping Tel Aviv, Netanyahu claims US pilots shooting down Iranian drones • From Tehran to Mashhad, Israel targets ‘over 80 positions’
• 60 Iranians killed over weekend; 10 dead in Israel
• Roads clogged as people flee Tehran after oil depots targeted
• Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa hit by Iran

TEHRAN / JERUSALEM: As the conflict between Iran and Israel escalates, with strikes and rocket attacks doing heavy damage on both sides, the US has indicated that it could “get involved”.

US President Donald Trump, who told ABC News on Sunday that he would be “open” to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin being a mediator, stressed that the US is “not at this moment” involved in the military action.

“It’s possible we could get involved” in the ongoing battle in the Middle East, he said.

However, seemingly contradicting his ally, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that American pilots were shooting down drones headed towards Israel. In the same interview, he also said that he and Trump were “fully co-ordinated”.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday night, he claimed that Israel had set back Iran’s nuclear capacity “quite a bit”.

In a separate statement on Truth Social, Trump offered to help arrange a truce between Iran and Israel, saying he used the same approach just last month to prevent a full-scale war between India and Pakistan.

“Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal, just like I got India and Pakistan to make,” Trump wrote in the post.

“In that case by using TRADE with the United States to bring reason, cohesion, and sanity into the talks with two excellent leaders who were able to quickly make a decision and STOP!”

This is the first time President Trump has publicly offered to broker peace between Iran and Israel.

But Trump also threatened to launch “the full strength and might” of the US military if Iran attacks American interests.

Later, speaking to ABC News, President Trump said talks over Iran’s nuclear programme were continuing and that Tehran would “like to make a deal” perhaps more quickly now that it is trading massive strikes with Israel.

But a sixth round of talks between Iran and the United States, planned for this weekend, was cancelled, according to host nation Oman.

Iran had scrapped nuclear talks scheduled to be held on Sunday, saying it was “meaningless” to negotiate while under fire.

But Trump said the two sides were continuing discussions.

“No, there’s no deadline” on negotiations, he told ABC when asked whether there was a time limit for Tehran to come to the table.

“But they are talking. They’d like to make a deal. They’re talking. They continue to talk,” Trump said.

Trump suggested that something like the clash between Israel and Iran “had” to happen to spur talks on a nuclear agreement.

Israeli attacks on Iran

Israel unleashed a punishing barrage of strikes across Iran Sunday stretching from the west to Tehran and Mashhad in the east, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make the country pay “a very heavy price” for killing civilians.

Tel Aviv said its air force had targeted “more than 80” positions in Tehran, including oil infrastructure and government buildings.

Iran has said at least 138 people have been killed in Israel’s onsla­ught since Friday, including 60 on Saturday, half of them children, when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Tehran.

Iranian media, citing the health ministry, reported that at least 900 people were injured. This toll is expected to rise following overnight strikes.

With no let-up in sight, Iran said it would begin opening mosques, metro stations and schools to serve as makeshift bomb shelters for civilians.

In Tehran, a heavy cloud of smoke hung above the city after Israeli aircraft hit two fuel depots.

Local media later reported an Israeli strike hit the police headquarters and defence ministry in the city centre, as well as a facility affiliated with the ministry in the central city of Isfahan.

The head of Tehran’s traffic police Ahmad Karami told the IRNA news agency that “heavy traffic was reported at the capital’s exit points”.

The Israeli military also claimed to have struck nuclear sites, including the secretive Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), fuel tankers and other targets.

Meanwhile, the Iranian oil ministry said Israel targeted two fuel depots in the Tehran area, while an AFP journalist saw a depot at Shahran, northwest of the capital, on fire.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday hit out at Israel, saying its attacks are an “attempt to undermine diplomacy and derail negotiations”.

He also claimed that Tehran had “solid proof” that US forces and bases in the region had supported Israel in its attacks.

Also on Sunday, Israel claimed to have hit an Iranian aerial refuelling aircraft at Mashhad airport, in what it called “the longest-range strike conducted since the beginning of the operation”.

Iran’s retaliation

On Sunday night, Iranian state media reported the country had attacked Tel Aviv, Haifa, and other cities “with tens of Iranian missiles and drones”, claiming that the missiles surpassed “layers of Israeli defence system”.

Iran’s armed forces told residents of Israel to leave the vicinity of “vital areas” for their safety, in a video statement broadcast by state TV on Sunday evening around the time that Iran sent a new barrage of missiles towards Israel.

“We have a data bank of vital and critical areas in occupied territories (Israel) and call upon you not to let the brutal regime use you as human shields. Do not stay or travel near these critical areas,” an armed forces spokesperson said.

Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini, the spokesperson for the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said in a televised statement that Israel’s fuel production facilities for fighter jets and energy supply centres were targeted with a large number of drones and missiles, Press TV reported.

Earlier, Iran launched a barrage of missiles aimed at Israel in the afternoon, setting off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and elsewhere.

In Israel, a wave of attacks began shortly after 2000 GMT on Saturday, when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters.

Around 2330 GMT, the military warned of another incoming missile barrage and again urged residents to shelter. Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies and interceptor rockets were deployed. The Houthi rebels who control most of Yemen also said they had launched ballistic missiles towards Jaffa near Tel Aviv, marking the first time they have joined the fray in the current flare-up.

Anwar Iqbal in Washington also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2025