US launches airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, Trump says

A group of UN experts on Saturday condemned Israel's attacks on Iranian nuclear sites as well as military, nuclear, energy and residential targets as a violation of international law.

The group of special rapporteurs including the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran also objected to Iranian missile attacks on Israel.

“These (Israeli) attacks represent a flagrant violation of fundamental principles of international law," the UN experts said in a statement.

“Israel’s attack and Iran’s response – with successive waves of attacks against each other's territory – have resulted in many civilian casualties, confirming our grave concerns about this destructive cycle of violence,” they added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told European allies in recent days that the Trump administration prefers to resolve its nuclear impasse with Iran through diplomacy, the Wall Street Journal reported citing three European and one US official.

Rubio held calls or convened meetings with foreign ministers from France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden and Cyprus, the paper added.

US President Donald Trump wrote “Only time will tell” in a social media post on whether the Iranian nuclear program could be ended voluntarily or militarily.

The president made the remark on Saturday in a Truth Social post embedded with a Fox News segment in which a commentator said Trump never wavered from a demand that the Iranian nuclear program must end either by being dismantled or destroyed.

A nine-day Israeli military campaign has killed 865 people and wounded over 3,000, US-based rights group HRANA reported on Saturday.

363 of the fatalities were civilian, 215 military and the rest still undetermined, HRANA added.

Israel has so far reported 24 civilian fatalities and approximately 1,200 injuries resulting from ballistic missiles fired from Iran.

Israeli officials have told the United States they may not wait until the end of Donald Trump's two-week deadline to strike Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility and could act alone, Reuters reported Saturday, citing two sources familiar with what they described as a tense phone call.

“The Israeli officials said they do not want to wait the two weeks that US President Donald Trump presented on Thursday as a deadline for deciding whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran war," the report said citing the sources.

During the tense conversation with US officials on Thursday, Israeli leaders—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and military chief Eyal Zamir—expressed frustration with Washington’s timeline, insisting they face a narrowing window to hit Iran’s fortified Fordow site.

Only the US has weapons capable of penetrating the mountain-buried facility, the sources said.

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