Trump signals 'possible' US involvement in Iran conflict

Iranian civilians are "caught in the middle" of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, Iranian-American analyst Holly Dagres has told DW.

Ordinary Iranians are "powerless" in this conflict, said Dagres, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute think tank, in an interview with DW TV on Sunday.

"They don't have shelters, they're being caught in the middle of this war, and it's really impacting their day-to-day lives right now," Dagres said.

She also warned that while Israel's killings of top military officials and nuclear scientists are a "big blow" to Iran, Israeli attacks are "not taking out the regime's thinking."

"It still exists because there's other people to replace them," she said. 

Dages also said she doesn't believe Iranian authorities will seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict unless there's a de-escalation on the Israeli side.

An unnamed Iranian official told mediators Qatar and Oman earlier on Sunday that the Islamic Republic "will not negotiate while under attack."

Iran told mediators Qatar and Oman that it "will not negotiate while under attack," an unnamed Iranian official told news agencies on Sunday.

Both the French AFP news agency and Reuters carried the same quote, citing an unnamed official.

"The Iranians informed Qatari and Omani mediators that they will only pursue serious negotiations once Iran has completed its response to the Israeli preemptive strikes," the official said.

The unnamed official also denied that Iran had reached out to Qatar and Oman "with a request to engage the United States to broker a ceasefire with Israel and potentially renew nuclear negotiations."

The official described such reports as "inaccurate."

Iran was scheduled to hold another round of nuclear talks with the United States on Sunday.

But Iran said it wouldn't attend talks about its nuclear program while Israel was attacking it.

The nuclear talks were mediated by Oman, which, alongside Qatar, has a history of regional mediation, including between Iran and Israel.

Iran's Health Ministry said 224 people have been killed since Israel started attacking the country in the early hours of Friday.

Over 1,200 have also been injured, Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said in a statement on X, adding that many were hospitalized.

Ninety percent of the victims are civilians, Kermanpour added.

Iran earlier said it would begin opening mosques, metro stations and schools to serve as bomb shelters.

An Israeli strike on Tehran on Sunday killed Mohammed Kazemi, the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Iranian media said.

"Three intelligence generals, Mohammed Kazemi, Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri were assassinated and fell as martyrs," the official IRNA news agency said, citing a Revolutionary Guards statement.

The news was also carried by Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu suggested Kazemi was killed, during an interview with Fox News.

"Moments ago, we also got the chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran," Netanyahu said, adding "our brave pilots are over the skies of Tehran, and we're targeting military sites, nuclear sites."

European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen stressed that Israel has the right to defend itself and "Iran is the main source of regional instability," in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I reiterated our commitment to peace, stability, and diplomatic efforts leading to de-escalation," von der Leyen said in a post on X. 

Von der Leyen also underlined that the EU had "consistently voiced strong concerns about Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs," arguing that those were the same missiles "indiscriminately" hitting not only Israel but also Ukraine.

"Europe has always been clear: Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon. There is an urgent need for a negotiated solution," she added.

The EU commissioner also said she discussed the "unacceptable" humanitarian situation in Gaza with Netanyahu.

"I reiterated our urgent call to allow all humanitarian aid to reach civilians in need immediately," she said. "The resumption of the ceasefire and the immediate release of the hostages, so that a permanent end of the hostilities can be finally achieved, is a must."

Iran has accused Israel of striking one of the Foreign Ministry buildings in Tehran.

Deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a post on X that the "ruthless" strike injured several civilians, many of whom were hospitalized.

Khatibzadeh called the attack a "war crime, part of the regime of Israel's ongoing and systematic campaign of aggression against Iran."

His post included a video purportedly showing the interior of the struck building, with destruction visible.

Berlin is on alert in the event that Tehran hits Israeli or Jewish targets in Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a G7 leaders' summit, Merz said the meeting would focus on making sure Iran cannot develop or posses nuclear weapons, stressing Israel's right to defend itself against what he called existential threats such as Iran's nuclear program.

Merz also stressed that the conflict should not escalate and there should be scope for diplomacy.

"I would like to add that in Germany we are also getting ready in case Iran should target Israeli or Jewish targets in Germany," Merz told reporters, without going into more detail.

Iranian missile attacks on Israel hit several sites late on Sunday, Israel's military said.

A residential building was struck on the country's Mediterranean coast, firefighters said.

"Homefront Command Search and Rescue teams have been dispatched to several hit sites in Israel, following the latest barrage from Iran," the military said.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran's armed forces urged Israeli residents to exit the vicinity of "vital areas" in a video statement on State TV.

"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.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in the Netherlands' city of The Hague, home to the United Nations' International Court of Justice, to protest the Dutch government's policy toward Israel.

Organizers of the march, including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Doctors without Borders, said up to 150,000 protesters turned up.

Masses of protesters were seen, wearing red and walking a 5-kilometer (3-mile) loop around the center of the city to symbolically create the red line they accuse the Dutch government of failing to draw to stop Israel's campaign in Gaza.

Protesters brandished banners reading "Don't look away, do something," "Stop Dutch complicity," and "Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die."

"I don't want to be complicit in these horrendous crimes happening there and I want to speak out," protester Marin Koning told the Associated Press.

Last year, the ICJ ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and all acts of genocide in Gaza.

Israel strongly denies it is violating international laws in the Palestinian enclave, where attacks since Hamas' October 7 attack have killed over 55,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run area.

The October 7 attack killed 1,200 Israelis, with some 250 more taken hostage.

The rapidly escalating conflict between Israel and Iran is "not something which just happened overnight," said a non-resident research fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel.

Sara Bazoobandi told DW that the conflict was rather "the product of nearly five decades of strategy and narrative toward Israel" in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  

"If you look at the history of the Islamic Republic [of Iran], it has constantly been calling for the complete annihilation of the state of Israel," she said, adding that a "general global and regional consensus" has emerged that "Iran is not acting like a normal state," leading to a situation in which "Iran can only be contained if there is real confrontation."

Bazoobandi argued that a de-escalation of the situation would only make sense from an Israeli point of view if Tehran signaled a willingness to follow a less antagonistic foreign policy. But she said "there is no confidence and trust" that Iran would do that.

"Let's not forget that this is a very oppressive government that only three years ago in 2022 imposed a massive crackdown, a very violent, brutal crackdown, against its own people," said Bazoobandi, adding that a complete abandonment of Iran's nuclear program, as demanded by US President Donald Trump, "was never on the table."

The analyst believes that overthrowing the regime is Israel's unattainable aim.

"The government in Tehran is severely weakened with dozens of commanders and security chiefs eliminated in one night," she said. "But it's nowhere close to capitulation."

Bazoobandi studied in Tehran in the late 1990s and ran a Middle East risk consultancy firm for six years.

Sirens were activated in Jerusalem, with explosions heard soon afterward, witnesses told the Reuters and AFP news agencies.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said missiles were launched from Iran, urging citizens to obey the instructions of the home front command.

US President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, unnamed US sources told news agencies.

The Reuters news agency was first to report the news, citing two unnamed US officials. The Associated Press later carried the same report, citing an unnamed US source. 

"Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we're not even talking about going after the political leadership," one of the sources, a senior US administration official, told Reuters.

In an interview with Fox News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about the reports, to which he responded saying: "There's so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I'm not going to get into that."

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed earlier statements by US President Donald Trump regarding deescalation.

The Turkish president's office said in a statement on Sunday that Erdogan told Trump in a call that "urgent action" must be taken to prevent the conflict from engulfing the Middle East region.

Erdogan also offered to mediate between Israel and Iran, in an effort to reach a resolution to the nuclear dispute.

The Turkish president "stressed the need to take immediate action to avert a disaster that would plunge the entire region into fire," the Turkish president's office said in a statement.

Israeli authorities have arrested two citizens suspected of working for Iran's intelligence services, police said in a statement on Sunday.

The two Jewish Israeli citizens were suspected of "carrying out missions for the Iranians in recent days," the police said on X.

 "We are seeing the damage and danger posed by cooperation with the Iranian enemy, which uses the information provided by those Israelis to harm Israel," it added, warning the public against making contact with "foreign elements... especially now, when Israel is at war with Iran".

After another night of Iranian missile strikes, residents of Bat Yam, a town south of Tel Aviv, gathered at the scene of an attack.

While most of the missiles were intercepted, a few evaded Israel's defense shield and hit between two buildings, according to media reports.

The attack left a trail of destruction across the neighborhood and one side of a residential tower was blown off. Six people, including two children, died in the attack. 

When DW visited the area, rescue services were still trying to locate three more people.

"Everything here blew up. The building collapsed from within," Tzachi Bublil told DW as he cleared glass shards from the shattered front window of a shop. "That's not something that will deter us. On the contrary, we are stronger now."

While many were shocked by the extent of the destruction, they were also defiant, reflecting a general mood in the country. "You don't stop when you're on the rise. There's no reason to stop. It's either us or them. It had better be us," said Bublil, adding that this was "existential" for him and his country.

Residents asked to evacuate

Nearby, a woman was packing her family's belongings. The emergency services had said that their building was no longer safe to stay in. The front of the ground-floor apartment had been blown out, leaving shattered glass and torn metal scattered across the ground. 

"We went into our basement when they told us to take shelter, and then all this happened. I don’t know what to say," Orianis Olyberos-Ortiz told DW. 

She said that most of the flats and buildings in the neighborhood were old, and not everyone had access to a safe room or shelter. 

"I don't know how long this will last, but I am worried and don't know what to do," she said.

Yoram Cohen, who had come to visit his daughter-in-law, said that although he was shaken by the sight of the damage, he supported the government's decision to attack Iran. 

"You know what they always said: To destroy Israel. So, we strike them first, preemptively. We should not wait until they have a nuclear weapon."

This sentiment was echoed by Tzachi Bubli, who said he wanted Israel to continue the operation, even if it resulted in strong retaliation from Iran and meant difficult days ahead. 

"We want to see as many mushroom clouds as possible, as much fire and light as possible. We want to see all of Tehran burning," he told DW.