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JERUSALEM: Israel on Thursday welcomed “all help” in striking Iran’s nuclear sites as President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of US involvement in the war, saying he will decide “within the next two weeks”.
Israel, claiming Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy last week, triggering deadly exchanges.
After an Iranian missile hit an Israeli hospital on Thursday, in an attack that Tehran said targeted a military and intelligence base, Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a threat against Iran’s supreme leader, spiking tensions in the week-old war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would “pay a heavy price” for the strike on Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba that left 40 people injured and the facility in flames.
In an televised interview later on Thursday, Netanyahu said Israel is “capable of striking all of Iran’s nuclear facilities” but “all help is welcome”.
“Trump will do what is good for for the United States, and I will do what is good for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu told public broadcaster Kan.
Citing “the fact that there’s a substantial chance” to resume nuclear negotiations with Iran — which had been derailed by the Israeli attacks — Trump said in a statement he will decide “whether or not to go within the next two weeks”.
Trump said on Wednesday that Iran had asked to send officials to the White House to negotiate a deal on its nuclear programme and end the conflict with Israel.
Iran denied it would do so, but its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is due to attend nuclear talks in Geneva on Friday with top diplomats from France, Britain, Germany and the European Union, officials and diplomats said.
Meanwhile Russia, an Iranian ally, told the United States that joining the conflict would be an “extremely dangerous step”.
Katz, in a stark warning for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told reporters: “He considers the destruction of the State of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.”
Asked whether Israel plans to kill Khamenei, Netanyahu said: “No one is immune.”
The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries that have plunged the region into a new crisis, more than 20 months into the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
