Israel says Iran’s supreme leader ‘can no longer be allowed to exist’; nuclear sites in Iran’s Natanz and Arak overnight
6342 Mins Read
Israel’s defence minister said on Thursday that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist” after Soroka hospital in southern Israel was hit during an Iranian missile attack, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Israel Katz told journalists in Holon near Tel Aviv:
Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal,
Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.Earlier, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had targeted the Arak nuclear reactor in Iran overnight and struck what it said was a nuclear weapons development site in the area of Natanz.
Among its nuclear sites, Iran had a partially built heavy-water research reactor originally called Arak and now Khondab.
Iranian media reported on Thursday morning that air defences were activated in the area of the Khondab nuclear facility, with two projectiles hitting an area close to it.
Officials told Iranian state TV that evacuations were made prior to the strikes and that no risks of radiation or casualties were detected. There was no mention of any damage.
Natanz, which Israel had previously struck during its six-day-old aerial war with Iran, was the site of a complex at the heart of Iran’s nuclear programme that included two enrichment plants.
⭕This nuclear reactor in Arak was created for one purpose: to build a nuclear bomb.
The Israeli military added that it targeted the structure of the reactor’s core seal in Arak, which it identified as a key component in plutonium production.
Khondab hosts a partially-built heavy-water research reactor.
Construction was halted under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and the reactor’s core was removed and filled with concrete to make it unusable.
However, Iran informed the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog it planned to start operating the reactor in 2026.
Heavy-water reactors pose a nuclear proliferation risk because they can easily produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of a bomb.
Iran says its nuclear programme, the target of Israeli strikes, is purely for peaceful purposes.
