Israel’s military confirmed it has killed two senior Iranian officials in overnight airstrikes, as efforts by European diplomats to revive negotiations between the United States and Iran collapsed without a breakthrough. According to The Guardian, an Israeli military official said on Saturday that Saeed Izadi, head of the Palestine Corps within Iran’s elite Quds Force—the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—was killed in a strike on an apartment in Qom, central Iran. Izadi was reportedly instrumental in arming and funding Hamas, the Palestinian group behind

Israel’s military confirmed it has killed two senior Iranian officials in overnight airstrikes, as efforts by European diplomats to revive negotiations between the United States and Iran collapsed without a breakthrough. According to The Guardian, an Israeli military official said on Saturday that Saeed Izadi, head of the Palestine Corps within Iran’s elite Quds Force—the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—was killed in a strike on an apartment in Qom, central Iran. Izadi was reportedly instrumental in arming and funding Hamas, the Palestinian group behind the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians. Behnam Shahriyari, another senior Quds Force figure, was also killed in a separate strike. Shahriyari was said to be responsible for financing Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia. While Iran has not officially confirmed the deaths, state media reported that four IRGC members were killed in a strike on a building in Qom. The attacks came shortly after nuclear talks in Geneva between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his European counterparts ended in deadlock. In retaliation, Iran launched missiles at Israel in the early hours of Saturday, with one intercepted missile causing a building fire in central Israel. Later in the day, a drone strike hit a residential building in northern Israel, though no casualties were reported from either incident.

Diplomacy Hits Dead End

This is happening while Geneva negotiations aimed to restart nuclear talks and secure a ceasefire between Israel and Iran hit a dead end. European diplomats including foreign ministers from France, the UK, and Germany, along with the EU’s top representative proposed terms requiring Iran to cease uranium enrichment, curb its missile program, and stop funding proxy groups. French President Emmanuel Macron doubled down on diplomacy, speaking directly with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. “I am convinced that a path exists to end war and avoid even greater dangers. To achieve this, we will accelerate the negotiations led by France and its European partners with Iran,” Macron posted on X as reported by The Guardian. Despite this, Iranian officials appeared unmoved. A senior Iranian source told Reuters, “Zero uranium enrichment is a dead end, and we will not negotiate over our ballistic missile program.” On Saturday evening on the other hand, Yemen’s Houthi rebels threatened to target US ships in the Red Sea if Washington entered the conflict. This comes after Donald Trump’s revelation about deciding in two weeks whether the US would join Israel's bombing campaign. “Israel is doing well, in terms of war, and Iran … is doing less well. It’s a little bit hard to get somebody to stop,” he said Friday, though he added the US was “ready, willing and able” to negotiate.  

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