Nuclear diplomacy stuck, Israel says it strikes Iran military targets

Iran deems European proposals to curb its nuclear programme unrealistic and a hurdle to agreement, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday, while Israel said it killed a veteran Iranian commander during attacks by both sides that included multiple Israeli strikes in southwestern Iran.

The more than week-long air war between longtime foes Israel and Iran continued with reports of strikes on an Iranian nuclear facility. The U.S. was weighing whether to back Israel in the conflict while other powers urged de-escalation.

Two U.S. officials on Saturday told Reuters B-2 bombers were being deployed to Guam. While they did not disclose details on numbers of B-2s, which can carry weapons designed to destroy targets deep underground, one of the officials said no orders had yet been given to move the aircraft beyond Guam.

Israeli military officials said they had completed another series of strikes in southwestern Iran, having targeted dozens of military targets.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met British, French and German counterparts, plus the EU, on Friday in Geneva in search of a path back to diplomacy and a possible ceasefire.

Proposals made by the European powers, however, were "unrealistic", the senior Iranian official told Reuters, saying that insistence on them would not bring agreement closer.

"In any case, Iran will review the European proposals in Tehran and present its responses in the next meeting," the official said, adding that zero enrichment was a dead end and Tehran would not negotiate over its defensive capabilities.

Israel launched attacks on June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, while Iran says its atomic programme is only for peaceful purposes. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' overseas arm, was killed in a strike on an apartment in the city of Qom.