A projectile crosses the sky above the West Bank city of Nablus, on Friday. The Israeli military reported that it had detected missiles launched from Iran toward Israel, several of which struck central Israel. Photo by Alaa Badarneh/EPA
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that his country “will exact [a] heavy price” for Israeli strikes on infrastructure Friday.
In a post on X, he said the strikes hit two of Iran’s largest steel factories, a power plant, civilian nuclear sites and other infrastructure.
“Israel claims it acted in coordination with the U.S.,” Araghchi wrote.
The airstrikes came less than a day after U.S. President Donald Trump extended a pause on U.S. attacks on Iran’s energy sites for 10 days. Trump said he extended the deadline because negotiations between the United States and Iran had been going “well,” and Iran had permitted several oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
The “attack contradicts POTUS extended deadline for diplomacy,” Araghchi wrote.
“Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes.”
The Guardian reported that the airstrikes hit the Khondab heavy-water plant near Arak and a uranium production facility in Ardakan. They also hit steel plants in Khuzestan and Mobarakeh.
Iran’s state-run Tasnim news agency said Tehran was considering launching attacks on six steel factories in Israel in retaliation for Friday’s attack.
The Israeli military said Friday it had intercepted missiles launched by Iran, NBC News reported.
“A short while ago, the [Israel Defense Forces] identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement. “Defensive systems are operating to intercept the treat.”
Speaking Friday evening at the Future Investment Initiative in Miami, Trump said Iran is “on the run,” one month after the United States and Israel jointly began attacking the country. The violence came amid negotiations in which the United States sought to limit Iran’s nuclear program.
“Tonight, we’re closer than ever to the rise of the Middle East that is finally free at least from Iranian terror, aggression and nuclear blackmail,” Trump said.
Iran is “being decimated,” he added.
“We are talking now, they want to make a deal.”
The United States offered a proposed 15-point peace plan to Iran this week, but Araghchi said Iranian officials had no plans to negotiate it “for now.”
“This is Israel’s war, and people of the region and people of the U.S. are paying the price for it,” he said.
Iran’s Red Crescent Society reported Friday that more than 70,000 residential units, 600 schools and 300 health facilities had been damaged since the start of the war.
