Drone Targets Iran's Parchin Military Base

Bushehr nuclear facility in Iran (Reuters)
Bushehr nuclear facility in Iran (Reuters)
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Drone Targets Iran's Parchin Military Base

Bushehr nuclear facility in Iran (Reuters)
Bushehr nuclear facility in Iran (Reuters)

A drone targeted a highly sensitive military site outside Tehran where Iran develops missile, nuclear, and drone technology, according to media reports.

The New York Times quoted three Iranian sources and a US official saying that the drone exploded into a building used by the Ministry of Defense for research on drone development, killing a young engineer who worked at the ministry and injuring another person.

Informed Iranian sources said that a quadcopter drone had taken off from close to the Parchin military base.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack is similar to the one that targeted the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA) in Karaj last June, Iran attributed to Israel.

The New York Times reported that the attack fits a pattern of past Israeli strikes on Iran and Lebanon in a covert campaign of hostility that has been going on for years.

Tasnim News referred to an "industrial accident," but the Iranian Ministry of Defense statement said a person died in an incident without providing details.

Israeli officials declined to comment. A US official confirmed that suicide drones had attacked Parchin but did not say who was behind it or offer further details.

If confirmed, the attack would be the second of its kind targeting a center for Iranian drones, after an attack in early February, which targeted a facility near Kermanshah used for manufacturing and storage facility for military drones.

The incident came days after a colonel in the al-Quds Force was killed in front of his house in Tehran.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) identified the man as Col. Sayad Khodayee and said he had fought for years in Syria as part of Iran's military deployment.

According to one intelligence official, Israel told Washington that it was behind his killing. The Israelis intended it as a warning to Iran to stop targeting Israeli citizens abroad.

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata will travel to Washington next week to talk about a regional security project that Israel wishes to involve several regional countries to confront Iran.

Hulata will meet with his White House counterpart Jake Sullivan and other US officials to discuss President Joe Biden's upcoming visit to Israel and the stalled nuclear talks with Iran.

Hulata will travel to Washington with a delegation of national security, foreign policy, and intelligence officials who will hold another round of talks at the US-Israel strategic forum on Iran.

Media reports based on some Israeli government officials stated that Hulata and his team want to continue discussing a possible "Plan B" for a scenario where the US does not return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran soon.

Israeli officials say they want the US and its European allies to push for a censure resolution against Iran at the upcoming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors meeting in June.

The advisor has led a tough line on Iran but at the same time encouraged Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to avoid public clashes and maintain good relations with the Biden administration.

Israeli officials said Hulata stressed in a security cabinet meeting that Israel would have to continue working closely with the Biden administration on Iran with or without a return to a deal.

An Israeli official told Channel 12 that the Israeli security services feared aboard operations in retaliation for the assassination of Khodayee.

The channel indicated that senior Israeli officials had held a series of consultations on this issue.

Officials may soon decide to increase travel warnings concerning visiting countries near Iran, adding that it is not about raising the travel warning level but rather about setting guidelines.

The channel quoted an Israeli source saying that Hulata will raise in Washington the issue of leaking news that the Israeli government informed White House officials that Khodayee was leading a secret unit in the al-Quds Force and that Israel had assassinated him.



Iran Says it Would Resume Nuclear Talks with US if Guaranteed No Further Attacks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Iran Says it Would Resume Nuclear Talks with US if Guaranteed No Further Attacks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Iran’s foreign minister said Saturday that his country would accept a resumption of nuclear talks with the US if there were assurances of no more attacks against it, state media reported.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a speech to Tehran-based foreign diplomats that Iran has always been ready and will be ready in the future for talks about its nuclear program, but, “assurance should be provided that in case of a resumption of talks, the trend will not lead to war.”

Referring to the 12-day Israeli bombardment of Iran's nuclear and military sites, and the US strike on June 22, Araghchi said that if the US and others wish to resume talks with Iran, "first of all, there should be a firm guarantee that such actions will not be repeated. The attack on Iran's nuclear facilities has made it more difficult and complicated to achieve a solution based on negotiations.”

Following the strikes, Iran suspended cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, which led to the departure of inspectors.

Araghchi said that under Iranian law, the country will answer the agency’s request for cooperation "case by case,” based on Iran’s interests. He also said any inspection by the agency should be done based on Iran's “security” concerns as well as the safety of the inspectors. “The risk of proliferation of radioactive ingredients and an explosion of ammunition that remains from the war in the attacked nuclear sites is serious,” he said.

"The risk of spreading radioactive materials and the risk of exploding leftover munitions ... are serious," he added.

"For us, IAEA inspectors approaching nuclear sites has both a security aspect ... and the safety of the inspectors themselves is a matter that must be examined."

He also reiterated Iran's position on the need to continue enriching uranium on its soil. US President Donald Trump has insisted that cannot happen.

Israel claims it acted because Tehran was within reach of a nuclear weapon. US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency had assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in an interview published Monday said the US airstrikes so badly damaged his country’s nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction.