ISTANBUL: Iran deems European proposals to curb its nuclear programme unrealistic and a hurdle to agreement, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday, while Israel claimed it killed a veteran Iranian commander during attacks.

The more than week-long air war continued with reports of strikes on an Iranian nuclear facility. The US was weighing whether to back Israel in the conflict, with one media outlet reporting that a B-2 bomber had taken off from an airbase in the central United states and headed to the Pacific island of Guam.

The B-2 is capable of carrying the 30,000-pound `bunker buster` bomb the only weapon in the world which can penetrate an underground nuclear site.

But three European powers (E3) urged de-escalation after Iran`s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met British, French and German counterparts, plus the EU, in Geneva on Friday in search of a path back to diplomacy and a possible ceasefire.

But proposals made by the European powers were `unrealis-tic`, the senior Iranian official said, 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.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed 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 Iranian holy city of Qom.

Katz alleged Izadi had financed and armed Hamas ahead of its Oct 7, 2023, raids on Israel.

The Revolutionary Guards said five of its members died in attacks on Khorramabad. They did not mention Izadi, who was on US and British sanctions lists, but said Israel had also attacked a building in Q om, with initial reports of a 16-year-old killed and two people injured.

Over 400 people have beenkilled and 3,500 injured in Iran since Israel began its attacks, Iranian state-run Nour News said, citing the health ministry.

In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missile attacks, according to local authorities.

OIC meets in Istanbul At a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, the Iranian foreign minister said Israel`s aggression, which he said had indications of US involvement, should stop so that Iran can `come back to diplomacy`.

`It is obvious that I can`t go to negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardments under the support of the US,` he told reporters on the sidelines, before meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

The top Iranian diplomat said US involvement in the conflict would be `very dangerous`. Araqchi is set to visit Moscow on Monday.

President Donald Trump has said he would take up to two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel`s side, enough time `to see whether or not people come to their senses`, he said.

Iran would be able to have a nuclear weapon `within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months`, he said on Friday, adding: `We can`t let that happen.` Yet in March, Tulsi Gabbard, his national intelligence director, testified to Congress that the US intelligence community judged that Tehran was not working on a nuclear warhead.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that a centrifuge manufacturing work-shop at the Isfahan nuclear facility, one of Iran`s biggest, was hit, butaddeditcontainedno nuclear material.

Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors expressed concerns to UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi about the safety of nuclear facilities close to their countries and `dangerous repercussions` of targeting them.

Interceptors over Tel Aviv Early on Saturday, air raid sirens were triggeredacrosspartsofcentral Israel and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with missile interceptions visible over Tel Aviv and explosions echoing. There were no reports of casualties.

The Human RightsActivists News Agency, a US-based rights organisation that tracks Iran, gave a higher death toll than Tehran, saying Israeli attacks have killed 639 people there.

Israel said it also killed a second commander of the Guards` overseas arm, whom it identified as Benham Shariyari, during an overnight strike.

Iran`s Health Minister Mohammadreza Zafarqandi said Israel has attacked three hospitals during the conflict, killing two health workers and a child, and has targeted six ambulances.

An Iranian missile hit a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Thursday.

Turkiye, Russia and China have demandedimmediate de-escalation.

Despite the downbeat assessment from the senior Iranian official, French President Emmanuel Macron said he and Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian agreed onaSaturday call to accelerate talks.

Israel says it will not stop attacks until it dismantles Iran`s nuclear programme and ballistic missile capabilities which it views as an existential threat, saying this could take more than a few weeks.

Israeli officials have also told the Trump administration they do not want to wait two weeks for Iran to reach a deal to dismantle key parts of its nuclear programme, two sources said on Saturday.-Agencies