Israel Strikes Iran Again: UN Nuclear Body Says Two Centrifuge Production Facilities Hit

Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday (June 18) refused to heed US President Donald Trump's call for an unconditional surrender. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public remarks since Friday in a statement that was read live on Iranian TV by a presenter.

"Intelligent people who know Iran, the Iranian nation, and its history will never speak to this nation in threatening language because the Iranian nation will not surrender," the statement on Wednesday said.

"The Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage," it added.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists (HRA) said that Israeli airstrikes on Iran have killed at least 585 people and wounded another 1,326 since hostilities escalated last week.

The human rights group said it identified 239 of those killed as civilians and 126 as security personnel.

Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls from the conflict. The most recent number cited by a Health Ministry spokesperson was 224 deaths, announced early on Monday.

HRA cited nongovernmental sources in its report.

The organization previously compiled detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was arrested by Iran's "morality police" in September of that year. Her death in custody sparked months of anti-government protests across Iran.

Two centrifuge production facilities struck in Iran: IAEA

The UN's nuclear watchdog said it had information that two facilities in Iran that made centrifuge parts have been hit.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said: "The TESA Karaj workshop and the Tehran Research Center, were hit." The agency added that both sites had previously been under IAEA monitoring.

"At the Tehran site, one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested. At Karaj, two buildings were destroyed where different centrifuge components were manufactured," the IAEA wrote on X.

Centrifuges are machines used in enriching uranium, a process necessary for nuclear power and also nuclear weapons development.

Iran's UN ambassador warns of response 'without restraint' to Israeli strikes

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Ali Bahreini, said the country would "respond strongly" to Israel's "aggression" as well as to the United States, should it join the hostilities.

"We will not show any reluctance in defending our people, security and land," he told reporters in Geneva. "We will respond seriously and strongly, without restraint."

Bahreini accused the United States of being "complicit in what Israel is doing."

"We have given a message to the United States that we will respond very firmly and will stop the aggression by anybody — including the United States," he said

Bahreini also said Israeli strikes on nuclear sites were an act of "war against humanity."

"The deliberate targeting of Iran's nuclear facilities not only constitutes a grave violation of international law and UN Charter but also risks exposition of all people in our neighbourhood to possible hazardous leak," he said.

"This is not an act of war against our country," he said. "It is war against humanity."

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes. Israel and the United States accuse Iran of working toward a nuclear weapon.

The comments come as thousands flee Tehran and other major cities as Israel and Iran continuing launching strikes on one another.

US President Donald Trump has called for Tehran's unconditional surrender.

These updates first appeared on DW.

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