Israel’s Dimona nuclear site is thought to be where its atomic weapons programme was developed [Getty]
Iran has threatened to target Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor as officials vowed revenge for continued US-Israeli strikes on the country, as an American attack on an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka killed 87 sailors.
Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported that a military official said Iran would target Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor, long believed to be the site where Israel’s nuclear weapons programme was developed.
The threat comes after Iran’s Foreign Minister warned that the US will “regret” its attack on an Iranian frigate in international waters, as it and Israel continue with their deadly strikes on the country, which are estimated to have killed 1,045 Iranians.
Abbas Araghchi said in a statement that the US “has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores.”
“Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning,” he continued, adding, “Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set.”
The attack killed 87 Iranian sailors, with Sri Lanka rescuing 32 survivors 19 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s port of Galle.
The warship had been taking part in a naval exercise hosted by India between 18 and 25 February and was heading back to Iran.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said of the strike that “an American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” adding, “instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death.”
A second Iranian warship is heading to Sri Lanka’s territorial waters and has requested safe entry, according to Sri Lankan sources speaking to AFP.
The US has struck Iranian warships in the Gulf as part of its war on the country, sinking nine warships in the opening two days of the war, leading Trump to say that Iran’s navy “will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea.”
Alongside Araghchi’s comments, several other Iranian officials have vowed revenge on the US and Israel, with Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amolli calling for the “shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood.”
The Deputy Commander of Iran’s War Operations Headquarters, Brigadier General Kioumars Heidary, said that “we are the ones who will determine the end of the war, and it will end when we impose our will on America and Israel.”
He added that although Iran does not intend to impose a closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major artery for oil and gas supplies to the global market, Iran was “exercising our naval authority” over it.
On Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it had struck a US tanker in the northern part of the Gulf and that the vessel was on fire. The attack comes after several vessels have been struck in the Gulf.
Fighting continued across the Gulf as the US-Israeli campaign entered its fifth day, with Qatar evacuating residents living near the US embassy, fighter jets being heard over the Emirati city of Dubai, and Saudi Arabia downing a drone in its north.
The war has also expanded north into Azerbaijan, with two people being wounded after a drone crashed near an airport in the enclave of Nakhchivan.
Over 1,000 people have been killed in Iran in the US-Israeli bombing, as well as over 70 in Israeli strikes on Lebanon. Six US personnel have also been killed in the war, alongside a handful of people in Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE.
