The Israeli military announced on Wednesday it had struck two naval cruise missile production facilities operating under Iran’s Ministry of Defence in Tehran.
“In recent days, the Israeli air force, acting on [Israeli military] intelligence, struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,” the military said.
The military claims the facilities were used to “develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land”.
The strikes “represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure”, the military added.
Last week, the military announced its fighter jets had struck several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including vessels equipped with anti-submarine missiles.
Iran and Israel traded fresh missile and drone strikes on Wednesday, with countries across the Middle East coming under fire as diplomats worked in the background to end the nearly four-week war.
The war that began on 28 February with US-Israeli attacks on Iran has mushroomed throughout the region, sending world energy markets into a tailspin and threatening to torpedo the global economy.
US President Donald Trump signalled talks were underway, with a 15-point peace plan reportedly sent to Tehran, but an Iranian official slapped this down, saying no negotiations had taken place.
With the official status of the talks uncertain, but diplomats indicating that mediation was ongoing behind the scenes, the daily salvos of strikes across the region continued unabated.
Israel also said it was launching fresh missile strikes on the “infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime”.
Shayan, a 40-year-old woman living in Tehran, told AFP: “There is gasoline, water, and electricity. But there is a sense of helplessness in all of us. We don’t know what to do, and there’s really nothing we can do.”
In Geneva, United Nations rights chief Volker Turk warned that strikes around Iran and Israel’s nuclear sites risked unleashing an “unmitigated catastrophe.”
As the fighting on the ground showed little sign of respite, Trump appeared to be ramping up efforts to end the conflict.
