Israel hits Iran's fuel depots, defence ministry

Israel attacked Iran's energy industry and defence ministry on the third day of an escalating conflict, as several Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses to hit a refinery and rip through a high-rise apartment block south of Tel Aviv, different international media agencies have reported.

As fuel depots outside Tehran blazed, Donald Trump presided over the US's biggest military parade in decades. He later said the arsenal on display could be deployed against Iran if it targeted American assets. 

The US president said in a social media post: "If we are attacked in any way shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before."

There is little question that Israel would like the US to join its campaign. Only American weapons can attempt to reach parts of the Iranian nuclear project such as the Fordow uranium enrichment plant, which is buried deep under a mountain.

But while Iran has called off talks with the US on the future of its nuclear program, and accused Washington of being Israel's "partner" in the offensive launched on Friday, it has held off attacking US bases, embassies or other targets.

With most of its top military echelon assassinated, Israel claiming domination of Iranian airspace from western Iran to Tehran, and several key nuclear sites seriously damaged, the regime in Tehran faces a potentially existential threat.

Perhaps in an appeal to US President Donald Trump's promotion of himself as the ultimate dealmaker, and his election pitch that he would end America's decades of overseas wars, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, signalled that Iran was open to attempts to calm down the tensed situation.

If Israeli strikes on Iran stopped, "our responses will also stop", he said. Trump had earlier posted: "We can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!"

The US is already trying to promote an exchange of messages with Iran to cool down the combat with Israel, although the effort falls short of formal mediation, the Haaretz newspaper reported quoting foreign sources.

Donald Trump has talked about the war with Iran's ally Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who has been in direct contact with the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, since Friday.