Israel hits Iran petrochemical plant in new strikes despite Trump reprimand

By Alexander Cornwell, Parisa Hafezi, Bo Erickson and Yomna Ehab

TEL AVIV/DUBAI/NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey, June 8 (Reuters) – Israel said on Monday it had struck a petrochemical facility in southwestern Iran and attacked military targets elsewhere, after U.S. President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks.

Israel said it hit targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex in the first attack on an Iranian energy facility since the April 8 ceasefire, while a provincial official told Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency that parts of the facility were damaged.

Hours earlier, Trump had said that new attacks by Israel and Iran would not affect his administration’s peace talks with Tehran, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “does not call the shots.”

Trump has leaned on Israel to halt its attacks in Lebanon to make room for a deal to end a broader war with Iran, including berating Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last week.

However, early on Sunday, Israel launched an attack on the Beirut region for the first time since the US announced its ceasefire plan for Lebanon last week.

In retaliation, Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets, putting US-Iran peace talks at risk. But Trump insisted a deal to end the broader war was within reach.

“This will not have any impact on the agreement,” Trump told the Financial Times. “I make the decisions. I make all the decisions. He (Netanyahu) does not make the decisions.”

A few hours later, Israeli defense forces announced that they had hit Iranian military targets. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attacks.

Saying that Iran launched 11 ballistic missiles at Israel, Iran’s US Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said on the X channel: “Everyone is fed up with this crazy Iranian regime.”

Israel was targeting Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launch sites and infrastructure facilities, he said, adding, “No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an attack, and neither will Israel.”

The latest hostilities sent oil prices rising more than 3% on Monday, with benchmark Brent futures rising above $96 a barrel.

“The Israeli Air Force hit several targets at the petrochemical complex in Mahshahr,” Israeli defense forces said in a brief statement.

Further details about Monday’s damage were not immediately available. Iranian state media said enemy shells have hit five production lines at the facility since the start of the Iranian war on February 28.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said they targeted the Ramat David air base near Nazareth. The Israeli military said it detected missiles launched from Iran and its defense systems intercepted them.

“Missile alarms were heard in Jerusalem at 6 a.m.,” US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on the X channel, adding: “Satan’s mother ship is in Tehran.”

The Israeli army said it activated its air defense systems to block a missile detected to have been launched from Yemen, in Yemen’s first attack on Israel since the ceasefire.

TRUMP ASKED NETANYAHU TO STOP FURTHER ATTACKS

Trump spoke by phone with Netanyahu for just under half an hour on Sunday from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, an Israeli official said, without giving details.

The White House and the Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump told Netanyahu that he should refrain from further attacks because “we’re close to doing something good in terms of a deal,” according to a US official quoted by Axios.

Since the beginning of negotiations, Israel has continued its attacks on Lebanon while in conflict with Hezbollah; Israeli officials insist it be treated separately from any ceasefire in Iran.

Tehran has long said that any peace deal with the United States would also be contingent on a ceasefire in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who have launched rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran.

Iran’s chief peace negotiator, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said US bases and Israeli assets were legitimate targets due to hostile actions, including “violations of agreements on Lebanon.”

Before Sunday, despite an attack by Hezbollah, Iran had not attacked Israel since a ceasefire was reached in the full-scale war that began in April.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington and Tehran are close to an agreement on ending the war.

“We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow them up,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in a recorded interview aired Sunday to commemorate 100 days of the conflict.

TRUMP DOES NOT WANT AN ATTACK IN LEBANON

Israel never stopped its operation in Lebanon, which killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Hezbollah, which is excluded from the ceasefire talks, continues its attacks and says it will not give up its weapons unless Israel stops its attacks and withdraws from Lebanon.

Netanyahu said Sunday’s Israeli attacks on the southern outskirts of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh and long a Hezbollah stronghold, were in response to Hezbollah opening fire on Israel.

The broader war has stalled since the United States and Israel halted attacks on Iran in early April; Tehran has blocked most shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas.

Washington imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Although Washington and Tehran have said they are close to a preliminary agreement to reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded attacks, with escalating attacks in recent days including attacks on nearby Arab countries that host US bases.

Trump has said any deal to end the war must prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and said he was under pressure to offer tougher terms than those agreed to under President Barack Obama in 2015 in a deal that Trump later rejected.

Tehran’s demands include the lifting of US and international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars of frozen assets and recognition of its sovereignty over the strait.

“Of course, this strait will be open, but with new conditions to be determined by the Iranian and Omani authorities,” Iranian Ambassador Kazem Jalali told Russian newspaper Izvestia in an interview published on Monday.

“We understand that Iran and Oman provide certain services related to this strait. And there will be a fee for these services,” he said, without explanation.

A source familiar with US plans told Reuters on Saturday that Washington could offer Iranian assets to its Gulf neighbors to repair the damage done by Iran.

But Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Garibabadi, said on Sunday that such diversion of Iran’s assets would be illegal and Tehran would take measures in response.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff, Kristina Cooke and Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Sergio Non, Sonali Paul and Kate Mayberry)