Israel hits Iran with new strikes despite Trump admonition

Israel has stated it struck military targets in western and central Iran on Monday, even after US President Donald Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks.

Hours earlier, Trump said new strikes by Israel and Iran would not affect his administration's peace talks with Tehran, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots".

Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including rebuking Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last week.

However, Israel earlier on Sunday launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the US announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.

Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation, putting US-Iran peace talks at risk. But Trump insisted that an agreement to end the wider war remains well within reach.

“It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” Trump told the Financial Times. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”

A few hours later, Israel's defence forces said they had struck Iranian military targets. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Israel had carried out attacks on targets inside Iran using air-launched ballistic missiles.

The latest hostilities drove oil prices up more than 3 per cent in early trading on Monday, with benchmark Brent futures back above $96 a barrel.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted Ramat David air base, near Nazareth. The Israeli military said it identified missiles launched from Iran and that its defense systems had intercepted them.

As air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, according to a Reuters witness, the Israeli military added it had identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward its territory with aerial defence systems activated to intercept the threat.

The attack is also the first from Yemen on Israel since the April 8 truce.

TRUMP URGED NETANYAHU TO HOLD OFF FURTHER STRIKES

Trump, who was spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Netanyahu spoke by phone for a little less than half an hour on Sunday, an Israeli official said, without giving further details.

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

Trump told Netanyahu during the call to refrain from further strikes because "we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal," according to a US official quoted by Axios.

Since the start of US-Iran talks aimed at halting the war, Israel has continued attacks in Lebanon in a conflict with Hezbollah that Israeli officials insist should be treated separately from any ceasefire with Iran.

Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who fired rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran.

Iran's chief peace negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said US bases and Israeli assets are legitimate targets because of hostile acts, including the "violation of agreements over Lebanon."

Before Sunday, Iran had not attacked Israel since a ceasefire in the wider war started in April, although Hezbollah has done so.

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