Israel war: Macron says Europeans to ‘accelerate negotiations’ Iran

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that France and its European partners would ramp up talks with Iran following more than a week of hostilities between the Islamic Republic and Israel.

“I am convinced that there is a way out of war and to avoid even greater dangers,” Macron said on X after holding phone talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. “To achieve this, we will step up the negotiations initiated by France and its European partners with Iran.”

Separately, with more than a week since the war begun between Iran and Israel, least 430 people were killed and 3,500 were wounded in Iran, Iranian state-run Nour News reported on Saturday, citing the country’s health ministry. Israel recently targetted a military installation in Shiraz but no casualities have been reported as per the ISNA agency.

Earlier today, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a veteran commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, in a strike in an apartment in Iran’s Qom province.

Read More: Iran, Israel launch new attacks after Tehran rules out nuclear talks

The commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the overseas arm, or Quds Force, Katz said in a statement. The Israeli military later said that it killed a second commander of the Guards’ overseas arm, who it identified as Benham Shariyari, during a strike on his vehicle overnight in western Tehran.

It said the commander “was responsible for all weapons transfers from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East”. Shariyari supplied missiles and rockets launched at Israel to Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemen’s Houthis, according to the Israeli military.