European foreign ministers will tell their Iranian counterpart at a meeting in Geneva that the US is open to direct talks even as it considers joining Israeli strikes intended to smash Tehran’s nuclear capacity.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi would be told that Iran must send a “clear signal”, two diplomats told Reuters, with pressure mounting on Tehran to agree tough curbs on its nuclear program to prevent the potential development of an atomic weapon.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to several Western counterparts before the meeting in Switzerland, the diplomats said, indicating readiness to engage directly with Tehran.

Washington did not confirm that though broadcaster CNN quoted a US official saying President Donald Trump supported diplomacy from allies that could bring Iran closer to a deal.

Tehran, however, has repeatedly said it will not talk to the Trump administration until Israeli attacks end.

Iran won’t negotiate as long as Israel’s attacks continue Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says. Photo: AAP

The ministers from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, plus the European Union’s foreign policy chief, were meeting separately on Friday before planned face-to-face talks with Araqchi.

“The Iranians can’t sit down with the Americans whereas we can,” a European diplomat said.

“We will tell them to come back to the table to discuss the nuclear issue before the worst-case scenario, while raising our concerns over its ballistic missiles, support to Russia and detention of our citizens.”

The talks were due for mid-afternoon in Geneva, where an initial accord between Iran and world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions lifting was struck in 2013 before a comprehensive deal in 2015.

Separate talks between Iran and the US collapsed when Israel launched what it called Operation Rising Lion against Iran’s nuclear facilities and ballistic capabilities on June 12.

“There is no room for negotiations with the US until Israeli aggression stops,” Araqchi was quoted as saying on Iranian state TV on Friday.

The E3 have in past talks with Iran suggested it keep some uranium enrichment but accept extremely strict international inspections of its nuclear activities.

Trump has demanded zero enrichment and French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to echo that call on Friday, saying any new deal needed to go towards zero enrichment for Iran.

The main message Europeans will pass to Araqchi is that the US has signalled readiness for direct talks, but that Iran must give a serious signal, the two European diplomats said, without defining what the signal should be.

Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has spoken to Araqchi several times since last week, sources say.

While diplomats did not expect a breakthrough in Geneva, they said it was vital to engage with Iran because once the war stopped the nuclear issue would remain unresolved given that Tehran would still retain the scientific know-how.

Trump has said he will decide within two weeks whether to join Israeli strikes.

“A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.

UN urges restraint

A week into its campaign, Israel said on Friday it had struck dozens of military targets, including missile production sites, a research body it said was involved in nuclear weapons development in Tehran and military facilities in western and central Iran.

The Israeli military later said they had struck surface-to-air missile batteries in southwestern Iran as part of efforts to achieve air superiority over the country. Explosions were heard in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province and at least four people there ere killed, IRNA news agency reported.

At least five people were injured when Israel hit a five-storey building in Tehran housing a bakery and a hairdresser’s, Fars news agency reported. Iranian air defences were activated on Friday evening, Fars news agency reported.

Iran fired missiles at Beersheba in southern Israel and Haifa in the north, causing damage to an Ottoman-era mosque, according to Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. A foreign ministry video also showed extensive damage to a nearby high-rise building that houses a branch of Israel’s Interior Ministry.

About 20 missiles were fired in those latest Iranian strikes, an Israeli military official said, and at least two people were hurt, according to the Israeli ambulance service.

Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the UN Security Council his country would not stop its attacks “until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled”. Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani called for Security Council action and said Tehran was alarmed by reports that the US may join the war.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog warned against attacks on nuclear facilities and called for maximum restraint.

“Armed attack on nuclear facilities… could result in radioactive releases with great consequences within and beyond the boundaries of the state which has been attacked,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Security Council.

Israel says it is determined to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities but that it wants to avoid any nuclear disaster.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, also speaking at the world body’s Security Council, said the Iran-Israel conflict could “ignite a fire no one can control” and called on all parties to “give peace a chance”.

Russia and China demanded immediate de-escalation.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters Iran was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that any proposal for zero enrichment – not being able to enrich uranium at all – would be rejected, “especially now under Israel’s strikes”.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Saar, speaking in Haifa, said he was very sceptical about Iran’s intentions. “We know from the record of Iran they are not negotiating honestly,” he said.

Israeli air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based human rights organisation that tracks Iran. The dead include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists.

In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, according to authorities.

Reuters could not independently verify casualty figures for either side.

Western and regional officials say Israel is trying to shatter the government of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

—AAP