DUBAI – Five days following a surprise attack on Iran’s military and nuclear program, Israel seemed to be intensifying its air campaign on Tehran, while U.S. President Donald Trump issued a foreboding notice urging the city’s residents to leave.
On Monday night, Trump asserted, “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” before making an early return from a Group of Seven summit in Canada to Washington. He further stated, “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
Prior to this, the Israeli military had instructed approximately 330,000 residents of a central neighborhood in Tehran to vacate. As one of the largest cities in the Middle East, Tehran houses about 9.5 million inhabitants.
Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientiests, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile program is necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people since Friday.
Iran has retaliated by launching more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 wounded.
The back-and-forth has raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.
Trump leaves G7 early to focus on conflict
Before leaving the summit in Canada, Trump joined the other leaders in a joint statement saying Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon” and calling for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth headed to the White House Situation Room to meet with the president and his national security team.
Hegseth didn’t provide details on what prompted the meeting but said on Fox News late Monday that the movements were to “ensure that our people are safe.”
Israeli strikes on Tehran broaden
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Monday that his country’s forces had “achieved full aerial superiority over Tehran’s skies.”
The military said it destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers in central Iran, a third of Iran’s total, including multiple launchers just before they launched ballistic missiles towards Israel. It also destroyed two F-14 fighter planes that Iran used to target Israeli aircraft, the military said.
Israeli military officials also said fighter jets had struck 10 command centers in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, an elite arm of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.
Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that houses the country’s state TV and police headquarters, as well as three large hospitals, including one owned by the Guard.
Israel’s military has issued similar evacuation warnings for parts of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon ahead of strikes. Health authorities reported that 1,277 people were wounded in Iran. Iranians also reported fuel rationing.
Rights groups such as the Washington-based Iranian advocacy group Human Rights Activists have suggested that the Iranian government’s death toll is a significant undercount. The group says it has documented more than 400 people killed, among them 197 civilians.
Israel says strikes have set back nuclear program
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time,” and told reporters he is in daily touch with Trump.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed that Tehran has not had an organized effort to pursue a nuclear weapon since 2003. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that the country has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs should it choose to do so.
So far, Israel has targeted multiple Iranian nuclear program sites but has not been able to destroy Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility.
The site is buried deep underground — and to eliminate it, Israel may need the 30,000-pound (14,000-kilogram) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a U.S. bunker-busting bomb that uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets. Israel does not have the munition or the bomber needed to deliver it. The penetrator is currently delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber.
No sign of conflict letting up
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, appeared to make a veiled plea Monday for the U.S. to step in and negotiate an end to hostilities between Israel and Iran.
In a post on X, Araghchi wrote that if Trump is “genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.”
“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Iran’s top diplomat wrote. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”
The message to Washington was sent as the latest talks between the U.S. and Iran were canceled over the weekend after Israel’s surprise bombardment.
On Sunday, Araghchi said that Iran will stop its strikes if Israel does the same.
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Lidman reported from Jerusalem and Melzer from Nahariya, Israel. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.
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