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Key Points
- US President Donald Trump has insisted on Iran’s “unconditional surrender”.
- Trump stated there is no current plan to target Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
- According to Iranian sources, 224 people have perished, while Israel reported the loss of 24 civilians in the confrontations.
US President Donald Trump has demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” but assured there is no plan to harm its supreme leader “at the moment,” amidst ongoing missile exchanges between Israel and Iran for the sixth consecutive day.
Commenting on the situation, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz remarked that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, might meet the same end as Iraq’s former President Saddam Hussein. Hussein was deposed in a US-led invasion and executed in 2006 following a court trial.
The Israeli military reported two waves of Iranian missiles were directed at Israel within the early hours of Wednesday morning, with explosions resonating over Tel Aviv.
Israel told residents in the area of Tehran to evacuate so its air force could strike Iranian military installations. Iranian news websites said Israel was attacking a university linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in east Tehran, and that explosions were heard in the city of Karaj.
Explosions were also reported in Tehran and the city of Isfahan in central Iran. Iranian officials said 224 people have been killed, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed.
The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on 12 missile launch sites and storage facilities in Tehran.
Trump cautioned that US tolerance with Iran was “diminishing” and hinted at knowing the whereabouts of the “so-called ‘Supreme Leader,'” according to a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
Three minutes later, he followed up with: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
Trump’s sometimes contradictory and cryptic messaging about the conflict between close US ally Israel and longtime foe Iran has deepened the uncertainty surrounding the crisis.
A White House official said Trump spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Tuesday after meeting with his national security team about the escalating Middle East conflict.
No further details regarding what was discussed during the call were made public.
Trump said earlier this week he might send US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff or vice president JD Vance to meet with Iranian officials.
He maintained his early departure from the G7 summit in Canada had “nothing to do” with working on a ceasefire deal, and that something “much bigger” was expected.
Vance mentioned that any decision regarding further actions to halt Iran’s uranium enrichment activities, suspected by Western nations to be aimed at building a nuclear weapon, “rests ultimately with the president”.
The US is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, three US officials told Reuters.
The US has so far only taken defensive actions in the conflict, including helping to shoot down missiles fired towards Israel.
Khamenei’s main military and security advisers have been killed by Israeli strikes, leaving major holes in his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process.
With Iranian leaders facing their most significant security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country’s cybersecurity command has banned officials from using communication devices and mobile phones, according to Fars News Agency.
Israel launched a “massive cyber war” against Iran’s digital infrastructure, Iranian media reported.
From October 2023, Khamenei’s regional influence has waned as Israel has pounded Iran’s proxies — from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq.
Israel launched its air war, its largest ever, on Iran on Friday after saying it had concluded the Islamic Republic was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons.
Israel does not deny or confirm that.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed he will not back down until Iran’s nuclear development is disabled, while Trump says the Israeli assault could end if Iran agrees to strict curbs on enrichment.
Before Israel’s attack started, the 35-nation board of governors of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.
The IAEA said an Israeli strike directly hit the underground enrichment halls at the Natanz facility.
Israel said it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in the coming days.
Iran has so far fired nearly 400 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones towards Israel, with about 35 missiles penetrating Israel’s defensive shield and making impact, Israeli officials said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had hit Israel’s military intelligence directorate and foreign intelligence service Mossad’s operational centre.
