President Donald Trump of the United States has expressed a lack of interest in negotiating with Iran, suggesting that the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict might only conclude when Iran’s military is dismantled and its leadership is ousted.

During a conversation with journalists aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump indicated that the ongoing air strikes could render negotiations unnecessary if Iran’s military capabilities and leadership are completely eradicated.

“Eventually, there may be no one left to utter the words ‘We surrender,'” Trump remarked.

Following Trump’s online demand for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian revealed that unnamed countries have started mediation efforts, marking one of the earliest signs of any diplomatic attempt to resolve the conflict.

“Some countries have initiated mediation processes,” Pezeshkian posted on X, without disclosing the names of the countries or providing more specifics.

Simultaneously, Israel announced it had launched new attacks on Iran on Sunday, and a significant blaze consumed a government building in Kuwait after being struck by drones. This turmoil, which has unsettled the Middle East and disrupted global oil markets, has now entered its second week.

Trump has justified the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by saying that Iran posed an imminent threat to the US, without providing evidence.

He has also said Iran was too close to being able to build a nuclear weapon.

The US and Israel have discussed sending special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium at a later stage of the war, Axios reported, citing four people with knowledge of the discussions.

Asked about the possibility of sending ground troops to secure nuclear sites on Saturday, Trump said it was something they could do “later on.”

Iranian president’s apology causes stir

Yesterday, Iran’s president apologised to neighbouring states for its attacks on US facilities in those countries, in an attempt to cool anger across the Gulf, but stirred criticism from hardliners at home.

“I personally apologise to neighbouring countries that were affected by Iran’s actions,” Pezeshkian said, urging them not to join US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

He dismissed Trump’s demand for the Islamic Republic’s unconditional surrender as “a dream,” but said its temporary leadership council had agreed to suspend attacks on nearby states unless strikes on Iran originated from their territory.

Pezeshkian’s comments caused a political stir in Iran, prompting his office to reiterate that Iran’s military would respond firmly to attacks from US bases.

Ali Larijani, Iran’s secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said on state television there was no rift among Iranian officials over its handling of the war.

Tehran has responded to the US-Israeli war on Iran by hitting Israel and Gulf Arab states hosting US military installations.

Saudi Arabia has told Tehran that continued Iranian attacks on the kingdom and its energy sector could push Riyadh to respond in kind, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates reported Iranian drone attacks in their countries on Saturday and early Sunday with varying degrees of damage but no reported deaths.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also targeted US forces at a base in Bahrain, Iranian state media said.

On Sunday, the clerical body charged with choosing Iran’s next supreme leader could meet as soon as Sunday to name a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an attack early in the conflict, Iranian media reported.

A majority consensus over the successor has more or less been reached, said Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammadmehdi Mirbaqeri, according to the Mehr news agency.

The Israeli military, in a post on X, warned it would pursue every successor.

In the US, the White House halted for now a federal security bulletin that would have warned of a heightened threat to the US in light of the Iran conflict, a Trump administration official told Reuters.

However, a recent US intelligence assessment had warned that Iran and its proxies “probably” pose a threat of targeted attacks on the US.

In Oslo, the US embassy was hit by an explosion early on Sunday, causing minor damage but no injuries, Norwegian police said. Smoke was seen rising from the area around the embassy compound, eyewitnesses told Norwegian daily Verdens Gang.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast or who was involved.

Huge explosions were heard in parts of Tehran, state media reported, while Israel said it had struck Iranian missile sites and command centres.

The US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani.

US forces were likely responsible for a widely condemned strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children, US officials have told Reuters. But Trump, without citing evidence, told reporters on Saturday that Iran was responsible.

“We think it was done by Iran because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran,” said Trump.

US Defence secretary Pete Hegseth, standing behind Trump aboard Air Force One, said the matter was still under investigation.

Iranian attacks have killed 10 people in Israel. At least six US service members have been killed. Their remains arrived on Saturday at an Air Force base in Delaware.

In Iran, local news agencies, citing an Iranian Oil Ministry source, said its fuel depots were hit by strikes in three areas, including Karaj, west of Tehran.

Israel warns of ‘heavy price’ if Hezbollah not reined in

Meanwhile, Israel has launched fresh attacks in Lebanon after the Iran-aligned militia Hezbollah fired across the border.

With the conflict spreading, Israel warned Lebanon of a “very heavy price” if it did not rein in Iran-allied Hezbollah militants, as it pounded the group’s strongholds with airstrikes and mounted a deadly airborne raid in the east.

On Saturday morning, more buildings in Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs had been reduced to rubble, dust and tangled wires, Reuters video showed.

The death toll from Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since Monday rose to around 300, after at least four people were killed when an Israeli strike hit an apartment in the Ramada hotel building in central Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

It was the first strike to hit the heart of the capital since Israel-Hezbollah hostilities resumed last week.

Iran’s apparent strategy of maximum chaos has driven up the costs of the conflict by raising energy prices and hurting global business and logistics links.

Kuwait’s national oil company began cutting output on Saturday, adding to earlier oil and gas cuts from Iraq and Qatar.

The war has roiled global markets and oil prices have hit multi-year highs with the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut.

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