WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said the United States would not kill Iran’s supreme leader "for now” and appeared to demand Tehran’s surrender, while indicating he could dispatch diplomatic envoys as the Zionist-Iran air war raged for a fifth day. The comments marked a dramatic escalation in Trump’s rhetoric against Iran and its leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fueling questions as to whether Washington would join the Zionist entity’s attacks after insisting it had no hand in the campaign.
Zionist Defense Minister Israel Katz said meanwhile that Khamenei could face the same fate as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion and eventually hanged after a trial. "I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and fire missiles at (Zionist) citizens,” Katz told top Zionist military officials.
Zionist warplanes targeted drone and missile sites with at least two waves of strikes in western Iran on Tuesday, the military said. It also said it had killed senior Iranian commander Ali Shadmani in an overnight strike on a "command center in the heart of Tehran”, just four days after his predecessor, Gholam Ali Rashid, was killed in the Zionist entity’s initial surprise attack.
The attacks drew retaliatory fire from the Islamic Republic, with explosions heard over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and air raid sirens sounding
around Dimona, a southern town home to a nuclear power plant. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had hit the Zionist entity’s Military Intelligence Directorate and foreign intelligence service Mossad’s operational center early on Tuesday.
Days after a senior US official said Trump had told the Zionist entity to back down from plans to assassinate Khamenei, the US president appeared to put the option back on the table with a post on his Truth Social platform. "We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump said. "But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin,” he added, later posting a message saying: "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
Trump had said earlier in the day that he wanted "a real end” to the conflict. A White House official said Trump was convening a meeting of his National Security Council Tuesday to discuss the conflict. Trump predicted on Monday that the Zionist entity would not be easing its attacks on Iran launched on Friday. But he also said he might send US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff or Vice President JD Vance to meet Iranian officials. Trump had said his early departure from the Group of Seven nations summit in Canada had "nothing to do with” working on a deal between the Zionist entity and Iran, and that something "much bigger” than that was expected.
Despite mounting calls to de-escalate, neither side has backed off from the aerial blitz that began Friday, when the Zionist entity launched an unprecedented bombing campaign targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities. Iranian media reported several explosions Tuesday in the central city of Isfahan, home to nuclear facilities. Blasts were also heard across Tehran.
The Iranian armed forces warned residents in the Zionist cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa to evacuate "for the sake of their lives”, warning of "punitive operations” to come. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched an attack targeting Zionist air bases. A cyberattack on Tuesday crippled Sepah Bank, one of Iran’s main state-owned banks, the Fars news agency reported.
The US president had earlier issued an extraordinary warning on his Truth Social platform, saying: "Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” Fearing violence, many residents have fled Tehran. On Tuesday, long queues stretched outside bakeries and petrol stations as the remaining residents rushed to stock up on fuel and basic supplies. Security checkpoints have been set up across the capital, adding to the atmosphere of tension as authorities monitor movement in and out of key districts.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the United States was deploying "additional capabilities” to the Middle East, with a US aircraft carrier reportedly heading to the region. Even before Trump’s remarks about Khamenei, China had accused him of "pouring oil” on the conflict. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu of being "the biggest threat to the security of the region”.
After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, the Zionist entity said its surprise air campaign aimed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran denies. The UN’s nuclear watchdog said there appeared to have been "direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls” at Iran’s Natanz facility. The IAEA added there was no change to report at the Fordow and Isfahan sites. Katz said the Iranian nuclear installation at Fordow, where an enrichment site is dug deep into a mountain, was an issue that will "of course” be addressed.
The Zionist entity has maintained ambiguity regarding its own atomic activities, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says it has 90 nuclear warheads. Israel says it now has control of Iranian air space and intends to escalate the campaign in the coming days. The Zionist entity’s advantage appears to clear the way for expanding bombardment, though it will struggle to deal a knock-out blow to deeply buried nuclear sites without the US joining the attack, according to analysis echoed on Tuesday by Germany’s leader.
Since Friday, at least 24 people have been killed in the Zionist entity and hundreds wounded, according to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office. Iran said on Sunday that Zionist strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. – Agencies