TEHRAN/WASHINGTON: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Donald Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender on Wednesday, and the US president said his patience had run out, though he gave no clue as to what his next step would be. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump declined to say whether he had made any decision on whether to join the Zionist entity’s bombing campaign against archenemy Iran. “I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” he said.

Trump said Iranian officials had reached out about negotiations including a possible meeting at the White House but “it’s very late to be talking,” he said. “Unconditional surrender, that means I’ve had it.” Asked for his response to Khamenei rejecting his demand to surrender, Trump said: “I say, good luck.”

Khamenei, 86, rebuked Trump in a recorded speech played on television, his first appearance since Friday. The Americans “should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage,” he said. “Intelligent people who know Iran, the Iranian nation and its history will never speak to this nation in threatening language because the Iranian nation will not surrender.” Khamenei, in power since 1989 and the final arbiter of all matters of state in Iran, had earlier vowed the country would show “no mercy” towards Zionist leaders.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday Iran had the “legitimate” right to defend itself in the face of the Zionist entity’s bombing campaign. “It is a very natural, legitimate and legal right for Iran to defend itself against (the Zionist entity’s) thuggery and state terrorism,” the Turkish leader said, a day after referring to Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “the biggest threat to the security of the region”.

“These attacks were organized while the Iranian nuclear negotiations were taking place,” Erdogan said.

“(The Zionist entity), which possesses nuclear weapons and does not recognize any international rules... did not wait for the negotiations to end but carried out a terrorist act without waiting for the result,” he added.

“We are closely following Israel’s terrorist attacks on Iran. All our institutions are on high alert regarding the possible effects of these attacks on Turkey,” Erdogan said. “We are making preparations for every kind of scenario,” he said. “Nobody should dare to test us. We don’t have any desire to take other people’s lands... in the region,” he added. On Monday, Erdogan said he had ordered the defense industry to increase production of medium and long-range missiles to “increase its level of deterrence” in light of the air war between the Zionist entity and Iran.

Iranians jammed the highways out of the capital Tehran, fleeing from intensified Zionist airstrikes. In its latest bombing run, Israel said its air force had destroyed Iran’s police headquarters. “As we promised – we will continue to strike at symbols of governance and hit the ayatollah regime wherever it may be,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the five-day-old war to suggesting the United States might join it. In social media posts on Tuesday, he mused about killing Khamenei, then demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” A source familiar with internal discussions said Trump and his team were considering options that included joining the Zionist entity in strikes against Iranian nuclear installations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee that the Pentagon was prepared to execute any order given by Trump

Iran’s mission to the United Nations mocked Trump in posts on X: “Iran does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance,” it wrote. “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House,” it said. “The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader.”

The Zionist military said 50 Zionist jets struck around 20 targets in Tehran overnight, including sites producing raw materials, components and manufacturing systems for missiles. Traffic was backed up on highways leading out of the capital Tehran, a city of 10 million people, as residents sought sanctuary elsewhere. Arezou, a 31-year-old Tehran resident, told Reuters by phone that she had made it out to the nearby resort town of Lavasan.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles at Tel Aviv. Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept. In the Zionist entity, sirens rang out warning people of retaliatory Iranian missile strikes.

At Ramat Gan city train station east of Tel Aviv, people were lying on city-supplied mattresses lined along the floor or sitting in the odd camping chair, with plastic water bottles strewn about. “I feel scared, overwhelmed. Especially because I live in a densely populated area that Iran seems to be targeting, and our city has very old buildings, without shelters and safe spaces,” said Tamar Weiss, clutching her four-month-old daughter.

Iran has been exploring options for leverage, including veiled threats to hit the global oil market by restricting access to the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important shipping artery for oil. Inside Iran, authorities are intent on preventing panic and shortages. Fewer images of destruction have been allowed to circulate than in the early days of the bombing, when state media showed pictures of explosions, fires and flattened apartments. A ban on filming by the public has been imposed.

The state has placed limits on how much fuel can be purchased. Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad told state TV that restrictions were in place to prevent shortages, but there would be no problem supplying fuel to the public. In the Zionist entity, Iran’s missile volleys mark the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that a significant number of projectiles fired from Iran have penetrated defenses, killing Zionists in their homes. – Agencies