President Donald Trump called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” yesterday and warned that US patience was wearing thin, but said there was no immediate intention to kill Iran’s leader “for now”, as the Israel-Iran air war raged for a fifth day.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said meanwhile that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face the same fate as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion and hanged in 2006 after a trial.
“I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and fire missiles at Israeli citizens,” Katz told top Israeli military officials.
Explosions were reported in Tehran and the city of Isfahan in central Iran, while Israel said Iran had fired more missiles towards it late last night, and air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and southern Israel. The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on 12 missile launch sites and storage facilities in Tehran.
Trump’s comments, delivered via social media, suggested a more aggressive stance towards Iran as he weighs whether to deepen US involvement.
“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now...Our patience is wearing thin.”
Three minutes later, he posted, “Unconditional surrender!” in all capital letters.
Trump’s sometimes contradictory and cryptic messaging about the conflict between Israel and Iran has deepened the uncertainty surrounding the crisis. His public comments have ranged from military threats to diplomatic overtures.
He had predicted earlier on Monday that Israel would not be easing its attacks on Iran. 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 ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, and that something “much bigger” was expected.
Vance said the decision on whether to take further action to end Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, which Western powers suspect is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb, “ultimately belongs to the president”. Britain’s leader said there was no indication that the US was about to enter the conflict.
The US is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, US officials told Reuters. The move follows other deployments that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described as defensive in nature.
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 sources familiar with his decision-making process.
The Israeli military said Iran’s military leadership was “on the run” and that it had killed Iran’s wartime chief of staff Ali Shadmani overnight, four days after he replaced another top commander killed in the strikes.
With Iranian leaders suffering their most dangerous security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country’s cyber security command banned officials from using communications devices and mobile phones, Fars news agency reported.
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