Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Donald Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender yesterday, 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 if he had made any decision on whether to join Israel’s bombing campaign against 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.”
Iranians jammed highways out of the capital Tehran, a city of 10 million people, as residents sought sanctuary from intensified Israeli air strikes.
In its latest bombing run, Israel said its air force destroyed Iran’s police headquarters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video released by his office yesterday evening, said Israel was “progressing step by step” towards eliminating threats posed by Iran’s nuclear sites and ballistic missile arsenal.
“We control the skies over Tehran. We are striking with tremendous force at the regime of the ayatollahs. We are hitting the nuclear sites, the missiles, the headquarters, the symbols of the regime,” Netanyahu said.
He also thanked Trump, “a great friend of the state of Israel”, for standing by its side in the conflict, saying the two were in continuous contact.
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.”
A source familiar with internal discussions said Trump and his team were considering options that included joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear installations. Defence 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.
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