US President Donald Trump yesterday raised the possibility of the war against Iran ending only once that country no longer has a functioning military or any remaining leadership in power.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he is not interested in negotiating with Iran at this point and later added the air campaign could make it a moot point if all potential leaders of Iran are killed and the Iranian military is destroyed.
“At some point, I don’t think there will be anybody left maybe to say ‘We surrender,’” Trump said.
Trump’s remarks came on a day of Israel and Iran trading numerous attacks as the Middle East war entered a second week.
Iran’s president apologised to neighbouring states 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,” Iranian President Masoud 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.
Trump nonetheless cast Iran’s apology as a surrender, while saying the country would be “hit very hard” yesterday and warning the US could widen its attacks.
Amid possible divisions within Iran’s leadership over Pezeshkian’s remarks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised address, said any Iranian Revolutionary Guards who lay down their arms would be unharmed.
Netanyahu also said: “We stand by all countries attacked by Iran; many are talking to us.”
Ali Ardashir Larijani, Iran’s secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said on state television there is no rift among Iranian officials over its handling of the war.
Pezeshkian’s comments caused a political stir in Iran, prompting his office to reiterate Iran’s military would respond firmly to attacks from US bases in the region.
Hours later, the president repeated his statement on social media but left out the apology from his speech that had angered hardliners, including the powerful Revolutionary Guards.
Hamid Rasai, a hardline cleric and legislator, wrote on X, “Mr Pezeshkian, your stance was unprofessional, weak and unacceptable.”
The judiciary chief, Mohseni-Ejei, a hardline member of the three-man council temporarily holding the powers of supreme leader, said the territory of some regional countries was being used for attacks against Iran, and retaliatory strikes would continue.
Hours after Pezeshkian’s announcement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said their drones struck a US air combat centre at Al Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi.
Reuters could not independently verify that report.
Late into the night, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted an Israeli refinery, according to state media.
Air raid sirens sounded in the Haifa area, but there were no reports of destruction.
There were reports of rockets targeting the US embassy in Baghdad, security sources and witnesses said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani ordered his security forces to pursue those responsible, according to a statement.
The Associated Press reported one missile landed on a helicopter landing pad in the large complex, without casualties.
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.
With the conflict spreading, Israel warned Lebanon of a “very heavy price” if it did not rein in Hizbollah, as it pounded the group’s strongholds with airstrikes and mounted a deadly airborne raid in the east.
Yesterday morning, more buildings in the Hizbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut had been reduced to mounds of smoking rubble, dust and tangled wires, Reuters video showed.
The total death toll from Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since Monday has risen to 294, the health ministry said.
The US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani.
Huge explosions were heard in parts of Tehran, state media reported, while Israel said it had struck Iranian missile sites and command centres.
Iranian attacks have killed 10 people in Israel.
Larijani cited reports claiming that American soldiers have been captured, but US Central Command said no US service members have been taken prisoner.
At least six US service members have been killed.
Their remains arrived yesterday at an Air Force base in Delaware.
Trump reiterated his demand for a say in selecting Iran’s new supreme leader, a notion rejected by Iravani.
Hardline clerics have called for the swift selection of a new supreme leader, Iranian media reported yesterday, with meetings occurring as soon as today.
Ayatollah Hossein Mozafari, one of the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the clerical body charged with choosing the next leader, was quoted as saying the assembly could meet in the next 24 hours to decide.
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