US President Donald Trump has demanded an “unconditional surrender” from Iran, which has been locked in a heated military conflict with Israel, over the past days. In a series of posts on his Truth Social Trump also claimed that “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.”
Hostilities between West Jerusalem and Tehran have been intensifying since Israel’s attacks on a uranium enrichment center, nuclear and military facilities, and a series of drone and car-bomb attacks that killed over a dozen senior Iranian military commanders and scientists as well as multiple civilians.
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Iran retaliated by firing dozens of ballistic missiles into Israel. The two sides have been exchanging attacks since then.
“Unconditional surrender,” Trump wrote in capital letters on Truth Social on Tuesday. The American president also issued a direct threat against the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claiming that the US and its Israeli allies “know exactly” where Khamenei is “hiding.” Trump called him an “easy target” but stated that “we are not going to take him out… at least for now.”
“Our patience is wearing thin,” the US president added.
Speaking to journalists earlier on Tuesday, the American leader said his goals in the conflict between West Jerusalem and Tehran go beyond a ceasefire, adding that he wanted Iran to forgo “entirely on nuclear weapons.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made similar statements on Monday, when he claimed that Israel was “in control of the skies over Tehran” and told the city’s residents to evacuate.
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Tehran signaled on Tuesday that it was ready to continue fighting. “The enemy cannot sustain a long war, and as it continues, the back of the Zionist regime will be broken,” Iran’s defense ministry spokesman, Brigadier General Reza Talayi-Nik, said in a televised interview aired by the Iranian state broadcaster. The general also announced the use of new missile systems as part of retaliatory strikes.
“Today, we used one of our missiles for the first time, and the Zionist regime didn’t even realize it had been deployed. They will see more of these surprises,” he said. Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) reported successful strikes on Israel’s military intelligence logistical headquarters and a Mossad intelligence center in the Tel Aviv area on Tuesday. The targets were hit “despite the presence of highly advanced defense systems,” it said.
West Jerusalem justified its Friday attack by claiming Iran was on the brink of obtaining a nuclear weapon. Tehran has repeatedly denied such accusations, maintaining that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.
In late March, US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard stated that American intelligence data suggested Iran was “not building a nuclear weapon” and its nuclear arms program had been on hold since 2003. When asked about this assessment on Tuesday, Trump stated that he did “not care what she said.”