Israel and Iran continued their deadly exchange as a new wave of missiles and drones as strikes struck key targets.
Iran said, early on Wednesday, that it fired hypersonic missiles at Israel, in the latest round of over-night strikes between the archfoes, hours after Donald Trump demanded the Islamic Republic of Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
Iran told residents of Tel Aviv to prepare for an attack, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claiming its hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles were “repeatedly shaking the shelters” in the commercial hub. “The 11th wave of the proud Operation Honest Promise 3 using Fattah-1 missiles” was carried out, the Guards said in a statement.
Israeli warplanes pounded Iran’s capital Tehran overnight and into Wednesday, hitting a facility used to make uranium centrifuges and another that made missile components, the Israeli military said. It said it intercepted 10 missiles overnight as Iran’s retaliatory barrages diminish.
Human Rights Activists, a Washington-based group, reported that as of Wednesday, at least 585 people had been killed in Iran, with 1,326 others wounded.
Khameini rejects Trump’s call, warns US
Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday rejected US calls for surrender in the face of blistering Israeli strikes and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable dam-age” to them, in recorded video aired by state TV. The warning came as Donald Trump addressed the media for the first time since he called a Situa-tion Room meeting to decide whether the U.S. will join strikes on Iran.
Khamenei said in a televised address that Iran would ‘never surrender’ after Trump demanded an ‘unconditional’ exit from the conflict, now in its sixth day. He also chillingly warned Americans that ‘any military involvement by the U.S. will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage to them.’
Trump: Next week is going to be very big
US president Donald Trump said next week is going to be “very big” after he was asked whether the US will join Israel’s military action against Iran. “Next week will be decisive regarding Iran, and it may happen before the end of the week,” Trump told reporters on White House South Lawn.
“I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble,” he said.
The president is considering backing Israeli strikes on Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site, which so far has been spared damage.
Trump also said that Iran had reached out to negotiate and offered to visit the White House. “Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate,” the US president told reporters. “And I said, why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction? Why didn’t you go?”
When a White House reporter asked Trump about Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s declaration that he will “never surrender”, Trump simply responded: “Good luck.”
Britain is considering whether to provide military support to the US if Donald Trump decides to join Israel’s war against Iran.
According to report, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer led a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee in Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon with senior security officials and ministers to address the conflict in the Middle East.
Israel in trouble, Trump may finish war for them, says Wilkerson: In an exclusive interview with India Today, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (Retd), Ex-Chief of Staff, US Secretary of State, said that Israel seems to be in trouble against Iran and Donald Trump may finish the war for them.
When asked if the US now more likely than ever before to join the Israelis in striking Iranian nuclear facilities that are underground, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, said, “It could go both ways. It looks as if the President is very serious about aiding Israel, and Israel is now in some trouble and cannot finish this. So it looks as if he might be willing to finish it for them or try to finish it for them.”