Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected US president Donald Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender on Wednesday, 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, Mr Trump declined to say if he had made any decision on whether to join Israel’s bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.
“I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” he said.
Mr 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.
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“Unconditional surrender, that means I’ve had it.”
Asked for his response to Mr Khamenei rejecting his demand to surrender, Mr Trump said: “I say, good luck.”
In its latest bombing run, Israel said its air force had destroyed Iran’s police headquarters.
“As we promised – we will continue to strike at symbols of governance and hit the Ayatollah regime wherever it may be,” defence minister Israel Katz said.
[ Inside Tehran: a city choked in gridlock and dreadOpens in new window ]
The Ayatollah (86), rebuked Mr 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.”
Mr Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the war to suggesting the US might join it. In social media posts on Tuesday he mused about killing the Ayatollah, then demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
A source familiar with internal discussions said Mr Trump and his team were considering options that included joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear sites. 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.
“No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House,” it said. “The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader.”
Israel’s military said 50 of its jets struck about 20 targets in Tehran overnight, including sites producing raw materials, components and manufacturing systems for missiles. The military told Iranians to leave parts of the capital for their own safety while it struck targets.
Traffic was backed up on highways leading out of the capital Tehran, a city of 10 million people, as residents sought sanctuary elsewhere.
In Israel, sirens rang out warning people of retaliatory Iranian missile strikes. At Ramat Gan city train station east of Tel Aviv, people were lying on city-supplied mattresses lined along the floor or sitting in the odd camping chair, with plastic water bottles strewn about.
Iran has been exploring options for leverage, including veiled threats to hit the global oil market by restricting access to the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important shipping artery for oil.
Oil prices leapt 9 per cent on Friday and have marched further higher this week.
Inside Iran, authorities are intent on preventing panic and shortages. Fewer images of destruction have been allowed to circulate than in the early days of the bombing, when state media showed pictures of explosions, fires and flattened apartments. A ban on filming by the public has been imposed.
The state has placed limits on how much fuel can be purchased. Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad told state TV that restrictions were in place to prevent shortages, but there would be no problem supplying fuel to the public.
Iranian officials have reported at least 224 deaths in Israeli attacks, mostly civilians, though that toll has not been updated for days.
In Israel, Iran’s missile volleys mark the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that a significant number of projectiles fired from Iran have penetrated defences, killing Israelis in their homes.
Since Friday, Iran has fired about 400 missiles at Israel, some 40 of which have pierced through air defences, killing 24 people, all of them civilians, said Israeli authorities.
With Mr Khamenei’s main military and security advisers killed, the leader’s inner circle has been narrowed, raising the risk that he could make strategic errors, said five people familiar with his decision-making process. – Reuters
