Donald Trump Issues Warning to Iran as Israel Violence Escalates.
President Donald Trump has warned Iran the U.S. would retaliate to an attack by Tehran with its “full strength and might” as Israel and Iran launched fresh strikes overnight.
On Friday, Israel launched the first of a series of airstrikes across Iran, which retaliated with missile attacks on Israeli territory. The tit-for-tat assaults have continued through the weekend, leading to a number of civilian casualties, as well as military.
Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on Iran that it described as a “preemptive” and “combined offensive” on the country to hack away at Tehran’s nuclear program. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks had taken out many of its adversary’s ballistic missiles.
The operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” killed several high-ranking Iranian commanders-including the head of the armed forces-and scientists connected to the country’s nuclear development.
Iran vowed to retaliate, launching barrages of drones and missiles at sites and cities across Israel from Friday. Strikes launched by both countries have continued through to Sunday, with little indication of de-escalation as talks in Oman on a new deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program on Sunday with the U.S. were called off by Tehran.
The U.S. and Israel view the possibility of Iran gaining a nuclear weapon as unacceptable. Israel said it had launched its strikes on Friday because it believed Tehran would have a nuclear weapon “in a very short time.”
“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social site late on Saturday.
The U.S. had “nothing to do with the attack on Iran” earlier in the day, Trump said.
Tehran has accused the U.S. of being directly involved in the waves of Israeli attacks, which Washington has denied-although Trump on Friday said the U.S. “knew everything” about Israel’s strikes.
The U.S. on Wednesday said it had ordered all its non-emergency government personnel to leave Iraq, a decision made partly after being warned of an imminent Israeli attack on Iran, CBS reported.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said the U.S. was “not involved” in the Israeli offensive, adding: “Our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.”
“Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel,” Rubio added.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it believed Israel could not have carried out its strikes “without coordination with and approval of the United States,” according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
“Thus, the U.S. government, as the main supporter of this regime, will be held responsible for the dangerous consequences of Israel’s adventurism,” the Iranian government said.
U.S. air defense systems, including Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries operated by U.S. soldiers, helped to intercept Iranian attacks on Israel on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed U.S. defense officials.
During his first term as president, Trump pulled out of a Barack Obama-era agreement with Iran formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or simply as the Iran nuclear deal. The agreement loosened sanctions on Iran in exchange for fresh constraints on the country’s nuclear development. Tehran later abandoned provisions of the JCPOA and forged ahead with its nuclear program.
Tehran has maintained its nuclear development is peaceful, but the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned it has dramatically increased uranium enrichment to levels very close to what would be needed to produce a nuclear weapon.
The IAEA said on Thursday Iran was not cooperating with its nuclear obligations for the first time in two decades. Tehran said it would get a new enrichment site in a “secure location” up and running.
Trump has threatened Iran with “bombing the likes of which they have never seen before” if Tehran does not ink a deal.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, said on Saturday that talks between Iran and the U.S. on the nuclear program were “unjustifiable.”
An anonymous source described as a senior U.S. administration official told Israel’s i24NEWS outlet that Washington was still “committed to the talks and hope that the Iranians will come to the negotiating table soon.”
Trump said on Friday he had given Iran “chance after chance to make a deal.”
“No matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done,” Trump said. “There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end.”
Israeli authorities said 10 people had been killed in Iranian strikes into Sunday. Police said on Sunday that an unspecified number of civilians had been killed and injured in a “direct hit” overnight on the city of Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv. At least six people were killed in Bat Yam, domestic media reported.
Police said early on Sunday that two women in their 40s and another aged 20, as well as a 13-year-old girl, had been killed in northern Israel. Local media reported roughly 40 missiles had targeted the coastal city of Haifa overnight, one of which struck a residential building in the nearby town of Tamra. Four people were reportedly killed there.
The Israeli military said on Sunday it had struck Iranian missile launchers that had been used against Israel, as well as other missile systems and radars
Iran’s defense minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh, said on Wednesday that in a conflict with the U.S., Tehran would strike U.S. military facilities in the Middle East. “All U.S. bases are within our reach and we will boldly target them in host countries,” he said during a press briefing.
“We can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict,” U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Saturday.
Iran’s military said in a statement on Sunday it would “escalate” against Israel if strikes on the country continued, adding it had targeted Israel’s fuel sites for supplying its fighter jets. A senior Iranian commander separately said Tehran would deliver more “severe blows” to Israel.