Oil prices jumped and stocks mostly fell Tuesday after President Donald Trump abruptly departed G7 talks and concerns rose over a possible US intervention in the Israel-Iran war.Investors’ optimism the previous day that the conflict would not spread throughout the Middle East gave way to fears of further escalation as the fighting entered its fifth …
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President Donald Trump said the United States would not kill Iran’s supreme leader “for now” and appeared to demand Tehran’s surrender, as US ally Israel traded fire with its arch foe for a fifth day on Tuesday.The comments marked a dramatic escalation in Trump’s rhetoric against Iran and its leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fuelling questions as to whether Washington would join Israel’s attacks after insisting it had no hand in the campaign.Israeli warplanes targeted drone and missile sites with at least two waves of strikes in western Iran on Tuesday, the military said.It also said it had killed senior Iranian commander Ali Shadmani in an overnight strike on a “command centre in the heart of Tehran”, just four days after his predecessor, Gholam Ali Rashid, was killed in Israel’s initial surprise attack.The attacks drew retaliatory fire from the Islamic republic, with explosions heard over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and air raid sirens sounding around Dimona, a southern town home to a nuclear power plant. There were no immediate reports of hits.Days after a senior US official said Trump had told Israel to back down from plans to assassinate Khamenei, the US president appeared to put the option back on the table with a post on his Truth Social platform.”We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump said.”But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin,” he added, later posting a message saying: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”Trump had said earlier in the day that he wanted “a real end” to the conflict.Trump’s National Security Council met on Tuesday to discuss the conflict.Despite mounting calls to de-escalate, neither side has backed off from the aerial blitz that began Friday, when Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities.- ‘Punitive operations’ -Iranian media reported several explosions Tuesday in the central city of Isfahan, home to nuclear facilities. Blasts were also heard across Tehran.The Iranian armed forces warned residents in the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa to evacuate “for the sake of their lives”, warning of “punitive operations” to come.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched an attack targeting Israeli air bases.Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the fighting broke out, and foreign governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens.A cyberattack on Tuesday crippled Sepah Bank, one of Iran’s main state-owned banks, the Fars news agency reported.Fearing the violence, many residents have fled Tehran.On Tuesday, long queues stretched outside bakeries and petrol stations as the remaining residents rushed to stock up on fuel and basic supplies.Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the United States was deploying “additional capabilities” to the Middle East, with a US aircraft carrier reportedly heading to the region.Even before Trump’s remarks about Khamenei, China had accused him of “pouring oil” on the conflict.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu of being “the biggest threat to the security of the region”.At a G7 summit in Canada, leaders including Trump had called Monday for “de-escalation”, while stressing Israel had the right to defend itself and that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon”.- ‘Direct impacts’ -After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel said its surprise air campaign aimed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran denies.The UN’s nuclear watchdog said there appeared to have been “direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls” at Iran’s Natanz facility.Israel has maintained ambiguity regarding its own atomic activities, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says it has 90 nuclear warheads.The conflict derailed a running series of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington, with Iran saying after the start of Israel’s campaign that it would not negotiate with the United States while under attack.French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump had a critical role in restarting diplomacy with Tehran.He also warned that any attempt to change the regime in Iran would result in “chaos”.Since Friday, at least 24 people have been killed in Israel and hundreds wounded, according to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office.Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. It has not issued an updated toll since then.Netanyahu said Israel’s campaign was “changing the face of the Middle East, and that can lead to radical changes inside Iran itself”.burs-ami/smw
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces on Tuesday killed more than 50 Palestinians near an aid centre in the territory’s south, the latest such incident amid severe shortages after more than 20 months of war.The war since October 2023 between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has ravaged the Gaza Strip, with shortages of food, fuel and clean water.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least 53 people were killed and some 200 wounded as thousands of Palestinians gathered to receive flour near an aid centre in the southern city of Khan Yunis.”Israeli drones fired at the citizens. Some minutes later, Israeli tanks fired several shells at the citizens, which led to a large number of martyrs and wounded,” he said.Mohammad Abu Amer, who was present at the scene, told AFP that “ordinary, unarmed people” were targeted.”They went to buy bread and flour for their children, and (Israeli forces) killed them in cold blood”, he said from Nasser Hospital in the city where the dead and wounded were taken.The Israeli army said it looking into “reports regarding a number of injured individuals” from its fire.It said that “a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck” near the Israeli forces.In Rafah, also in southern Gaza, the civil defence said four people were killed by Israeli fire, and two others by Israeli shelling near a hopstial in Gaza City in the north.- Chaotic scenes -Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and other difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza denounced “a terrible massacre” as a result of shelling on a crowd of “thousands of civilians” Tuesday.”There are dozens of martyrs who are still on the ground and others who were turned into pieces because of the shells falling directly among the civilians,” a ministry official told a press conference.In early March, Israel imposed a total aid blockade on Gaza amid an impasse in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.That was when the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing aid, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and dozens of deaths.The UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said Monday that during recent aid distributions several children have been “temporarily separated from their families due to mass movements around militarised distribution points”.GHF said in a statement that its teams had distributed two million meals on Tuesday “without incident”, and nearly 28 million since it started operating.At Gaza City’s Al-Ahli hospital, one of the last remaining functioning health facilities in the territory’s badly hit north, Amer Abu Safiya told AFP there was little doctors could do to treat a wound on his hand.”Every day we are being bombed… Al-Ahli Hospital has been destroyed. Medical services are halted. As you can see, there’s nothing to wrap around my hand, and there’s no medication”, he said, holding up his swollen hand while laying down on a makeshift bed in the hospital’s backyard.- Internet down -OCHA said its humanitarian partners in Gaza “continue to warn of the risk of famine in Gaza, amid catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”.The Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in central and south Gaza on Tuesday, following an attack on the territory’s main fibre optic cable it blamed on Israel.It’s the third time in less than a week that internet was partly or fully down in Gaza due to damage on telecoms infrastructure.The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures.The Gaza health ministry said on Monday that 5,194 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on the territory on March 18 following a truce.The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, 2023 has reached 55,493 people, according to the health ministry.
Israel and Iran exchanged fire again on Tuesday, the fifth day of strikes in their most intense confrontation in history, fuelling fears of a drawn-out conflict that could engulf the Middle East.The adversaries have for years waged a shadow war through proxies and covert operations, with Israel fighting Iranian-backed groups such as Hamas since October 2023.Here are the latest developments:- ‘Unconditional surrender’ -US President Donald Trump dramatically stepped up his rhetoric against Iran’s supreme leader Tuesday, saying on social media that the United States knows where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is located but will not kill him “for now”.In another post, Trump also appeared to demand Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” as he fuelled questions about whether the United States would join Israel’s attacks on Tehran’s leadership and nuclear facilities.Trump earlier said he wanted a “real end” to the conflict, not just a ceasefire.A White House official said Trump was convening a meeting of his National Security Council to discuss the hostilities.G7 leaders, including Trump, had issued a call on Monday for “de-escalation”, but it was accompanied by criticism of Iran and support for Israel’s right to defend itself, drawing a rebuke from Tehran.Beijing accused Trump of “pouring oil” on the intensifying conflict, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being “the biggest threat to the security of the region”.- Latest exchanges -Israel’s military said it launched at least two waves of strikes Tuesday targeting missile and drone sites in western Iran.AFP journalists heard multiple series of loud explosions across Tehran over the course of the day, while Iranian media reported blasts in Isfahan, which hosts nuclear facilities.Israel said it intercepted “most” of a barrage of missiles fired from Iran after air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and northern parts of the country.The Israeli military issued seven missile alerts for various parts of the country since midnight.Air raid sirens also sounded in Dimona, a town in southern Israel home to a nuclear facility, with no reports of any hits.Iran has said its targets in Israel included “sensitive” security sites, claiming attacks on the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency and air force bases.Abdolrahim Mousavi, the Iranian armed forces chief of staff, warned of imminent “punitive operations”.As of Sunday, Israeli attacks had killed at least 224 people and wounded more than 1,200 in Iran, the health ministry said. The deaths include top military commanders and nuclear scientists.At least 24 people have been killed and 592 wounded in Iran’s attacks on Israel, according to Netanyahu’s office.- Doing the ‘dirty work’ -Netanyahu has said Israel’s campaign seeks to eliminate Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, as well as its “axis of terrorism” — a reference to Iranian-backed militant groups in the Middle East.He has also not ruled out killing the supreme leader.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that “regime change is not an objective of this war — it can be a result, but it’s not an objective”.French President Emmanuel Macron warned that any attempt to change the government in Iran would result in “chaos”.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed support for the campaign Tuesday, saying in an interview that “this is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us” against Iran’s “mullah regime”.In a separate interview, he said Tehran was “considerably” weakened, adding: “I can hardly imagine the mullah regime returning to its old functions.”- Internet cuts -Iranian media reported widespread internet disruption on Tuesday.It was not immediately clear what caused the disruption. Iran has imposed internet restrictions since Israel began its aerial campaign.A cyberattack on Tuesday crippled Sepah Bank, one of Iran’s main state-owned banks, the Fars news agency reported.- Natanz ‘impact’ -Israel has carried out repeated strikes on Iran’s key nuclear sites despite warnings from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that such military action is in breach of international law.The IAEA said Tuesday that it had detected signs of “direct impacts” to the underground part of Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, struck on Friday.burs-ami/smw
President Donald Trump faces potentially the hardest choice of his time in the White House, as he weighs up whether the United States should join Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran.Trump fueled speculation about a US intervention as he dashed back from a G7 summit in Canada, warning Tuesday that the United States could kill Iran’s supreme leader, but would not “for now.”The choice is a monumental one for a president who has vowed throughout both his first and second terms in the Oval Office to get the United States out of its “forever wars” in the Middle East. “It’s a major political and military choice that could define his legacy in the Middle East,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told AFP.As Trump met his National Security Council in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday, there were already hints that he was considering abandoning what was until recently his preferred diplomatic route.The most likely option under consideration by Trump would be the use of giant US “bunker-buster” bombs against Iran’s deeply buried Fordow nuclear facility that Israel’s bombs could not reach.US officials said dismantling Iran’s nuclear program — which Western countries say Tehran is using to seek a nuclear weapon — remained Trump’s priority.- Fluid situation -Trump also implied that the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is back on the table, just days after a US official said he had waved off such a move by Israel.US officials stressed that Trump had not yet made a decision and was keeping all options on the table, with the situation fluid and changing “hourly.” The Axios news site said Trump was even considering a new meeting between his top negotiator Steve Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.A game-changer however would be any Iranian attack on US forces in the region, with an official saying that Trump would not tolerate a “hair on the back of an American” being harmed.Trump’s change of tone is remarkable for coming less than a week after the US president — who has openly talked about wanting to win the Nobel Peace Prize — called on Israel to avoid strikes.But amid frequent phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Netanyahu’s own hints about pursuing regime change in Iran, Trump has pivoted.Trump has ordered the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier to the region along with a number of US military aircraft, raising questions about whether he will act.- ‘Decisions on your shoulders’ – A further hint that action may be on the cards came from the White House’s apparent efforts to see off any backlash from his own Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.There has been growing opposition to any Iran intervention from the isolationist wing of his base, who hold him to his pledge to keep the United States out of wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan.Vice President JD Vance defended his boss, saying Trump had “earned some trust” on the issue and “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian (uranium) enrichment.””Having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish American people’s goals,” the Iraq veteran said, in a nod to MAGA skeptics.Trump himself meanwhile hinted at his mood as he mulled his critical decision.He reposted a comment by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, saying God had “spared” Trump from an assassination attempt last year.”The decisions on your shoulders I would not want to be made by anyone else. You have many voices speaking to you Sir, but there is only ONE voice that matters. HIS voice,” Huckabee said.
Israel has inflicted damage on strategic sites and killed key figures within Iran’s military leadership during five days of aerial attacks that showed no sign of abating Tuesday, but whose ultimate outcome is unclear, analysts say.Israel says its offensive aims to eliminate Iran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile production capabilities.The Israeli government has not ruled out triggering a wholesale removal of the clerical system set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that has remained implacably opposed to Israel’s existence.Yet even if Israel succeeds in ousting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or killing him, the supreme leader will not necessarily be replaced by more moderate forces and the risk exists of further escalation, analysts warn.Diplomacy, meanwhile, remains at a standstill as Israel pounds Iranian targets and Iran hits back with its own strikes on its foe, heightening fears of a wider and prolonged conflict.- ‘Existential’ crisis -In television interviews, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out killing Khamenei, although a US official said President Donald Trump had vetoed assassinating the supreme leader.Israel, whose intelligence service is widely acknowledged to have deeply penetrated Iran, has killed a host of key figures including the head of the Revolutionary Guards and armed forces in a huge blow.”This is existential, the most profound of all the crises the Islamic republic has faced,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the London-based Chatham House think tank.”This is designed to decapitate the leadership of the Islamic republic and degrade the nuclear and broader capabilities of the regime,” she said.Rather than an immediate turnaround, what could result is “an unravelling over time” with the Israeli action putting an “accelerant” on a process of change already happening within Iran due to dissatisfaction with the authorities, she said.For Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Non-proliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Israel’s military operation “is about regime change and not eliminating the nuclear programme”.”If the regime falls, then it will be an enormous success,” he said of the operation Israel dubbed “Rising Lion” — a likely reference to the beast which adorned the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag.- Proxies -Even in the event of a change in leadership, Gregory Brew, senior analyst for Iran and energy at risk analysis firm Eurasia Group, said Khamenei could be replaced with a figure who may be even more hardline and pose a greater danger to Israel in the conflict’s aftermath.”Kill Khamenei, make him a martyr to the hardliners and empower a new supreme leader who may be much less risk averse. Or leave him to die or resign in likely disgrace after the war, his credibility in ruins. Which move produces a government better suited to Israel’s interests?” Brew said.Iran’s ability to cause regional mayhem through its proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been severely degraded by Israeli operations since October 2023.But Tehran still backs the Huthi rebels in Yemen who have attacked Gulf shipping, while Iran can strike energy facilities or undertake cyberattacks.”It remains to be seen if Iran will seek to engage in grey zone activities, including cyberattacks,” said analysts at US-based think tank Soufan Center.- Nuclear diplomacy – Israel’s air strikes have put an end, for now, to the latest track of talks seeking to end the standoff over the Iranian nuclear programme, which the West and Israel fear is aimed at making the atomic bomb.Analysts say the future of any diplomatic progress lies with the United States and Trump, who has so far resisted Israeli pressure to become directly involved in the conflict.”Netanyahu’s goal is to bring Trump into the war,” said David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum think tank.”But I think he will stand back and let Israel continue to weaken Iran to force it to negotiate” with the Islamic republic in a weaker position, Khalfa said.Israel has hit the Natanz nuclear site during its attacks, but has not been able to strike the Fordo enrichment facility, which is located deep underground. Analysts believe Israel could only damage it with the help of American bunker-busting bombs.Ali Vaez, Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, argued in an article for Foreign Affairs that Israel would be unable to wipe out the Iranian nuclear programme even in a prolonged conflict.”A diplomatic settlement represents the best and most sustainable way for Trump to avoid both a nuclear Iran and a protracted military entanglement,” Vaez said.
Xi Jinping celebrated China’s “eternal friendship” with Central Asia at a summit in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, as the Chinese leader blasted tariffs and sought to assert Beijing’s influence in a region historically dominated by Russia.The summit in Astana brought together Xi with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.Under Russia’s orbit until the …
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After filing out of their buses in the central Iraqi town of Ayn Tamr on Tuesday, Iranian pilgrims anxiously sought out internet connections, desperate for word from their loved ones back home.The more than 400 Iranians had recently completed their hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and since crossing the border by land into Iraq, they had not received any updates.One woman dressed in black collapsed in tears after receiving a message informing her that her son was missing after Israeli strikes on Tehran, and that her son-in-law — an official killed in a bombardment — had been laid to rest in her absence.Other women sighed with relief when they finally connected with children and grandchildren via video call.”We fear for our children,” Amna Hammudi said, her voice trembling, before finally managing to reach her kids in Iran after two days of silence.”We are all worried about our families, our cities and our country,” the mother of four added.In a parking lot in Ayn Tamr, near the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 10 buses wait for permission to transport the pilgrims to the Mehran border crossing between Iraq and Iran.- ‘They brought war on us’ -Iraq is expected to receive 76,000 Iranian pilgrims by land after they were stranded in Saudi Arabia by airport closures following the surprise Israeli attack on Iran last week.It will welcome 2,500 Iranian pilgrims a day in the hope of facilitating their return home, according to Sami al-Massudi, the head of the Iraqi body for pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.Aziz Yussef, 55, said he was still in Saudi Arabia when he learned that a strike hit one kilometre (0.6 miles) from his house in the western city of Kermanshah.”They brought war on us. They are not only fighting us, but also Gaza and Syria, and the Americans are not stopping them,” Yussef said.Yussef urged the Iraqi government to speed up the process of getting pilgrims like him home, but even if he crosses into Iran, he doesn’t know how he will reach Kermanshah.Whenever an internet connection is available, Yussef and his wife are glued to their phones and the television, hoping for good news.- ‘God knows’ -On Friday, Israel launched a surprise attack on its arch foe Iran, hitting military and nuclear facilities and killing top commanders and atomic scientists.It has kept up its bombing campaign since then, with at least 224 people killed in strikes, according to Iranian authorities. Iran has responded with multiple missile salvos targeting Israeli cities, killing at least 24 people there, according to the prime minister’s office.Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes, and large numbers of people have fled Iran’s capital.US President Donald Trump warned early Tuesday that Tehran residents should “immediately evacuate” amid fears of a broader conflict that could engulf the region.Kadir Ansari, 70, had just contacted his family back home. “They are good,” he said with relief.In residential areas, “there are no armies and no bombs. You are sleeping, and they hit you,” he added.Ansari was still in Medina in Saudi Arabia when he learned about the Israeli assault, and now he fears what may come next.Nonetheless, he insists on going back to Kermanshah.”God knows” what will happen after that, he said.
