Iran’s supreme leader rejected US calls for surrender and warned that joining the war would lead to “irreparable damage”, as Israel ramped up rhetoric about regime change and ordered civilians to evacuate a district in Tehran.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said Israel made a “huge mistake” by launching the war, in his first comments since Friday.
“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,” he said in a statement read out by a presenter on state TV.
“The Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.”
Tehran was preparing missiles and other equipment to strike US bases in the region if Washington joined the war, the New York Times reported, citing US intelligence officials.
On Tuesday the US president, Donald Trump, warned his “patience was growing thin” and demanded Iran’s capitulation in a two-word post on his Truth Social platform: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
The Trump administration initially distanced itself from the war, saying Israel had acted alone, but in recent days it has stepped up both its rhetoric and its military presence in the region.
Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility is at the heart of demands for the US to join the war, both in Israel and from hawks in Washington. Damage from extensive strikes on other facilities could be repaired within months, both Israeli military officials and nuclear experts say.
Destroying or crippling Fordow would have much more of a long-term impact on Iran’s ability to move towards creating a nuclear bomb.
It is buried deep below a mountain near the holy city of Qom, and the only munitions that could potentially damage or destroy it are the most powerful US bunker buster bombs, which only US B-2 bomber planes can carry.
Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said the war had been an entirely Israeli campaign, but it “will not end without damaging Fordow”, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 television.
If the US does not join, Israel might still have military options but they would be riskier and more complicated. It could attempt to fly in special operations troops for a ground operation, like one that targeted a missile factory in Syria last year, or disable Fordow by attacking critical support systems such as its power supply.
China and Russia have joined a growing international chorus of concern about the expanding conflict.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov urged Washington not to consider “speculative options” for intervention, the Interfax news agency reported. “This would be a step that would radically destabilise the entire situation,” it cited him saying.
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, said he was “deeply worried as Israel’s military operation against Iran has caused a sudden escalation of tensions in the Middle East”.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had earlier said Iran had a legitimate right to defend itself in the face of Israel’s “thuggery and state terrorism”. He attacked Israel for launching a war while negotiations were still under way.
On a sixth night of attacks, Israel bombed a site that manufactured uranium centrifuges and also said it targeted a missile component factory and destroyed five attack helicopters.
Iran’s military has been battered but not fully destroyed. An advanced Israeli drone was shot down on Wednesday, despite Israel claiming control of the skies over western Iran and Tehran. Overnight Iran fired 15 missiles at Israel.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Israeli strikes had hit two centrifuge productions in Iran, one in the capital and another in a city just outside it.
“At the Tehran site, one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested,” the IAEA said in a social media post. “At Karaj, two buildings were destroyed where different centrifuge components were manufactured.”
