Will end Israel-Iran war just like India-Pak, says Trump

Israel launched an expanded assault on Iran on Sunday, targeting its energy industry and Defence Ministry headquarters, while Tehran unleashed a fresh barrage of deadly strikes.

US President Donald Trump said there will have peace “soon”, adding there were many unspecified meetings happening and that the two countries should make a deal. He also cited the possibility that Russia’s Vladimir Putin could help.

“Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal,” Trump said on Truth Social, adding that “we will have peace, soon”.

Trump, who portrays himself as a peacemaker and has drawn criticism from his political base for not being able to prevent the Israel-Iran conflict, cited other disputes that he took responsibility for solving, including between India and Pakistan, and lamented not getting more praise for doing so.

“I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s ok, the people understand. Make the Middle East great again!” he wrote.

Besides, he vetoed a plan presented by Israel to the US to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a US official familiar with the matter.

The Israelis informed the Trump administration in recent days that it had developed a credible plan to kill Khamanei. After being briefed on the plan, the White House made clear to Israeli officials that Trump was opposed to the Israelis making the move.

The US administration is desperate to keep Israel’s military operation aimed at decapitating Iran’s nuclear programme from exploding into an even more expansive conflict and saw the plan to kill Khamenei as a move that would enflame the conflict and potentially destabilise the region. But he warned Tehran not to widen its retaliation to include US targets.

“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,” he said in a message on Truth Social.

“Tehran is burning,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on social media.

Both Israel’s military and Iran state television announced the latest round of Iranian missiles as explosions were heard near midnight, while the Israeli security cabinet met.

Israel’s ongoing strikes across Iran have left the country’s surviving leadership with the difficult decision of whether to plunge deeper into conflict with Israel’s more powerful forces or seek a diplomatic route.

Worse to come, says Bibi

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme his top priority, said Israel’s strikes so far are “nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.”

In what could be another escalation if confirmed, semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported an Israeli drone struck and caused a “strong explosion” at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant. It would be the first Israeli attack on Iran’s oil and natural gas industry. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.

The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air defence systems around them, which Israel has been targeting.

Later in the day Bibi said, regime change in Iran would be a result of Israel’s military attacks on the country.

At least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed since Friday, including in car bombs, two sources in the Gulf said.

IDF issues evacuation orders

The Israeli military warned Iranians to immediately evacuate “military weapons production factories,” likely signalling new strikes are coming.

Colonel Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the warning on the social platform X in Iran’s Farsi language.

Adraee in the past has signalled other strikes in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Yemen amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. His warning came just after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signalled Tehran would stop its attacks on Israel if Israel stopped its strikes.

Germany, UK offer mediation

Germany, France and Britain are ready to hold immediate talks with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme in an effort to de-escalate the situation in West Asia, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said. Wadephul, who is on a visit to the region, said he was trying to contribute towards a de-escalation of the conflict between Israel and Iran, noting that Tehran had previously failed to take the opportunity of constructive talks.

“I hope that’s still possible,” Wadephul told a German public broadcaster late on Saturday. “Germany, together with France and Britain are ready. We’re offering Iran immediate negotiations about the nuclear programme, I hope (the offer) is accepted.”

Wadephul said the conflict would be ended only when influence is exerted on Iran and Israel from all sides.

“There’s a shared expectation that within the next week, a serious attempt must be made on both sides to interrupt the spiral of violence,” he said.

When asked whether he believed the Iranian government could fall, Wadephul said his assumption was that it was not Israel’s intention to bring down the administration in Tehran. Turning to Gaza, Wadephul said the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave was unacceptable and urged Israel to allow unrestricted access to aid organisations.

The attack on nuclear sites set a “dangerous precedent,” China’s foreign minister said.

Gaza strikes

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 25 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday, local health authorities said, at least five of them near two aid sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Medics at Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza Strip said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire as they tried to approach a GHF site near the Netzarim corridor. Two others were killed en route to another aid site in Rafah in the south.

An airstrike killed seven other people in Beit Lahiya town north of the enclave.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a near three-month total blockade. Scores of Palestinians have been killed in near-daily mass shootings trying to reach the food. The UN rejects the Israeli-backed new distribution system as a violation of the universal principle of impartiality.

406 dead, 654 injured

Israeli strikes in Iran have killed at least 406 people and wounded another 654, a human rights group said Sunday. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said its figures covered the entirety of Iran. Iran’s government has not offered any overall casualty figures from Israeli attacks. Individual officials have offered piecemeal figures. Human Rights Activists, which also had provided casualty figures during 2022 anti-government protests in Iran, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed.

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