DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel claimed Tuesday to have killed a top Iranian general as it traded more strikes with its longtime foe, and U.S. President Donald Trump warned residents of Tehran to evacuate while suggesting that the United States could give up on negotiations.
Trump left the Group of Seven summit in Canada a day early to deal with the conflict between Israel and Iran, telling reporters on Air Force One during the flight back to Washington: "I'm not looking at a ceasefire. We're looking at better than a ceasefire."
When asked to explain, he said the U.S. wanted to see "a real end" to the conflict that could involve Iran “giving up entirely." He added: “I’m not too much in the mood to negotiate.”
Trump's hard line added to the uncertainty roiling the region on the fifth day of Israel's air campaign aimed at Iran's military and nuclear program. Residents of Tehran fled their homes in droves, and the U.N. nuclear watchdog for the first time said Israeli strikes on Iran's main enrichment facility at Natanz had also damaged its main underground section, not just an above-ground facility, as previously acknowledged.
Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran's top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile program is necessary to prevent its adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people in Iran.
Iran has retaliated by launching some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel.
Israel targets more Iranian leaders
The head of the operations directorate of the Israeli military, Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, said Israel continued to strike Iran’s leadership “to deepen our achievements, according to our plan and on our own timeline.” The military claimed to have killed another top Iranian general in a strike on Tehran.
Iran did not immediately comment on the reported killing of Gen. Ali Shadmani, whom Israel described as the most senior military commander in Iran.
Shadmani was little-known in the country before being appointed last week to a chief-of-staff-like role as head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters. That appointment followed the killing of his predecessor, Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, in an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military also announced on two occasions Tuesday that Iran had fired new salvos of missiles but said most were intercepted.
Meanwhile, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Israeli airstrikes around the city of Isfahan, with air defenses also firing. A series of explosions and anti-aircraft fire boomed throughout Tehran just before 6:30 p.m.
Shops closed, lines for gas in Iran’s capital
Echoing an earlier Israeli military call for some 330,000 residents of a neighborhood in downtown Tehran to evacuate, Trump warned on social media that “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran.”
Tehran is one of the largest cities in the Middle East, with around 10 million people, roughly equivalent to the entire population of Israel. People have been fleeing since hostilities began.
Asked why he had urged the evacuation of Tehran, Trump said: “I just want people to be safe.”
Downtown Tehran emptied out early Tuesday, with many shops shuttered, even the ancient Grand Bazaar, which has closed only in times of crisis, such as during the 2022 anti-government protests and the coronavirus pandemic.
On the roads out of Tehran to the west, traffic stood bumper to bumper. Many middle- and upper-class Iranians were headed to the Caspian Sea, a popular getaway spot. Long lines snaked from Tehran’s gas stations. Placards and billboards across the city called for a “severe” response to Israeli strikes.
Authorities asked all medical staff to remain on duty.
Iran’s official death toll still stands at 224, but Human Rights Activists, a Washington-based group that monitors Iran, said it had counted at least 452 deaths as a result of the Israeli campaign. The group crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.
Nuclear agency reports more damage to enrichment site
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that it believed that Israel’s first aerial attacks on Iran’s Natanz enrichment site had directly affected the facility’s underground centrifuge facility.
Satellite imagery collected after Friday’s attacks showed “additional elements that indicate direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls,” the watchdog said.
Located 220 kilometers (135 miles) southeast of Tehran, the Natanz facility was fortified by anti-aircraft batteries, fencing and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The IAEA earlier reported that Israeli strikes had destroyed an above-ground enrichment hall at Natanz and knocked out electrical equipment that powered the facility.
However, most of Iran's enrichment takes place underground to protect from airstrikes.
Israel has struck Natanz repeatedly and claims to have hurt its underground facilities, which experts assess contain 10,000 centrifuges that enrich uranium up to 60%. But Tuesday's IAEA statement marked the first time the agency has acknowledged damage there.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed that Tehran has not had an organized effort to pursue a nuclear weapon since 2003. But the IAEA has repeatedly warned that the country has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs should it choose to do so.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Monday that Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear sites have set the country's nuclear program back a "very, very long time," Israel has not been able to reach Iran's Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is built deep into a mountainside.
Hitting Fordo would require the U.S. to get involved militarily and deploy B-2 stealth bombers to drop its bunker-busting bomb. The 30,000-pound (14,000-kilogram) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets.
Trump leaves G7 early to focus on conflict
Before leaving the summit in Canada, Trump joined the other leaders in a joint statement saying that Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon” and calling for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”
French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that discussions were underway on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but Trump shot that down in his comments on social media.
Macron “mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to D.C. to work on a ‘cease fire’ between Israel and Iran," Trump wrote. "Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that.”
Although Trump appeared to demand a full surrender from Iran after leaving the G7, he also indicated that diplomatic talks remained an option. He said he could send Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Iranians.
“I may,” he said. “It depends on what happens when I get back.”
___
Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
