President Donald Trump promised that Israel’s next round of attacks on Iran would be ‘even more brutal’ in a Truth Social post pressuring Iran to cut a deal on its nuclear activity.
‘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,’ Trump said.
‘Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.’
Trump said he warned Iran that ‘the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.’
‘Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!’
The U.S. and Iran have another round of nuclear talks scheduled for this weekend in Muscat, Oman, while the two sides remain on opposite ends over whether Iran should have the capacity to enrich uranium at all, even for civil energy purposes.
It is not clear whether those negotiations will carry on in light of the attack. Trump had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let talks play out before launching any strikes.
‘I think it would blow it,’ Trump said earlier yesterday of the prospect of a premature Israeli attack. But then, he mused, it ‘might help it actually, but it also could blow it.’
After the attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio put out a statement insisting the U.S. had no part in the strikes and urged Iran not to attack U.S. positions. Earlier, non-essential embassy staff in Iraq had been evacuated in light of the prospect of an attack.
Tehran fired over 100 drones toward Israel on Friday morning in a counter-move, which Israel intercepted.
Netanyahu revealed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck a key nuclear site, Natanz, during the attack on the regime.
Among those killed were top nuclear scientists and top military leaders: General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s highest-ranking military official and chief of staff of the IRGC, along with most of the IRGC air force high command, who were convened in an underground bunker at the time.
The first wave of strikes hit over 100 targets with 200 Israeli fighter jets dropping ‘330 different munitions,’ the IDF said, adding the strikes will carry on for days.