The US and Israel on Feb 28 launched what they described as a “pre-emptive” joint strike against Iranian targets, with Trump announcing start of “major combat operations”
The United States will not exclude Iran from the football World Cup tournament it is hosting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, reports AFP.
“The problem with Iran, it would be not their athletes. It would be some of the other people that we want to bring with them,” Rubio told reporters, denying Washington had asked the Iranian team not to come.
US President Donald Trump has said he expects to have a three-way meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun soon.
US President Donald Trump says he expects the Israeli and Lebanese leaders to meet with him over the next couple of weeks and voices hope for a permanent peace deal this year, reports AFP.
“I think there’s a very good chance of having peace. I think it should be an easy one,” Trump told reporters as he met the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to announce an extension of a shaky ceasefire.
US President Donald Trump has announced that an Israel-Lebanon ceasefire will be extended by three weeks, despite sporadic fighting on the ground, reports AFP.
“The Ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by THREE WEEKS,” Trump said in a social media posting as he met envoys of Israel and Lebanon.
US President Donald Trump says he will not use a nuclear weapon in the war against Iran, Reuters reports.
“Why would I use a nuclear weapon? We’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it,” Trump tells reporters at the White House when asked whether he would use such a weapon.
“No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody,” he adds.
US President Donald Trump says he does not want to rush making a deal with Iran, stating, “I want to take my time, we have plenty of time, and I want to get a great deal … where the world is safe from lunatics with nuclear weapons.”
“Don’t rush me,” Trump told reporters.
“I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now … but I don’t want to do that. I want to have it everlasting,” he said.
US President Donald Trump claims that if Iran does not “get their oil moving, their whole oil infrastructure is going to explode”.
“They have no place to store it. And because they have no place to store it, if they have to stop it, something happens underground that, essentially, renders it in very poor shape, and you never recover it fully,” he tells reporters in the Oval Office, claiming that Iran has “a matter of days before that event takes place”.
Asked about the possibility of oil prices reaching $200, Trump replies, “I think there’s nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that takes out one of your cities.”
Pressed about previous remarks claiming the war on Iran would end in four to six weeks, US President Donald Trump stands by his claim, stating that he “took a little break and I gave them (Iran) a little break”.
“I did say that, I thought it would take four to six weeks and I was right, because … at four weeks, their military was decimated,” he tells reporters at the White House.
Trump has also refused to give a timeline on how long it will take to reach an agreement to end the conflict.
“I don’t want to rush myself … you know who’s under time pressure? They are,” Trump says of Iran.
US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claims that Iran’s leadership is in disarray, saying that they are “fighting like cats and dogs”.
“We’ve created a real mess for them, but they’ve created a mess for the world over the last 47 years,” he tells reporters in the Oval Office of the White House.
“We’ve taken out their military, we’ve hit about 75 per cent of our targets — we stopped a little early because they wanted to have some peace — and we have a blockade that’s 100pc effective,” Trump adds.
Stating that Iran is unable to do business because of the blockade, Trump says Iran wants to make a deal.
“We have been speaking to them, but they don’t even know who’s leading the country. They’re in turmoil,” he says.
Air defence systems were activated in Tehran and several other cities of Iran in response to the presence of small drones, including micro-UAVs, reports Reuters, citing the Fars news agency.
The White House is expected to extend the Jones Act waiver for up to 90 days as early as Friday to help blunt fuel price pressures tied to the Iran conflict, Reuters reports citing sources.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has warned that “enemy media operations” are being carried out to undermine national unity.
In a post on X, Khamenei says that by “targeting the minds and psyche of the people”, the enemy — possibly referring to the US and Israel — aims to undermine “unity and national security”
“Let it not be that through our negligence, this malicious intent is realised,” he stresses.
He adds that due to “the remarkable unity formed among compatriots, a fracture has appeared in the enemy”.
“By offering practical gratitude for this blessing, cohesion will become even stronger and more resilient, and the enemies will become more humiliated and weakened,” Khamenei says.
An Israeli security source tells AFP that the country is not carrying out airstrikes in Iran, following reports in Iranian media of blasts over the capital Tehran.
“Israel is not attacking in Iran,” the source has said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel was “prepared to resume the war against Iran”, adding that his country was awaiting a green light from the United States to return Iran to “the Stone Age”.
In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump says he is “possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position”, stating that he is not in a rush to end the war.
“I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!” he writes.
“Iran’s navy is lying at the bottom of the sea, their air force is demolished, their anti-aircraft and radar weaponry is gone, their leaders are no longer with us, the blockade is airtight and strong and, from there, it only gets worse — Time is not on their side!”
He adds that a deal will only be made with Iran “when it’s appropriate and good for the United States of America, our allies and, in fact, the rest of the world”.
