Israel warns that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face the same fate as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
\n washigton
\nUS President Donald Trump said he wanted a \u201creal end\u201d to the nuclear dispute with Iran and indicated he may send senior American officials to meet with the Islamic Republic as the Israel-Iran air war raged for a fifth day.
\nIsraeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said meanwhile that Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face the same fate as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion and eventually hanged after a trial.
\n\u201cI warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and fire missiles at Israeli citizens,\u201d Katz told top Israeli military officials. Shortly after, Iran\u2019s state media reported an explosion was heard in Tehran.
\nSpeaking to reporters after his departure from Canada, where he attended the Group of Seven nations summit on Monday, Trump predicted that Israel would not be easing its attacks on Iran.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re going to find out over the next two days. You\u2019re going to find out. Nobody\u2019s slowed up so far,\u201d he said.
\nTrump said he might send US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff or Vice President JD Vance to meet with Iran.
\nWashington has said Trump is still aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran, even as the military confrontation unfolds.
\nTrump, who left the summit early due to the Middle East situation, said his departure had \u201cnothing to do with\u201d working on a deal between Israel and Iran after French President Emmanuel Macron said the U.S. had initiated a ceasefire proposal.
\nSomething \u201cmuch bigger\u201d than that was expected, he said on his Truth Social platform late on Monday.
\nKhamenei has seen his main military and security advisers killed by Israeli air strikes, leaving major holes in his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process.
\nOne of those sources, who regularly attends meetings with Khamenei, described the risk of miscalculation to Iran on issues of defence and internal stability as \u201cextremely dangerous\u201d.
\nRegional influence weakens
\nIsrael\u2019s military said Iran\u2019s military leadership is \u201con the run\u201d and that it had killed Iran\u2019s wartime chief of staff Ali Shadmani overnight four days into his job after replacing another top commander killed in the strikes.
\nKhamenei, who was imprisoned before the 1979 revolution and maimed by a bomb attack before becoming leader in 1989, is profoundly committed to maintaining Iran\u2019s Islamic system of government and is deeply mistrustful of the West.
\nEver since the Tehran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 and triggered the Gaza war, Khamenei\u2019s regional influence has been weakening as Israel has pounded Iran\u2019s proxies\u2013from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. And Iran\u2019s close ally, Syria\u2019s autocratic president Bashar al-Assad, has been ousted.
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that he will not back down until Iran\u2019s nuclear development is disabled.
\nBefore Israel launched its biggest attack ever on Iran, the UN\u2019s nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.
\nKatz said the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordow, where an enrichment site is dug into a mountain, is an issue that will \u201cof course\u201d be addressed.
\nThe IAEA said on Tuesday it has identified additional elements that indicate direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls at the Natanz facility, and that there was no change to report at the Fordow and Isfahan sites.
\nIran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards said they had hit Israel\u2019s Military Intelligence Directorate and spy agency Mossad\u2019s operational centre early on Tuesday. There was no Israeli confirmation of such attacks.
\nTop Iranians commander killed
\nIsrael launched its air war after saying it concluded Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon. Its surprise attack has killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran\u2019s military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists.
\nIt says it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in the coming days.
\nIran has so far fired 400 ballistics missiles and hundreds of drones towards Israel, said an Israeli military official.
\nTrump has consistently said the Israeli assault could end quickly if Iran agreed to US demands that it accept strict curbs on its nuclear programme.
\nIran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
\nIsrael, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.
\nThree people were killed and four injured in Iran\u2019s central city of Kashan in an Israeli attack, Iran\u2019s Nournews reported.
\nIranian officials have reported 224 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said nearly 3,000 Israelis had been evacuated due to damage from Iranian strikes.
\nIsrael\u2019s military said some 24 people were killed and more than 647 were injured in Iranian attacks\u2013with 35 missiles penetrating the defence shield and making direct hits.
\nWorld oil markets are on high alert for any strikes on Iran\u2019s energy infrastructure or elsewhere in the region that could hit global supply.
\nTwo oil tankers collided and caught fire on Tuesday near the Strait of Hormuz, where electronic interference has surged during conflict between Iran and Israel, but there were no injuries to crew or spillage reported. About a fifth of the world\u2019s total oil consumption passes through the waterway.
\nQatar\u2019s foreign ministry spokesman said Israel\u2019s \u201cuncalculated\u201d attack on Iran\u2019s South Pars gas field, where production was temporarily suspended on Saturday after a fire erupted in a strike, is worrying \u201ceveryone\u201d about supplies.
\nIran shares the field, the world\u2019s biggest, with Qatar. The spokesman said production was steady.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel warns that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face the same fate as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein washigton US President Donald Trump said he wanted a \u201creal end\u201d to the nuclear dispute with Iran and indicated he may send senior American officials to meet with the Islamic Republic as the Israel-Iran air war raged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-484920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n