President Donald Trump has asked Iran to agree to a nuclear deal with the US before it is too late, stating that Israel’s missile attacks on the country and its nuclear facilities will only worsen.
The Israeli military attacked Iran on Friday morning after the US-Iran talks on nuclear development stalled and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors censured the country for the first time in two decades over its lack of cooperation with inspectors.
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Multiple reports from Tehran indicated that loud explosions were heard northeast of the Iranian capital in the early hours of the morning.
Iran also immediately suspended all flights at Imam Khomeini International Airport, the city’s main air hub.
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Israeli military officials stated that the Israeli Air Force targeted Iranian nuclear and military sites in the attacks. However, images circulating in the media showed the airstrike destroyed buildings in residential areas.
Israeli strikes hit major targets in Iran, including nuclear facilities and missile sites. The strikes also killed three military commanders, including the Chief Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Hossein Salami and six nuclear scientists.
The Israeli government declared that Tehran’s nuclear programme justified the ongoing offensive. Iran has, however, insisted that its nuclear programme was for peaceful energy needs and not to build a nuclear weapon.
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In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump, in his first public statement on the attack, said he tried to prevent the attack through diplomacy, but the Iranian government did not “take the chance.”
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to “just do it,” but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.
“I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, 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 hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!” he wrote.
Mr Trump said that although there had already been great death and destruction, the situation was likely to worsen if Iran did not agree to make a deal.
“There is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. 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,” he stated.
READ ALSO: How world leaders reacted to Israels attack on Iran
PREMIUM TIMES reports that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio distanced the US from the attack by declaring that the US was not involved in the strike. Mr Trump also stated earlier that he warned Israel not to attack while negotiations were on.
Meanwhile, the Iranian government has vowed to launch a swift and forceful retaliation against the airstrikes.
The Iranian spokesperson for the Armed Forces’ General Staff, Abolfazl Shekarchi, said both the US and Israel will pay a “heavy price” for the “deadly airstrikes” against his country.
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