‘Won't surrender’: Iran warns US of firm action if it gets involved in Israel's military campaign

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Donald Trump's demand for unconditional surrender on Wednesday, and the US President said his patience had run out, though he gave no clue as to what his next step would be.

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Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump declined to say whether he had made any decision on whether to join Israel's bombing campaign against arch-enemy Iran.

"I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do," he said.

Trump said Iranian officials had reached out about negotiations including a possible meeting at the White House but "it's very late to be talking," he said.

"Unconditional surrender, that means I've had it." Asked for his response to Khamenei rejecting his demand to surrender, Trump said: "I say, good luck." Iranians jammed the highways out of the capital Tehran, fleeing from intensified Israeli airstrikes.

In its latest bombing run, Israel said its air force had destroyed Iran's police headquarters.

"As we promised – we will continue to strike at symbols of governance and hit the ayatollah regime wherever it may be," Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

Khamenei, 86, rebuked Trump in a recorded speech played on television, his first appearance since Friday.

The Americans "should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage," he said.

"Intelligent people who know Iran, the Iranian nation and its history will never speak to this nation in threatening language because the Iranian nation will not surrender." Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the five-day-old war to suggesting the United States might join it. In social media posts on Tuesday, he mused about killing Khamenei, then demanded Iran's "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!"

A source familiar with internal discussions said Trump and his team were considering options that included joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear installations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee that the Pentagon was prepared to execute any order given by Trump Iran's mission to the United Nations mocked Trump in posts on X: "Iran does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance," it wrote.

"No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House," it said. "The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to 'take out' Iran’s Supreme Leader."

Israel's military said 50 Israeli jets struck around 20 targets in Tehran overnight, including sites producing raw materials, components and manufacturing systems for missiles.

The military told Iranians to leave parts of the capital for their own safety while it struck targets.

TRAFFIC BACKED UP

Traffic was backed up on highways leading out of the capital Tehran, a city of 10 million people, as residents sought sanctuary elsewhere.

Arezou, a 31-year-old Tehran resident, told Reuters by phone that she had made it out to the nearby resort town of Lavasan.

"We will stay here as long as this war continues. My friend’s house in Tehran was attacked and her brother was injured. They are civilians," she said. "Why are we paying the price for the regime’s decision to pursue a nuclear programme?” In Israel, sirens rang out warning people of retaliatory Iranian missile strikes. At Ramat Gan city train station east of Tel Aviv, people were lying on city-supplied mattresses lined along the floor or sitting in the odd camping chair, with plastic water bottles strewn about.

"I feel scared, overwhelmed. Especially because I live in a densely populated area that Iran seems to be targeting, and our city has very old buildings, without shelters and safe spaces," said Tamar Weiss, clutching her four-month-old daughter.

Iran has been exploring options for leverage, including veiled threats to hit the global oil market by restricting access to the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important shipping artery for oil.

Oil prices leapt 9% on Friday and have marched further higher this week. The CEO of Italian energy company Eni said the rises so far were still limited, signaling an expectation that serious disruption would be averted.

A former Iranian economy minister, Ehsan Khandouzi, said on X that Iran should start demanding tankers obtain permission to transit the strait. Iran's Oil Ministry and Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

BAN ON FILMING

Inside Iran, authorities are intent on preventing panic and shortages. Fewer images of destruction have been allowed to circulate than in the early days of the bombing, when state media showed pictures of explosions, fires and flattened apartments. A ban on filming by the public has been imposed.

The state has placed limits on how much fuel can be purchased. Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad told state TV that restrictions were in place to prevent shortages, but there would be no problem supplying fuel to the public.

Iranian officials have reported at least 224 deaths in Israeli attacks, mostly civilians, though that toll has not been updated for days.

In Israel, Iran's missile volleys mark the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that a significant number of projectiles fired from Iran have penetrated defences, killing Israelis in their homes.

Since Friday, Iran has fired around 400 missiles at Israel, some 40 of which have pierced through air defences, killing 24 people, all of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

With Khamenei's main military and security advisers killed, the leader's inner circle has been narrowed, raising the risk that he could make strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process.

During the Gaza war, Israel has dealt heavy blows to Iran's regional allies Hamas and Hezbollah, limiting Tehran's ability to retaliate through strikes by its proxy fighters close to Israeli borders. Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, propped up by Iran through 13 years of war, was toppled last year.