Sign deal before all is lost: US to Iran

US President Donald Trump urged Iran on Friday to make a deal on its nuclear program before it faced more attacks from Israel that he said would be “even more brutal.”

“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 in a post on his social media platform.

“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.” Israel launched an array of strikes against dozens of Iranian targets on Friday, hitting nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders during the start of an operation to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon.

Israel said it had struck Iranian nuclear targets to block Tehran from developing atomic weapons, even as the Trump administration was preparing to hold a sixth round of talks on Sunday on Tehran’s escalating uranium enrichment program.

Trump said on Friday he had given Tehran a 60-day ultimatum, which expired on Thursday, to make a deal. He encouraged Tehran to take advantage of a “second chance.” Amid his push for diplomacy, the U.S. president praised Israel’s attacks in brief telephone interviews with television outlets early Friday.

He later said he and his team knew everything about Israel’s plan to attack Iran.

US moves military in region

The United States is shifting military resources, including ships, in West Asia in response to Israel’s strikes on Iran and a possible retaliatory attack by Tehran, two US officials said on Friday.

The navy has directed the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner to begin sailing toward the Eastern Mediterranean and has directed a second destroyer to begin moving forward, so it can be available if requested by the White House.

On October 1, 2024, US Navy destroyers fired about a dozen interceptors in defence of Israel as the country came under attack by more than 200 missiles fired by Iran.

Mossad smuggled weapons, built drone base inside Iran

• Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran identified the US, Britain and Israel as its main enemies for their support of the deposed Shah.
• Israel accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and sees it as an existential threat.
• Tel Aviv is believed to have carried out numerous covert attacks on its nuclear programme. Scientists have been killed and there have cyberattacks.
• Iran says its programme is peaceful, the UN atomic watchdog, however, warns it has enough uranium enriched to make “several” nuclear bombs.
• Israel aspires to break its network of allies -Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels and the Assad regime overthrown in December.
• Strikes last October destroyed Iran’s missile sites and weakened its air defences.
• Netanyahu says Iran wants to weaponise enriched uranium. “If not stopped, Iran could produce around nine nuclear weapon within this year,” he added.
• Israel wants Iran gives up its entire N-programme.
• Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, smuggled weapons into Iran ahead of Friday’s strikes that were used to target its defences from within.
• A base for launching drones was established inside Iran.
• Israel also smuggled precision weapons near surface-to-air systems.