President Donald Trump said the United States will retaliate “at levels never seen before” if Iran attacks it.
Israel on Friday struck nuclear facilities, top regime officials, military leaders, and key nuclear scientists in Iran on Thursday night. Iran has retaliated with missiles, but does not appear so far to have struck American targets.
Further missile strikes killed people, including civilians, in Iran and Israel overnight as the conflict raged. On Sunday morning, Israel’s Defense Forces called on Iranian civilians living near weapons production facilities to evacuate.
“The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight,” said Trump in the small hours of Sunday. “If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before.”
He added: “However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”
Talks between the U.S. and Iran scheduled for today were canceled, said Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi in an X post.
Washington has been in talks with Tehran to reach a deal on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. A United Nations watchdog said in late May that Iran has increased its stockpiles of near weapons-grade uranium.
Israel’s sharp escalation has sparked concerns of renewed instability in the Middle East, prompting leaders to urge restraint and a return to negotiations.
Shortly after the IDF issued its evacuation call, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel “will strike the sites and continue to peel the skin off the Iranian snake in Tehran and everywhere, stripping it of nuclear capabilities and weapons systems.”
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said on Sunday that 13 people had been killed, according to the Associated Press.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said on Saturday that 78 people had died in the country and more than 320 wounded, wrote the Wall Street Journal. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei criticized Israeli strikes on residential areas, reported Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
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