President Trump on Friday demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” the latest and broadest expansion of his goals for the war, while Israeli jets pummeled Tehran and other parts of Iran with a fresh wave of airstrikes.
The Israeli military also pounded Beirut and issued more evacuation warnings in Lebanon as it intensified its campaign there against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. About 300,000 people in Lebanon have fled their homes since the bombing began, according to an estimate by the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian group.
Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that there “will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” He wrote the post after Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, said that some countries had begun “mediation efforts,” without elaborating on who was involved.
Mr. Trump’s comments were the latest in the shifting goals he has laid out for the war, which have left his aides and congressional allies struggling to keep up and, at times, contradicting him. Indeed, just a few hours after his comments, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, tried to temper them by saying that Iran’s “unconditional surrender” would come when Mr. Trump “determines that Iran no longer poses a threat to the United States of America and the goal of Operation Epic Fury has been fully realized.”
As the war has gone on for seven days, the fallout for American consumers has been increasing. The fighting has effectively throttled tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel off Iran where one-fifth of the world’s oil is transported. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline has climbed about 34 cents since the start of the war, to about $3.32 on Friday, according to AAA.
The increase could become a political problem for Republicans heading into the midterm elections. Mr. Trump has frequently boasted about — and greatly exaggerated — falling gas prices, but they are now higher than they were when he started his second term.
The price of jet fuel, one of the biggest operational costs for airlines, has risen 58 percent since the start of the war, the chief executive of United Airlines, Scott Kirby, said on Friday. He warned that ticket prices may soon increase.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Fox News on Friday that the U.S. military would “escort ships through the straits and get the energy moving again” as soon as it was “reasonable” to do so.
It was not clear when shipping would return to prewar levels amid ongoing attacks in the region.
On Friday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched another wave of drones and missiles at Israel, according to a statement from the force reported by IRNA, an Iranian state news agency. Air-raid sirens went off in Tel Aviv, and the Israeli military said that it had detected missile launches from Iran, though there were no immediate reports of major damage.
Iranian state television reported attacks on a compound in Tehran where the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lived until he was killed in the initial bombing on Saturday. Hours later, Israel published video showing a series of airstrikes in roughly the same area as the compound, and said that 50 Israeli fighter jets had destroyed an underground bunker that was used by the ayatollah and other senior officials. Israel also released graphics that it said illustrated the layout of the facility, with meeting rooms for Iranian officials.
Two Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, said the bunker was beneath Ayatollah Khamenei’s residence, which had already been bombed. It was unclear whether anyone was killed in the attack. Ayatollah Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has emerged as a top contender to succeed his father. But Iran has delayed naming a new supreme leader out of concern that he could be targeted, according to two Iranian officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
Israel issued an evacuation warning on Friday for an industrial area in Iran’s Qom region, about 10 miles from the Fordo nuclear site, a heavily fortified uranium-enrichment facility that was bombed by the United States last year.
The Iranians trickling across the border into neighboring Turkey this week illustrated the destruction and fear hanging over their cities under U.S.-Israeli bombardment.
Hasan Sadrae, a 55-year-old retired airport worker from Tabriz, in northwest Iran, arrived on Friday with his wife and two children in the Turkish city of Van, near the Iranian border.
“They hit day and night,” Mr. Sadrae said. “It felt like a big earthquake in all of Tabriz.”
Hazal Alizade, 31, fled to Turkey after her city, Urmia, in northwestern Iran, was bombed.
“We are scared of everything,” Ms. Alizade, a pharmacist, said. “I am in constant fear.”
Israel’s air forces shifted their focus back to Iran on Friday after a night of heavy bombardment in Lebanon, which was quickly becoming one of the largest fronts in the regional conflict. With smoke plumes rising from new strikes in and around Beirut, the capital, the Israeli military on Friday told more villagers in the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah bastion in southern Lebanon, to move north, indicating airstrikes were imminent.
Israeli strikes in Dahiya, a densely packed neighborhood on the outskirts of Beirut that is a stronghold of Hezbollah, were the most intense since Israel and the militant group agreed to a cease-fire in late 2024. At least three buildings collapsed, and thousands who live in the area have fled.
On Friday, some who had left Dahiya huddled under roundabouts or in empty parking lots in downtown Beirut, or slept in cars parked along a seaside promenade. Some said they had left home with only thin mattresses or a few utensils and were unable to afford food, water, milk and diapers for their children.
“Look at my eyes,” said Sameer Hjoula, 50, who fled with his four children to Beirut’s waterfront promenade. “I have not slept since I left home. We have nothing.”
Hezbollah claimed a string of attacks on Friday against Israeli forces in Lebanon, and the Israeli military said that five soldiers had been severely wounded by projectile fire.
Hundreds of people have been killed in Iran since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks, according to the Red Crescent Society, Iran’s main humanitarian relief organization. At least 175, including many children, died in the bombing of a girls’ elementary school. More than 200 people in Lebanon have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
When and how the hostilities will end remain unclear, as do Mr. Trump’s ultimate goals. Last Saturday, in the opening hours of the U.S. attack, the president said that Iranians should rise up and overthrow their government.
In the following days, both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pivoted away from the emphasis on regime change
.
But Mr. Trump keeps returning to that goal.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Mr. Trump suggested, once again, that he wanted a hand in picking Iran’s next leader. After that, he wrote, “many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction.” He signed the post “MIGA!” — Make Iran Great Again.
Reporting was contributed by Abdi Latif Dahir, Safak Timur, Emmett Lindner, Shawn McCreesh, Michael Levenson, Pranav Baskar, Luke Broadwater and Niraj Chokshi.
David E. Sanger covers the Trump administration and a range of national security issues. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written four books on foreign policy and national security challenges.
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