Iran supreme leader warns against US joining Israel's war: Live updates
Iran supreme leader warns against US joining Israel's war: Live updates Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected President Trump's demand for unconditional surrender, as Iranians jammed the highways out of Tehran.
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WASHINGTON − Iran's supreme leader warned of "irreparable damage" to the U.S. if it joins Israel's air war against Tehran's nuclear program.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected President Donald Trump's demand for unconditional surrender, as Iranians jammed the highways out of Tehran fleeing intensified Israeli airstrikes.
In a recorded speech played on television June 18, his first appearance in five days, Khamenei, 86, said Washington "should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage."
Khamenei's defiant speech came after a sixth night of airstrikes by Israel and Iran sent civilians fleeing for safety in Tehran and Tel Aviv.
"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," he said. Trump on June 17 personally threatened Khamenei, caling him an "easy target.
Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the 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!"
Follow along with USA TODAY's live coverage of the conflict.
Israel's military said 50 Israeli jets had 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 safety while it struck targets.
Traffic was backed up on highways leading out of the city of 10 million people. Arezou, 31, 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 Iranian retaliatory missile strikes. At Ramat Gan city train station east of Tel Aviv people were lying on city-supplied mattresses lined along the floor, the odd camping chair and 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.
-Reuters
As Israel and Iran trade blows in an escalating aerial war, Israel has its sights trained on taking out Iran's nuclear facilities – and it wants the U.S. military's help.
Israel wants the Pentagon to drop the bombs because their penetrating weapons cannot reach the depth necessary to destroy underground facilities, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Fully demolishing Iran's nuclear facilities would require 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs, or "bunker-busters," which Israel's military doesn't have.
But Israel could use smaller penetrating weapons to collapse the entry ways to Iran's underground nuclear facilities, Scott Murray, a retired Air Force colonel and intelligence officer, told USA TODAY. Israel could then effectively bar Iran from recovery work at the sites.
'Think of it as a no-work zone patrolled from above,' he said. 'Air superiority buys incredible capability and flexibility.'
-Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Tom Vanden Brook
Israel's National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi offered the clearest signal yet about the goals of Israel's air campaign, telling local Channel 12 News on June 17 the military is going after the hardest target in Iran: The Fordo nuclear enrichment plant.
'This operation will not conclude without a strike on the Fordo nuclear facility,' Hanegbi said.
Fordo, built into a mountain to withstand airstrikes, has 1,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Hanegbi made clear Israel's war would only end after Fordo was hit.
Analysts say that would take a U.S. 'bunker buster' bomb, dropped from an American plane. But Hanegbi said Israel was ready to go it alone.
'We're not trying to convince the Americans to join,' he said. 'The prime minister has a close and intimate dialogue with President Trump, but we never received any promise the U.S. would take part.'
Hanegbi added the plan is 'entirely blue and white' - fully Israeli, without external military support.
-Kim Hjelmgaard
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