Israel attacks Iran: Trump hails ‘excellent' strikes, warns more to come

Middle East Eye

a day ago

Donald Trump has described Israel's Friday morning attacks on Iran as "excellent" and warned Iran that things will get worse if the country does not agree to a nuclear deal with the United States.
Israel launched a huge attack on Iran in the early hours of Friday, targeting nuclear facilities, military commanders and scientists.
"I think it's been excellent. We gave them a chance and they didn't take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you're going to get hit. And there's more to come. A lot more," Trump was quoted as saying by an ABC reporter.
Earlier on social media, Trump wrote: "I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to 'just do it,' but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn't get it done."
Implying that he had been aware of the attacks ahead of time, Trump said that he told Iran that 'it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told'.
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He said he told officials that the US 'makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR,' adding that Israel had a lot of those weapons with more to come. 'And they know how to use it,' said Trump.
'Certain Iranian hardliner's [sic] spoke bravely, but they didn't know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and will only get worse.'
The strikes killed Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the country's armed forces, and Gholam Ali Rashid, the deputy commander of the Iranian armed forces.
Several nuclear scientists were also killed.
Who are the Iranian military chiefs and scientists killed by Israel? Read More »
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in his own posts on social media that Washington was not involved in the strikes, but an Israeli official quoted by Israeli state broadcaster Kan said that Israel fully coordinated its attack with the White House.
The unnamed official also told Kan that recent reports of rifts between Israel and Washington were false, but had not been denied as part of a media ruse to confuse Iran.
Trump also said in his posts that while there had already been 'great death and destruction', there was still time to stop the 'even more brutal' attacks to come.
'Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.
'No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,' he said.
Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department in October 2023 over continued US arms sales to Israel and has since co-founded political action committee A New Policy, said on Friday that Trump's statements placed US interests in harms way.
"President Trump's 'statement' on social media this morning strikes me precisely as an attempt not to look weak in light of Netanyahu's decision to ignore Trump's public request for Israel not to strike Iran," Paul said on Friday.
"It runs directly counter to Secretary Rubio's tweet that the US was not involved, and it places US troops and assets at absolutely unnecessary risk, again placing our interests behind those of Netanyahu."
Retaliatory attacks
Iran fired more than 100 drones towards Israel on Friday in retaliation to the strikes. In response, Israeli army spokesperson Effie Defrin said that "all [aerial] defence arrays have been operating to intercept the threats.'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday morning's attack was aimed at "rolling back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival," adding that it would take "many days".
"We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment programme," Netanyahu said in a recorded televised address.
Israel's attack on Iran: How the world reacted Read More »
"We targeted Iran's main enrichment facility in Natanz. We targeted Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb. We also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile programme."
In addition to top senior military commanders and key nuclear scientists killed in the attacks, Iranian state television reported that children had also been killed in at least one of the air strikes, on a residential area of Tehran.
Nour News reported several "loud explosions" in and around Tehran, adding that the country's air defence system was on full alert, and all flights at Imam Khomeini international airport had been suspended.
The attacks come one day after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN watchdog which monitors Iran's nuclear programme, said that Iran was not complying with its nonproliferation obligations.
Iran said in response that it planned to open a new enrichment facility, and said the IAEA's statement called into question the organisation's credibility. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is peaceful and denies seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.