Iran fires hypersonic missiles at Israel as Trump calls for 'surrender'
Trump says Khamenei is an 'easy target'
US embassy in Jerusalem to be closed on Wednesday
Ayatollah says 'the battle begins' in post on X
Russia warns of 'unpredictable consequences' if conflict escalates
Late shah's son calls on Iranians to rise up against regime
Israel-Iran conflict enters fifth day
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Zawya
43 minutes ago
- Zawya
Iran seeks Gulf mediation for ceasefire with Israel, says report
Iran has requested its GCC neighbours Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to urge US President Donald Trump to influence Israel for an immediate ceasefire, offering flexibility in nuclear negotiations, said media reports citing Iranian sources. Gulf States are deeply concerned about the escalating conflict and have appealed to Washington to press Israel for a ceasefire and resume nuclear deal talks with Tehran, aiming to prevent further escalation. Gulf leaders and their top diplomats worked the phones all weekend, speaking to each other, to Tehran, Washington and beyond in an effort to avoid a widening of the conflict as longstanding enemies Israel and Iran intensified their attacks in their biggest ever confrontation. The US president said on Sunday he is hopeful about his latest efforts to bring 'peace', while Iran reaches out to mediators from Oman and Qatar. Almost 48 hours after the eruption of hostilities between Israel and Iran, concerted but limited diplomatic efforts appear to be underway to prevent the conflict from spiralling out of control and ultimately bring it to a resolution. "We will have peace, soon, between Israel and Iran" and that the countries 'should make a deal and will make a deal," stated the US President. 'Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that's ok, the people understand. Make the Middle East great again," Trump said in a post on his social media on Sunday. Meanwhile, as Israel has expanded its onslaught on Iran, Tehran has reached out to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to press President Trump to use his influence on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire with Iran in return for Tehran's flexibility in nuclear negotiations. Tehran is asking for regional mediators to intervene in relaunching negotiations, multiple Israeli media outlets reported on Sunday, citing Israeli government sources. Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia have all appealed to Washington to press Israel to agree to a ceasefire and to resume talks with Tehran towards a nuclear deal, the Gulf source said. Iran is willing to be flexible in the nuclear talks if a ceasefire is reached, one of the Iranian sources told Reuters on Monday. The Gulf States are deeply concerned the conflict will spin out of control, a Gulf source close to government officials told Reuters. The White House and US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Why Israel's attacks are backfiring as Iranians rally around the flag
Israel appears to have forgotten a lesson from the Iraqi invasion of Iran in 1980. Instead of inducing regime change, it led to the people of Iran rallying behind the Islamic Republic in the name of nationalism, not necessarily out of love for the clerical elite. Rather than fuelling internal dissent, Israel's recent strikes have similarly sparked a resurgence of nationalist feeling - centred not on support for the regime, but on defence of the nation. There have been public mourning ceremonies and online tributes. Even some of those once aligned with the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' movement have begun expressing solidarity with those they now frame as 'defenders of the homeland'. In working-class neighbourhoods and rural areas, where opposition movements had struggled to gain a foothold, such sentiments are even stronger. Israel's attempt to divide the Iranian people from their state has, at least for now, backfired. The dominant reaction inside Iran has not been jubilation or uprising, but a rallying around the flag - a phenomenon familiar to those who study the mechanics of national trauma and external threat. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The targeting of high-ranking officials, far from emboldening calls for regime change, has been interpreted by many Iranians as a direct assault on national sovereignty. Beyond Israel's high-profile air strikes on Iran's nuclear and missile infrastructure, and the deliberate suppression of Iran's air defence systems, the most consequential and defining achievement of Israel's recent military campaign lies elsewhere: in the targeted assassinations of Iran's top military leadership. Broader ambitions The deaths of Mohammad Bagheri, the Iranian army's chief of staff; Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force, among others, have left the upper echelons of Iran's military apparatus shaken. These were not peripheral figures. They were the architects of Iran's regional deterrence doctrine, and their coordinated elimination - within hours - signals a shift in the nature and objectives of Israel's campaign. The operation went far beyond a preemptive strike against nuclear escalation; it delivered a calibrated blow to the strategic command structure of the Islamic Republic. Israel might have inadvertently provided the Islamic Republic with a powerful political gift: a moment of cohesion, a common enemy While Israeli officials officially maintain that their core objective is to stall or derail Iran's nuclear ambitions, the scale and precision of the strikes - particularly Monday's attack on a national television station, and the assassinations of top officials - suggest broader ambitions. For years, there has been speculation in regional and western policy circles that Israel's long-term strategic calculus views a strong, stable and territorially intact Iran as an enduring geopolitical threat. Israel regards Iran not merely as a hostile state, but as a regional civilisational rival whose power must be contained - not just its nuclear programme, but its very political and geographic coherence. This strategic logic has shaped decades of covert operations, diplomatic isolation efforts, and economic sanctions. It also informs long-standing ideas - whispered and sometimes stated outright - about eventual regime change, and even the fracturing of Iran into smaller, weaker successor states. Such visions, once confined to hawkish policy white papers in Washington and Tel Aviv, gained renewed currency in the wake of the nationwide protests in Iran following the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini. The uprising, led by women and youth under the slogan 'Woman, Life, Freedom', presented the clearest domestic challenge to the Islamic Republic in a generation. Sensing an opportunity, both the US and Israel amplified their support for opposition groups. Among them, Reza Pahlavi - the exiled crown prince - emerged as a symbolic figure. His widely publicised visit to Israel, and his statements openly calling for coordinated support to overthrow the Islamic Republic, was unprecedented. This convergence of opposition figures and foreign governments marked a shift from passive solidarity to open alignment. Liberation narrative That realignment became more explicit in the aftermath of this month's strikes, when Israel's messaging pivoted. No longer framed solely around nuclear non-proliferation, Israel began portraying its operations as part of a broader struggle to liberate the Iranian people from a repressive regime. The narrative emphasises a separation between the Islamic Republic and the Iranian populace, insisting that this is not a war against Iran, but against its rulers. Public campaigns have sought to connect Israel's military actions to the aspirations of ordinary Iranians. Diaspora figures such as Pahlavi and former footballer Ali Karimi have publicly echoed this framing, calling on Iranians to support the downfall of the regime. But despite the clear strategic communications effort, the campaign has failed to capture the domestic imagination in Iran. A colonial reckoning: How Israel's war on Iran reopens old wounds Read More » What the Israeli leadership and its allies might have underestimated is the Iranian public's deeply ingrained historical memory and reflexive resistance to foreign intervention. While opposition to the Islamic Republic remains widespread, especially among younger and urban populations, the sight of a foreign military killing Iranian commanders on Iranian soil triggers an altogether different sentiment. This shift is not just symbolic. The level of domestic unity being observed, especially in contrast to past periods of internal unrest - such as the 2019 fuel protests or the Amini demonstrations - suggests that Israel might have inadvertently provided the Islamic Republic with a powerful political gift: a moment of cohesion, a common enemy, and a temporary suspension of internal divisions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thus joined the ranks of Saddam Hussein, whose decision to invade Iran in 1980 consolidated Ayatollah Khomeini's precarious position among other revolutionary factions in Iran. It is premature to say whether this unity will last. Iran remains a deeply fractured society with generational, ideological and economic cleavages. But for now, it is clear that the Israeli strikes have not accelerated regime collapse; rather, they might have delayed it. And in the long arc of strategic planning, Israel's most recent operation may be remembered not for what it destroyed - but for what it unintentionally reinforced. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Iranians struggle to flee Tehran amid Israeli strikes, bumper-to-bumper traffic and fuel shortages
On Saturday, the horrors of of war resurfaced in Mohammad's mind. He watched from the side walk as his nine-year-old daughter, sitting in a car with his wife, three-year-old son, and his wife's family, turned her head and peered out of the window to say goodbye. In that moment, he was taken back 37-years to the Iran-Iraq war, to the day he had been riding in a car with his mother and sister, fleeing missile strikes on the capital, Tehran. Today, Iran is once again under heavy bombardment with Israeli air strikes targeting residential areas, civilian buildings, hospitals, media offices, and military sites. The capital, he says, now bears a resemblance to how it looked in 1987, during the final year of the eight-year war that Iraq began with the backing of the US and other western powers. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "The fear in my daughter's eyes brought back the memory of leaving my father behind, not knowing if we'd ever see him again," Mohammad, who still remains in Tehran, told Middle East Eye. Iranians scramble to find safety after Israeli threats to target civilians Read More » "My father didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. A traffic officer told our driver to move the car, and I remember seeing my father running along the side walk, waving at us through the window," he recalled that day. Mohammad's wife and children left Tehran on Saturday after an Israeli air strike hit the nearby Mehrabad airport. They are now staying with relatives north of the capital. Mohammad, however, says he was unable to join them as his mother, who recently suffered a heart attack, is in critical condition and needs care at home. "My mother is too ill to travel. We can't keep her in a car for hours," he said. "That's why my sister and I decided to stay and take care of her." Heavy traffic For thousands of Iranians, the journey out of Tehran has been fraught with difficulty. Since Saturday, when Israel's attacks on civilian areas intensified, many of the city's near 10 million residents decided to leave. This led to major traffic jams and long queues at petrol stations. According to Mohammad, what should have been a 3.5-hour trip for his family ended up taking more than 12. Other sources told MEE that traffic on all routes out of Tehran remained heavy until Monday night. One resident from Chitgar, a neighbourhood heavily damaged during the first day of Israeli attacks, said it took them over eight hours to reach Shemshak, a town just 59km north of Tehran. 'This is my home. Where would I go, and why should I leave at all?' Roya, 62-year-old who lives alone The resident, who asked not to be named, said that after four hours of driving, they tried to turn back, but the road had been made one-way due to the traffic. They had no choice but to remain stuck on the road. The road from Tehran to Shemshak is narrow and winding, passing through mountainous terrain. It often becomes blocked during high traffic, even on normal weekends. But in recent days, heavy congestion has affected not just local roads but also major highways connecting Tehran to other cities. Fariborz, 73, was among those caught in the traffic on Sunday. He, his wife, sister, and brother-in-law were on the highway from Tehran to Fouman, a city 398km to the northeast. They were stuck for seven hours and managed to get only 80km from the capital. "At my age, I can't sit behind the wheel for long," Fariborz said. "My whole body was aching, and we were running low on petrol. So we turned around at the first chance we got and went back home," he added. On Tuesday, Fariborz and his wife finally left Tehran, this time by renting a taxi, as their car had run out of fuel. Fuel restrictions Long lines for petrol, which began forming on the first day of the Israeli attacks on Tehran, are still visible in the capital and nearby cities. Fuel rationing has also been introduced. Before the war, car owners received 60 litres of gas per month at a subsidised price of 15,000 Iranian rials per litre, about $0.018 on the open market, and could buy more at the market rate of 30,000 rials, about $0.36. Since the war began, the monthly allowance has been cut to 25 litres, and drivers can now only buy 10 litres at a time at the market rate. These restrictions have also caused a rise in public transportation fares. State Department pushes 'peace' narrative as Trump threatens Iran Read More » Reza, 76, who lives with his 70-year-old wife near the national broadcasting complex, hit by an air strike on Monday, has been directly affected by the increase in costs. Reza, who doesn't own a car, has been trying to leave Tehran using public transportation since Saturday, but all buses and shared taxis were fully booked. Eventually, a relative in Behshahr, a city in the north, found a taxi driver willing to come to Tehran and take them back, on the condition that Reza pay for the round trip. He agreed. Speaking to MEE on Tuesday, Reza said the driver was expected to arrive in Tehran on Wednesday. "That is, unless he changes his mind or raises the price again," Reza said. "He told us the fare is almost twice the usual rate and called it a 'wartime price'." The journey is expected to cost him around $60, nearly a third of his monthly pension of about $200. But for some residents, it is not just the fuel prices, taxi costs, or traffic that keep them from leaving. Roya, 62, lives alone in the basement of a three-story apartment in central Tehran. When asked why she has decided to stay, she said she made the same choice during the Iran-Iraq war, even when her neighbourhood was bombed. "This is my home. Where would I go, and why should I leave at all?" she said.
