No deal with Iran except 'unconditional surrender', declares Trump

Trump said in a social media post, adding that they would work to boost Iran's economy

US President Donald Trump demanded Iran's “unconditional surrender” on Friday, a dramatic escalation of his demands a week into the war he launched alongside Israel, which could make it more difficult to negotiate a swift end to it.

 

Trump made the remarks on social media just hours after Iran’s president announced that unspecified countries had begun mediation efforts, one of the first signals of any diplomatic initiative to end the conflict.

 

“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote.

 

“After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”

 

 

Israel also launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying 50 of its warplanes had struck a bunker beneath the Tehran compound of slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, still being used by Iran’s leadership after he was killed on the war’s first day.

 

In one of the first signals since the war began of any possible diplomatic initiative to end it, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X: “Some countries have begun mediation efforts.” He did not identify the countries or provide further details. “Let’s be clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region, but we have not the slightest hesitation in defending the dignity and authority of our country. Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict,” he added.

 

Under Iran’s system, the president is subordinate to the supreme leader, but Pezeshkian is now serving on a panel that has assumed Khamenei’s duties. In an apparent escalation of his own war aims, US President Donald Trump demanded the right to help choose Khamenei’s successor.

 

Israel has extended its bombing to Lebanon on Friday to root out Hezbollah, the Shi'ite militia allied to Iran that has been a dominant faction in Lebanese politics since the 1980s. Hezbollah fired on Israel this week to avenge the death of Khamenei.

 

Explosions lit up the night sky over Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military said it carried out 26 waves of strikes overnight against Hezbollah command centres and weapons storage.

 

“We are sleeping here on the streets — some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach, said Jamal Seifeddin, 43, who fled Beirut’s southern suburbs and spent the night on the streets in the capital’s downtown district. “I’ve never slept on the ground like this. I’ve been forced to. No one even brought a blanket.”

 

Israel has intervened in Lebanon repeatedly over decades, most recently in a campaign that weakened Hezbollah in 2024. But the ferocity of Friday’s strikes had little precedent even in the long history of war in the Lebanese capital.

 

Israel ordered residents to evacuate the entire southern section of Beirut, home to hundreds of thousands of people.

 

During previous campaigns it had ordered only smaller evacuations of specific areas.

 

Inside Israel, explosions could be heard as Israeli defences activated to shoot down incoming Iranian fire. Overnight, Iranian drones also attacked the US Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the biggest US base in the Middle East, Qatari officials said. There were no reported casualties.

 

Trump wants say on Iran’s next leader  

 

In insisting on the right to help choose Iran’s next leader — meant to be a senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric selected by a panel of religious experts — Trump made his most explicit demand for control over a country of more than 90 million people.

 

We’re going to have to choose that person," Trump said on Thursday in a telephone interview with Reuters.

 

Israel has said openly that it aims to overthrow Iran’s ruling system. Washington has been more circumspect, saying its goal is to eliminate Iran’s ability to project force beyond its borders, while also inviting Iranians to rise up and topple their government.

 

Iran has cast the war as an unprovoked attack and describes the killing of its leader, Khamenei, as an assassination.

 

It says the panel that will choose the new leader is conducting its work.

 

Iranian officials initially said the new leader could be chosen soon and the leading candidate was Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, a powerful hardliner. But plans for a quick dynastic succession may have stalled since a three-day period of mourning for Khamenei was postponed indefinitely on Wednesday.

 

Trump also encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces based across the border in Iraq to launch attacks against Iran, a move that would open a ground front in the war. I think it's wonderful that they want to do that, I'd be all for it,” Trump said. 

US House joins Senate to narrowly reject war powers resolution 

The House narrowly rejected a war powers resolution on Thursday to halt President Donald Trump’s attacks on Iran, an early sign of unease in Congress over the rapidly widening conflict that is reordering US priorities at home and abroad. It’s the second vote in as many days, after the Senate defeated a similar measure. Lawmakers are confronting the sudden reality of representing wary Americans in wartime, and all that entails — with lives lost, dollars spent and alliances tested by a President’s unilateral decision to go to war with Iran. While the tally in the House, 212-219, was expected to be tight, the outcome provided a clarifying snapshot of political support for, and opposition to, the US-Israel military operation and Trump’s rationale for bypassing Congress, which alone has the power to declare war. At the Capitol, the conflict has quickly carried echoes of the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and many September 11-era veterans now serve in Congress. “Donald Trump is not a king, and if he believes the war with Iran is in our national interest, then he must come to Congress and make the case,” said Rep Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. AP