Trump says no plans to kill Khamenei (yet), as Iran's missiles seem to dwindle

POTUS Donald Trump has demanded Iran's “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” in a post on social media late on 17 June, and gone on to warn its supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei that the US knows where he is hiding — though there were no plans to kill him, “at least not for now”.

The post claimed America's 'patience is wearing thin' and it does not want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers — of which there has been no verifiable news in the last few days from Iran's side, though there is clear evidence (from Israel itself) of the IDF targeting civilian spaces.

Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the evolving situation over the phone on Tuesday, 17 June, according to a White House official. Earlier, Trump was seen to precipitately exit the G7 Summit in Canada, giving rise to speculation that he was trying to broker a ceasefire — a hypothesis the POTUS belligerently repudiated.

Iran offered no immediate response to the president's posts, but the country's military leaders vowed that Israel would soon see more attacks.

“The operations carried out so far have been solely for the purpose of warning and deterrence,” Gen. Abdul Rahim Mousavi, the commander in chief of Iran's army, said in a video. “The punishment operation will be carried out soon.”

Trump's post, however, seems to have united Iranians in solidarity, as they poured into the streets last night in support of Iran's retaliation.

One netizen sought to inform the POTUS that Iranians would not leave Tehran, any more than Palestinians left Gaza, Sheikh Jarrah and Hebron, just as the Lebanese have not left Beirut, Bint Jbeil or Yaroun.

'Everything Israel does seems to be about getting Arabs and Muslims to leave their lands. It won’t work,' the Palestinian-American law professor, Amer Zahr, told Trump.

Earlier on 17 June, Trump had also posted to claim that Iran's defence technology was no match for American-made weapons — which had control over Tehran's skies, echoing a similar claim from the Israeli prime minister as well.

Was that a tacit admission that Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu had the United States' backing in this war on its pre-nuclear neighbour as well as military equipment it had purchased from Washington?

Israel's ‘reason’ for its assault on Iran has been 'self-defence' in anticipation of Iran's imminent nuclear weapons development. Notably, Israel's own nuclear programme remains under wraps and it has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The G7 leaders at the Canada summit yesterday also backed Israel's 'right to self-defence' and claimed in a formal joint statement that Iran was the source of 'regional instability' in West Asia.

With AP inputs