Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said early Wednesday that the Islamic republic will “never” compromise with Israel.

“We will never compromise with the Zionists,” Khamenei said on X. “The terrorist Zionist entity must be dealt with forcefully.” 

His post came after US President Donald Trump concluded a much-anticipated meeting with his National Security Council, raising speculation that Washington will join Israel’s striking campaign against Tehran.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone call before Trump’s much-anticipated National Security Council meeting, Israeli media reported on Wednesday. 

The call came amid speculation that Trump will join Israel’s striking campaign against Iran. 

On Tuesday, Trump held a meeting with his national security team in the Situation Room, after cutting his trip to Canada short amid boiling tensions between Israel and Iran. 

US President Donald Trump’s much-anticipated Situation Room meeting has concluded, though the outcome remains uncertain.

“President Trump's meeting with his national security team in the Situation Room has ended,” a White House official confirmed to Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda.

The meeting lasted approximately 80 minutes.

President Trump had cut short his visit to Canada on Monday, instructing his national security team to prepare for the high-level meeting upon his return to Washington.

 

The German government will start evacuating its citizens from Israel on Wednesday by land through Amman, Germany’s foreign ministry told Rudaw on Tuesday.

The ministry added that once the nationals are transported to the Jordanian capital, they will be evacuated aboard a special aircraft with a capacity of 180 passengers on Thursday.

Regarding Germany’s efforts to curb further escalation of Israel-Iran conflict, the foreign ministry said Germany’s foreign minister has spoken by phone with his Iraqi and Emirati counterparts and the government’s special envoy for the Middle East has spoken with the chief Iranian diplomat in Berlin. 

 

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that they have gained full control of the skies of Iran despite his government’s claims that Washington is not involved in the latest escalation of tensions between Iran and Israel. He also said that Iran’s supreme leader is an “easy target” but they have no plans to assassinate him “for now.”

“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured ‘stuff.’ Nobody does it better than the good ol’ [old] USA,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. 

American officials have repeatedly said that the US is not involved in the tensions. 

Trump later said in a separate post on Truth Social that they know the whereabouts of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 

“He is an easy target, but is safe there - We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” he added. 

On Monday, Trump called on Iranians to evacuate their capital city of Tehran without elaborating. 

 

Iran’s says it struck a center belonging to the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Defense ministry Spokesperson Reza Talaei-Nik told state media that "the Zionist regime's security and intelligence center was hit with a precision-guided missile, despite the enemy's extensive defense systems - bolstered by American support - failing to intercept or track it."

Talaei-Nik added, "They will see more of these surprises," emphasizing that the attack demonstrated what he described as the enemy’s growing weakness. He also claimed that Israel "lacks the capacity to endure a prolonged war," adding, “It has not even been a week, and the enemy is already feeling the severe strain of a complex conflict.”

Earlier in the day, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also issued a statement, confirming that it had “struck a military intelligence center of the Zionist entity’s army, Aman, and a Mossad operations planning center in Tel Aviv,” adding that “the center is currently ablaze.

Commander of Iran’s Army Ground Forces, General Kiumars Heidari, declared that "a new wave of intense drone strikes using advanced and modern weaponry has begun and will escalate in the coming hours.

“The enemy should know that the armed forces - particularly the army’s ground units - have launched a fierce new phase of attacks that will intensify further,” he added.

The Iraqi parliament held an extraordinary session on Tuesday, expressing strong support for government measures in response to what it described as “violations by the Zionist entity” of Iraqi airspace used to launch strikes against Iran.

In its official statement, the legislature said the session was convened based on “the principle of safeguarding Iraq, its people, and its sovereignty,” and firmly rejected “the violation of Iraqi airspace and its use in attacks against neighboring countries.”

The statement also conveyed the “solidarity of the Iraqi people with the Iranian people in the wake of the blatant Zionist aggression against the Islamic Republic,” and affirmed full support for the Iraqi government's efforts to confront the airspace violations on both regional and international fronts.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States on Tuesday stated that his country is preparing new operations in its ongoing conflict with Iran. Yechiel Leiter added that what is in store would make last year’s Pager Operation against Tehran’s Lebanese ally, the Hezbollah movement, seem “simple.”

“We’ve pulled off a number of surprises,” Leiter told the American network Merit Street, adding, “When the dust settles, you're going to see some surprises on Thursday night and Friday that will make the Pager Operation almost seem simple.”

The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began on October 8, a day after the eruption of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, when Hezbollah launched a “back-up front” from the Lebanese side to ease pressure on its Palestinian allies in Gaza.

In mid-September, Israel carried out the “Pager Operation,” remotely detonating communication devices used by members of the Lebanese group, and later killed Hezbollah's secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on a residential neighborhood in Beirut.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of a fate similar to Saddam Hussein.

During a briefing with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) high command, Katz stated, “I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and launching missiles at Israeli civilians.”

In an indirect reference to the toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Katz reminded the Iranian Supreme Leader of “the fate of the dictator in the country neighboring Iran.”

Hussein was overthrown in 2003 during the US-led invasion of Iraq, tried and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, and executed in December 2006.

A day earlier, on Monday, the IDF struck a building belonging to Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran. Referring to the strike, Katz added that other affiliates of the Iranian government may also be targeted.

 

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he is looking for a “real end” to the raging conflict between Israel and Iran, and not a temporary fix. 

“I’m not looking for a ceasefire, we’re looking at better than a ceasefire,” Trump told reporters before landing back in Washington, after cutting his trip to the G7 summit in Canada short.

Trump stressed that he was seeking a “real end, not a ceasefire” to the conflict. 

On Tuesday, Trump cut his trip short to the G7 summit due to tensions in the Middle East, telling reporters that “I have to be back.” The announcement came after he called on Iranians to evacuate Tehran, describing its failure to strike a deal as “a shame, and waste of human life.”

Israel’s military on Tuesday claimed it killed Ali Shadmani, Iran’s newly appointed commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) main operational command, in a strike on Tehran, days after assassinating his predecessor on the opening day of the conflict.

“For the second time: The IDF eliminated the wartime chief of staff, the Iranian regime's most senior military commander,” the Israeli Defense Forces said in a post on X.

Shadmani, the head of the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, replaced Gholam Ali Rashid, who was among several senior figures killed in Israel’s pre-dawn strikes on Friday, which began the conflict

According to the statement, Shadmani was killed in a targeted airstrike overnight in the heart of Tehran, based on what the IDF described as “accurate intelligence” and a “sudden opportunity.” He reportedly served as Chief of War Staff and Commander of the Armed Forces Emergency Command.

The IDF said Shadmani “commanded the IRGC and the Iranian army.”

Iran has yet to confirm his death.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Israel and Iran continued to trade strikes for a fifth straight day on Tuesday, with US President Donald Trump urging Iranians to evacuate Tehran after slamming the Islamic republic for failing to reach a nuclear deal with Washington. 

Trump on Tuesday cut his trip short to the G7 summit in Canada due to tensions in the Middle East, telling reporters that “I have to be back.” The announcement came after he called on Iranians to evacuate Tehran, describing its failure to strike a deal as “a shame, and waste of human life.” 

Tensions between Israel and Iran boiled over on Friday after Israel carried out extensive airstrikes in Iran, killing senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. In response, Iran launched missile salvos and deployed scores of drones against Israel. 

According to Israeli authorities, so far, at least 24 civilians have been killed and 592 injured. In Iran, authorities reported 224 people killed and 1,277 injured.

On Monday, G7 leaders issued a joint statement calling for “the resolution of the Iranian crisis” to begin “a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”

The statement, released by Canada, said that Israel “has a right to defend itself.”

“We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” it stressed. 

Israel has launched around 380 ballistic missiles since the beginning of the conflict, according to Channel 12. 

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei on Monday called on the US to take a clear stance on the latest escalation between Iran and Israel, stressing that Washington is backing Israel.