Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Abdolrahim Mousavi vowed on Monday that the country would take “firm action” in response to US strikes on key nuclear sites.
“This crime and desecration will not go unanswered,” said Mousavi in a video statement published on state TV, adding that “we will take firm action against the American mistake”.
Fighting intensified on Monday as Israel and Iran engaged in a rapid exchange of military strikes — including an Israeli strike on Iran’s Fordo nuclear site, according to a local official.
Earlier, sirens sounded in several areas across Israel after a barrage of missiles was launched from Iran as the war between the two foes continued for an 11th day.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military was carrying out strikes on Tehran, including on the Evin Prison, which he said holds political prisoners and opponents of the Islamic Republic.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had earlier shared footage of the prison being targeted on his X account and wrote “long live freedom” in Spanish.
Hossein Kermanpour, the head of the public relations at Iran’s Health Ministry has said at least 13 children have been killed since Israel started attacking Iran on June 13, with the youngest being “just two months old”.
He added that 44 women have also been killed in the Israeli attacks, including two who were pregnant.
Kermanpour’s update did not provide an overall death toll but in another post on Saturday, he had said that more than 400 people had been killed since the start of the conflict, with at least 3,056 others wounded.
“The majority of casualties and the injured have been civilians,” he had said.
Donald Trump thinks Iranians should overthrow their government if it refuses to negotiate on its nuclear program, but the US president is “still interested” in diplomacy, the White House said Monday.
“If the Iranian regime refuses to come to a peaceful diplomatic solution, which the president is still interested and engaging in, by the way, why shouldn’t the Iranian people take away the power of this incredibly violent regime that has been suppressing them for decades?” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News.
US President Donald Trump on Monday expressed a desire to see oil prices kept down amid fears that ongoing fighting in the Middle East could cause them to spike.
“Everyone, keep oil prices down, I’m watching! You’re playing into the hands of the enemy, don’t do it,” he wrote in all caps on his Truth Social platform.
Trump followed up with another post addressed to the U.S. Department of Energy, encouraging it to “drill, baby, drill” and saying “I mean now.”
Iran’s last shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, fled in 1979 as the revolution took hold and died in Egypt in 1980.
His son, Reza Pahlavi, was heir to the Peacock Throne when the dynasty was ousted.
Now based in the United States, he has called for regime change through non-violent civil disobedience and a referendum on a new government.
“I am here today to submit myself to my compatriots, to lead them down this road of peace and democratic transition. I do not seek political power, but rather to help our great nation navigate through this critical hour towards stability, freedom and justice,” he said.
“To those of you who are loyal to the Iranian nation and not the Islamic Republic, there is a future for you in a democratic Iran. If you join the people now. The choice is yours to make.
Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed strikes on Tehran as “unprovoked aggression” and said Moscow was trying to help the Iranian people as he hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Moscow.
“This is an absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran,” Putin told Araghchi, calling the strikes “unjustified” and adding that Russia was “making efforts to provide assistance to the Iranian people.”
Iran said on Monday that the US attack on its nuclear sites expanded the range of legitimate targets for its armed forces and called US President Donald Trump a “gambler” for joining Israel’s military campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Since Trump joined Israel’s campaign by dropping massive bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, Iran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate.
But while it has continued to fire missiles at Israel, it has yet to take action against the United States itself, either by firing at U.S. bases or by targeting the 20% of global oil shipments that pass near its coast at the mouth of the Gulf.
“Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it,” Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, said on Monday in English at the end of a recorded video statement.
Iran and Israel traded another wave of air and missile strikes on Monday as the world braced for Tehran’s response.