Donald Trump called on Iranians to overthrow their government as the US and Israel launched air strikes in what the president described as a “massive and ongoing operation” against the Islamic regime on Saturday morning.
Trump’s address from his Mar-a-Lago resort came as huge explosions rocked Tehran, with smoke rising on Pasteur Street, where the Iranian president’s office is located. Iranian media reported explosions in central, northern and eastern Tehran.
In retaliation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard launched what it said was a “first wave of a massive missile and drone strike” against Israel. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which both host US military bases, said they had thwarted retaliatory missile attacks.
“The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests,” Trump said.
“We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” he added.
Addressing the people of Iran, he said: “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added that the strikes would “create the conditions for the courageous Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands”.
Analysts said that the assault, which the Pentagon has dubbed Operation Epic Fury, risked pushing up oil prices when trading reopens on Monday, particularly if Iran retaliated by attacking energy facilities in the Gulf or targeted the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway vital to the global crude market.
The attacks follow weeks of tensions as Trump has sought to pressure Tehran over its nuclear programme, ordering the largest American military build-up in the region since the Iraq war in 2003 and threatening strikes if it did not agree to a deal.
Trump said that after the US’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last June, “we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal. We tried.”
He called on members of the IRG to “lay down your weapons”. The president offered them “total immunity” or “face certain death”.
A person briefed on the operation said that it was a combined US and Israeli strike and would be “more extensive” than previous attacks on Iran, and that the assault had targeted government, military and intelligence installations.
The person added that the operation was expected to last for a “few days” but that the duration of the fighting would also depend on how Iran responded.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said that “the state of Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Iran to remove threats to the state of Israel”.
Israel declared a state of emergency, shutting its airspace as well as most workplaces and businesses and imposing restrictions on gatherings across the country.
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