Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has called on residents of Tehran to evacuate the city immediately on Tuesday, in another warning that followed a series of ominous messages posted by US President Donald Trump.
With the conflict between Israel and Iran in its fifth day and showing no signs of de-escalating as Israel further increased its strikes, the tone of these messages has been intensifying, with concerns that Washington might also imminently enter the conflict between the two continuing to grow.
Trump on Tuesday said he was “not too much in the mood to negotiate now" and that "we’re looking at better than a ceasefire".
It came after the president on Monday night issued an urgent call for people to immediately evacuate Tehran, putting out the message shortly after Israeli forces told residents in parts of the capital's north-east to leave ahead of planned strikes on what they described as “military infrastructure”.
"Iran should have signed the 'deal' I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, Iran can not have a nuclear weapon. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran," he posted on Truth Social.
He then repeated his message that "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon" on Tuesday, alongside a post denying reports that he had reached out to Tehran to seek a ceasefire, adding: "If they want to talk, they know how to reach me. They should have taken the deal that was on the table - Would have saved a lot of lives!!!"
The flurry of threatening messages comes after the US president left the G7 meeting early on Monday, with Trump denying reports that he did so in order to work on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran. The US president said the reason for his departure was “much bigger” and unrelated to any ceasefire efforts.
In a further sign of that the conflict appears to be intensifying, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday that he was not ruling out assassinating Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Netanyahu claimed that doing so was "not going to escalate the conflict, it's going to end the conflict".
Asked if Israel would target Khamenei, Netanyahu told the outlet that Israel was "doing what we need to do".
Katz also said threatened that Khamenei could meet the same fate as Saddam Hussein, who was executed after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
“I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and launching missiles at Israeli civilians,” Katz said on Tuesday, according to local media.
Katz issued another warning, saying that Israel would continue to strike "against regime and military targets in Tehran, just as we did yesterday against the propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority," and called on residents of Iran's capital to leave nearby areas.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday the 27-member bloc has activated its citizen protection mechanism to facilitate evacuations, "assisting member states to evacuate their citizens that wish to leave".
"We have member states that have planes evacuating (their nationals). We have member states who don't have planes, and we coordinate the efforts so that our citizens are safe," Kallas said in a press conference after chairing a video call among the bloc's 27 foreign affairs ministers.
Israel has claimed to have gained control of Tehran's skies and warned that “Tehran will burn” if more missiles are fired at its territory, but the Iranian leadership continued to vow a “more severe and powerful response” and threatened to widen the war by striking targets of Israel's allies.
