US President Donald Trump calls for 'unconditional surrender' from Iran

Washington: US President Trump, in a series of provocative statements posted on Truth Social, made relations even more hostile with Iran amid the escalating tensions between the Middle Eastern country and Israel. 

Trump called for “unconditional surrender” from Iran, and tells Ali Hosseini Khamenei, referring to him as the ‘Supreme Leader’, that ‘we know exactly where you’re hiding’.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump posted.

In another post,  Trump sternly asserted that the United States now has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” adding that Iran's defense systems are no match for American military technology. “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,’” he wrote. “Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.”

Continued missile threats against American soldiers or civilians would not be tolerated, the US President warned. 

Residents of Iran's capital were seen leaving the city, and shops and the historic Grand Bazaar were closed on Tuesday, the fifth day of the intensifying conflict started by Israel.

Iranian authorities insist everything is under control and no guidance has been issued, even as witnesses in Tehran say sirens blare every few hours and people rush for shelter amid ongoing Israeli attacks. On the roads out of Tehran to the west, traffic stood bumper to bumper, and long lines could also be seen at gas stations. “It looks like no one is living in this city,” one resident told The Associated Press by phone. Trump’s increasingly muscular comments toward the Iranian government came after he cut short his visit to an international summit to return to Washington for urgent talks with his national security team.

Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged the public to remove the messaging app WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging, without offering any evidence the app gathers user information to send to Israel.

G7 Fiasco: Trump on Tuesday said that French President and his G7 counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, was mistaken in assuming that his early departure was due to the Israel-Iran conflict.

Taking to Truth Social, the US President termed the French President to be 'wrong', and said that his reasons are 'much bigger' than any 'ceasefire' between Tel Aviv and Tehran.

Prominent Trump supporters, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, have raised concerns about how far the president should go in backing Israel after vowing during his campaign to keep the U.S. out of expensive and endless wars.

The vice president, JD Vance, in a post on X on Tuesday, said he wanted to address “a lot of crazy stuff on social media” about Trump’s approach to Iran.

Vance made the case that Trump has been consistent that “Iran cannot have uranium enrichment” and has said “repeatedly that this would happen one of two ways--the easy way or the 'other' way.”

“He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment. That decision ultimately belongs to the president,” Vance added. “And of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy. But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue.”