As the conflict triggered by Operation Epic Fury, as the United States refers to its attack on Iran, widens, attention turns to conflicting statements on the prospect of talks.
US President Donald Trump said at the weekend he was prepared to talk to whoever remained of the leadership in Tehran, but top Iranian security official Ali Larijani has said Iran had made no approach to Washington, and that Tehran would not negotiate.
In an interview with Atlantic magazine, Trump said he was open to talks with Iran’s surviving and newly appointed leaders.
He is quoted as saying: “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long.”
However, Larijani, who was also an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is reported as saying that Tehran would not negotiate with the US, and denied reports that officials had reached out to the Trump administration.
State television in Iran reports that Larijani accused the US and Israel of trying to plunder and fragment Iran and warned “secessionist groups” of a harsh response if they attempted to intervene.
The Speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, is quoted by state media as saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump had “crossed a red line” and “will pay for it”.
The conflict spread to Lebanon, with Israel striking Hezbollah targets after the group launched missiles and drones towards Israel’s north in retaliation for the killing of Khamenei.
The United Kingdom announced it would allow the US to use British military bases in its operations against Iranian missile depots. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the decision was for the specific purpose of preventing Iran from firing missiles and putting British lives at risk.
He said the UK was not joining US operations, but would continue defensive actions in the region.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence announced that, overnight, Britain’s Royal Air Force base Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a suspected drone strike, causing limited damage and no casualties.
Iranian missiles struck the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh killing at least nine people in the deadliest attack on Israel since this war began.
Airline share prices in Asia Pacific were reported to be dropping as Iranian strikes hit its neighbours’ airports. Meanwhile global oil prices have risen after ships were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz.
The strikes across the Gulf have reportedly caused widespread business disruption in the region.
With Tehran showing signs of being willing to continue hitting back, observers say the direction of events will likely become clearer over the next days, as both sides test their military limits and their political resolve.
Unnamed “senior officials” in the US are reported to be sceptical that the current military operation against Iran will lead to a regime change in the near term.
BBC Persian notes: “While the military phase of Operation Epic Fury, as the US have dubbed it, appeared tightly co-ordinated and largely under US control, the political appeal to the Iranian public remains far less predictable.”
It adds: “The regime has moved quickly to project continuity and stability. By invoking constitutional mechanisms and activating the temporary governing arrangement, authorities aim to signal that the system remains intact despite the loss of its apex figure. Speculation has inevitably turned to possible successors.”
In South Africa, Maulana Syed Aftab Haider, religious leader of the Ahlul Bait Foundation of South Africa, the representative body of the Shia Muslim community of South Africa, said yesterday that the way in which Khamenei was assassinated “shows that the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolution have no fear of anything and that human lives do not matter to them.”
He is quoted as saying that, for those who carried out the attack, and supported it, “human life, sovereignty and international law do not matter. They assassinated this great leader, whose crime was nothing other than resisting in favour of the independence and rights of his own country, and his support of the oppressed, especially in Palestine.”
Haider said Khamenei was “not only a political leader”. “For millions of Muslims, he was also a spiritual and religious leader. We do not view the assassination as a political attack, but as an attack on our sacred values and institutions. The manner in which he was assassinated shows that the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolution have no fear of anything.”
Sources: BBC, Reuters, Guardian, Bloomberg, Netwerk24