*Ceasefire ‘Offer’ Made, Says French President
U.S president Donald Trump has said “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” hours after Israel issued an evacuation order to residents of a large part of the Iranian capital on Monday.
“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!,” the US president said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Washington and Tehran had been in the midst of nuclear negotiations when Israel launched its shock attack on Iran last Friday.
Tehran has a population of about nine million,with several fleeing the capital in the wake of Israeli strikes which left scores dead and hundreds injured.
Hours before Trump’s comments, Israeli forces had issued an evacuation order to residents of a large part of Tehran, warning them of the imminent bombing of “military infrastructure” in the area in a social media post very similar to those regularly directed at Palestinians in Gaza over the past 20 months.
The post on X was from the account of the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee.
It is a further sign of the evolving nature of the Israeli campaign against Iran, which began with attacks on air defences, nuclear sites and the military chain of command, but appears to have drifted towards a war of attrition focused on Iran’s oil and gas industry and on the capital.
Adraee’s online post included a map depicting a significant area of the third district in northern Tehran shaded in red in the same manner he has presented evacuation orders for Palestinians.
“Dear citizens, for your safety, please leave the described area in the 3rd district of Tehran immediately,” the message said in Farsi.
“In the coming hours, the Israeli army will attack the military infrastructure of the Iranian regime in this area, as it has done in recent days in Tehran. Your presence in this area endangers your life.”
Speaking to personnel at Tel Nof Air Force base, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed the evacuation orders.
“The Israeli Air Force controls the skies over Tehran. This changes the entire campaign,” he said.
“When we control the skies over Tehran, we strike regime targets, as opposed to the criminal Iranian regime which targets our civilians and comes to kill women and children. We tell the people of Tehran to evacuate, and we act.”
Netanyahu, Macron Clash Over Khamenei
Netanyahu later said killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, would “end the conflict” in what would be another ominous escalation.
But, French President Emmanuel Macron has claimed Donald Trump is considering the prospect of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran and said that an attempt to overthrow the Iranian regime would be a “strategic error”.
Macron told reporters at the G7 meeting: “There is indeed an offer to meet and exchange. An offer was made especially to get a ceasefire and to then kick-start broader discussions … We have to see now whether the sides will follow.”
Macron described Trump’s early exit from the meeting as a positive development.
“Right now I believe negotiations need to restart and that civilians need to be protected,” he said.
He added that he didn’t believe things would change in the next few hours, but “since the U.S assured they will find a ceasefire and since they can pressure Israel, things may change.”
Macron called on both Israel and Iran to “end” strikes against civilians and warned that aiming to overthrow Tehran’s clerical state would be a “strategic error.”
He said: “All who have thought that by bombing from the outside you can save a country in spite of itself have always been mistaken.”
Trump told reporters he had to leave early for “obvious reasons”. Throughout the day he repeated his mantra that Iran must never possess a nuclear weapon, an ambition Iran denies, but which Israel insists is Tehran’s true and imminent objective.
Iranian Journalist Dead After Studio Strike
Meanwhile, a staff member at the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB has died after an Israeli attack on the building during a live broadcast, Iranian media has reported.
Masoumeh Azimi succumbed to severe injuries caused by the shockwave from the attack, Press TV, which is owned by IRIB , reported.
Several other journalists were also injured, it said. It was not possible to independently confirm the report.
Iranian newsreader Sahar Emami was showered with rubble and her studio filled with dust live on air when the strike hit the broadcaster.
Footage showed the newsreader fleeing from her desk late on Monday.
The station later said its building was hit by four bombs.
Iran condemned the attack on a state television building in Tehran as a war crime, and called on the UN to take action.
The strike was a “wicked act” and a “war crime”, said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson. “The UN [security council] must act now to stop the genocidal aggressor from committing further atrocities against our people.”
Journalists are considered civilians under international humanitarian law and deliberately targeting them is a war crime.
After the strike, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on X, “The propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority of the Iranian regime was attacked by the IDF after a widespread evacuation of nearby residents. Strike the Iranian dictator everywhere.”
