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Time of India
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Was Iran's Khamenei on Israel's ‘Red Wedding' hit list? Israeli Defence minister's chilling admission hints so
The 'Red Wedding' begins Live Events Inside the plot: Trickery and timing Trump's bunker-busters Khamenei's defiant reappearance Israel's warning after the guns fell silent No regime change, yet talks ahead (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Israel wanted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dead. Defence Minister Israel Katz left little doubt when he spoke on national television after the guns fell silent. 'I estimate that if Khamenei had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,' Katz told Kan TV. He said Iran's Supreme Leader 'understood this, went very deep underground and broke off contacts with the commanders… so in the end it wasn't realistic.'Katz repeated the message to Channel 13: 'We searched a lot.' His admission marks Israel's first clear statement that removing Iran's highest cleric was an active goal during the war. The aim was not regime change, he insisted, but to fracture Tehran's chain of command while bombs Israeli Air Force called its opening assault ' Red Wedding ' — a nod to the infamous massacre in Game of Thrones where trusted leaders were cut down at a wedding 13 June, more than 200 Israeli warplanes pounded 100 targets across Iran. According to the Wall Street Journal , this single strike killed nine top nuclear scientists before dawn. Among the dead were General Hossein Salami of the Revolutionary Guard , General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran's Chief of Staff, and Gholam Ali Rashid, the emergency commander.A giant billboard in Tehran now bears their faces — reminders of how one night turned Iran's leadership upside strikes were planned for months. Israeli spies smuggled drone parts into Iran in shipping containers and trucks. Mossad teams hid explosive quadcopters near key missile sites and air missions in Greek skies, and real-life raids on Houthi targets in Yemen, sharpened the Israeli Air Force's long-range skills. All that practice came together on one carefully chosen to Daily MailOnline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even faked his son Avner's wedding to mislead Iranian watchers. He leaked a false feud with President Trump to suggest hesitation in Washington. In truth, Netanyahu had signed off on the airstrikes on 9 gamble nearly fell apart when word leaked to Tehran. But Iranian commanders, instead of scattering, gathered for what they thought was a crisis meeting. That sealed their fate.'Rather than scattering, they gathered — sealing their fate,' wrote the Wall Street Journal, quoting Israeli Israel's jets roared over Tehran, US President Trump made his own threats public. On 17 June, he wrote on Truth Social, 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding… We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.'Yet behind the scenes, the US was preparing its own the same night as Israel's attacks, Trump ordered Operation Midnight Hammer — precision strikes with B-2 bombers and Tomahawk missiles targeting three major Iranian nuclear sites. The aim was to crack open deep-buried bunkers Iran had built over decades. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed, 'It was a total success… Not only does our own intelligence say that, but even the Iranian foreign minister and the United Nations agreed.'Trump later signalled that back-channel talks could follow. 'Do the deal,' he posted online. The White House said negotiations for a 'non-enrichment civil nuclear programme' might start soon with help from Qatar.A leaked US report, however, suggests some uranium might have been moved beforehand. Trump brushed that off: 'Nothing was taken out… too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!' he said in an online Supreme Leader vanished just as the missiles struck. The Associated Press reported he did not appear in public for days. He re-emerged only when the ceasefire was sealed on 25 June, posting a recorded video on Iranian state TV.'The Islamic Republic emerged victorious and delivered a harsh slap to America's face,' Khamenei declared. On his official X account, he called Israel a 'fallacious Zionist regime' that was 'crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic.'He boasted Iran's retaliatory missile strike on the US base at Al-Udeid in Qatar 'delivered a heavy slap to the US's face.' But images of smoking bunkers and flattened research sites told another confirmed the hunt for Khamenei has ended for now. Speaking to Channel 13, he said: 'There's a difference — before the ceasefire, after the ceasefire.'He advised Iran's top cleric to stay underground. 'I wouldn't recommend that he stay tranquil. He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker. I recommend that he do the same thing.'Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, was killed in an Israeli strike last year — another sign Israel's assassinations reach beyond its also admitted Israel still does not know where all of Iran's enriched uranium is hidden. But he insisted the attacks had set back Tehran's nuclear ambitions 'by long years.'Trump's message has shifted too. Despite the bunker-busters, he insists a deal is possible. The White House says talks may soon restart, with Qatar acting as said, 'The US remains focused on diplomacy and peace.' But Iranian officials deny any plan to return to the table for Azizi from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs summed up Tehran's problem: 'There must be some sort of purge. But who will implement it? That is the question.'Twelve days of air raids ended with bombed-out bunkers and dead generals, but no regime collapse. Israel's gamble exposed Iran's weak air defences and the depth of its infiltration. For Tel Aviv, the message is clear: they can strike again if needed — with or without Katz told Channel 13, 'We don't need permission for these things.'The Red Wedding may be over, but its aftershocks are only beginning.
New York Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Israeli strike on Iran that killed dozens of military leaders inspired by iconic ‘Game of Thrones' scene
A clinical Israeli strike that wiped out dozens of Iran's top military commanders was inspired by a brutal 'Game of Thrones' scene. The stealth attack was code-named 'Red Wedding' — after a notorious massacre from the HBO series in which an entire family is slaughtered in mere minutes, the Times of Israel first reported. The real-life operation on June 13 — part of the start of the 12-day war — saw more than 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft striking roughly 100 targets, specifically nuclear facilities and missile factories. Advertisement 3 Iranians stand in front of a billboard carrying pictures of Iranian brass killed in the strikes, including late Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Mohammad Bagheri (top right.) ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Like the 'Game of Thrones' scene, it quickly led to a bloodbath, obliterating a swath of high-ranking Iranian officials — including Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard; Mohammad Bagheri, chief of the country's military; and Gholam Ali Rashid, head of Iran's emergency command. Israel was able to trick some top commanders of Iran's air force into gathering for a meeting before they were targeted in one strike, Israeli officials previously revealed. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Jewish state had been actively hunting Tehran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the 12-day onslaught — but the ideal opportunity to assassinate him never came through. Advertisement 'I estimate that if Khamenei had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,' Katz told Israeli TV on Thursday. 'But Khamenei understood this, went underground to very great depths and broke off contacts with the commanders who replaced those commanders who were eliminated, so it wasn't realistic in the end.' Khamenei went into hiding after Israel launched its initial onslaught. Advertisement 3 The stealth attack was code-named 'Red Wedding' after the notorious episode of 'Game of Thrones.' HELENSLOAN 3 A building in Nobonyad Square suffered significant damage in Israeli airstrikes on June 13, 2025 in Tehran. Majid Saeedi He only surfaced Thursday to bizarrely claim victory over Israel and America after President Trump announced a cease-fire between the warring nations. 'The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America's face,' Khamenei had claimed — despite Iran's heavy losses.
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Business Standard
a day ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
EAM Jaishankar speaks to Qatar PM Al Thani, discusses bilateral agenda
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar spoke to the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Thursday and discussed the bilateral agenda between the two nations. EAM Jaishankar, in a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Al Thani, appreciated his assessment of the regional situation. EAM wrote on X, "A warm call with PM & FM @MBA_AlThani_ of Qatar. Appreciated his assessment of the regional situation. Discussed our bilateral agenda." Qatar's Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, played a key role in securing Iran's approval for the US-proposed ceasefire in the conflict with Israel, with Al Thani obtaining Tehran's agreement during a phone call with Iranian officials, as reported by Reuters, quoting an official briefed on the negotiation. Al Thani's conversation followed Trump's communication with Qatar's Emir, in which the US President informed him that Israel had accepted the ceasefire proposal and requested Doha's assistance in convincing Tehran to agree to the deal, as reported by Reuters. However, moments after the announcement, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out a limited strike on an Iranian radar installation north of Tehran, following which Iran launched two ballistic missiles at Israel, as reported by The Times of Israel. Trump expressed his strong disapproval of Israel and Iran "violating the ceasefire", he announced, and said that the two countries have been fighting "so long and so hard that they don't know what the f*** they're doing." Shortly after, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office in a statement noted that after a conversation between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has "refrained" from further attacks on Iran. The conflict between Iran and Israel began on June 13 when Israel launched a large-scale airstrike targeting Iranian military and nuclear facilities under "Operation Rising Lion". Iran responded by launching "Operation True Promise 3", a campaign involving missile and drone attacks against Israel's infrastructure. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 days ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Three Boxer Fighters and an Unprecedented Abyss
Unprecedented scenes in this terrifying region. In the scorching Middle Eastern ring, three great boxers face off over patches of blood and lakes of rubble. The people of the region woke up to the news that US bombers had struck three Iranian nuclear facilities at dawn. The Israelis woke up to destruction they had never seen since the founding of the state in 1948. The people of Iran awoke to Israeli fighter jets having seized their skies, raining down missiles on military bases, radars, and launch sites, hunting down generals and nuclear scientists. The three boxers whose decisions will determine whether the region is secure and stable, as well as the health of the arteries that connect the region to the world. The story is bigger and more dangerous than Hormuz. Three men who can land heavy blows cannot back down after having gone too far. Three boxers, each seeking either to expand his country's influence or restore its greatness. The eldest of the boxers was born on June 14, 1946. That is, he happened to be born in the month that engendered more wars in the Middle East than any other. In another coincidence, he celebrated his birthday the day after Israeli raids on Iran. A few days ago, he entered the final year of his seventies, and his eighties will catch up to him in the White House. He has not fought in Vietnam or elsewhere. He chose to go into business and learned 'the art of the deal.' Profit is his obsession, and he hates to admit defeat. He understood the magic of the screen, making regular appearances before Americans, who memorized his famous line: 'You're fired.' Success in real estate fueled his desire for the keys to the White House. He jumped between parties before joining the Republicans, eventually managing to take over the party and win the race to the White House. A man who did not belong to the establishment became the decision-maker of the "only remaining superpower. "In his first term, Donald Trump made two dangerous decisions relevant to current development. The first was withdrawing from the nuclear agreement with Iran, and the second was the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad International Airport. Before his second term, however, he presented himself as a candidate eager to end wars and go down in history as a peace-maker with a Nobel Prize. In addressing Iran's nuclear program, he negotiated, set deadlines, and made terrifying threats. The result was what it was. His engagement was crowned by American raids on Iran's nuclear facilities. The second boxer was born on April 19, 1939. He is now sailing through the second half of his eighties. On June 4, 1989, he became known as the 'Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.' It is not a mandate achievement to be entrusted with Khomeini's legacy and granted unlimited powers in a country like Iran. Ali Khamenei stuck to the policy of exporting the revolution- a goal that has been enshrined into the Iranian constitution. He backed Qassem Soleimani's plans to surround Israel and the region with missiles and 'parallel armies.' Under Khamenei's leadership, Iran made gains in post-Saddam Iraq, post-Ali Abdullah Saleh Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon. However, its successes were destroyed by something like a hurricane after Yahya Sinwar's 'Flood.' The Syrian front collapsed, and Bashar al-Assad is watching the flames spread from his Russian exile, while Ahmad al-Sharaa has managed to steer Syria away from the line of fire. In a scene that must have been no less painful to the Supreme Leader, Lebanon's Hezbollah was deprived of Hassan Nasrallah. It has lost the capabilities needed to wage a new war against Israel, even in defense of Iran itself. It was difficult for Khamenei, now in the latter half of his eighties, to offer a major concession to Soleimani's killer in hopes of avoiding strikes from Nasrallah's assassin. The Supreme Leader has witnessed many unprecedented scenes recently: Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was killed in Tehran itself. Nasrallah was killed in Beirut, along with several of his top aides. Sinwar and other Hamas leaders were killed in Gaza. Ahmad al-Sharaa shook hands and received promises of aid, washing Syria's hands of the Iranian era. Then came Trump, offering Iran a future without Syria, without the militias, and without the insurance policy that it increasingly needs: a nuclear bomb, or being on the verge of obtaining one. Khamenei could not prevent the two other boxers from ganging up on his country. The third boxer was born in Tel Aviv on October 21, 1949. He is now in the latter half of his seventies. He has broken a number of records and exhausted the region. He has spent 17 years in the prime minister's office so far, outlasting all of his predecessors. He has also killed more Palestinian people and leaders than anyone else, and the same applies to senior figures in Lebanon's Hezbollah. For many years, he has been dreaming of taking his battle to its 'real theater,' of a direct clash with Iran. Indeed, he has long regarded Iran's nuclear program as an 'existential threat' and has repeatedly knocked on the White House door seeking American help to unleash a hurricane in Iran. It is clear that Benjamin Netanyahu managed to get into Trump's head. He has shaped the latter's calculations and pivots. The future of the region now hinges on the decisions of three heavyweight boxers. All of them have their historic legacies on their minds. The game is delicate and dangerous. If the Iranian boxer retaliates directly against the American boxer, the scale of the ensuing conflict could undermine the very foundations of the regime itself. It is hard to imagine that he could keep exchanging blows with the Israeli boxer without triggering American intervention. Addressing a small circle of confidants one day, Qassem Soleimani claimed that America is the thread that maintains the 'unjust balances' in the Middle East. 'This thread must be cut, and this is possible.' He also said that if Israel is an American aircraft carrier, then carriers can be sunk by piercing deep holes into them and pushing their inhabitants to lose faith in their army and government. Have the Israeli and American boxers now agreed to destroy the Iranian nuclear program and sever the thread that ties Tehran to its proxies? They are three great boxers. Unprecedented scenes. So who can pull the terrifying Middle East back from the brink?
New York Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Live Updates: Trump Contradicts Findings of U.S. Report on Iran's Nuclear Program
Reporters photographing a display for 'Midnight Hammer,' the name of the American operation to bomb Iran's nuclear sites, during a news conference on Sunday. A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran set back the country's nuclear program by only a few months, according to officials familiar with the findings. The strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, the officials said the early findings concluded. Before the attack, U.S. intelligence agencies had said that if Iran tried to rush to making a bomb, it would take about three months. After the U.S. bombing run and days of attacks by the Israeli Air Force, the report by the Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that the program had been delayed, but by less than six months. The report also said that much of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes, which destroyed little of the nuclear material. Iran may have moved some of that to secret locations. Some Israeli officials said they also believed that the Iranian government had maintained small covert enrichment facilities so it could continue its nuclear program in the event of an attack on the larger facilities. Other officials noted that the report found that the three nuclear sites — Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — had suffered moderate to severe damage, with the facility at Natanz damaged the most. It is not clear whether the Iranians will try to rebuild the programs. Former officials said that if Iran tried to quickly develop a bomb, it would be a relatively small and crude device. A miniaturized warhead would be far more difficult to produce, and the extent of damage to that more advanced research is not clear. Current and former military officials had cautioned before the strike that any effort to destroy the Fordo facility, which is buried more than 250 feet under a mountain, would probably require waves of airstrikes, with days or even weeks of pounding the same spots. American warplanes did hit the same spots at least twice on Saturday. B-2s dropped 12 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs — often referred to as 'bunker busters' — on Fordo, and six aboveground entry craters are now visible, according to Brian Carter, the Middle East portfolio manager at the American Enterprise Institute. But many military bomb experts believed that more than one day of strikes would be needed to complete the job. The initial damage assessment suggests that President Trump's claim that Iran's nuclear facilities were 'obliterated' was overstated. Congress had been set to be briefed on the strike on Tuesday, and lawmakers were expected to ask about the findings, but the session was postponed. Senators are now set be briefed on Thursday, and House members on Friday. Since the strikes, Mr. Trump has complained to advisers repeatedly about news reports that have questioned how much damage was done, said people with knowledge of the comments. He has also closely watched the public statements of other officials when they are asked about the damage to the nuclear facilities, they said. In a statement on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reiterated Mr. Trump's early assessment. 'Based on everything we have seen — and I've seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons,' he said. 'Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly.' Officials cautioned that the five-page classified report was only an initial assessment, and that others would follow as more information was collected and as Iran examined the three sites. One official said that the reports people in the administration had been shown were 'mixed' but that more assessments were yet to be done. But the Defense Intelligence Agency report indicates that the sites were not damaged as much as some administration officials had hoped, and that Iran retains control of almost all of its nuclear material, meaning if it decides to make a nuclear weapon it might still be able to do so relatively quickly. Officials interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because the findings of the report remain classified. The White House took issue with the assessment. Karoline Leavitt, a White House spokeswoman, said its findings were 'flat-out wrong.' 'The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program,' she said in a statement. 'Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.' Elements of the intelligence report were reported earlier by CNN. The strikes badly damaged the electrical system at Fordo, officials said. It is not clear how long it will take Iran to gain access to the underground buildings, repair the electrical systems and reinstall equipment that was moved. Image A satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies of the Fordo nuclear site. Credit... Maxar Technologies, via Associated Press There is no question that the bombing campaign 'badly, badly damaged' the three sites, Mr. Carter said. But initial Israeli damage assessments have also raised questions about the effectiveness of the strikes. Israeli defense officials said they had also collected evidence that the underground facilities at Fordo were not destroyed. Before the strike, the U.S. military gave officials a range of possibilities for how much the attack could set back the Iranian program. Those ranged from a few months on the low end to years on the higher end. Some officials cautioned that such estimates are imprecise, and that it is impossible to know how long Iran would exactly take to rebuild, if it chose to do so. Despite claims of the sites' obliteration by Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been more careful in describing the attack's effects. 'This operation was designed to severely degrade Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure,' General Caine said that at the Sunday news conference. The final battle damage assessment for the military operation against Iran, General Caine said on Sunday, standing next to Mr. Hegseth, was still to come. He said the initial assessment showed that all three sites 'sustained severe damage and destruction.' General Caine added that it was 'way too early' to assess how much of Iran's nuclear program remained. Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the former commander of Central Command, said in an interview, that he had 'a lot of confidence in the weapons systems used.' But he added: 'I'm not surprised that elements survived. That's why you do battle damage assessments, because everything can go as planned but there are still other factors.' At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Democrats also struck a more cautionary note. 'We still await final battle damage assessments,' said Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. Military officials had said that to do more significant damage to the underground sites, they would have to be hit with multiple strikes. But Mr. Trump announced he would stop the strikes after approving the first wave. U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded before the strikes that Iran had not made the decision to make a nuclear weapon, but possessed enough enriched uranium that if it decided to make a bomb, it could do so relatively quickly. While intelligence officials had predicted that a strike on Fordo or other nuclear facilities by the United States could prompt Iran to make a bomb, U.S. officials said they do not know yet if Iran would do so. Representatives of the Defense Intelligence Agency did not respond to requests for comment. David E. Sanger contributed reporting.
