Iran issues warning to 'gambler' Trump: We will end this war
A map showing the Strait of Hormuz and Iran is seen behind a 3D printed miniature of US President Donald Trump in this illustration taken June 22, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM — Iran said on Monday that the US attack on its nuclear sites expanded the range of legitimate targets for its armed forces and called US President Donald Trump a "gambler" for joining Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Since Trump joined Israel's campaign by dropping massive bunker-buster bombs on Iranian sites on Sunday morning, Iran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate.
But while it has continued to fire missiles at Israel, it has yet to take action against the United States itself, either by firing at US bases or by targeting the 20% of global oil shipments that pass near its coast at the mouth of the Gulf.
"Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it," Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, said on Monday in English at the end of a recorded video statement.
Iran and Israel traded another wave of air and missile strikes on Monday as the world braced for Tehran's response.
Trump's administration has repeatedly said that its aim is solely to destroy Iran's nuclear program, not to open a wider war.
But in a social media post on Sunday, Trump openly spoke of toppling the hardline clerical rulers who have been Washington's principal foes in the Middle East since Iran's 1979 revolution.
"It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" he wrote.
Experts surveying commercial satellite imagery said it appeared that the US attack had severely damaged the site of Iran's Fordow nuclear plant, built inside a mountain, and possibly destroyed it and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, although there was no independent confirmation.
Trump called the strike a "Bullseye!!!"
"Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran," he wrote. "The biggest damage took place far below ground level."
More Israeli strikes
Israel's airstrikes on Iran have met little resistance from Iranian defenses since Israel launched its surprise attack on June 13, killing many of Iran's top commanders.
The Israeli military said on Monday that about 20 jets had conducted a wave of strikes against military targets in western Iran and Tehran overnight. ?In Kermanshah, in western Iran, missile and radar infrastructure was targeted, and in Tehran a surface-to-air missile launcher was struck, it said.
Iranian news agencies reported air defenses had been activated in central Tehran districts, and Israeli air strikes had hit Parchin, the location of a military complex southeast of the capital.
Iran says more than 400 people have been killed in the Israeli attacks, mostly civilians, but has released few images of the damage since the initial days of the bombing. Tehran, a city of 10 million people, has largely emptied, with residents fleeing to the countryside to escape attacks.
Iran's retaliatory missile strikes on Israel have killed 24 people, all civilians, and injured hundreds, the first time a significant number of Iranian missiles have ever penetrated Israeli defenses.
The Israeli military said a missile launched from Iran in the early hours of Monday had been intercepted by Israeli defenses. Air raid sirens blared overnight in Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.
Limited retaliation
Beyond those missiles, Iran's ability to retaliate is far more limited than a few months ago, since Israel inflicted defeat on Iran's most feared regional proxy force, Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose downfall was swiftly followed by that of Iran's most powerful client ruler, Syria's Bashar al-Assad.
Iran's most effective threat to hurt the West would probably be to restrict global oil flows from the Gulf. Oil prices spiked on Monday at their highest since January. But they have not yet shot up to crisis levels, indicating that traders see a path out of the conflict that avoids serious disruption.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 0.5% to $76.64 a barrel as of 0830 GMT, after briefly jumping above $80 at the opening.
Iran's parliament has approved a move to close the Strait of Hormuz that leads into the Gulf, which would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Attempting to strangle the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite conflict with the US Navy's massive Fifth Fleet that patrols the Gulf from its base in Bahrain.
"It's economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
As Tehran weighed its options, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. The Kremlin has a strategic partnership with Iran, but also close links with Israel.
Speaking in Istanbul on Sunday, Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses and there would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated. TASS news agency later quoted him as saying Iran and Russia were coordinating their positions. — Reuters
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"Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it," Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, said on Monday in English at the end of a recorded video statement. Iran and Israel traded another wave of air and missile strikes on Monday as the world braced for Tehran's response. Trump's administration has repeatedly said that its aim is solely to destroy Iran's nuclear program, not to open a wider war. But in a social media post on Sunday, Trump openly spoke of toppling the hardline clerical rulers who have been Washington's principal foes in the Middle East since Iran's 1979 revolution. "It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" he wrote. Experts surveying commercial satellite imagery said it appeared that the US attack had severely damaged the site of Iran's Fordow nuclear plant, built inside a mountain, and possibly destroyed it and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, although there was no independent confirmation. Trump called the strike a "Bullseye!!!" "Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran," he wrote. "The biggest damage took place far below ground level." More Israeli strikes Israel's airstrikes on Iran have met little resistance from Iranian defenses since Israel launched its surprise attack on June 13, killing many of Iran's top commanders. The Israeli military said on Monday that about 20 jets had conducted a wave of strikes against military targets in western Iran and Tehran overnight. ?In Kermanshah, in western Iran, missile and radar infrastructure was targeted, and in Tehran a surface-to-air missile launcher was struck, it said. Iranian news agencies reported air defenses had been activated in central Tehran districts, and Israeli air strikes had hit Parchin, the location of a military complex southeast of the capital. Iran says more than 400 people have been killed in the Israeli attacks, mostly civilians, but has released few images of the damage since the initial days of the bombing. Tehran, a city of 10 million people, has largely emptied, with residents fleeing to the countryside to escape attacks. Iran's retaliatory missile strikes on Israel have killed 24 people, all civilians, and injured hundreds, the first time a significant number of Iranian missiles have ever penetrated Israeli defenses. The Israeli military said a missile launched from Iran in the early hours of Monday had been intercepted by Israeli defenses. Air raid sirens blared overnight in Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel. 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UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi was more cautious, saying while it was clear US airstrikes hit Iran's enrichment site at Fordow, it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow, the site producing the bulk of Iran's uranium refined to up to 60%, had been moved to an undisclosed location before the US attack. Vance told NBC the US was not at war with Iran but rather its nuclear program, and he thought the strikes "really pushed their program back by a very long time." Trump called the damage "monumental," in a separate social media post on Sunday, a day after saying he had "obliterated" Iran's main nuclear sites, but gave no details. Tehran has vowed to defend itself and responded with a volley of missiles at Israel that wounded scores of people and destroyed buildings in its commercial hub Tel Aviv. But, perhaps in an effort to avert all-out war with the superpower, it had yet to carry out its main threats of retaliation, to target US bases or choke off the quarter of the world's oil shipments that pass through its waters. Caine said the US military had increased protection of troops in the region, including in Iraq and Syria. The United States already has a sizeable force in the Middle East, with nearly 40,000 troops in the region, including air defense systems, fighter aircraft and warships that can detect and shoot down enemy missiles. Reuters reported last week the Pentagon had started to move some aircraft and ships from bases in the Middle East that may be vulnerable to any potential Iranian attack. Not open-ended With his unprecedented decision to bomb Iran's nuclear sites, directly joining Israel's air attack on its regional arch foe, Trump has done something he had long vowed to avoid – intervene militarily in a major foreign war. There were sporadic anti-war demonstrations on Sunday afternoon in some US cities, including New York City and Washington. It was unclear why Trump chose to act on Saturday. At the press conference, Hegseth said there was a moment in time when Trump "realized that it had to be a certain action taken in order to minimize the threat to us and our troops." After Trump disputed her original assessment, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday said the US had intelligence that should Iran decide to do so, it could build a nuclear weapon in weeks or months, an assessment disputed by some lawmakers and independent experts. US officials say they do not believe Iran had decided to make a bomb. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked on CBS' "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" whether the US saw intelligence that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ordered nuclear weaponization, said: "That's irrelevant." Hegseth, who said the Pentagon notified lawmakers about the operation after US aircraft were out of Iran, said the strikes against Iran were not open-ended. Rubio also said no more strikes were planned, unless Iran responded, telling CBS: "We have other targets we can hit, but we achieved our objective. There are no planned military operations right now against Iran – unless they mess around." —Reuters
