President Donald Trump has called for ‘unconditional surrender’ from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a bizarre statement as the conflict in the Middle East rages on.
The 79-year-old has claimed that the US is in ‘total control’ of the sky above Iran, as worries mount that the nation could be just days away from creating a nuclear weapon.
Today (June 17) marks the fifth day of airstrikes being exchanged between Israel and Iran, with the former having launched a large-scale drone assault on nuclear sites throughout the latter’s country.
Israel targeted three key nuclear facilities – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – with satellite images suggesting the former two locations have been badly damaged.
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the strikes were ‘a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival’.
Now, President Trump has taken to Truth Social to make a series of bizarre statements, suggesting that the US could intervene if Iran revealed a nuclear bomb.
“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. 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.’ Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA,” he wrote today.
Before later adding: “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.
“But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Following up with: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
His powerful statements come despite the Republican insisting that the US is not involved in the conflict.
President Donald Trump has issued a scathing, yet bizarre, message about the Supreme Leader of Iran on Truth Social (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Iran and weapons-grade uranium
Iran has been accused of attempting to develop a nuclear warhead, mining large quantities of uranium before enriching it to 60 percent – with Iran having no purpose to enrich the material to such a high percentage.
For those unaware, natural uranium contains a percentage of roughly 0.7 percent of the isotope uranium-235, which on its own isn’t usable as fuel for nuclear reactors – and needs to be enriched to 3.5 percent by removing the isotope uranium-238.
However, as previously mentioned, Iran has been producing and storing enriched uranium at 60 percent on mass – which would mean they’ve done most of the work needed to enrich it to weapon-grade uranium (WGU), which is typically deemed at 90 percent.
Smoke rises from locations targeted in Tehran on the third day (Sunday) of Israel’s waves of strikes against Iran (Khoshiran / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by KHOSHIRAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
How close is Iran to a nuclear weapon?
The Institute for Science and International Security, a non-profit watchdog, believes the breakout time before Iran has the facilities to produce a nuclear weapon is at zero percent, and estimates that it has enough highly enriched uranium that it could create more than a dozen nuclear bombs in less than two months – if the uranium was enriched to 90 percent.
Its monitoring report issued on Monday (June 9) stated that one of Iran’s factories could produce weapons-grade uranium (WGU) in just days.
Chillingly, it read: “Iran could produce its first quantity of 25 kg of WGU in Fordow in as little as two to three days.
“Breaking out in both Fordow and the Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP), the two facilities together could produce enough WGU for 11 nuclear weapons in the first month, enough for 15 nuclear weapons by the end of the second month, 19 by the end of the third month, 21 by the end of the fourth month, and 22 by the end of the fifth month.”
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