US President Donald Trump has demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” dramatically escalating rhetoric a week into a conflict launched by the United States alongside Israel.
Trump made the demand in a post on social media on Friday, hours after Iran’s president indicated that several countries had begun mediation efforts, one of the first signs of diplomacy aimed at ending the fighting.
“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” the US president wrote.
He added that once a new and “acceptable” leader was selected in Iran, the United States and its allies would help rebuild the country’s economy.
The statement raised questions that prospects for a swift diplomatic settlement may be slipping further away.
Financial markets reacted sharply, with European stocks falling soon after the post and Wall Street opening greatly lower.
Earlier, Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview that he wanted the right to help select Iran’s next supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war.
Meanwhile, the conflict widened on the ground as Israel expanded military operations in Lebanon.
Israeli forces launched heavy strikes on Beirut on Friday after ordering a large-scale evacuation of the capital’s southern suburbs.
Israel said the attack targeted a command centre used by the naval unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as well as facilities it claimed were linked to the Hezbollah militant group.
There was no immediate response from either Iran’s Revolutionary Guard or Hezbollah.
Israeli forces also reported launching a new wave of air strikes inside Iran, including an attack involving around 50 warplanes on a bunker believed to still be used by Iran’s leadership beneath the destroyed compound of the late Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on X that unnamed countries had started mediation efforts but provided no details.
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“Let’s be clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region, but we have not the slightest hesitation in defending the dignity and authority of our country,” he wrote.
The widening conflict has forced large numbers of civilians to flee, according to reports.
In Lebanon, the Norwegian Refugee Council said around 300,000 people had been displaced in the past four days.
Jamal Seifeddin, a 43-year-old resident who fled Beirut’s southern suburbs, said many families were now sleeping in the open in the city centre.
“We’re sleeping here in the streets, some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach. No one even brought a blanket,” he said.
Inside Israel, air defence systems were activated repeatedly to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and drones.
Several Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, also reported fresh drone and missile activity in the region.
The Israeli military said it had destroyed roughly 80 per cent of Iran’s air-defence systems and disabled more than 60 per cent of its missile launchers during the first week of fighting.
The Washington Post also reported that Russia had begun supplying Iran with intelligence on the locations of US warships and aircraft in the Middle East after Iran’s ability to track American forces was weakened.
At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth would meet leading defence contractors on Friday as the administration considers accelerating weapons production.
Leavitt revealed the United States had sufficient stockpiles for the campaign against Iran, which officials estimate could last between four and six weeks.
According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, at least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran since the US and Israel launched strikes on 28 February.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed 123 people and wounded 683.
Iranian strikes have killed 11 people in Israel since the conflict began.
US military investigators are also examining whether American forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school on the first day of the war that reportedly killed dozens of children.