Hours of fire in the Middle East: Explosions in major capitals. All-out US offensive and Trump's plan new leaders in Iran
Almost a week into the war, Israel launched massive attacks on Tehran, while Iran retaliated with drones and missiles towards Israel. The US and Britain are stepping up the offensive, while seven countries in the region reported explosions overnight, according to CNN.
Israel announced the start of a “large-scale series of attacks” against key regime infrastructure in Tehran, while powerful explosions were reported in the center of the Iranian capital. In addition to the attacks in Iran, explosions and military incidents targeted six other countries in the region.
In Israel, a hybrid drone-missile attack caused explosions over the center of the country, while in Lebanon, southern Beirut was rocked by Israeli bombing that targeted Hezbollah infrastructure.
The situation also escalated in the Gulf states, where Saudi Arabia intercepted drones and missiles over the capital Riyadh, and in Bahrain, a hotel and two residential buildings in Manama were hit, causing fires.
In Qatar, air defenses shot down drones targeting the US Al-Udeid base, while Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates activated interceptor systems to stop missiles that violated their airspace.
In this context, the US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, stated in a press conference with President Donald Trump that “firepower on Tehran is about to increase dramatically”.
Hegseth stressed that the UK's decision to allow the use of the Diego Garcia military base would facilitate the escalation of attacks, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed the dispatch of four additional Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar.
Trump's plan for Tehran
At the same time, Donald Trump gave details about his intentions regarding a new leadership in Tehran.
“We want to go in and clean everything up,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview. “We don't want someone to rebuild the country in 10 years.”
“We have a few people who I think would do a good job,” he continued, though he did not name any names.
Trump said he was taking steps to ensure these people would survive the war, according to NBC News. “Yes, we are following them,” he said. In another interview with Axios on Thursday, the White House leader said he must be “involved in the appointment” of Iran's next leader.
