Trump demands Iran's 'unconditional surrender'

US president insists Tehran must end its nuclear programme

- BEL TREW ANDY GREGORY DAVID MADDOX

Donald Trump has warned Iran to make a deal "before there is nothing left" and issued a chilling threat: he knows where the supreme leader is hiding, but "we are not going to take him out, at least not for now".

Mr Trump demanded a "real end" to the bloody conflict with Israel, which is now entering its sixth day, and told Tehran there was still time to end the war if it delivered "unconditional surrender".

After launching Operation Rising Lion last week with an unprecedented attack on Iranian nuclear sites and top military figures, Israel claimed yesterday to have the Iranian military leadership "on the run".

Warning that the operation - which marks the largest attack on Iran since the 1980s - was "not over yet", Israel said an overnight attack on Tehran's command centre killed Iran's new wartime chief of staff, Ali Shadmani - who had only been in the role for four days.

As terrified Iranians fled Tehran and other areas being pounded by the Israeli air force, civilians told The Independent they were trying to stockpile supplies and take the risk of remaining in the country, while others were making journeys of hundreds of kilometres to borders with countries like Armenia.

Israel's ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, insisted his country's strikes on Iran signalled "the war to end wars" and would "engender peace in the Middle East", as he told Merit TV that Mr Trump was not putting pressure on Israel to halt its offensive.

"We've pulled off a number of surprises - when the dust settles - you're going to see some surprises on Thursday night and Friday, that will make the beeper operation almost seem simple," the senior Israeli diplomat said, referring to the pager attack on Hezbollah.