BREAKING: US and Israel Illegally Attack Iran
In launching the strikes, Trump told Iranians: 'When we are finished, take over your government.'
President Donald Trump unilaterally declared war on Iran after launching a joint attack with Israel, thrusting the United States into a needless, illegal conflict that could endanger Americans and further destabilize the region.
Several missiles struck Iran’s capital Saturday morning near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Reuters reported, citing an unnamed official, that Khamenei is not in Tehran and has been transferred to a secure location. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later said Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian are alive “as far as I know.”
Iranian state media, citing local authorities, reported that at least 57 people, including dozens of school children, were killed, and scores more were wounded in a strike that hit a girls’ school in Minab city in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province. Posting a photo of the school, Araghchi said on social media that “these crimes against the Iranian People will not go unanswered.”
Iranian media also reported huge blasts in Qom, a holy city to Shia Muslims, as well as in the cities of Karaj and Kermanshah.
According to an Israeli official cited by Reuters, the bombing had been planned for months in coordination with the US, and the attack date – which coincides with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan – had been decided weeks ago.
Trump confirmed the US had begun “major combat operations” and claimed the objective was to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats” from Iran.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties – that often happens in war – but we’re doing this, not for now, we’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission,” Trump said in an eight-minute video posted to social media.
Speaking directly to Iranians, he said, “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
A spokesperson for Israel’s defense minister claimed the bombing was a “preemptive strike” to “remove threats against the State of Israel.”
Tehran retaliated by launching missiles at US and Israeli targets in the region. A US Navy base in Bahrain was reportedly hit.
Major Buildup, Failed Talks
Ahead of the attack, Trump amassed a military presence in the region that appeared to signify preparation for an extended assault, including sending the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. The Pentagon used the Ford’s warplanes in its January attack on Venezuela to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro. It also repositioned tankers and cargo aircraft from bases in Europe to the Middle East. According to the Wall Street Journal, the surge of jet fighters and support aircraft is the greatest amount of air power in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
While the US maintains a massive military advantage with an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 troops in the region, Iran and its proxies could potentially hit US targets in the region and roil oil markets and global trade.
Saturday’s attack comes eight months after Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran that saw death toll estimates at more than 1,000 people. Trump dragged the US into that war, striking three nuclear facilities despite his administration’s own assessment just months earlier that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
The White House attempted to use the same nuclear weapons rationale ahead of the bombings, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt had claimed that Trump was hoping for a diplomatic solution over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran and the US held talks in recent weeks, but they made no breakthroughs after Trump issued several ultimatums to strike Iran if there was no immediate deal.
Trump has also openly called for Khamenei’s ouster in recent weeks, saying just two weeks ago that regime change would be “the best thing that could happen.”
Araghchi still pushed for diplomatic negotiation, telling MS NOW that “there is no military solution,” but Iran is “prepared for war” if talks fail.
Trump’s public justification ahead of the attack underscores the fact that he had no legal basis for it. Iran’s supposed nuclear program did not pose any immediate threat. The self-proclaimed peace president is also acting without a declaration of war by Congress or a UN Security Council resolution authorizing force.
In a show of force last week, Iran announced it temporarily closed the Strait of Hormuz – a key international passage that transports one-fifth of the world’s oil – for live fire drills. Khamenei, for his part, said that “the strongest army in the world might sometimes receive such a slap that it cannot get back on its feet.”
Trump has renewed threats to bomb Iran since December, when mass anti-regime protests broke out in response to the nation’s floundering economy, including the collapse of the currency and skyrocketing inflation (events not helped by the ongoing US and UN sanction regime).
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Check out more from Zeteo:
You documented the illegality. Let me add the behavioral architecture: This wasn’t failed diplomacy, it was theater. Trump presented maximalist demands Iran couldn’t accept, held talks one day before strikes, then executed predetermined regime change.
The negotiations were positioning cover while amassing the largest air power since 2003 Iraq.
The November 2025 NSS explicitly outlined this playbook: spheres of influence, regional champions, regime change as doctrine.
Venezuela got narcoterrorism pretext, Iran gets nuclear proliferation. Same mechanism: construct threat, demand capitulation, bomb when they negotiate.
Trump telling Iranians “take over your government” while killing thousands isn’t liberation, it’s imperialism with cruise missiles.
Constitutional crisis: One man launched war without congressional authorization, announced it via Truth Social from Mar-a-Lago, senators learned from TV. The machinery enabling Trump’s illegal war: complicit institutions, normalized executive overreach, Congress as spectator; makes the next war inevitable even after he’s gone.
—Johan
We've given nearly $20 billion in military aid to Israel since Trump's criminal regime took office and now, for the second time, we're bombing Iran to satisfy genocidal Netanyahu. Any member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, who has taken money from AIPAC is complicit in this illegal war. But when all is said and done, what Trump is doing is showing off for his base of under-educated racists and billionaire tech bros. Everyone, including Iran, has known for weeks that this attack was coming, just as they knew the previous attack (which Trump falsely claimed had "decimated" Iran's nuclear program) was planned. The Iranian government was able to protect their nuclear facilities then and were able to move the Ayatollah this time. This is a show, but it's one that likely will result in U.S. and Israeli military casualties. And the inevitable protests here will be one more step toward giving Trump justification (at least in his and MAGA's minds) to declare a national emergency or martial law so he can affect the outcome of the midterm elections.