Trump claims Iran ‘surrendered’ to neighbours, pledges ‘very hard’ strikes

US President Donald Trump has just released a statement on his Truth Social platform threatening that Iran “will be hit very hard” today.

Trump argued that Iran had apologised and “surrendered” to its Middle East neighbours and also “promised that it will not shoot at them anymore”.

He argued that “this promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack.”

As we’ve reported, Pezeshkian said in a prerecorded message that was released earlier today that Iran’s interim leadership council had approved stopping attacks on neighbouring countries – unless an attack on Iran originated from there. It was followed by an IRGC statement warning that all US-Israel military bases and interests will be considered “primary targets” if attacks on Iran continue.

In his social media message, Trump also pledged more attacks Saturday (March 7).

“Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time,” he wrote.

On the other hand, Hamidreza Gholamzadeh, director of Iranian think tank DiploHouse, says Trump’s interpretation of Pezeshkian’s comments as a “surrender” is “totally false”.

What the Iranian president in his pre-recorded video message, in which he said Iran would halt targeting neighbouring countries unless attacked from there, was actually “the same thing that was in place for the past seven days – Iran is not attacking or targeting its neighbours, Iran is attacking American or Israeli assets in the region”.

Gholamzadeh said Iran is asking its neighbours “that they stop cooperating with the United States or the Israeli regime and do not allow them to use their land or their airspace to attack Iran”, describing the request as as something “very normal” and “legal”.