01 March,2026 08:49 AM IST | Washington | Agencies
People watch as smoke rises on the skyline after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday. PIC/PTI
US and Israel launched a major attack across Iran on Saturday. US President Donald Trump urged Iranians to take cover during the strikes, but then, "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take." It was an appeal that suggested the allies could be seeking to end the country's theocracy after decades of tensions. He claimed Iran has continued to develop its nuclear program and plans to develop missiles to reach
the US.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed that, "Our joint operation will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands."
The death toll in an Israeli-US strike on a girls' school in southern Iran rises to at least 51 people killed, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. At least 45 others had been wounded in the attack in Minab in Iran's Hormozgan province.
Kuwait's national news agency says the Gulf country's air defenses successfully repelled what it called a "heinous Iranian attack" earlier in the day. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday condemned what he described as "unwarranted attacks" on Iran. Russia's Foreign Ministry called the strikes "a pre-planned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent UN member state."
European Union leaders issued a joint statement Saturday, calling for restraint and engaging in regional diplomacy. "Ensuring nuclear safety and preventing any actions that could further escalate tensions or undermine the global non-proliferation regime is of critical importance," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa.
"The military escalation in the Middle East is igniting a dangerous chain reaction across the region, with potentially devastating consequences for civilians," International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric said. Spoljaric said civilian infrastructure, such as schools, homes and hospitals, must be spared from attacks. "In international armed conflicts, international humanitarian law, in particular all four Geneva Conventions, apply," she said, referring to a key international guidebook on the rules of war. "Medical personnel and first responders must be allowed to carry out their work safely."
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