Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Iranian nation “is not one to surrender,” a day after US President Donald Trump called on the country to surrender unconditionally.

“Those who are wise and familiar with Iran, its people, and its history never speak to this nation in the language of threats,” he warned.

After Trump on Tuesday said Khamenei was “an easy target” for the US and Israel, he then ramped up his demands on Truth Social: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

In his address, Khamenei said “the Americans should know that any military intervention by the United States will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage.”

Iranians in Tehran said they were living through “a nightmare” after Israel’s barrage of strikes overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.

The Israeli military said it had launched a wave of strikes involving more than 50 aircraft on Iranian centrifuge and missile production sites overnight.

All Iranians who spoke to CNN declined to be named for fear of their safety.

Another Iranian man, 32, said that “after the calm of the afternoon there was a barrage of bombs,” adding that there were between “30 to 40 explosions about 7 kilometers (4 miles) from our house.”

“The sound was insane, and the street was destroyed,” he said, adding that he and his family are still trying to decide whether to leave their home.

Residents also recounted a mood of suspicion among authorities in Tehran.

Another Iranian man said he was filming the empty streets in Tehran, when he was stopped by an undercover police officer who “asked for ID and looked through my phone.”

Satellite images obtained by CNN show significant damage to Iran’s Tabriz missile base and the Mashhad airfield.

Before-and-after imagery released by satellite company Maxar of the Tabriz missile complex in northwest Iran on June 17 shows entire storage buildings razed to the ground, and large craters on the roads within the facility. Several vehicle tunnels were also struck and heavily damaged at the site, according to the pictures.

At the Mashhad airport, in the northeast of the country, an Iranian tanker aircraft was hit and completely destroyed, the images reveal. Only the tail of the plane is visible among charred debris in the imagery, also from June 17, after the strike.

Israel launched a wave of attacks involving more than 50 aircraft on Iranian centrifuge and missile production sites overnight, according to the Israeli military early Wednesday.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency also claimed overnight that Iran launched Fattah hypersonic missiles toward Israel. CNN cannot independently verify the claims.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has praised Israel for doing the “dirty work for all of us” by striking Iran and preventing it from building a nuclear weapon.

In an interview with Germany’s ZDF broadcaster on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, Merz was asked if he agreed that Israel was doing the world’s “dirty work” against a regime that in the West is viewed as a “disruptive” force.

Merz said he was “grateful” for the interviewer using the term “dirty work.”

Merz said attacks like the one launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 “would never have been possible” without the regime in Iran.

“I can only say I have the greatest respect for what the Israeli military and government has had the courage to do,” Merz said. The alternative, he claimed, would have been many more “months and years of this regime’s terror – and then possibly with a nuclear weapon in its hand.”

Due to its role in the Holocaust, Germany believes it has a special responsibility to protect Jewish life and sees Israel’s security as a “Staatsräson” — a “reason of state.” But German leaders are often criticized for being too lenient towards Israel’s foreign policy decisions.

Merz did, however, issue a rare public rebuke of Israel last month, saying he was “dismayed by the fate of the civilian population” in Gaza.

Iranian state TV aired footage on Wednesday that it reported as showing an Israeli Hermes drone that was shot down in Iran’s central Isfahan province.

In the video, a reporter stands in front of a drone that crashed into the ground and sustained heavy damage. CNN could not independently verify the footage.

The Israel Defense Forces said that a surface-to-air missile had been fired towards an Israeli Air Force drone, and that the drone then “fell in Iran.”

No injuries were reported and there is no risk of an information breach, the IDF said.

Nearly 800 Chinese nationals have been moved from Iran to “safe areas,” a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said, with more than 1,000 others already in the evacuation process.

The spokesperson said neighboring countries such as Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, are assisting Chinese citizens at border crossings and helping them transit back to China.

“Some Chinese citizens have already been safely transferred from Israel,” the spokesperson also said.

On the sixth day of conflict between Israel and Iran, countries around the world are urgently advising their nationals in the region on how to navigate the escalating situation. While some nations are working to evacuate their citizens, others are advising them to shelter in place.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council claiming that Iran has a “strategic plan” to eliminate his country, saying Israel is determined to defend itself.

“Iran has a strategic plan to eliminate Israel. Israel cannot and will not accept the threat of extermination!” Sa’ar wrote on X when sharing a copy of the letter.

The decision to attack was taken “as a measure of last resort,” the letter said.

Over 30 US military aerial refueling tankers have been dispatched to the Middle East in the past few days, according to two US officials.

If President Donald Trump gives orders for the US to become involved the Israel-Iran conflict, the tankers could be used to support Israeli fighter jet missions against Iran with midair refueling capabilities.

Without this ability, Israel’s warplanes have a limited time they can linger over Iran, searching for targets before heading back to Israel to gas up. While the Israeli Air Force has a handful of tankers, they cannot support the number of jets Israel is sending over Iran, which saw as many as 200 in the first strikes of the conflict, according to the Israeli military.

More flying time over Iran could be especially important if the Israeli jets are looking to strike mobile ballistic missile launchers, which can fire, hide, reload and then reemerge when there are no Israeli aircraft overhead.

Tankers could also support US Air Force B-2 bombers if Trump orders them into action to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. In past conflicts in the region, the B-2s have deployed from their only base in Missouri and would need aerial refueling to stay airborne for the round-trip.

Aerial tankers could not only support B-2 and B-52 bombers if deployed, but also other US military aircraft from its bases in the region and aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean, should they be ordered into the fight.

Since Israel began its concerted attack on Iran, calls for regime change have grown louder, with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raising the possibility of targeting Tehran’s all-powerful leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranians have firsthand experience with the US enforcing a regime change in their country.

Here’s what happened:

In 1953, the US helped stage a coup to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

He had pledged to nationalize the country’s oil fields – a move the US and Great Britain saw as a serious blow, given their dependence on oil from the Middle East.

The move to nationalize was seen as popular in Iran and a victory for the then-USSR.

The coup’s goal was to support Iran’s monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to rule as Shah of Iran, and appoint a new prime minister – Gen. Fazlollah Zahedi.

Before the coup, the CIA, along with the British Secret Intelligence Service, helped foment anti-Mossadegh fervor using propaganda. In 1953, the CIA and SIS helped pull pro-Shah forces together and organized large protests against Mossadegh, which were soon joined by the army.

To provide Zahedi, the country’s new prime minister, with some stability, the CIA covertly made $5,000,000 available within two days of him taking power, documents showed.

: In 2013, declassified CIA documents were released, confirming the agency’s involvement for the first time. But the US role was known: Former President Barack Obama acknowledged involvement in the coup in 2009.

After toppling Mossadegh, the US strengthened its support for Pahlavi to rule as Shah. Iranians resented the foreign interference, fueling anti-American sentiment in the country for decades.

The Shah became a close ally of the US. But in the late 1970s, millions of Iranians took to the streets against his regime, which they viewed as corrupt and illegitimate. Secular protesters opposed his authoritarianism, while Islamist protesters opposed his modernization agenda.

The Shah was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution, which ended the country’s western-backed monarchy and ushered in the start of the Islamic Republic and clerical rule.

Since Israel launched strikes on Iran last Friday, Iran has launched more than 400 missiles and hundreds of drones towards Israel, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

The strikes have hit 40 sites across Israel, the office said, resulting in nearly 19,000 damage claims submitted to the tax authority.

So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel, more than 800 have been wounded and over 3,800 people have been evacuated from their homes, the office said.

At least 224 people have been killed in Iran since Friday, according to Iranian authorities.

The United Arab Emirates has exempted Iranian citizens from overstay fines amid regional airspace closures since the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated, according to state media.

The exemption applies to both residents and visitors, regardless of their visa type, according to the report.

Iran and Israel’s exchange of aerial attacks have forced multiple countries in the region to temporarily close their airspaces in recent days, leaving flights canceled and tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

Israel launched a wave of strikes involving more than 50 aircraft on Iranian centrifuge and missile production sites overnight, according to the military early Wednesday.

Among those targets were sites used to manufacture both surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, the military said.

Israel also said it had attacked a centrifuge production facility in Tehran in order to set back Iran’s “nuclear weapons development program.”

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Wednesday that Israel had hit two centrifuge production facilities in Iran: the TESA Karaj workshop and the Tehran Research Center.

According to the IAEA, both sites were previously under IAEA monitoring and verification as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

US military and intelligence officials have long said that the US and Israel often differ on how to interpret information on Iran’s nuclear program.

As recently as March, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified that the US intelligence community had assessed that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had not authorized the resumption of the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.

This post has been updated with additional information.

There’s an awkward tension at the heart of the Kremlin’s relationship with the Middle East.

On the one hand, Russian alliances and economic influence there have traditionally been strong. On the other, as one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers, Russia tends to profit when things in the energy-rich region go awry and the markets get spooked.

On the face of it, Russia has so much to lose.

Iran has been a particularly useful “strategic partner” for the Kremlin, not only sharing a disdain for Western values and influence, but also supplying the Russian military with vast squadrons of Shahed aerial drones, enabling the relentless bombardment of Ukraine.

Much of that drone production has moved to Russia. But with Ukraine’s own drones now striking Russian production facilities deep behind the frontlines, that once reliable Iranian supply may be missed.

There’s also a faint but painful sense of humiliation for the Kremlin to have to stand by and watch another key Middle Eastern ally under ferocious bombardment, unable or unwilling to step in.

A collapse of the Iranian regime would add Iran to the growing Kremlin list of lost Middle Eastern alliances and client states, including Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Moscow has issued strongly worded statements, including that the strikes were creating “unacceptable threats to international security.” But Russia’s supposed alliance with Iran never extended to defending the Islamic Republic and there has been no Kremlin offer of any military support.

And the conflict is opening the door to diplomatic opportunities for a Kremlin that has faced years of international isolation.

Now, the Kremlin has an issue on which it can jointly and productively cooperate with the US, and possibly emerge as an indispensable partner in claming the region.

The US Navy is expected to have two aircraft carrier strike groups, one led by the USS Nimitz and the other by the USS Carl Vinson, available for contingencies in the Middle East.

The USS Nimitz group left Southeast Asian waters on Monday to head to the region where it would join the USS Vinson group, which has been in the Middle East as part of a roughly seven-month deployment, according to the US officials.

Here’s a look at what a US carrier strike group brings to bear:

Both Nimitz and Vinson are Nimitz-class carriers, powered by two nuclear reactors. With a length of almost 1,100 feet and a displacement of almost 100,000 tons, they are among the biggest warships in the world, accommodating a crew of more than 5,000 people.

They can carry a mix of more than 60 aircraft including F-35 stealth fighter jets (on the Vinson only), F/A-18 fighter jets, EA-18 electronic warfare jets, E-2 airborne early warning and control planes, and helicopters.

Joining the carrier in the strike group are guided-missile destroyers and/or guided-missile cruisers, which are responsible for the group’s air defense and anti-submarine warfare.

The destroyers and cruisers are also armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles for hitting targets hundreds of miles from the carrier group.

A fast-attack submarine, which can also fire Tomahawk cruise missiles, often works with a strike group, but the US Navy rarely reveals its specific sub movements and locations.

In Israel’s Rambam hospital, one of several in the country that have moved some operations underground as Iranian strikes hit the city of Haifa this week, a woman gave birth to triplets on Monday, according to Reuters.

Woman gives birth to triplets in underground Israeli hospital

00:44 - Source: CNN

Woman gives birth to triplets in underground Israeli hospital

00:44

It might be happening again. A president is being driven by events, fear of proliferating weapons of mass destruction, and the need to back up his own words, toward a shock-and-awe entry into a Middle East conflict with no guaranteed way out.

Expectations are growing in Washington that Donald Trump will soon heed Israeli calls to try to strike a decisive blow against Iran’s nuclear program, using bunker-busting weapons that only the US can deliver.

The president’s rhetoric took a sharp turn following the apparent success of Israel’s early barrage that wiped out top military leaders and nuclear scientists and severely degraded Iran’s capacity to defend itself.

Trump is warming to the idea of using US military assets to strike Iranian nuclear sites and souring on his previous unsuccessful attempt to settle the issue through talks with Iran. As always with Trump, we must ask whether his tough talk is for real. Perhaps he is trying to bully Iran back to diplomacy and the “unconditional surrender” he demanded on social media.

Trump may be on the brink of a huge gamble that would repudiate his own political principles.

His own scathing contempt for US presidents who pushed regime change played a huge role in the former reality star’s dive into politics. If he goes to war in Iran, Trump will be ignoring a loud sector of his MAGA movement. The “America First” president would become the kind of interventionist he despised.

Still, there is a loophole in Trump’s isolationism. He’s always insisted that Iran, given its threats to eradicate Israel and sworn enmity with the US, would never be allowed to get a nuclear weapon.

Israel says it has launched an initiative to repatriate citizens stranded abroad due to flight cancellations, with the first flight landing at Ben Gurion Airport Wednesday.

Last Friday, in response to the intensifying conflict with Iran, Israel declared a state of special emergency, closing its airspace, shutting schools and banning social gatherings.

The first repatriation flight landed Wednesday morning from Larnaca, Cyprus, the statement said. The passengers “underwent an expedited process of entering Israel and collecting their luggage.”

For over 35 years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ruled Iran with an iron grip

02:40 - Source: CNN

For over 35 years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ruled Iran with an iron grip

02:40

As the conflict between Israel and Iran intensifies, both US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have raised the possibility of targeting Tehran’s all-powerful leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A direct attack on Khamenei would plunge the region into uncharted territory.

One of the most powerful men in the Middle East, Khamenei has ruled Iran with an iron fist for nearly four decades, facing off against the US and Israel while crushing dissent at home and advancing Iran’s controversial nuclear program.

As supreme leader, he wields control of the government, judiciary and military in the nation of 90 million, as well as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the powerful Quds force, a clandestine IRGC unit that oversees proxies including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Born in 1939 in Mashhad, Iran’s holiest city, Khamenei was the protégé of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, one of the main leaders of the revolution that toppled Iran’s pro-Western monarchy in 1979 and established the Islamic Republic.

He was also a target for Khomeini’s opponents and escaped an assassination attempt in 1981 that left his right arm useless.

Khamenei became supreme leader following Khomeini’s death in 1989. Since then, he has expanded Iran’s influence far beyond its own borders, positioning it as a regional power to be reckoned with.

For more than 30 years under Khamenei’s leadership, Iran avoided direct conflicts with its adversaries, entrenching itself with a network of allied militant groups spread throughout the region known as the “Axis of Resistance.”

That changed when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel’s war in Gaza and attacks on Hezbollah, one of Iran’s most prized proxies, have emboldened Israel and shattered the image of Iran as an impenetrable power, culminating in last week’s unprecedented strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities and top military leadership.

The sun is rising in the Middle East as Israel and Iran trade missile strikes on a sixth day of conflict.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a warning at dawn on social media, telling Israel: “The battle begins.”

Hours earlier, US President Donald Trump called the supreme leader an “easy target” and said that America’s “patience is wearing thin.” He also demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”

Trump is growing increasingly warm to using US military assets to strike Iranian nuclear facilities and souring on the idea of a diplomatic solution to end Israel’s escalating conflict with Iran, two officials told CNN.

Here are the conflict’s latest developments:

CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh reports on how the US could get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran while the countries continue trading strikes for a sixth day, with civilians in flashpoint areas facing waves of attacks.