Israel pounds Iran and Lebanon’s capitals as Trump says war aim is to “clean out” Tehran regime

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed in a brief post on social media Friday that some, unidentified countries had “begun mediation efforts” as the U.S.-Israeli war against his nation continued apace. 

“Let’s be clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region yet we have no hesitation in defending our nation’s dignity & sovereignty. Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict,” Pezeshkian said.

Pezeshkian, long considered a relatively moderate membership of Iran’s government, did not provide any further detail, and the country’s military commanders have issued statements in recent days suggesting no interest in a negotiated end to the war. 

President Trump told NBC News on Thursday that the objective of the joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran was to “go in and clean out” the country’s theocratic leadership. He added, however, that he had some ideas about who within Iran might make a “good leader,” and that the U.S. was taking unspecified measures to keep those individuals alive during the war.

Several Gulf nations were directly involved in brokering indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, which were abruptly cut off when the U.S. and Israel launched their attack on Feb. 28. 

CBS News has sought comment from officials in Doha, Qatar, which was a key broker in those talks, along with contacts in Tehran and Oman’s capital Muscat, about Pezeshkian’s claim of new “mediation efforts.”

The Iranian Army claimed Friday to be unleashing “a large volume of Army attack drones” that it said were “hitting U.S. positions” in Kuwait.

“Over the past hours, various types of attack drones from the Ground Forces carried out concentrated strikes on U.S. bases in Kuwait,” the army said in a post on social media, adding that the “attacks will continue in the coming hours.”

There were no immediate reports of incoming drones in Kuwait, but the small U.S. Gulf ally has been struck repeatedly by Iranian drones and missiles since the war began almost a week ago — including the drone strike on the first day of the conflict that killed six U.S. troops at a military installation. 

Four men were arrested in the U.K. capital Friday on suspicion of spying for Iran, according to the London Metropolitan Police. Counterterror officers apprehended the men — one Iranian and three dual British-Iranian nationals — in the early hours of Friday morning in the northern suburbs of Barnet and Watford, the force said.

The investigation centred on “suspected surveillance of locations and individuals linked to the Jewish community” in London, according to a press release.

“Today’s arrests are part of a long-running investigation and part of our ongoing work to disrupt malign activity where we suspect it.,” said Commander Helen Flanagan, the Met’s counterterror chief.

The men were 55, 52, 40 and 22, according to the police statement. Six others were arrested on suspicion of assisting the alleged offenders, and another was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Sam Vinograd, a former DHS assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat protection, told CBS News this week that Iran represents a “multi-dimensional threat” to the U.S. homeland, with a “deep bench of players they tap into to inflict damage,” including proxies — regional, like-minded terrorist organizations — along with state agents. 

Iran has developed what she called “surrogate networks here in the United States — regular criminals that they actually hire and pay money to do things like murders and assassinations.”

Explosions were reported in Tehran and Beirut on Friday after Israel’s military announced a new “wave of strikes” in both cities, stepping up its war against both the Iranian regime and Hezbollah, one of its most powerful regional proxy groups, in Lebanon.

An Israeli military official said strikes were targeting “the terrorist regime’s infrastructure” in Tehran, while in Lebanon’s capital, they said there were “several waves of strikes” in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut against Hezbollah targets, following “extensive calls on the civilian population in the area to evacuate in order to reduce civilian casualties.”

The military official said more than 500 targets were hit in Lebanon, “including senior Hezbollah terrorists,” rocket launchers, and command and weapons storage facilities.

Israel claims to have achieved “near-complete air superiority” over Iran, as the ongoing joint strikes with the U.S. entered their seventh day. Israel says those strikes have destroyed more than 80% of Iran’s air defense systems.

“We’re destroying more of Iran’s missiles and drone capability every single hour,” President Trump said Thursday, calling Iranian forces “tough” but badly weakened.

Still, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi says the fight is far from over, and insists Tehran is “not asking for a ceasefire.”

As Iranian drones and missiles continue to target U.S. allies across the Gulf, sirens blared again Friday across Kuwait City, where operations at the U.S. Embassy were suspended the previous day.

President Trump has said the objective of the war against Iran is to “go in and clean out” the country’s theocratic leadership. In a phone interview with NBC News, Mr. Trump also said he has some ideas about who would be a “good leader” there.

“We want to go in and clean out everything,” he said. “We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period.”

The president added that the U.S. was taking measures to try to assure that the people he has in mind survive the war, without offering any details.

Mr. Trump said earlier that he’d “have to be involved” in the appointment of Iran’s next leader, calling the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been mentioned as a possible successor, an “unacceptable” option and a “lightweight.” 

Speaking Monday at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the U.S. operation was “laser-focused: destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons.”

He rejected criticism of the operation as the beginning of another “endless war” in the Middle East and insisted it was “not a so-called regime-change war.”

“But the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it today,” Hegseth said.

NATO has “increased its alliance-wide ballistic missile defense posture” in the wake of the interception of a missile that was was launched toward Turkey on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the alliance said.

“This immediate action was taken by the commander of NATO’s Air Command, who further recommended NATO’s ballistic missile defense posture remain at this heightened level until the threat from Iran’s continued indiscriminate attacks across the region subsides,” the spokesperson said, adding that “the adjustment gives the Supreme Allied Commander Europe exactly what he needs to defend the alliance based upon the current threat and defend it he will!”

“As the world witnessed yesterday, NATO perfectly executed its ballistic missile defense procedures. In less than 10 minutes, NATO service members identified a threat to allies, a ballistic missile, confirmed its trajectory, alerted land- and sea-based missile defense systems, and launched an interceptor to defeat the threat and protect our territory and its people,” the statement continued. “That is real strength!”

Turkey is a NATO ally, and the missile attack raised questions about whether the alliance would invoke Article V of the NATO charter, which states that a strike against one member should be considered an attack against all.

Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry reported early Friday that it intercepted three Iranian drones east of its capital, Riyadh.

On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh was targeted by an Iranian drone attack which caused a small fire and minor damage, the defense ministry said. There were no reported injuries. 

According to Israel’s private Institute for National Security Studies, Saudi Arabia has been targeted by 14 missiles and five drones since the war began. 

Qatari officials announced early Friday morning local time that their military stopped an Iranian drone targeting the Al Udeid airbase in Doha.

The Qatari Ministry of Defense said in a statement that its defense forces “successfully intercepted a drone attack” targeting Al Udeid, which is the largest U.S. base in the Middle East with about 8,000 to 10,000 U.S. troops. 

Qatari’s defense ministry had reported Thursday that the country was targeted by 14 ballistic missiles and four drones from Iran. All but one of the missiles were intercepted, with the remaining missile landing in ocean waters.

The U.S. Embassy in Qatar on Wednesday announced that the State Department had ordered all non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Qatar. The embassy said it was under a shelter-in-place order for all remaining emergency personnel.

“To the extent possible, remain inside your residence, hotel, or another structure, and stay away from windows,” the embassy said.