Israel-Iran Crisis: Trump Quiet on Next Steps, Internet Down, As UN Begs
The United Nations is urging foreign countries to stay out of the Israel-Iran conflict as the crisis between the two warring parties which can escalate worsens.
In a statement calling for a ceasefire, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: “I strongly appeal to all to avoid any further internationalization of the conflict. Any additional military interventions could have enormous consequences, not only for those involved but for the whole region and for international peace and security at large.”
Guterres’s statement comes as the world awaits Donald Trump’s decision on whether the United States will join the conflict by aiding Israel in its attempts to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Meanwhile, American president Donald Trump on Wednesday says ‘nobody knows what I’m going to do’ when asked if US plans to strike Iran or whether the US will hit Iran’s nuclear facilities.
He said the Iranians had reached out but he felt “it’s very late to be talking … there’s a big difference between now and a week ago. Nobody knows what I’m going to do”.
Trump later told reporters that “a deal could still happen” and that he thinks “Iran was a few weeks away from having a nuclear weapon”. The president added that he will attend a meeting in an hour on the evacuation of US citizens from Israel, Reuters reports.
“They should have made the deal, I had a great deal for them… in the end they decided not to do it, and now they wish they did it”, Trump said. He added that Iranian officials “want to come to the White House”.
Although many of his supporters have voiced reticence at the possibility of the United States entering another foreign conflict, Trump said “his supporters don’t want to see Iran get a nuclear weapon.”
Meanwhile, in a video message to Israeli citizens, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Donald Trump for “standing by our side” as a “great friend” to Israel, and said he and the US president are in regular contact.
“I wish to thank President Trump for the backing,” Netanyahu said, adding that the United States had lent support “defending Israel’s skies”.
He added that he and Trump “had a very warm conversation” last night.
Following bombardments between Israel-Iran, internet connections across all of Iran have reportedly been slowed to a near halt.
Real-time monitoring from Georgia Tech University showed a “near Internet blackout” around 5 pm local time in Iran.
Two internet-tracking companies, Kentinc and Netblocks, told Newsmen that the internet went down around 5:30 PM as Israel continued to bombard the country.
Cybersecurity company Cloudflare gave an assessment to TechCrunch that internet traffic levels in Iran “are now ~97% below where they were at the same time a week ago.”
The lack of internet connectivity will likely severely limit Iranians’ access to news and updates as Iran and Israel continue to trade barbs.
The reduction in internet speeds comes after an anti-Iranian government hacking group with potential ties to Israel claimed that it hacked Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah. Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokesperson for Iran’s government, said on X that officials in Tehran had restricted internet access to ward off additional cyberattacks.
In a related development,
Iran has also fired ultra-heavy, long-range, two-stage missiles at Israel, Reuters reports, citing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
In a statement on Wednesday, the guards told Israel the skies over its “occupied lands” are open to Iranian attacks, and that Israelis must choose between a “slow death” in underground bunkers or fleeing the state.
