Iran Answers Israeli Pounding After Trump Warns 'Better Not'

Israel announced Sunday it launched a wave of strikes on "the heart of Tehran," and explosions followed in Iran's capital. Iran's government, which had vowed revenge for the death Saturday of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, retaliated with a barrage of missiles and drones aimed at Israel and US military installations around the Persian Gulf region, as well as Dubai, the AP reports. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had threatened earlier in the day to begin its "most intense offensive operation" ever, drawing a warning from President Trump. "They better not do that, however," Trump posted in all caps, per the Hill, "because if they do, we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before!"

• Possible talks: Trump said in an interview with the Atlantic on Sunday that Iran's new leaders have asked to speak with him. "They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them," he said, per the New York Times. "They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long." He did not say which officials would be talking or when.
• In Israel: Sirens sounded sporadically in Jerusalem on Sunday. The national emergency service reported that an Iranian missile strike killed at least nine people near the city and injured at least 28.
• Diplomatic wall: Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told ABC News that Iran will keep up its battle against the US and Israel. He suggested a diplomatic solution to the fighting seems unlikely, saying negotiations with the US over Iran's nuclear program was "a very bitter experience" for his country. Araghchi blamed Israel and Trump advisers for pulling the US into war despite the fact that a negotiated peace was within reach on Thursday, per the Times.

• The duration: Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said on CBS' Face the Nation that the strikes on Iran will go on for "probably a few weeks." The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Trump "has no plan for any kind of large-scale ground force in Iran," per the AP.
• Putin responds: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday offered his condolences after the death of Khamenei, saying the supreme leader will be remembered as a statesman who contributed to "friendly Russian-Iranian relations." In a Telegram post, Putin called it an assassination "committed in cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law." Iran has become a more important ally since the invasion of Ukraine, per the Washington Post, as Russia has been aided by Iranian technology.