Iran warns 'gambler' Trump as Putin condemns U.S. strikes

Iran said on Monday that the U.S. attack on its nuclear sites expanded the range of legitimate targets for its armed forces and called U.S. President Donald Trump a "gambler" for joining Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

Since Trump joined Israel's campaign by dropping massive bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, Iran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate.

But while it has continued to fire missiles at Israel, it has yet to take action against the United States itself, either by firing at U.S. bases or by targeting the 20 percent of global oil shipments that pass near its coast at the mouth of the Gulf.

"Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it," Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, said on Monday in English at the end of a recorded video statement.

Iran and Israel traded another wave of air and missile strikes on Monday as the world braced for Tehran's response.

Trump's administration has repeatedly said that its aim is solely to destroy Iran's nuclear program, not to open a wider war.

But in a social media post on Sunday, Trump openly spoke of toppling the hardline clerical rulers who have been Washington's principal foes in the Middle East since Iran's 1979 revolution.

"It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" he wrote.

Experts surveying commercial satellite imagery said it appeared that the U.S. attack had severely damaged the site of Iran's Fordow nuclear plant, built inside a mountain, and possibly destroyed it and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, although there was no independent confirmation.

Trump called the strike a "Bullseye!!!".

"Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran," he wrote. "The biggest damage took place far below ground level."

Putin condemns 'absolutely unprovoked aggression' from U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday, telling him there was no justification for the U.S. bombing of his country and that Moscow was trying to help the Iranian people.

"The absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran has no basis and no justification," Putin told Araghchi in televised comments.

"For our part, we are making efforts to assist the Iranian people," he added.

"I am very glad that you are in Moscow today, this will give us the opportunity to discuss all these pressing issues and think together about how we could get out of today's situation."

Araghchi told Putin that Iran was conducting legitimate self-defense, and thanked Russia for condemning the U.S. actions. He conveyed best wishes to Putin from Iran's supreme leader and president.

"Russia is today on the right side of history and international law," said Araghchi.

It was unclear, however, what Russia might do to support Iran, an important ally with which Putin signed a strategic cooperation treaty in January. That agreement did not include a mutual defense clause.

Before Saturday's U.S. strikes, Moscow had warned that U.S. military intervention could destabilize the entire region and plunge it into the "abyss".

Asked what Russia was ready to do to help Tehran, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "It all depends on what Iran needs". He said the fact that Moscow had offered to mediate in the crisis was itself a form of support.

Peskov also condemned the U.S. attacks.

"An increase in the number of participants in this conflict is happening – or rather, has happened. A new spiral of escalation of tension in the region," Peskov told reporters.

"And, of course, we condemn this and express regret in this regard, deep regret. In addition, of course, it remains to be seen what happened to (Iran's) nuclear facilities, whether there is a radiation hazard."

Peskov said Trump had not told Putin in detail about the planned strikes in advance.

"There was no detailed information. The topic of Iran itself was repeatedly discussed by the presidents during their most recent conversations, certain proposals were voiced by Russia, but there was no direct detailed information about this," he said.

More Israeli strikes 

Israel's airstrikes on Iran have met little resistance from Iranian defenses since Israel launched its surprise attack on June 13, killing many of Iran's top commanders.

The Israeli military said on Monday that about 20 jets had conducted a wave of strikes against military targets in western Iran and Tehran overnight. ⁠In Kermanshah, in western Iran, missile and radar infrastructure was targeted, and in Tehran a surface-to-air missile launcher was struck, it said.

Iranian news agencies reported air defenses had been activated in central Tehran districts, and Israeli air strikes had hit Parchin, the location of a military complex southeast of the capital.

Iran says more than 400 people have been killed in the Israeli attacks, mostly civilians, but has released few images of the damage since the initial days of the bombing. Tehran, a city of 10 million people, has largely emptied, with residents fleeing to the countryside to escape attacks.

Iran's retaliatory missile strikes on Israel have killed 24 people, all civilians, and injured hundreds, the first time a significant number of Iranian missiles have ever penetrated Israeli defenses.

The Israeli military said a missile launched from Iran in the early hours of Monday had been intercepted by Israeli defenses. Air raid sirens blared overnight in Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.

Limited retaliation 

Beyond those missiles, Iran's ability to retaliate is far more limited than a few months ago, since Israel inflicted heavy losses on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria's Bashar al-Assad was overthrown.

Iran's most effective threat to hurt the West would probably be to restrict global oil flows from the Gulf. Oil prices spiked on Monday at their highest since January. But they have not yet shot up to crisis levels, indicating that traders see a path out of the conflict that avoids serious disruption.

Brent crude futures were down 0.5 percent to $76.64 a barrel as of 0830 GMT, after briefly jumping above $80 at the opening.

Iran's parliament has approved a move to close the Strait of Hormuz that leads into the Gulf, which would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Attempting to strangle the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite conflict with the U.S. Navy's massive Fifth Fleet that patrols the Gulf from its base in Bahrain.

"It's economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.