A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump left a G7 summit in Canada a day ahead of schedule.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The president said it was to focus on the rapidly escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. He also posted a warning on his social media platform Truth Social telling Iranians to immediately evacuate their capital.
MARTÍNEZ: For more, we're joined by NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv. So considering President Trump's warning, what's the mood like in Tehran right now?
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Well, we know that people are very anxious. There is an atmosphere of panic and confusion in Tehran. Today, people are stocking up on food. Tehran's streets are quiet, especially at night, which is when Israel carries out most of its strikes. NPR reached out to a woman named Baran (ph) in Tehran. She asked us to only use her first name because the situation is so sensitive in Iran right now. She said she and her family tried to leave Tehran yesterday but had to turn around.
BARAN: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: You can hear the fear in her voice. She says they couldn't fill up their tank. All gas stations had lines a couple miles long, and people were waiting up to four hours for fuel. The roads out of the city are also bumper-to-bumper traffic. So leaving, evacuating Tehran is no easy feat right now.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Israel's ambassador to the U.N. told us last week that preemptive strikes were meant to prevent Iran from putting together a nuclear weapon. So five days in, how has Israel's messaging and actual targets changed?
AL-SHALCHI: I mean, you're right. So almost immediately after the start of the attack on Friday morning, Israel struck military targets, killing top security officials like the chief of staff of Iran's army. It also struck three nuclear facilities, including the main one, called Natanz. But now Israel is expanding its attacks. For example, yesterday, the Israeli military attacked the studio complex of Iran's state news channel. You know, there's a video online of the moment this happened. You hear the anchor speak, and then the explosion.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR: (Non-English language spoken).
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
AL-SHALCHI: You know, in the video, you see the anchor flee the studio and pieces of the roof start to fall on top of her head. Israel's defense minister confirmed the attack saying, quote, "we will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere." So now the question is, is the political apparatus fair game now? Will Israel go for Iran's supreme leader next, for example?
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, so if Israel does that, I mean, does this mean this war changes from nuclear capabilities to regime change?
AL-SHALCHI: So the Israeli military has said that it's been instructed to dismantle Iran's nuclear capabilities, not specifically for regime change. But in an interview on ABC yesterday, correspondent Jonathan Karl asks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this question.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JONATHAN KARL: So are you going to target the supreme leader?
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Look; we're doing what we need to do. I'm not going to get into the details.
AL-SHALCHI: So, you know, Netanyahu hasn't ruled it out.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so where does this put the United States now?
AL-SHALCHI: So, so far, the U.S. has only helped with defending Israel with the interception of missiles. Trump has, you know, always said that he doesn't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. He says he has - but a preference is to do this via a deal. He said that maybe Israel's war may force Iran to make a deal, but now, you know, Iran pulled out of the talks. So now, as the war intensifies, all eyes may be on whether or not Trump changes course and decides to directly get involved in the war.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv. Thank you very much.
AL-SHALCHI: You're very welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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