By Steven Scheer, Parisa Hafezi and Jana Choukeir TEL AVIV/DUBAI (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said he wanted a "real end" to the nuclear dispute with Iran, and indicated he may send senior American officials to meet with the Islamic Republic as the Israel-Iran air war raged for a fifth straight day.

Israel’s devastating attack on Iran has put the Islamic Republic in existential peril and exposed deep vulnerabilities in the intelligence services that have kept Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in power for nearly four decades.

Israel and Iran have begun a new round of attacks, as the conflict between the two heavily armed rivals enters its fourth day.

This comes just a day after Iran sought (via Arab intermediaries) to de-escalate the hostilities and return to the negotiation table with the US and Israel

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania calls for the U.S. to give Israel anything it needs in support of its assault against Iran.

Israel’s campaign, militarily and rhetorically, has quickly evolved beyond its initial targets. Over the weekend, it hit Iran’s energy facilities, including a gas depot and an oil refinery, triggering huge fires and spewing smoke across the sprawling capital of about ten million people.

The Israeli military said Monday that it can now fly over the country's capital, Tehran, without facing major resistance after crippling Iran’s air defenses in recent strikes, enabling Israel to hit an expanding range of targets with relative ease.

Israel’s historic strike on Iran revealed years of Mossad activity inside the country, including hidden weapons, drones and assassinations of nuclear officials.