Unprecedented US strikes have wrecked Iran’s nuclear program, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated Sunday as Washington sought to evaluate what remained of the three focused websites.
The shock strikes threaten to deepen battle within the Center East after Israel launched a bombing marketing campaign in opposition to Iran, with Tehran vowing to retaliate in opposition to US involvement.
However the USA stated President Donald Trump wished peace and urged Iran to finish the battle after strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment website at Fordo, together with nuclear amenities in Isfahan and Natanz.
“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Hegseth instructed a Pentagon press briefing, including that the operation “didn’t goal Iranian troops or the Iranian folks.”
Trump “seeks peace, and Iran ought to take that path”, Hegseth stated. “This mission was not, and has not been, about regime change.”
Standing beside Hegseth, high US basic Dan Caine stated that “it could be manner too early for me to touch upon what might or might not nonetheless be there.”
“Preliminary battle harm assessments point out that each one three websites sustained extraordinarily extreme harm and destruction,” he instructed reporters.
– Protests in Tehran –
Individuals gathered within the middle of Tehran to protest in opposition to US and Israeli assaults, waving flags and chanting slogans, state TV confirmed.
Trump claimed complete success for the operation in an tackle to the nation hours after the assault, and Vice President JD Vance adopted up on Sunday morning.
“We all know that we set the Iranian nuclear program again considerably final evening, whether or not it’s years or past,” he instructed ABC.
“We’re not at conflict with Iran — we’re at conflict with Iran’s nuclear program,” he added. “The president took decisive motion to destroy that program final evening.”
In Tehran, AFP journalists stated the roar of plane flying over the town was heard repeatedly for the primary time since Israel’s preliminary assaults.
The UN’s Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company stated it had not detected any improve in radiation ranges on the nuclear websites and Tehran stated Sunday there have been no indicators of contamination.
Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi instructed reporters in Istanbul the USA and Israel had “crossed a really massive pink line,” asserting Iran would proceed to defend itself “by all means needed.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the US strikes, saying Trump’s determination to “goal Iran’s nuclear amenities with the superior and righteous would possibly of the USA will change historical past.”
The Israeli navy was additionally checking the outcomes of the US raid on the deeply buried nuclear facility in Fordo, with a spokesman saying it was “too quickly” to know if Iran had eliminated enriched uranium from the positioning.
The principle US strike group was seven B-2 Spirit bombers flying 18 hours from the US mainland to Iran with a number of aerial refuelings, Caine stated.
– World concern –
In response to the US assault, Iran’s armed forces stated they focused a number of websites in Israel together with Ben Gurion airport, the nation’s principal worldwide gateway close to Tel Aviv.
Israeli rescuers stated no less than 23 folks had been wounded.
In Jerusalem, Claudio Hazan, a 62-year-old software program engineer, stated he hoped the US intervention would hasten an finish to the Iran-Israel conflict.
“Israel by itself wouldn’t cease… and it could take longer,” he stated.
Israel stated it had launched recent strikes on western Iran and in Qom, south of Tehran. Iran’s official IRNA information company reported 4 Revolutionary Guard members had been killed in strikes on a navy base within the metropolis’s north.
The Israeli navy stated it had “struck missile launchers able to launch towards Israeli territory, troopers within the Iranian Armed Forces, and swiftly neutralized the launchers that launched missiles towards Israeli territory.”
Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported {that a} “large explosion was heard” Sunday in Bushehr province, residence to Iran’s solely nuclear energy plant.
Iranian information businesses additionally reported strikes in Yazd province.
The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, which had been mediating Iran-US nuclear talks, criticized the US transfer and urged de-escalation.
The European Union known as on all sides “to step again,” whereas stressing Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
The Iranian international minister stated he would journey to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Following his tackle, Trump warned Iran in opposition to retaliation. Iran and its proxies have beforehand attacked US navy bases in Iraq and elsewhere within the area.
Iran’s Huthi allies in Yemen on Sunday repeated their menace to renew assaults within the Crimson Sea if Washington joined the conflict, saying they had been prepared to focus on US ships and warships.
The US president had stepped up his rhetoric in opposition to Iran since Israel first struck the nation on June 13, repeating his insistence it may by no means have nuclear weapons.
Tehran denies in search of an atomic bomb. On Saturday, President Masoud Pezeshkian stated Iran’s proper to pursue a civilian nuclear program “can’t be taken away… by threats or conflict.”
The put up US says strikes ‘devastated’ Iran’s nuclear program appeared first on Vanguard News.
