WASHINGTON/TEHRAN:
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump announced the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the country since its 1979 revolution.
Tehran has so far not followed through on its threats of retaliation against the United States – either by targeting US bases or trying to choke off global oil supplies – but that may not hold. Speaking in Istanbul, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses.
With the damage visible from space after 30,000-pound US bunker-buster bombs crashed into the mountain above Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, Tehran vowed to defend itself at all costs. It fired another volley of missiles at Israel that wounded scores of people and flattened buildings in Tel Aviv.
An advisory from the US Department of Homeland Security warned of a “heightened threat environment in the United States”. The US State Department ordered employees’ family members to leave Lebanon and advised citizens elsewhere in the region to keep a low profile or restrict travel.
“There would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated, Araghchi said. “The US showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force,” he added. later, Araghchi arrived in Moscow to consult with President Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Nour News said.
Separately, in a post on X, Araghchi said Israel had derailed nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington with its initial strikes on June 13, while the US strikes on Sunday did the same to negotiations with European powers held this week.
Addressing European calls for Iran to return to negotiations, he asked: “How can Iran return to something it never left?” Later at a news conference in Istanbul, he said the United States and Israel had crossed a “big red line” by attacking Iran’s nuclear sites.
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on X that the initiative was “now with the side that plays smart, avoids blind strikes. Surprises will continue!” he said, hours after Trump announced the strikes in a televised address.
Earlier, Trump said the US carried out a “very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran”, referring to Isfahan, Natanz and the underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow. “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site,” Fordo, he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Iranian media also said the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites were hit. US Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said seven B-2 stealth bombers flew 18 hours from mainland America to Iran, with multiple aerial refuellings, to carry out the attack.
“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface to air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission. We retained the element of surprise,” he said. Trump said that Iran “must now agree to end this war”, insisting that under no circumstances should Iran possess a nuclear weapon.
Trump called the strikes “a spectacular military success” and boasted that Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.” However, his own officials gave more nuanced assessments.
With the exception of satellite photographs appearing to show craters on the mountain above Iran’s subterranean plant at Fordow, there has been no public accounting of the damage. The UN nuclear watchdog said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the US strikes.
Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, told CNN that it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. The IAEA also said entrances to tunnels at Isfahan site hit by US strike.
Trump immediately called on Iran to forgo any retaliation, saying the government “must now make peace [and] if they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier,” he said. His Vice President, JD Vance, said Washington was not at war with Iran but with its nuclear programme.
At a pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats posed by the Iranian nuclear programme. “This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Hegseth said.
In a step towards what is widely seen as Iran’s most effective threat to hurt the West, its parliament approved a move to close the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly a quarter of global oil shipments pass through the narrow waters that Iran shares with Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s Press TV said closing the strait would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council. Security experts have long warned a weakened Iran could also find other unconventional ways to strike back, such as bombings or cyberattacks.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” warned Iran against retaliation for the US strikes, saying such action would be “the worst mistake they’ve ever made.”
Rubio separately told CBS’s “Face the Nation” talk show that the US has “other targets we can hit, but we achieved our objective.” “There are no planned military operations right now against Iran,” he later added, “unless they mess around.”
The UN Security Council (UNSC) was due to meet later on Sunday, diplomats said, at the request of Iran, which urged the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of [US] aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
At the UNSC, Pakistan, China and Russia have proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution, calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East. However, it was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote.
The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday. The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
Iranian authorities said that more than 400 people have been killed since Israel’s attacks began, mostly civilians. Iran has been launching missiles back at Israel, killing at least 24 people over the past nine days, the first time its projectiles have penetrated Israel’s defences in large numbers.
The elite Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had fired 40 missiles, including multi-warhead Kheibarshekan ballistic missiles, at Israel in the latest volley. Air raid sirens sounded across most of Israel on Sunday, sending millions of people to safe rooms.
Iran’s armed forces said they targeted multiple sites in Israel, including Ben Gurion airport, after the US attacks. The targets also included a “biological research” facility, logistics bases, and various layers of command and control centres, it said.
IRNA news agency said 40 missiles were fired in Iran’s “20th wave” of strikes. At least 23 people were wounded and police said at least three impacts were reported. “Houses here were hit very, very badly,” said Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai.
The Israeli military said it had launched its own fresh waves of strikes in western Iran and in Qom, south of Tehran. It later said its “jets struck dozens of military targets throughout Iran”, including a long-range missile site in Yazd in the centre of the country for the first time.
IRNA reported four Revolutionary Guard members were killed in strikes on a military base in the north of the city. Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported a “massive explosion was heard” on Sunday in Bushehr province, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant.
