WASHINGTON — The U.S. navy struck three websites in Iran early Sunday, immediately becoming a member of Israel ’s conflict geared toward decapitating the nation’s nuclear program in a dangerous gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s risk of reprisals that might spark a wider regional battle.
Addressing the nation from the White Home, President Donald Trump mentioned Iran’s key nuclear websites had been “fully and totally obliterated.” He additionally warned Tehran in opposition to finishing up retaliatory assaults in opposition to the U.S., saying Iran has a alternative between “peace or tragedy.”
Iran’s nuclear company confirmed that assaults hit its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz atomic websites, however insisted that its work won’t be stopped.
The choice to immediately contain the U.S. within the conflict comes after greater than every week of strikes by Israel on Iran that aimed to systematically eradicate the nation’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, whereas damaging its nuclear enrichment amenities. However U.S. and Israeli officers have mentioned that American stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb they alone can carry provided one of the best likelihood of destroying closely fortified websites related to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.
“We now have accomplished our very profitable assault on the three Nuclear websites in Iran, together with Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump mentioned in a submit on social media. “All planes at the moment are exterior of Iran air house. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the first website, Fordow. All planes are safely on their approach dwelling.”
Trump added in a later submit: “That is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s choice to assault in a video message directed on the American president.
“Your daring choice to focus on Iran’s nuclear amenities, with the superior and righteous may of america, will change historical past,” he mentioned. Netanyahu mentioned the U.S. “has carried out what no different nation on earth might do.”
The White Home and Pentagon didn’t instantly elaborate on the operation. However Fox Information host Sean Hannity mentioned shortly after 9 p.m. Jap that he had spoken with Trump and that six bunker buster bombs had been used on the Fordo facility. Hannity mentioned 30 Tomahawk missiles fired by U.S. submarines 400 miles away struck the Iranian nuclear websites of Natanz and Isfahan.
The strikes are a deadly choice, as Iran has pledged to retaliate if the U.S. joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally. He gained the White Home on the promise of retaining America out of expensive international conflicts and scoffed on the worth of American interventionism.
Trump informed reporters Friday that he was not fascinated about sending floor forces into Iran, saying it’s “the very last thing you wish to do.” He had beforehand indicated that he would make a ultimate alternative over the course of two weeks.
Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned america on Wednesday that strikes focusing on the Islamic Republic will “lead to irreparable injury for them.” And Iranian Overseas Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention could be a recipe for an all-out conflict within the area.”
Trump has vowed that he wouldn’t enable Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and he had initially hoped that the specter of drive would carry the nation’s leaders to surrender its nuclear program peacefully.
The Israeli navy mentioned Saturday it was getting ready for the opportunity of a prolonged conflict, whereas Iran’s international minister warned earlier than the U.S. assault that American navy involvement “could be very, very harmful for everybody.”
The prospect of a wider conflict loomed. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen mentioned they might resume assaults on U.S. vessels within the Pink Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel’s navy marketing campaign. The Houthis paused such assaults in Might underneath a cope with the U.S.
The U.S. ambassador to Israel introduced that the U.S. had begun “assisted departure flights,” the primary from Israel because the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the conflict in Gaza.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned Thursday that Trump deliberate to make his choice on the strikes inside two weeks. As an alternative, he struck simply two days later.
Trump seems to have made the calculation — on the prodding of Israeli officers and lots of Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the bottom and introduced a maybe unparalleled alternative to set again Iran’s nuclear program, maybe completely.
The Israelis say their offensive has already crippled Iran’s air defenses, permitting them to already considerably degrade a number of Iranian nuclear websites.
However to destroy the Fordo nuclear gasoline enrichment plant, Israel appealed to Trump for the bunker-busting American bomb generally known as the GBU-57 Huge Ordnance Penetrator, which makes use of its weight and sheer kinetic drive to achieve deeply buried targets after which explode. The bomb is at present delivered solely by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is barely discovered within the American arsenal.
If deployed within the assault, it will be the primary fight use of the weapon.
The bomb carries a standard warhead, and is believed to have the ability to penetrate about 200 toes (61 meters) under the floor earlier than exploding, and the bombs could be dropped one after one other, successfully drilling deeper and deeper with every successive blast.
The Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company has confirmed that Iran is producing extremely enriched uranium at Fordo, elevating the chance that nuclear materials may very well be launched into the world if the GBU-57 A/B had been used to hit the power.
Earlier Israeli strikes at one other Iranian nuclear website, Natanz, on a centrifuge website have induced contamination solely on the website itself, not the encircling space, the IAEA has mentioned.
Trump’s choice for direct U.S. navy intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — together with with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — geared toward persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program.
For months, Trump mentioned he was devoted to a diplomatic push to influence Iran to surrender its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and once more in late Might — persuaded Netanyahu to carry off on navy motion in opposition to Iran and provides diplomacy extra time.
The U.S. in latest days has been shifting navy plane and warships into and across the Center East to guard Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian assaults.
All of the whereas, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the second may very well be a “second likelihood” for Iran to make a deal to delivering specific threats on Khamenei and making requires Tehran’s unconditional give up.
“We all know precisely the place the so-called ‘Supreme Chief’ is hiding,” Trump mentioned in a social media posting. “He’s a simple goal, however is secure there – We aren’t going to take him out (kill!), a minimum of not for now.”
The navy showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered settlement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”
The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, U.S. and different world powers, created a long-term, complete nuclear settlement that restricted Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in alternate for the lifting of financial sanctions.
Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran an excessive amount of in return for too little, as a result of the settlement didn’t cowl Iran’s non-nuclear malign habits.
Trump has bristled at criticism from a few of his MAGA devoted, together with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who’ve advised that additional U.S. involvement could be a betrayal to supporters who had been drawn to his promise to finish U.S. involvement in costly and infinite wars.
