WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. navy struck three websites in Iran early Sunday, immediately becoming a member of Israel’s warfare geared toward decapitating the nation’s nuclear program in a dangerous gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s menace of reprisals that would spark a wider regional battle.
Watch President Donald Trump’s remarks within the video participant above.
Addressing the nation from the White Home, President Donald Trump mentioned Iran’s key nuclear websites have been “utterly and totally obliterated.” He additionally warned Tehran in opposition to finishing up retaliatory assaults in opposition to the U.S., saying Iran has a selection between “peace or tragedy.”
READ MORE: Does Trump have the authority to order U.S. strikes on Iran?
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 warfare 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 (13,500-kilogram) bunker buster bomb they alone can carry supplied 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 put up on social media. “All planes at the moment are outdoors of Iran air house. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the first website, Fordow. All planes are safely on their approach house.”
Trump added in a later put up: “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 resolution to assault in a video message directed on the American president.
“Your daring resolution 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 finished 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. Japanese that he had spoken with Trump and that six bunker buster bombs have 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 dangerous resolution, as Iran has pledged to retaliate if the U.S. joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally. He received the White Home on the promise of preserving America out of pricey international conflicts and scoffed on the worth of American interventionism.
READ MORE: Trump’s decision to strike Iran may draw more criticism from MAGA anti-interventionists
Trump advised reporters Friday that he was not desirous about sending floor forces into Iran, saying it’s “the very last thing you need to do.” He had beforehand indicated that he would make a last selection over the course of two weeks.
Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned america on Wednesday that strikes concentrating on the Islamic Republic will “end in irreparable injury for them.” And Iranian Overseas Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention can be a recipe for an all-out warfare 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 pressure would deliver the nation’s leaders to surrender its nuclear program peacefully.
The Israeli navy mentioned Saturday it was making ready for the potential of a prolonged warfare, whereas Iran’s international minister warned earlier than the U.S. assault that American navy involvement “can be very, very harmful for everybody.”
The prospect of a wider warfare loomed. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen mentioned they’d 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 Could beneath a take care of the U.S.
The U.S. ambassador to Israel introduced that the U.S. had begun “assisted departure flights,” the primary from Israel for the reason that Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the warfare in Gaza.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned Thursday that Trump deliberate to make his resolution on the strikes inside two weeks. As a substitute, 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 offered a maybe unparalleled alternative to set again Iran’s nuclear program, maybe completely.
WATCH: How Israel’s strikes have damaged Iran’s nuclear capabilities
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 often known as the GBU-57 Large Ordnance Penetrator, which makes use of its weight and sheer kinetic pressure to succeed in deeply buried targets after which explode. The bomb is presently delivered solely by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is just discovered within the American arsenal.
If deployed within the assault, it could 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) beneath 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 Power Company has confirmed that Iran is producing extremely enriched uranium at Fordo, elevating the likelihood that nuclear materials could possibly be launched into the world if the GBU-57 A/B have 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 resolution 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 Could — 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 could possibly 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!), at the very least 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 prompt that additional U.S. involvement can be a betrayal to supporters who have been drawn to his promise to finish U.S. involvement in costly and infinite wars.
Madhani reported from Washington. Rising reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Related Press writers Nasser Karimi in Iran; Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Matthew Lee and Josh Boak in Washington; and Farnoush Amiri and Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.