DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States inserted itself into Israel’s war against Iran by dropping 30,000-pound bombs on a uranium enrichment site early Sunday, raising urgent questions about what remains of Tehran’s nuclear program and how its weakened military might respond.
Iran lashed out at the U.S. for crossing “a very big red line” with its risky decision to launch strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites with missiles and bunker-buster bombs.
“The U.S. has attacked us; what would you do in such a situation? Naturally, they must receive a response to their aggression,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said during a call with France’s leader, according to the president’s website.
Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said any country used by the U.S. to strike Iran “will be a legitimate target for our armed forces,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
Amid fears of a wider regional conflict, the Trump administration sent a clear message that it wanted to restart diplomatic talks with Iran. “Let’s meet directly,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the U.S. “does not seek war.”
But Tehran said the time for diplomacy had passed and that it has the right to defend itself. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would immediately fly to Moscow to coordinate with close ally Russia.
President Donald Trump earlier warned there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliated against U.S. forces. Tens of thousands of American troops are based in the Middle East. “There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran,” said Trump, who acted without congressional authorization.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed that attacks took place on the Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities, as well as the Isfahan nuclear site. Both Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination around the sites.
Trump claimed the U.S. “completely and fully obliterated” the sites, but the Pentagon reported “sustained, extremely severe damage and destruction.” Israeli army spokesman Effie Defrin said “the damage is deep,” but an assessment with the U.S. continued.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that no one was in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordo, but he said visible craters tracked with the U.S. announcements. He said IAEA inspectors in Iran should be allowed to look at the sites. The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors planned to hold an emergency meeting Monday.
“We are very close to achieving our goals” in removing the nuclear and missile threats, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Sunday.
With the attack that was carried out without detection, the United States has inserted itself into a war it spent decades trying to avoid. Success could mean ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions and eliminating the last significant state threat to the security of Israel, its close ally. Failure — or overreach — could plunge the U.S. into another long and unpredictable conflict.
For Iran’s supreme leader, it could mark the end of a campaign to transform the Islamic Republic into a greater regional power that holds enriched nuclear material a step away from weapons-grade. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last spoke publicly on Wednesday, warning the U.S. that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them.”
Iran, battered by Israel’s largest-ever assault on it that began on June 13, has limited ways it could retaliate, as key allies have mostly stayed out of the conflict. It could launch a wave of attacks on U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East with the missiles and rockets that Israel hasn’t destroyed. It could attempt to close a key bottleneck for global oil supplies, the Strait of Hormuz, between it and the United Arab Emirates.
Or it could hurry to develop a nuclear weapon with what remains of its program. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran insisted that its nuclear program will not be stopped.
New questions about Iran’s nuclear stockpile
