Trump says key Iran nuclear sites 'obliterated' by strikes
US forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites in a "very successful attack," President Donald Trump said on Saturday (local time), adding that Tehran's nuclear programme had been "obliterated".
After days of deliberation, Trump's decision to join Israel's military campaign against its major rival Iran represents a major escalation of the conflict.
"The strikes were a spectacular military success," Trump said in a televised Oval Office address. "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated."
In a speech that lasted just over three minutes, Trump said Iran's future held "either peace or tragedy," and that there were many other targets that could be hit by the US military.
"If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill."
The US reached out to Iran diplomatically on Saturday to say the strikes were all the US planned, and it did not aim for regime change, CBS News reported.
Trump said US forces struck Iran's three principal nuclear sites: Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow. He told Fox News six bunker-buster bombs were dropped on Fordow, while 30 Tomahawk missiles were fired against other nuclear sites.
U.S. B-2 bombers were involved in the strikes, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow," Trump posted. "Fordow is gone."
"IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR," he added.
Reuters had reported earlier on Saturday the movement of the bombers, which can be equipped to carry massive bombs that experts say would be needed to strike Fordow, which is buried under a mountain.
An Iranian official, cited by Tasnim news agency, confirmed that part of the Fordow site was attacked by "enemy airstrikes."
"History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime the world's most dangerous weapons," Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a video message.
"His leadership today has created a pivot of history that can help lead the Middle East and… pic.twitter.com/g5QyJHlrYW — Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 22, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on his "bold decision" which he said will change history.
"History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime, the world's most dangerous weapons," Netanyahu said.
The strikes came as Israel and Iran have been engaged in more than a week of aerial combat that has resulted in deaths and injuries in both countries.
Israel launched the attacks on Iran saying that it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.
Diplomatic efforts by Western nations to stop the hostilities have been unsuccessful.
In recent days, Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans have argued that Trump must receive permission from the US Congress before committing the US military to any combat against Iran.
Republican Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi applauded the operation but cautioned that the U.S. now faced "very serious choices ahead."
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, a Republican, said that despite the heavy US bombings over Iran, "This war is Israel's war, not our war."
He added, "There will not be American boots on the ground in Iran."
One Republican lawmaker, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, simply said, "This is not constitutional."
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said the US public "is overwhelmingly opposed to the US waging war on Iran" and accused Trump of displaying "horrible judgment".
Israeli military officials said earlier on Saturday that they had completed another series of strikes in southwestern Iran, having targeted dozens of military targets.
Israel launched attacks on June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.
At least 430 people have been killed and 3500 injured in Iran since Israel began its attacks, Iranian state-run Nour News said, citing the health ministry.
In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missile attacks, according to local authorities, in the worst conflict between the longtime enemies. More than 450 Iranian missiles have been fired towards Israel, according to the Israeli prime minister's office.
Israeli officials said 1272 people have been injured since the beginning of the hostilities, with 14 in serious condition.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Donald Trump targets Iran's nuclear programme with B-2 bomber strikes
He is betting that the United States can repel whatever retaliation Iran's leadership orders against more than 40,000 US troops spread over bases throughout the region. All are within range of Tehran's missile fleet, even after eight days of relentless attacks by Israel. And he is betting that he can deter a vastly debilitated Iran from using its familiar techniques – terrorism, hostage-taking and cyber attacks – as a more indirect line of attack to wreak revenge. Most importantly, he is betting that he has destroyed Iran's chances of ever reconstituting its nuclear programme. That is an ambitious goal: Iran has made clear that, if attacked, it would exit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and take its vast programme underground. That is why Trump focused so much attention on destroying Fordo, the facility Iran built in secret in the mid-2000s that was publicly exposed by President Barack Obama in 2009. That is where Iran was producing almost all of the near bomb-grade fuel that most alarmed the United States and its allies. Trump's aides were telling those allies on Saturday night (UST) that Washington's sole mission was to destroy the nuclear programme. They described the complex strike as a limited, contained operation akin to the special operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. 'They explicitly said this was not a declaration of war,' one senior European diplomat said, describing his conversation with a high-ranking administration official. But, the diplomat added, bin Laden had killed 3000 Americans. Iran had yet to build a bomb. In short, the administration is arguing that it was engaged in an act of pre-emption, seeking to terminate a threat, not the Iranian regime. But it is far from clear that the Iranians will perceive it that way. In a brief address from the White House on Saturday night (UST), flanked by Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defenve Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump threatened Iran with more destruction if it does not bend to his demands. 'Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,' the President said. 'If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.' 'There will be either peace,' he added, 'or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left.' He promised that if Iran did not relent, he would go after them 'with precision, speed and skill'. In essence, Trump was threatening to broaden his military partnership with Israel, which has spent the last eight days systematically targeting Iran's top military and nuclear leadership, killing them in their beds, their laboratories and their bunkers. The United States initially separated itself from that operation. In the Trump administration's first public statement about those strikes, Rubio emphasised that Israel took 'unilateral action against Iran', adding that the United States was 'not involved'. But then, a few days ago, Trump mused on his social media platform about the ability of the US to kill Iran's 86-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, any time he wanted. And Saturday night, he made clear that the US was all-in and that, contrary to Rubio's statement, the country was now deeply involved. Now, having set back Iran's enrichment capability, Trump is clearly hoping that he can seize on a remarkable moment of weakness – the weakness that allowed the American B-2 bombers to fly in and out of Iranian territory with little resistance. After Israel's fierce retaliation for the October 7, 2023, terror attacks that killed over 1000 Israeli civilians, Iran is suddenly bereft of its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. Its closest ally, Syria's Bashar Assad, had to flee the country. And Russia and China, which formed a partnership of convenience with Iran, were nowhere to be seen after Israel attacked the country. That left only the nuclear programme as Iran's ultimate defence. It was always more than just a scientific project – it was the symbol of Iranian resistance to the West, and the core of the leadership's plan to hold on to power. Along with the repression of dissent, the programme had become the ultimate means of defence for the inheritors of the Iranian revolution that began in 1979. If the taking of 52 American hostages was Iran's way of standing up to a far larger, far more powerful adversary in 1979, the nuclear programme has been the symbol of resistance for the last two decades. One day, historians may well draw a line from those images of blindfolded Americans, who were held for 444 days, to the dropping of GBU-57 bunker-busting bombs on the mountainous redoubt called Fordo. They will likely ask whether the United States, its allies or the Iranians themselves could have played this differently. And they will almost certainly ask whether Trump's gamble paid off. His critics in Congress were already questioning his approach. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said Trump had acted 'without consulting Congress, without a clear strategy, without regard to the consistent conclusions of the intelligence community' that Iran had made no decision to take the final steps to a bomb. If Iran finds itself unable to respond effectively, if the Ayatollah's hold on power is now loosened, or if the country gives up its long-running nuclear ambitions, Trump will doubtless claim that only he was willing to use America's military reach to achieve a goal his last four predecessors deemed too risky. But there is another possibility. Iran could slowly recover, its surviving nuclear scientists could take their skills underground and the country could follow the pathway lit by North Korea, with a race to build a bomb. Today, North Korea has 60 or more nuclear weapons by some intelligence estimates, an arsenal that likely makes it too powerful to attack. That, Iran may conclude, is the only pathway to keep larger, hostile powers at bay, and to prevent the United States and Israel from carrying out an operation like the one that lit up the Iranian skies Sunday morning. This article originally appeared in the New York Times. Written by: David E. Sanger Photographs by: Carlos Barria / Getty Images ©2025 NEW YORK TIMES
Scoop
3 hours ago
- Scoop
New Zealand Government Feigns Neutrality In US-Israeli War Against Iran
New Zealand's right-wing National Party-led coalition government is seeking to portray itself as uninvolved in the murderous US-Israeli assault on Iran and neutral in the escalating war in the Middle East. On July 13, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon described Israel's unprovoked missile strikes against Iran as 'unwelcome' and 'potentially catastrophic.' He told reporters, 'The risk of miscalculation is high. That region does not need any more military action… What we want to see is the parties coming together and having a conversation.' Speaking to Radio NZ on June 17, however, Foreign Minister Winston Peters refused to condemn Israel's ongoing attacks, which by then had killed hundreds of people. Asked whether his government 'supports Israel taking this unilateral action,' Peters replied: 'we do not take sides in a conflict of this nature.' He called for 'de-escalation and diplomacy' but added that 'Iran is not an innocent player in this.' He said both sides were engaged in 'provocative behaviour.' Such statements amount to a falsification of what is taking place and a defence of Israel. The regime in Israel, led by fascist criminals, is engaged in a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and has waged illegal wars against Lebanon, Syria and now Iran. Its aim, working with the full collaboration of the US, is to expand Israel's borders and redivide the entire Middle East in favour of the imperialist powers. The pretext given by Israel—that Iran was close to producing a nuclear weapon—is a transparent lie, just like the lies that Iraq had 'weapons of mass destruction' that were told to justify the criminal US-led invasion and destruction of Iraqi society. After President Donald Trump demanded the 'unconditional surrender' of Iran's government and said there were no plans to kill its leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'for now,' the New Zealand Herald asked Peters on June 18 whether he would support a US strike on uranium enrichment in Iran. The foreign minister replied that 'we do not believe in war when we haven't fully exhausted negotiations and diplomacy.' He added that New Zealand was a 'small country, way out here in the Southwest Pacific… I wish New Zealanders would understand our limitations here.' The reality, however, is that New Zealand is actively supporting Israeli and US military operations in the Middle East. In January 2024, a group of New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel were sent to Saudi Arabia to assist in the US bombing of targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthi forces' efforts to stop ships from supplying the Israeli war machine. New Zealand is a minor imperialist power allied with the US and a member of the US-led Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, raising further questions about its involvement. Asked during a press conference on June 16 whether New Zealand had received advance notice from the US about the attack on Iran, Peters replied, 'Well, we don't make those discussions public.' If the NZ military had foreknowledge of the illegal Israeli missile strike and kept quiet, that would make it complicit in the attack. The far-right Platform podcast's host Sean Plunket asked Peters the next day whether or not the NZ military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia had 'provided any intelligence or material support to the Israeli operation' against Iran. The foreign minister replied: 'Even if I could confirm that, I would not be doing that,' because to do so would endanger the lives of these personnel. The entire political establishment is nervous about widespread anti-war sentiment in New Zealand, which has been expressed in repeated protests against the genocide in Gaza. The opposition Labour Party's deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni told RNZ on June 17, 'we don't support what Israel is doing and we don't support [Iran's] response either.' Like Peters, she called for 'diplomacy' between the two sides. Sepuloni expressed support for the government's decision to join Canada, Australia, the UK and Norway in imposing sanctions on Israel's extreme right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. She called for 'greater sanctions,' including on companies operating illegally in the occupied Palestinian territories. All of this is completely hollow and is intended to divert attention from the fact that Labour continues to support the military alliance with the US, which is funding and supplying Israel's military and supports the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza and war against Iran. Previous Labour Party-led governments have sent troops to the criminal US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2022 Jacinda Ardern's Labour-led government, which included the Greens, sent hundreds of troops to Britain to assist in training Ukrainian conscripts to fight in the US-NATO proxy war against Russia. Labour agrees with the current government's plan to double military spending over the next few years, from 1 to 2 percent of GDP—at the expense of social programs that working people rely on. The aim, spelled out in numerous official documents and statements, is to prepare the military for joint operations with the US and Australia, particularly against China, which is considered the main 'threat' to US global hegemony. The war against Russia over Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, the war against Iran and the military build-up against China are all interconnected fronts in a rapidly developing world war aimed at seizing resources and markets and resolving the crisis of capitalism centred in the US. New Zealand's ruling elite is preparing to deepen its involvement on all these fronts, behind the backs and against the will of the population, who are overwhelmingly against war. The working class must take action to stop the war, but for this it needs its own socialist political party and strategy—in opposition to all the capitalist parties including Labour and its allies. The only way to put an end to war is through the unified action of the international working class to abolish the source of war: the capitalist system. Those who agree with this must take the decision to become politically active and join the Socialist Equality Group, which is fighting to build a section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution, in New Zealand. By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 22 June 2025
Scoop
3 hours ago
- Scoop
US Starts New Horror Show For Israel
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa is calling out for New Zealanders to condemn the US bombing of Iran. PSNA Co-Chair, Maher Nazzal, says he hopes, but does not expect, that the New Zealand government will be critical of the US for its war escalation. 'Israel has once again hoodwinked the United States into fighting Israel's wars. 'Israel's Prime Minister has declared Iran to be on the point of producing nuclear weapons since the 1990s. It's all part of his big plan for expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine to create a Greater Israel, and regime change for the entire region.' 'Israel knows Arab and European countries will fall in behind these plans and in many cases actually help implement them.' 'It is a dreadful day for the Palestinians. Netanyahu's forces will be turned back onto them in Gaza and the West Bank.' 'It is just as dreadful day for the whole Middle East. Trump has tried to add Iran to the disasters of US foreign policy in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. The US simply doesn't care how many people will die.'
