Iran warns of 'everlasting consequences' after U.S. attacks 3 nuclear sites
The latest:
Trump says stealth bombers hit sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Iran's nuclear agency confirms attacks, says work will not be stopped.
Iran said 'no sign of contamination' as a result of the attacks.
Israeli airspace has been closed to inbound and outbound travel, but it's not clear for how long.
Netanyahu praises U.S. decision that 'will change history.'
UN secretary general brands U.S. decision as 'dangerous escalation.'
Tehran says 'U.S. has … launched a dangerous war against Iran.'
International Atomic Energy Agency to hold an emergency meeting.
EU foreign policy chief says foreign ministers will gather on Monday.
U.S. military leaders to hold briefing at 8 a.m. ET Sunday.
Tehran accused Washington of launching "a dangerous war" after President Donald Trump said the U.S. attacked three sites in Iran on Sunday and claimed key nuclear sites were "completedly and fully obliterated."
Iran's Foreign Ministry said Washington had "betrayed diplomacy" with the military strikes in support of Israel, which has been engaged in a nine-day war with Iran in an attempt to destroy its nuclear program.
Now, "the U.S. has itself launched a dangerous war against Iran," the ministry said in a lengthy statement.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to resist with full force against U.S. military aggression and the crimes committed by this rogue regime, and to defend Iran's security and national interests."
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned in a post on X Sunday that the U.S. attacks "will have everlasting consequences."
There's been no independent damage assessment in the wake of the U.S. attacks.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed they took place on its Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites, but it insisted its nuclear program won't be stopped. Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the three locations following the strikes.
After announcing the attacks on social media, Trump gave an address to the nation from the White House, saying, "There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran."
It was not clear is the U.S. would continue attacking Iran alongside its ally Israel. Trump, who acted without congressional authorization, he warned there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliated against U.S. forces.
Tehran says Washington 'betrayed diplomacy'
Hours after the American attacks, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched 40 missiles at Israel, including its Khorramshahr-4, which can carry multiple warheads. Israeli authorities reported more than 80 people suffered mostly minor injuries, and there were reports of damage in the cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv and along the coast.
WATCH | What's the endgame in Israel's war on Iran?:
Israel's war on Iran: What's the endgame? | About That
3 days ago
Duration 15:36
A week after Israel's initial strikes on nuclear and military targets across Iran, many are asking: What comes next? As deadly attacks and counterattacks between the two countries continue with no end yet in sight, Andrew Chang explores what Israel's endgame might be in its war with Iran and why its ambitions could go well beyond preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. (Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters)
Following the Iranian barrage, Israel's military said it had "swiftly neutralized" the Iranian missile launchers that had fired and it had begun a series of strikes toward military targets in western Iran.
Iran has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon, making it an imminent threat.
The decision to directly involve the U.S. in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel that significantly degraded Iran's air defences and offensive missile capabilities, and damaged its nuclear enrichment facilities. But U.S. and Israeli officials have said American B-2 stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bomb that only they have been configured to carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.
Israel announced Sunday that it had closed its airspace to both inbound and outbound flights in the wake of the U.S. attacks.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump's decision to attack in a video message directed at the American president.
"Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history."
Netanyahu said the U.S. "has done what no other country on Earth could do."
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation. U.S. military leaders are scheduled to provide a briefing at 8 a.m. E.T. Sunday that CBC will carry live.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrote on X that there has been "no increase in off-site radiation levels" after the strikes, but it would continue to monitor the situation.
Iran wants an investigation of the U.S. strikes on its nuclear sites, its nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said in a letter to IAEA's chief, Rafael Grossi, urging him to condemn the U.S. action and take appropriate measures, according to Iran's SNN news network.
Eslami criticized Grossi for his "inaction and complicity," and added Iran would pursue appropriate legal measures to tackle the matter.
Grossi said on Sunday that he'd be calling an emergency meeting of his agency's 35-nation board of governors after the U.S. attacks.
Trump's decision to attack
The decision to attack was a risky one for Trump, who won the White House partially on the promise of keeping the U.S. out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.
But Trump also vowed he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and he had initially hoped the threat of force would bring the country's leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully.
For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. In April and again in late May, he persuaded Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.
After Israel began striking Iran, Trump went from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a "second chance" for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran's unconditional surrender.
The U.S. president has bristled at criticism from some supporters who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to those who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars.
Fears of a broader war
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the U.S. attacks a "dangerous escalation" as world leaders began chiming in with calls for diplomacy.
"There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control - with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region and the world," he said in a statement.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who had threatened to resume attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel's military campaign called on other Muslim nations to form "one front against the Zionist-American arrogance."
On Wednesday, Khamenei warned the U.S. that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will "result in irreparable damage for them." Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei declared "any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region."
The Israeli military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran's foreign minister warned before the U.S. attack that American military involvement "would be very, very dangerous for everyone."
WATCH | Iranian Canadian worried about her father:
'I would love to have him here, I just don't know how': Iranian Canadian worried for her father
11 hours ago
Duration 6:54
Iranian Canadian Bahar Montamedian, whose 72-year-old father is currently stranded in Iran amid Israeli strikes, told CBC News she wants the federal government to find a way to bring not only citizens out of Iran but also valid temporary visa holders like her father. "I just want my dad to be here. I don't know when will be the next time I can see him or talk to him," Montamedian said.
After the U.S. attacks, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Sunday urged all sides to return to the negotiating table.
"Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon," Kallas said in a post on X.
"I urge all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation," she said, adding that EU foreign ministers will discuss the situation on Monday.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 865 people and wounded 3,396 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group said of those dead, it identified 363 civilians and 215 security force personnel.
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CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Carney calls for diplomatic resolution after U.S. airstrikes on Iran
Social Sharing Prime Minister Mark Carney says U.S. military attacks on Iranian nuclear sites were designed to alleviate the threat of the country's nuclear program, and reiterated that Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. The prime minister's statement comes in response to U.S. strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, further escalating the crisis in the Middle East. In a statement posted to social media, the prime minister urged parties to immediately return to the negotiating table to reach a diplomatic resolution. Carney echoed calls from last week's G7 leaders' joint statement, calling for "de-escalation" of hostilities in the Middle East and a ceasefire in Gaza. U.S. President Donald Trump left the G7 summit early to address the Middle East crisis following Israel's latest attacks targeted at Iran's nuclear program. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand urged Canadians in the region to register with Global Affairs Canada for updates on available travel options. In an interview with the CBC's Power & Politics on Thursday, Anand said Canadians fleeing Israel and Iran should head to Jordan, Turkey and Armenia, where Canada is boosting its consular services. Both Carney and Anand released statements prior to departing for Europe for back-to-back EU and NATO summits. Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says allowing Iran to get a nuclear weapon would have been "reckless," and that U.S. and Israeli actions to stop Iran's nuclear proliferation are justified. Poilievre said the federal government must protect Canadians from spillover violence in Canada and take action to stop "intimidation and foreign interference by the Iranian regime targeting Canada's Jewish and Persian communities." Calls for diplomacy Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency meeting on the matter later today. Hours after the strikes, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. of crossing a "very big red line," and said he was headed to Moscow for urgent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an interview with Fox News Sunday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is not at war with Iran, and called for direct talks.
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
What are bunker-buster bombs the U.S. used to attack Iran's nuclear facilities?
In inserting itself into Israel's war against Iran, Washington unleashed its massive bunker-buster bombs on Iran's Fordo fuel enrichment plant. Those bombs were widely seen as the best chance of damaging or destroying Fordo, built deep into a mountain and untouched during Israel's week-long offensive. Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said 14 of the bombs were used in Sunday's attack on Fordo and a second target. The U.S. is the only military capable of dropping the weapons, and the movement of B-2 stealth bombers toward Asia on Saturday had signalled possible activity by the U.S. Israeli leaders had made no secret of their hopes that President Donald Trump would join their week-old war against Iran, though they had also suggested they had backup plans for destroying the site. In all, the U.S. hit three nuclear sites and Caine told reporters Sunday that 'initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage.' The mission could have wide-ranging ramifications, including jeopardizing any chance of Iran engaging in Trump's desired talks on its nuclear program and dragging the U.S. into another Mideast war. Here's a closer look. 'Bunker buster' is a broad term used to describe bombs that are designed to penetrate deep below the surface before exploding. In this case, it refers to the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb in the American arsenal. The roughly 30,000 pound (13,600 kilogram) precision-guided bomb is designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels, according to the U.S. Air Force. It's believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast. It was not immediately known how many were used in the Sunday morning strike. The bomb carries a conventional warhead, but the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, which had raised the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility. Initial assessments by the IAEA, however, were that this had not happened. Fordo is Iran's second nuclear enrichment facility after Natanz, its main facility, which already has been targeted by Israeli air strikes and was also hit by the U.S. on Sunday, along with Isfahan. The IAEA says it believes those earlier strikes have had 'direct impacts' on the facility's underground centrifuge halls. Fordo is smaller than Natanz, and is built into the side of a mountain near the city of Qom, about 60 miles (95 kilometres) southwest of Tehran. Construction is believed to have started around 2006 and it became first operational in 2009 — the same year Tehran publicly acknowledged its existence. Analysis: Israel eyes the heart of Iran's nuclear ambitions In addition to being an estimated 80 meters (260 feet) under rock and soil, the site is reportedly protected by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile systems. Those air defences, however, likely have already been struck in the Israeli campaign, which claims to have knocked out most of Iran's air defences and the U.S. bombers were not fired upon during their mission. Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the goal of attacking Iran was to eliminate its missile and nuclear program, which he described as an existential threat to Israel, and officials have said Fordo was part of that plan. 'This entire operation ... really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordo,' Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., told Fox News. In theory, the GBU-57 A/B could be dropped by any bomber capable of carrying the weight, but at the moment the U.S. has only configured and programed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver the bomb, according to the Air Force. The B-2 is only flown by the Air Force, and is produced by Northrop Grumman. According to the manufacturer, the B-2 can carry a payload of 40,000 pounds (18,000 kilograms) but the U.S. Air Force has said it has successfully tested the B-2 loaded with two GBU-57 A/B bunker busters – a total weight of some 60,000 pounds (27,200 kilograms). In the attack on Fordo, Caine said the first B-2 dropped two of the bunker busters on the facility. The strategic long-range heavy bomber has a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometres) without refuelling and 11,500 miles (18,500 kilometres) with one refuelling, and can reach any point in the world within hours, according to Northrop Grumman. The mission against Iran was flown from its home base in Missouri. Whether the U.S. would get involved had been unclear in recent days. At the G7 meeting in Canada, Trump was asked what it would take for Washington to become involved militarily and he said: 'I don't want to talk about that.' Then on Thursday, Trump said he would decide within two weeks whether to get involved, to give another chance to the possibility of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. In the end, it took just two days to decide. Sunday's attack was specifically restricted to the three nuclear sites, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. 'The scope of this was intentionally limited, that's the message that we're sending, with the capabilities of the American military nearly unlimited,' he told reporters. 'So Iran, in that sense, has a choice.'
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Why some key Tehran allies have stayed out of the Israel-Iran conflict
BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah has long been considered Iran's first line of defense in case of a war with Israel. But since Israel launched its massive barrage against Iran, triggering the ongoing Israel-Iran war, the Lebanese militant group has stayed out of the fray — even after the U.S. entered the conflict Sunday with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. A network of powerful Iran-backed militias in Iraq has also remained mostly quiet. Domestic political concerns, as well as tough losses suffered in nearly two years of regional conflicts and upheavals, appear to have led these Iran allies to take a back seat in the latest round convulsing the region. 'Despite all the restraining factors, wild cards remain,' said Tamer Badawi, an associate fellow with the Germany-based think tank Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient. That's especially true after the U.S. stepped in with strikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran. The 'Axis of Resistance' Hezbollah was formed with Iranian support in the early 1980s as a guerilla force fighting against Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon at the time. The militant group helped push Israel out of Lebanon and built its arsenal over the ensuing decades, becoming a powerful regional force and the centerpiece of a cluster of Iranian-backed factions and governments known as the ' Axis of Resistance.' The allies also include Iraqi Shiite militias and Yemen's Houthi rebels, as well as the Palestinian militant group Hamas. At one point, Hezbollah was believed to have some 150,000 rockets and missiles, and the group's former leader, Hassan Nasrallah once boasted of having 100,000 fighters. Seeking to aid its ally Hamas in the aftermath of the Palestinian militants' Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel and Israel's offensive in Gaza, Hezbollah began launching rockets across the border. That drew Israeli airstrikes and shelling, and the exchanges escalated into full-scale war last September. Israel inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah, killing Nasrallah and other top leaders and destroying much of its arsenal, before a U.S.-negotiated ceasefire halted that conflict last November. Israel continues to occupy parts of southern Lebanon and to carry out near-daily airstrikes. For their part, the Iraqi militias occasionally struck bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, while Yemen's Houthis fired at vessels in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and began targeting Israel. Keeping an ambiguous stance Hezbollah has condemned Israel's attacks but did not immediately comment on the U.S. strikes on Iran. Just days before the U.S. attack, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said in a statement that the group 'will act as we deem appropriate in the face of this brutal Israeli-American aggression.' Lebanese government officials have pressed the group to stay out of the conflict, saying that Lebanon cannot handle another damaging war, and U.S. envoy Tom Barrack, who visited Lebanon last week, said it would be a 'very bad decision' for Hezbollah to get involved. Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah militia — a separate group from Hezbollah — had said prior to the U.S. attack that it will directly target U.S. interests and bases spread throughout the region if Washington gets involved. The group has also remained silent since Sunday's strikes. The Houthis last month reached an agreement with Washington to stop attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea in exchange for the U.S. halting its strikes on Yemen, but the group threatened to resume its attacks if Washington entered the Iran-Israel war. In a statement on Sunday, the Houthis' political bureau described the U.S. attack on Iran as a 'grave escalation that poses a direct threat to regional and international security and peace.' The Houthis did not immediately launch strikes. Reasons to stay on the sidelines Hezbollah was weakened by last year's fighting and after losing a major supply route for Iranian weapons with the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key ally, in a lightning rebel offensive in December. 'Hezbollah has been degraded on the strategic level while cut off from supply chains in Syria,' said Andreas Krieg, a military analyst and associate professor at King's College London. Still, Qassem Qassir, a Lebanese analyst close to Hezbollah, said a role for the militant group in the Israel-Iran conflict should not be ruled out. 'The battle is still in its early stages,' he said. 'Even Iran hasn't bombed American bases (in response to the U.S. strikes), but rather bombed Israel.' He said that both the Houthis and the Iraqi militias 'lack the strategic deep strike capability against Israel that Hezbollah once had.' Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London, said Iraq's Iran-allied militias have all along tried to avoid pulling their country into a major conflict. Unlike Hezbollah, whose military wing has operated as a non-state actor in Lebanon — although its political wing is part of the government — the main Iraqi militias are members of a coalition of groups that are officially part of the state defense forces. 'Things in Iraq are good for them right now, they're connected to the state — they're benefitting politically, economically,' Mansour said. 'And also they've seen what's happened to Iran, to Hezbollah and they're concerned that Israel will turn on them as well.' Badawi said that for now, the armed groups may be lying low because 'Iran likely wants these groups to stay intact and operational.' 'But if Iran suffers insurmountable losses or if the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) is assassinated, those could act as triggers,' he said.
