US strikes Iran's nuclear sites, risking wider Mideast war
The U.S. carried out airstrikes on three nuclear sites in Iran overnight, directly entering Israel's war with Tehran despite President Donald Trump's longtime promises to avoid new foreign conflicts.
Trump said Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities had been "totally obliterated" and warned of "far greater" attacks unless the Islamic Republic agreed to make peace, raising the prospect of deeper U.S. involvement in a Middle East war sparked by Israeli strikes nine days ago.
Iranian officials said the ongoing attacks by Israel - now joined by the U.S. - had left little room for diplomacy, arguing that negotiations are impossible while the country is under assault. Tehran fired missiles at Israel in response but has so far stopped short of targeting American forces or assets in the region.
American B-2 bombers dropped 14 of the 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) bunker-buster bombs on targets including Fordow, a uranium-enrichment site buried deep under a mountain, according to U.S. Air Force General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities were also struck with similar weapons and cruise missiles.
"Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terror," Trump said. "Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater - and a lot easier."
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the American strikes are "outrageous and will have everlasting consequences."
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it would continue targeting Israel in response and cited American bases in the region as a vulnerability for the U.S., without openly threatening them.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has yet to make an appearance or comment on the airstrikes.
Despite Trump's declaration that all targeted nuclear facilities were obliterated, neither Israel nor Iran offered definitive assessment of the damages to those sites.
Tehran's nuclear regulatory agency said there was no sign of radiation contamination and that it had taken precautions in anticipation of an attack.
An official evaluation of the strikes' impact would follow later, said Caine, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
America's entry into the conflict marks an extraordinary escalation by Trump - the most consequential foreign policy decision of his presidency to date.
In ordering the strikes, Trump defied warnings from key U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe, as well as from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The U.N. watchdog has repeatedly cautioned that nuclear facilities must not be targeted, citing risks of radioactive contamination.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes had a "limited" objective, focused on destroying Iran's nuclear program.
"The mission was not, has not, been about regime change," he said.
Iran has long maintained that it does not seek nuclear weapons, a view echoed in recent U.S. intelligence assessments that found Tehran had yet to commit to developing a bomb. Trump dismissed those conclusions and refused to rule out joining Israel's attacks on the Islamic Republic.
Western and Arab concerns over Iran's nuclear program have intensified in recent years, as Tehran has enriched enriched uranium well beyond levels required for civilian use. It is now processing material close to weapons-grade purity, for which Western countries feel there is little justification with current civilian uses of the material.
The U.S. strikes could lead to attacks on American assets in the Middle East. Earlier in the conflict, Khamenei warned Washington of "irreparable damage" if it bombed his country.
"Trump wants this to be one and done," Eurasia Group analysts including Gregory Brew wrote in an emailed note. "Iran has to respond to the U.S. attack, but the response will be calibrated to avoid causing significant damage or casualties, as that would surely provoke Trump into mounting a more forceful campaign."
The U.S. will likely have to put its troops on high alert. It has around 50,000 service members in the region, the bulk being in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
In Yemen, the Houthis, a militant group backed by Iran, issued fresh threats against U.S. commercial and naval ships. Until a ceasefire in early May, the Houthis were regularly firing drones and missiles at Western vessels and warships in the southern Red Sea.
It's also possible that Tehran opts to leave the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, according to Ali Vaez, the director of the International Crisis Group's Iran Project and a long-time analyst of the country's atomic program.
The NPT is the bedrock arms-control agreement that compels signatories to accept inspections from the IAEA. If Iran left, the world would get even less information about what remains of its atomic sites.
Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, left the door open for such an eventuality, questioning the treaty's effectiveness since it failed to "protect" Iran from attacks.
Israel was notified in advance of the strikes, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the U.S. and Israel had coordinated fully on the attacks.
Israel's main stock exchange rose 1.5%, with Sunday's rise putting stocks on course for the biggest quarterly rally since 2003.
The likelihood of an imminent strike seemed to have eased when Trump's team said on Thursday he would make a decision within two weeks.
On Friday, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK met their Iranian counterpart, Araghchi, in Geneva to try to get Tehran to restart nuclear talks with the U.S. The UK said on Sunday it didn't take part in the overnight strikes.
Iran had been in negotiations with the U.S. for about two months, but called them off after Israel started bombing its territory.
The two had made some progress toward a deal that would curb Tehran's atomic activities in return for sanctions relief, but stalled on enrichment. Iran insisted it must be allowed to continue that process, even if to the low level needed for civilian purposes. Trump and Israel said it shouldn't be able to carry out any enrichment at all.
Energy prices
The war between Israel and Iran has evoked fears of conflict with high civilian casualties and that spreads to other countries in the energy-rich region, disrupting flows of oil and liquefied natural gas. Those concerns among world powers and investors will probably increase in light of the American intervention.
The most immediate impact on the global economy could be through higher crude and LNG prices. About a fifth of the world's daily oil supply goes through the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbors such as Saudi Arabia. One option for Iran would be to hit or hassle crude and LNG tankers passing through the area.
Brent crude closed on Friday at just over $77 a barrel, up 11% since the conflict began. Another rise when global markets reopen on Monday morning will further complicate the task of major central banks as they seek to slow inflation.
For days, Trump had faced conflicting advice from his supporters, after he campaigned on promises to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars, pointing to American involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq this century. MAGA allies, including longtime Trump supporter Steve Bannon, have warned against any U.S. intervention, insisting this is Israel's fight to finish.
Other Republicans urged Trump to join the conflict against Iran, arguing that Tehran was more vulnerable following Israel's attacks. They said it was an opportunity to deliver on the president's pledge that Iran's regime would never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
Israel has said its attacks on Iran were aimed at setting back or destroying its nuclear program. On Sunday, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Effie Defrin said the country will continue its mission, citing existential threat posed by Iran.
While Israel has not said it is aiming to topple Khamenei and the Islamic Republic, its officials have said they hope their attacks undermine the regime, which has been an adversary to the U.S. and Israel for most of the period since the Iranian revolution in 1979. That event saw the fall of a Western-friendly monarchy and the birth of a theocratic government.
Israel needed the U.S.'s help in attacking nuclear sites because it lacked the heavy bombs and B-2 stealth jets required to destroy facilities buried deep underground at Fordow and Natanz.
Tehran has responded to Israeli bombings by firing waves of ballistic missiles and drones at the Jewish state every day. There was another salvo against Israel hours after the U.S. attacks.
Iran's ability to react may be limited by its economic weakness, with inflation running at around 40%. It is also largely isolated internationally. While allies such as Russia and China condemned Israel's strikes and warned against U.S. intervention, they've offered little concrete support to Tehran.
"Tehran is now in its nightmare scenario," said Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk consultancy Rane Network. "To act or to not act are equally dangerous. To essentially surrender is to invite internal challenges; to fight back is to invite an open U.S. air campaign that could aim to overthrow the Islamic Republic."
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(With assistance from Steven T. Dennis, Dan Williams, Golnar Motevalli, Natalia Drozdiak, Eric Martin, Courtney McBride and Erik Wasson.
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Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
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