Anti-war protests form in New York City following U.S. strikes in Iran
Anti-war demonstrators have begun to peacefully gather in New York's Times Square and various locations across the U.S. in response to the Trump administration's strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. NBC News' Maya Eaglin reports from Times Square with the mood from these early protests.
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Times
18 minutes ago
- Times
Offer of talks went unanswered — so Trump sent bombers instead
T he clock started ticking down towards the US bombing of Iran after the Iranian regime failed to respond within a 60-day deadline set in a private letter from President Trump to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Even as military preparations were in full swing over the past week, senior officials said Trump remained open throughout to a meaningful overture from Tehran, as indicated when he told his press secretary to announce on Thursday that he would decide 'within two weeks' whether or not to join Israel's campaign. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, went even further, saying on Sunday that the bombing mission could have been aborted while the planes were in the air if circumstances had changed.
Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Satellite images indicate severe damage to Fordow, but doubts remain
WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - Commercial satellite imagery indicates the U.S. attack on Iran's Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged - and possibly destroyed - the deeply-buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but there was no confirmation, experts said on Sunday. 'They just punched through with these MOPs,' said David Albright, a former U.N. nuclear inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, referring to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs that the U.S. said it dropped. 'I would expect that the facility is probably toast.' But confirmation of the below-ground destruction could not be determined, noted Decker Eveleth, an associate researcher with the CNA Corporation who specializes in satellite imagery. The hall containing hundreds of centrifuges is "too deeply buried for us to evaluate the level of damage based on satellite imagery," he said. To defend against attacks such as the one conducted by U.S. forces early on Sunday, Iran buried much of its nuclear program in fortified sites deep underground, including into the side of a mountain at Fordow. Satellite images show six holes where the bunker-busting bombs appear to have penetrated the mountain, and then ground that looks disturbed and covered in dust. The United States and Israel have said they intend to halt Tehran's nuclear program. But a failure to completely destroy its facilities and equipment could mean Iran could more easily restart the weapons program that U.S. intelligence and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say it shuttered in 2003. Several experts also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of Fordow before the strike early Sunday morning and could be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, the U.S. and U.N. nuclear inspectors. They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance of the facility. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the near weapons-grade 60% highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the U.S. attack. "I don't think you can with great confidence do anything but set back their nuclear program by maybe a few years," said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. "There's almost certainly facilities that we don't know about." Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat and member of the Senate intelligence committee who said he had been reviewing intelligence every day, expressed the same concern. "My big fear right now is that they take this entire program underground, not physically underground, but under the radar," he told NBC News. "Where we tried to stop it, there is a possibility that this could accelerate it." Iran long has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But in response to Israel's attacks, Iran's parliament is threatening to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of the international system that went into force in 1970 to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, ending cooperation with the IAEA. "The world is going to be in the dark about what Iran may be doing," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group. Reuters spoke to four experts who reviewed Maxar Technologies satellite imagery of Fordow showing six neatly spaced holes in two groups in the mountain ridge beneath which the hall containing the centrifuges is believed to be located. General Dan Caine, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told, opens new tab reporters that seven B-2 bombers dropped 14 GBU-57/B MOPs, 30,000-pound precision-guided bombs designed to drive up to 200 feet into hardened underground facilities like Fordow, according to a 2012 congressional report. Caine said initial assessments indicated that the sites suffered extremely severe damage, but declined to speculate about whether any nuclear facilities remained intact. Eveleth said the Maxar imagery of Fordow and Caine's comments indicated that the B-2s dropped an initial load of six MOPs on Fordow, followed by a "double tap" of six more in the exact same spots. Operation Midnight Hammer also targeted Tehran's main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, he said, and struck in Isfahan, the location of the country's largest nuclear research center. There are other nuclear-related sites near the city. Israel had already struck Natanz and the Isfahan Nuclear Research Center in its 10-day war with Iran. Albright said in a post on X that Airbus Defence and Space satellite imagery showed that U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles severely damaged a uranium facility at Isfahan and an impact hole above the underground enrichment halls at Natanz reportedly caused by a Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bomb that "likely destroyed the facility." Albright questioned the U.S. use of cruise missiles in Isfahan, saying that those weapons could not penetrate a tunnel complex near the main nuclear research center believed to be even deeper than Fordow. The IAEA said the tunnel entrances "were impacted." He noted that Iran recently informed the IAEA that it planned to install a new uranium enrichment plant in Isfahan. "There may be 2,000 to 3,000 more centrifuges that were slated to go into this new enrichment plant," he said. "Where are they?"
NBC News
27 minutes ago
- NBC News
Oil prices jump following U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities
Oil prices jumped and stock futures slipped Sunday evening, indicating concern among investors about the possibility of economic fallout from the ongoing unrest in the Middle East following U.S. strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. The major focus is on oil. Iran remains a major international oil supplier, and it also sits on the Strait of Hormuz, a heavily trafficked waterway in the Persian Gulf that is a key transit channel for about one-fifth of the world's oil supply. Concerns centered on whether Iran would begin limiting or shutting down access to the strait. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that closing the strait would be tantamount to 'economic suicide' for Iran and called on China, Iran's top trading partner, to head off any attempt by Iran to affect traffic. U.S. and global oil benchmark prices opened up 4% Sunday evening, underscoring the concerns about what the conflict means for the world's oil supplies. Oil prices already gained about 3% last week in the wake of Israel's initial strikes against Iranian targets and Iran's retaliatory missile attacks. Stocks also slid Sunday. S&P 500 futures contracts declined about 0.6% in the first hour of trading, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell about 250 points, or 0.6%. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.7%. U.S. markets officially open at 9:30 a.m. ET Monday. 'Should oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz be affected, we could easily see $100 oil' or an increase in U.S. gas prices by 75 cents per gallon, Andy Lipow, president of the consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates, said in a note to clients Sunday. In a worst-case scenario in which oil prices rose to at least $120 a barrel, U.S. gas prices would increase as much as $1.25 per gallon, Lipow said. In a follow-up email, Lipow said that even if the strait does not officially close, any action by a tanker company to pre-emptively reduce its footprint there represents 'a de facto supply disruption.' Iran's state-owned media reported that Iran's parliament backed closing the strait — but that the final decision lies with Iran's national security council, according to the report. Any move by Iran to alter traffic in the strait could also hurt its own economy — particularly commerce with China. On Sunday, a department of the U.K. Royal Navy said it observed 'electronic interference in the Strait of Hormuz.' At least two massive supertankers that had entered the strait were reported to have made U-turns. Marine tracking websites also showed the vessels turning about halfway through the strait. 'I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,' Rubio said in an interview on Fox News. China is Iran's most important oil customer, and they maintain friendly relations. Iran may still be assessing the ultimate damage to its nuclear facilities as it contemplates its next move. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Sunday that while it had confirmed that the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites had been hit, it was not immediately possible to assess the damage at the Fordo site. Until last week, U.S. stocks had been enjoying a substantial, if volatile, recovery from the lows following President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs announcement in April. That momentum reversed after Israel announced last weekend it had struck key Iranian military and nuclear targets, prompting retaliatory missile strikes on Israeli targets by Iran. JPMorgan analysts said Sunday that investors had voiced concerns to them last week that the Iran-Israel conflict would spread, 'and those concerns have been materialized.' 'Trump's statement that this might be the only US attack or might begin a series of attacks brought us little certainty,' the analysts added in a note to clients. 'Moreover, we do not see an obvious route to a political settlement to the military conflict, which makes us think the conflict, like the one in Gaza, could last longer than many investors think.'
