US President Donald Trump posted on social media site Truth Social late Saturday evening in the US (early Sunday morning in India) announcing US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed attacks on the country's Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites.
President Trump said the US military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort to decapitate Iran's nuclear programme. “We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump said in his post. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.”
Trump added in a later post that he would address the nation at 10.00 pm Eastern time (meant to be 7.30 am IST but the address was slightly delayed), writing, “This is a historic moment for the United States of America, Israel and the World. Iran must now agree to end this war. Thank you”.
UN chief flags 'dangerous escalation' of Iran conflictUnited Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the "dangerous escalation" of the Iran conflict through US bombing of nuclear sites in that country can catastrophically get out of control.
In a statement minutes before US President Donald Trump's address to the nation on Saturday night, 21 June, Guterres said the attack was "a direct threat to international peace and security."
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Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 865 people and wounded 3,396 others, a human rights group said on Sunday.
The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 363 civilians and 215 security force personnel being killed.
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Israeli media reports hint Israeli attacks on Iran to continueUnless the US and Iran reach an agreement, the possibility that Iran will sit quiet after the US strikes seems remote, reports Al Jazeera, which cites reports from Israeli media talking about continuing Israeli strikes.
Simultaneously, Israel is bracing for an Iranian response, with restrictions on movement increased to the maximum. Air alerts have been activated across Israel and explosions have reportedly already been heard over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, Jordan's public security directorate has said air raid sirens have been activated in all of the country’s governorates, reports Al Jazeera
A spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, the unified combatant command headquarters of the Iranian armed forces, has said: "The delivery of any military or radar equipment by any country to assist the Zionist regime will be considered a legitimate target by the armed forces. The aggressor Zionist regime has lost a significant portion of its radar and defense capabilities and is facing a shortage of ammunition and equipment.
"We warn that any shipment of military or radar equipment, whether by ship or aircraft, from any country to assist the Zionist regime will be considered participation in aggression against Iran and will be deemed a legitimate target for the armed forces."
Iranian TV says no nuclear radiation is expected from the US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, and all enriched uranium has been removed from the facilities in advance. The representative of Qom Province said, "The underground facilities of Fordow nuclear site has not been damaged, the damage is above ground."
Trump starts the war, wants Iran to end itMedia network CBS says the US reached out to Iran “diplomatically” shortly before the attacks to say its action would be limited to the strikes on the nuclear facilities and that “regime change efforts are not planned”.
"Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites were predictable, given the advance warning signalled by the B-2 bomber deployment and his earlier threats,” said Jesse Marks, CEO of Rihla Research & Adviser, a Washington-based geopolitical consultancy. “The true inflection point, however, will be the scale of destruction — this will likely determine whether Iran chooses to retaliate against US positions across the broader Middle East,” he said.
“For now, Trump appears to have opted for a limited strike, deliberately avoiding the deployment of US ground forces. This suggests a calibrated message: a clear intent to degrade Iran’s nuclear capabilities while still leaving space for future negotiations,” Marks said
In his first public remarks following the US airstrikes, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has accused Washington of breaching international law.
“The United States, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has committed a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT by attacking Iran’s peaceful nuclear installations,” Araghchi said in a social media post.
“The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences. Each and every member of the UN must be alarmed over this extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behavior.”
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a previously fervent Trump supporter who broke with the president over Iran in recent days, said the Iran-Israel conflict “is not our fight”.
“Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war,” she said on social media. “There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first. Israel is a nuclear armed nation. This is not our fight. Peace is the answer.”
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned the US attacks and demanded that Trump “immediately” brief Congress. “President Trump misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorisation for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East,” Jeffries said. “First, the Trump administration bears the heavy burden of explaining to the American people why this military action was undertaken. Second, Congress must be fully and immediately briefed in a classified setting.”
Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at Washington-based Defence Priorities, warned of the risk that Trump’s action “started a protracted bombing campaign”, depending on how Tehran responds.
“Iran will have to retaliate in some way, if only for its domestic audiences. The question is how strongly it retaliates and what targets it chooses,” she said. “It could try to strike US service members in the region, but knows this could pull the United States in more deeply, which it may want to avoid. It could instead hit oil facilities in US partner countries or try to block traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. This might not elicit as strong a US response but still would risk regional spillover. Iran will have to weigh its desire to retaliate with the costs it could face if the United States started a protracted bombing campaign.”
Iran indicated on Sunday its intention to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world's oil travels. This will be the easiest and the fastest retaliatory move by Iran and its allies to the US bombing.
“The Strait of Hormuz will be closed within a few hours”, Brigadier General Tangsiri, commander of the IRGC Navy, has been quoted as saying. Fuel ships will not pass to Europe through the Strait of Hormuz, says another Iranian official. There are close to 50 large oil tankers scrambling to leave the Strait of Hormuz right now. Looks like the oil industry is expecting the strait to be blockaded in the coming hours.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites are "a dangerous escalation" and "a direct threat to international peace and security", Xinhua news agency has reported.
"I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today. This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge -- and a direct threat to international peace and security," said Guterres in a statement.
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. Guterres called on UN member states to uphold their obligations under the UN Charter and other rules of international law.
"At this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace," he said.
US President Donald Trump's address to the nation on Saturday evening local time (Sunday morning IST) has made it clear that Iran will face more military strikes if peace does not come quickly, according to Xinhua news agency.
Trump also said Iran's key nuclear facilities had been "completely and totally obliterated," and that future attacks will be "far greater and a lot easier".
"If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes," he said.
"Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear capacity," he said, calling the US strikes a "spectacular" success. Trump said he decided a long time ago not to let Iran gain a nuclear weapon and that without peace, there will be "tragedy" for Iran that will far exceed what's taken place.
A prominent adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for missile strikes on US Navy ships and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping route, according to CNN.
“Following America’s attack on the Fordow nuclear installation, it is now our turn,” warned Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the hardline Kayhan newspaper, a well-known conservative voice who has previously identified himself as Khamenei’s 'representative'.
A Telegram message from Kayhan quoted Shariatmadari as saying: “Without hesitation or delay, as a first step we must launch missile strikes on the American naval fleet based in Bahrain and simultaneously close the Strait of Hormuz to American, British, German, and French shipping.”
There has been no official response yet from Khamenei to the US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
No radioactive traces have been detected in the environment of the kingdom or the Arab Gulf states as a result of US strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, Saudi Arabia’s nuclear regulator said in a social media post on Sunday, as reported by Reuters.
Iran’s atomic energy organisation respondsIran's Atomic Energy Organisation has issued a statement saying:
“At dawn today the country’s nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan were attacked in a brutal act that violates international law, especially the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). This action, which is against international law, unfortunately took place under the indifference — or even complicity — of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The American enemy, through social media posts by the President of that country, has claimed responsibility for the attack on the mentioned sites, which are under the continuous supervision of the IAEA according to the Safeguards Agreement and the NPT.
"It is expected that the international community, while condemning this lawlessness rooted in the rules of the jungle, will stand by Iran in reclaiming its legitimate rights. The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran assures the great nation of Iran that, despite the malicious conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of thousands of its revolutionary and motivated scientists and specialists, it will not allow the development of this national industry — founded on the blood of nuclear martyrs — to be halted. This organisation has placed on its agenda all necessary actions, including legal follow-ups, to defend the rights of the noble Iranian people.”
Israeli Prime Minister 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,” he said. Netanyahu said the U.S. “has done what no other country on earth could do,” he said in a televised address.
The decision to directly involve the US in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that aimed to systematically eradicate the country’s air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But US and Israeli officials have said American stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound (13,500-kg) bunker buster bombs offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground.
The Associated Press reported that Trump had told reporters on Friday that he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran, saying it’s “the last thing you want to do”. He had previously indicated that he would make a final choice over the course of two weeks. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said shortly after 9.00 pm Eastern time that he had spoken with Trump and that six bunker buster bombs were used on the Fordow facility. Hannity said 30 Tomahawk missiles fired by US submarines 400 miles away struck the Iranian nuclear sites of Natanz and Isfahan.
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