President Trump addresses the nation, alongside (from left) Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, from the White House on Saturday. Carlos Barria/Pool/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Carlos Barria/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. military has joined with Israel to launch military strikes against Iran, a dramatic escalation in the years-long effort by both nations to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday.
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“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. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Late Saturday evening, President Trump addressed the nation from the White House, joined by Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat,” Trump said. “Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
As he praised the troops on Saturday evening, the president did say he hoped there would be no need for additional action. But, that “this cannot continue” and that Iran has “many targets left.”
“If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.”
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In a press conference at the Pentagon on Sunday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were “obliterated” by the strikes.
“The order we received from our commander in chief was focused, it was powerful, and it was clear,” Hegseth said.
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Saturday’s attack marks the first act of direct military involvement by the U.S. in the rapidly escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.
It included a strike on the heavily-fortified Fordo nuclear site, according to Trump, which is located roughly 300 feet under a mountain about 100 miles south of Tehran. It’s a move that Israel has been lobbying the U.S. to carry out, given that only the U.S. has the kind of powerful “bunker buster” bomb capable of reaching the site. Known as the GBU-57 MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator), the bomb can only be transported by one specific U.S. warplane, the B-2 stealth bomber, due to its immense 30,000 pound weight.
A U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that senior Democratic leadership was notified of the strike right before Trump’s social media post. The Army Ops Center notified senior Army leaders around the same time. It is unclear when senior Republican leadership was informed.
Several prominent Democrats criticized the military action on Saturday, with Rep. Jim Himes, the highest ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, saying in a statement: “Donald Trump’s decision to launch direct military action against Iran without Congressional approval is a clear violation of the Constitution, which grants the power to declare war explicitly to Congress.”
“It is impossible to know at this stage whether this operation accomplished its objectives,” Himes continued.
A turning point
The U.S. carried out the strike despite years of promises by Trump to keep the country from entangling itself in another Middle East conflict. Yet Trump has also said it is paramount that Iran never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.
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Trump initially sought to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran — one to replace the Obama-era agreement that he abandoned, despite Iran’s apparent compliance, in 2018. But in the days after Israel’s initial strikes on Iran earlier this month, he grew increasingly vocal in his opposition to Iran and the possibility it could attack U.S. assets in the region.
Trump had called for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” and boasted on social media that the U.S. has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran.” In a separate post earlier this month, he threatened Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying the Iranian leader’s location had been identified.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump wrote. “But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.”
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Khamenei had decried a potential U.S. strike, saying in a post on X earlier this month that the U.S. would be entering the conflict “100% to its own detriment.”
“The harm the US will suffer will definitely be irreparable if they enter this conflict militarily,” he wrote.
A new phase of uncertainty
Trump has previously ruled out the prospect of American ground forces in Iran. Still, the U.S. attack introduces a new phase of uncertainty into conflict that began earlier this month with dozens of Israeli air strikes against Iran.
Israel considers Iran an existential threat and says its attacks this month have been necessary to keep Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The attacks have strictly targeted military and nuclear facilities, according to Israel, but the Iranian government says they are already responsible for the deaths of more than 200 civilians.
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Iran has responded with a barrage of missile and drone strikes aimed at Israel. The Israeli military says it has intercepted many of those projectiles, but not all. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says dozens have been killed, and hundreds more wounded.
Iran has long defended its nuclear program as peaceful, but Netanyahu has argued it poses a risk not just for his nation, but for the U.S. as well.
For its part, the U.S. intelligence community has said it believes Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003, following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard relayed that guidance as recently as March during an appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
But earlier this month, Trump contradicted Gabbard, telling reporters on his way back from the G7 summit in Canada, “I don’t care what she said. I think they [the Iranians] were very close to having it.”
