By Aamer Madhani | Related Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump stated Saturday that the U.S. navy struck three websites in Iran, straight becoming a member of Israel ‘s effort to decapitate the country’s nuclear program in a dangerous gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s risk of reprisals that might spark a wider regional battle.
The choice to straight contain the U.S. comes after greater than every week of strikes by Israel on Iran which have moved to systematically eradicate the nation’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, whereas damaging its nuclear enrichment services. However U.S. and Israeli officers have stated that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry supplied one of the best probability of destroying heavily-fortified websites related to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump stated in a publish on social media. “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 stated B-2 stealth bombers have been used however didn’t specify which varieties of bombs have been dropped. The White Home and Pentagon didn’t instantly elaborate on the operation.
Rep. Lateefah Simon, additionally on social media, responded to the assaults: “Donald Trump’s bombing of Iran is lawless, dangerous and immoral. The decision was made without the consent of Congress and without regard for the lives that will be lost. This kind of power, wielded without accountability, puts all of us, our American troops and American families alike, in danger.”
The strikes are a deadly choice for the U.S. as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally, having received the White Home on the promise of retaining America out of pricey international conflicts and scoffed on the worth of American interventionism.
Trump advised reporters on Friday that he was not all in favour of sending floor forces into Iran. He had beforehand indicated that he would make a last alternative over the course of two weeks, a timeline that appeared drawn out because the scenario was evolving shortly.
Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday america that strikes concentrating on the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them.” And Iranian International Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”
Trump has vowed that he wouldn’t permit Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and he had initially hoped that the specter of power would deliver the nation’s leaders to surrender its nuclear program peacefully.
Israel ‘s military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran’s international minister warned earlier than the U.S. assault that American navy involvement “would be very, very dangerous for everyone.”
The prospect of a wider battle threatened, too. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen stated they’d resume assaults on U.S. vessels within the Purple Sea if the Trump administration joins Israel’s navy marketing campaign. The Houthis paused such assaults in Might underneath a take care of the U.S.
The U.S. ambassador to Israel introduced the U.S. had begun “assisted departure flights,” the primary from Israel for the reason that Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the battle in Gaza.
However Trump seems to have made the calculation — on the prodding of Israeli officers and lots of Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the bottom and offered a maybe unparalleled alternative to set again Iran’s nuclear program, maybe completely.
The Israelis say their offensive has already crippled Iran’s air defenses, permitting them to already considerably degrade a number of Iranian nuclear websites.
However to destroy the Fordo nuclear gas enrichment plant, Israel has appealed to Trump for U.S. bunker-busting bombs, the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Huge Ordnance Penetrator, which makes use of its weight and sheer kinetic power to succeed in deeply buried targets after which explode. The penetrator is at present solely delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is barely discovered within the American arsenal.
The bomb carries a standard warhead, and is believed to have the ability to penetrate about 200 toes (61 meters) under the floor earlier than exploding, and the bombs might be dropped one after one other, successfully drilling deeper and deeper with every successive blast.
The Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company has confirmed that Iran is producing extremely enriched uranium at Fordo, elevating the chance that nuclear materials might be launched into the realm if the GBU-57 A/B have been used to hit the ability.
Earlier Israeli strikes at one other Iranian nuclear web site, Natanz, on a centrifuge web site have prompted contamination solely on the web site itself, not the encompassing space, the IAEA has stated.
Trump’s choice for direct U.S. navy intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — together with with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed toward persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program.
For months, Trump stated he was devoted to a diplomatic push to steer Iran to surrender its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and once more in late Might — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to carry off on navy motion in opposition to Iran and provides diplomacy extra time.
The U.S. in current days has been shifting navy plane and warships into and across the Center East to guard Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian assaults.
All of the whereas, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the second might be a “second chance” for Iran to make a deal to delivering express threats on Khamenei and making requires Tehran’s unconditional give up.
“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump stated in a social media posting. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”
The navy showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered settlement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”
The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, U.S. and different world powers, created a long-term, complete nuclear settlement that restricted Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in alternate for the lifting of financial sanctions.
Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran an excessive amount of in return for too little, as a result of the settlement didn’t cowl Iran’s non-nuclear malign habits.
Trump has bristled at criticism from a few of his MAGA devoted, together with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who’ve advised that additional U.S. involvement can be a betrayal to supporters who have been drawn to his promise to finish U.S. involvement in costly and countless wars.
Rising reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Related Press writers Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Matthew Lee and Josh Boak in Washington, D.C.; and Farnoush Amiri and Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.
Initially Printed: June 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM PDT
