President on Truth Social says US completed ‘very successful attack’ on Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan sites
Donald Trump announced Saturday that the US had completed strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, directly joining Israel ’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump said in a post 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.”
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,” he added.
The White House alerted television networks that Trump would address the nation at 10pm ET.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency early on Sunday acknowledged an attack on the country’s Fordow nuclear site.
Quoting a statement from Iran’s Qom province, IRNA said: “A few hours ago, when Qom air defenses were activated and hostile targets were identified, part of the Fordow nuclear site was attacked by enemies.”
Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted a provincial official in Qom that air defense did recently fire in an attack believed to target the area around the Fordow facility, but offered no other information.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, also close to the Revolutionary Guard, quoted another official saying air defenses opened fire near Isfahan and explosions had been heard.
Fars also quoted the same official in Qom province, saying air defenses fired around Fordow.
The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.
US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-pound (13,500-kilogram) bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground at Fordow.
Earlier Saturday, Reuters had reported that B-2 bombers were being moved to the Pacific island of Guam, according to two US officials. A US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, that those bombers were involved in the strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Israel launched the attacks on Iran saying that it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons.
Iran has argued that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.
The strikes are a perilous decision for the US as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally, having won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.
Trump told reporters on Friday that he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran. He had previously indicated that he would make a final choice over the course of two weeks, a timeline that seemed drawn out as the situation was evolving quickly.
Trump spoke to Reuters in a brief phone interview on Saturday, saying Iran should “make peace immediately. Otherwise they’ll get hit again.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday the US that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them”.
And Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared: “Any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”
