Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said he “doesn’t ask for war” with Iran after the US overnight shock attacks at three nuclear sites on Sunday, but Vice President JD Vance said the strike gave Tehran a new opportunity to negotiate with Washington.
The mission, called “Operation Midnight Hammer,” included decoys and a deceit, and there was no resistance from Iran. Heggs and General Dan Kane, chairman of the Air General, said at a Pentagon press conference.
“This mission was not a change of government, and it wasn’t,” added Hegses.
Caine said the targets of the operation to destroy the nuclear sites of Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan have been achieved.
“The final combat damage will take some time, but the initial combat damage assessment shows that all three sites maintained very serious damage and destruction,” says Caine.
In a television interview, Vance said he would not discuss “the sensitive intelligence of what we saw on earth,” but “is confident that it has slowed the development of nuclear weapons significantly.”
In further coverage, he told NBC’s Meet the Press, “I think we’ve returned their program for a very long time. I think it’ll be years before Iranians can develop nuclear weapons.”
The vice president said the United States “actively negotiated” with Iran to try to find a peaceful reconciliation, and that Trump made his decision after assessing Iranians as not acting “in good faith.”
“I think it actually offers an opportunity to reset this relationship, reset these negotiations and take us to a place where Iran can decide that it is not a threat to the US, not a threat to our neighbors.
He said it makes sense for Iran to come to the negotiation table and abandon its nuclear weapons program over the long term. “If they’re willing to do so, they’ll be happy to find a partner in the United States,” he said.
Much of the world is absorbing the outcomes and risks of strikes that could lead to more fighting in the Middle East after the US inserts into the war between Israel and Iran. The airstrikes launched by Israel on June 12th, targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities and generals, prompted retaliation from Iran.
US officials called for caution and emphasized that only Washington’s nuclear site was targeted by Washington, but Iran criticized its actions as a violation of its sovereignty and international law.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragci said on Sunday that Washington is “fully responsible” for any action Tehran could take accordingly.
“They crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities,” he told a news conference in Turkey. “I don’t know how many rooms are left for diplomacy.”
Both Russia and China have condemned the US attack. Araguchi said he would travel to Moscow on Sunday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. A statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry warned of the risk that the conflict could spread across the Middle East to a “worldly” level.
President Donald Trump held a presidential speech on Saturday night to confirm that the military strikes “completely erase” three Iranian nuclear sites and called for Iran’s top leader to “make peace” or face further military action.
The Department of Defense briefing did not provide new details about Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Hegseth said the timeline was the result of the schedule President Donald Trump set for consultations with Iran about his nuclear ambitions.
“When Iran said he has been saying that Trump is asking for peace and negotiations for 60 days, he means 60 days of peace and negotiations,” Hegses said. “If not, there would be no such nuclear program, that new nuclear capability. He meant that.”
The statement was complicated as the White House suggested last Thursday it would take two weeks for Trump to decide whether to attack Iran or continue to pursue negotiations. However, the US benefited from Iran’s weakened air defense as it was able to launch its attack without resistance from Iran.
“The Iranian fighter jets weren’t flying. It appears that the air missile system didn’t see us throughout the mission from the surface,” Kane said.
Hegseth said the choice to move many B-2 bombers from Missouri bases early on Saturday was intended to be a decoy to abandon Iranians. He added that the US will also use other deception methods to deploy fighter jets to protect the B-2 bomber that dropped 14 bunkerbuster bombs on Ford’s Iranian site.
The strike occurred Saturday from 6:40pm to 7:05pm and in Washington, around 2:10am on Sunday in Iran.
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