The world on Sunday worked on an operation that sent the US into Israeli war by attacking Iran’s nuclear ground, raising urgent questions about Tehran’s nuclear program and how its weakened troops would respond.
Experts warned that global efforts to contain the spread of nuclear weapons through peaceful means would be at risk in the coming days, but the fears of conflict across the wider region were looming. As financial markets reacted, oil prices rose.
Iran has denounced the US for crossing the “very big red line” with high-risk gambits to attack three sites with missiles and a 30,000-pound bunkerbuster bomb.
Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeed Irabani, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that the US has “decided to destroy diplomacy” and that Iranian forces will determine the “timing, nature and scale” of their “proportional response.” Foreign Minister Abbas Aragut flew to Moscow and coordinated with his close ally, Russia.
Tens of thousands of American troops are based in the Middle East. Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, said the country the US will use to attack Iran “will become a legal target for our military,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
At first, the Trump administration wanted to resume diplomatic talks with Iran. “Let’s meet in person,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS. Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said the United States “doesn’t want war.”
But President Donald Trump, who warned of additional strikes if Tehran retaliates against the US forces, later considered the possibility of an “change of power” in Iran.
The US strike, confirmed by Iran’s atomic energy organization, struck not only Isfahan’s nuclear site, but also Ford and Natantz enrichment facilities. Nuclear observers from Iran and the United Nations said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination around them.
Trump claimed on his true social platform that Iranian nuclear sites remained “mortar damage” in the attack, but America’s assessment of the strike is still ongoing.
“The biggest damage was well below ground level. Bullseye!!!” he wrote.
Trump previously claimed that the US had “completely and completely wiped out” the site, but the pentagon reported “lasting and very serious damage and destruction.” Israeli Army spokesman Effy Defflin said the damage was deep, but the assessment with the US continued.
“We are very close to achieving our goals,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Sunday in eliminating the Iranian nuclear and missile threats.
The US Secretary of Defense says he works to determine how much damage the strike has caused. Iran also has not mentioned how much damage the attack caused, but Tehran has so far provided no details about the strikes it faced from Israel in its war with its country.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Security Council that no one is in a position to assess the underground damage of visible craters that were dug deep in the mountains but were tracked by the US announcement. He said IAEA inspectors should be allowed to view the site. The IAEA Management Committee planned an emergency meeting on Monday.
Grossi stressed that a path to diplomacy remains, but if it fails, “violence and destruction could reach unthinkable levels,” and global efforts for nuclear non-proliferation “can collapse.”
The satellite image analyzed Monday by the Associated Press appears to show at least one crater on the Natantz site. Images taken by Planet Lab PBC and Maxar Technology on Sunday showed a hole of about 5 meters (16 feet). The hole sits directly above the underground part of the site, which contains the centrifugal holes.
Iran does not provide an assessment of how much damage has occurred on the site. Previous Israeli strikes could destroy ground centrifuges and all power equipment at the site, reducing power sources.
The attacks that Washington said were made without discovery made the United States insert into the war they spent trying to avoid decades. Success means ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions and eliminating the last important national threat to Israel’s security. Failure, or excessive, could cause the United States to enter another long, unpredictable conflict.
For Iran’s supreme leader, it can mark the end of a campaign that turns the Islamic Republic into a larger regional force that holds enriched nuclear material one step away from the arms-grade level. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last spoke publicly on Wednesday, warning that a strike targeting the Islamic Republic will “causing irreparable damage to them.”
Iran has limited retaliation options as it was hit by the biggest Israeli attack in history, beginning on June 13th, with its major allies fleeing the conflict. Israel could attack US troops stationed in the Middle East with undestroyed missiles and rockets. They may attempt to close down important bottlenecks between the Strait of Hormuz and Oman for the global oil supply.
Or they could be in a hurry to develop the rest of the nuclear weapons of that program. Iran’s atomic energy organization said the program would not halt.
New questions about Iran’s nuclear stockpile
Iran has long argued that its nuclear program is peaceful, and the US Intelligence Agency has evaluated Tehran as not actively pursuing bombs. But Trump and Israeli leaders argue that Iran can quickly assemble nuclear weapons.
Israel has significantly reduced Iran’s air defense and offensive missile capabilities, and damaged nuclear enrichment facilities. However, there are only US troops with bunkerbuster bombs that authorities believe have provided the best chance to destroy deep areas underground. A total of 14 bombs were used in Natantz and Ford, according to the Pentagon.
Experts scrambled to answer urgent questions: what happened to Iran’s uranium and centrifuge stockpiles?
Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC will damage the facility after the US attacks analyzed by the Associated Press. Other images from Maxar Technologies suggest that Iran stuffed the entrance tunnel into the Fordo and had a truck at the facility prior to the strike.
Several Iranian officials, including the atomic energy organization of Iranian spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi, claim that Iran has removed nuclear material from its target facilities.
Before Israeli military operations began, Iran said it had declared its third unknown location as a new enrichment facility.
“There remains a question about the possibility that Iran already has rich stocks, as they have been moved to places that have almost certainly not cured, without interfering with a potential Israeli or US strike,” says Darya Dorzikova, a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, focusing on the issue of shortages.
Global leaders responded with shock and called for restraint. Egypt warned of “significant impacts” in the region. Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Middle East-based 5th Fleet, has called on Iran and the US to “resumably resume consultations.”
The State Department advised U.S. citizens around the world to “be careful.”
Trump’s decision and risks
The decision to attack was dangerous for Trump, who partially won the White House with a promise to keep America out of costly foreign conflicts.
But Trump also vowed not to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. He initially wanted the threat of force to abandon the nuclear program to the country’s leaders.
For Netanyahu, the strike was the culmination of a decades-long campaign to force the United States to attack Israel’s major regional rivals and its contested nuclear program. Netanyahu praised Trump and said his decision “changes history.”
Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, and this is never recognized.
Before Israel’s attack on Iran, experts had warned that the only way to destroy the Ford nuclear fuel enrichment plant buried deep in the mountains is a bomb that breaks the bunker. Here’s what you need to know.
Iran and Israel trade more attacks
Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Amir called the United States a “turning point,” but added that “there is still a target to strike and a purpose to complete.”
Iran’s paramilitary revolutionary guards said they have launched a barrage of 40 missiles in Israel, including a Khorramshahr-4, which can carry multiple warheads. Israeli authorities said more than 80 people were primarily suffering minor injuries.
Late Sunday, Israeli forces said they had hit military infrastructure sites in Tehran and western Iran again.
Israeli forces confirmed other attacks on Iran late Sunday, including strikes in Hadan and Kamanshah in western Iran and in Tehran, as well as strikes in Iran’s capital. Israel also collided with what the military described as Sharud’s missile production site.
Previously, the explosion had been energized at Bucher, the home of Iran’s only nuclear power plant, three semi-flux media reported. Not only did Israeli forces say they attacked missile launchers in Buscher, Isfahan and Ahvaz, but they also said that Holamshahr missiles were kept in the command centres in Yazd region. Iran has not acknowledged the loss of military material in previous wars.
Iranian state media reported that air defense systems were firing in Tehran early on Monday, but reported that an explosion could be heard in nearby Karaj city.
Social media accounts related to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced a propaganda post on Monday. “The punishment continues,” read the poster.
Israeli strikes in Iran have killed at least 950 people and injured 3,450 people, according to a Washington-based group Humanechist. The group said it has identified 380 civilians and 253 security forces officials of the deaths. At least 24 people have been killed and more than 1,000 have been injured in Israel.
On the Turkish border with Iran, Iranians departing from the country defended their nuclear program.
“We were concerned about our business,” Behnam Puran said.
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This version fixes that the Strait of Hormuz is between Iran and Oman, not between the United Arab Emirates.
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Christopher Weber, Associated Press writer in Los Angeles. Nasser Karimi, Mehdi Fattahi and Amir Vadat of Iran. Aamer Madhani of Morristown, New Jersey. Julia Frankel of Jerusalem. Melanie Ridman of Tel Aviv, Israel. Lolita Balder is located in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Sammy Magdy of Cairo. Lucen Takva of Ban, Turkey. Joa Bork of Washington. The United Nations and Edith M. Lederer of Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this story.
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