President Donald Trump said US air strikes on Sunday “totally obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites, as Washington joined Israel’s war with Tehran in a flashpoint moment for the Middle East.In a televised address to the nation from the White House, Trump warned that the United States would go after more targets if Iran did not make peace quickly.The intervention by a US president who had vowed to avoid another “forever war” in the region threatens to dramatically widen the conflict, with Iran having said it would retaliate if Washington got involved.”Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” said Trump, adding that they targeted the crucial underground nuclear enrichment plant of Fordo along with facilities at Natanz and Isfahan.”Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran the bully of the Middle East must now make peace,” said Trump.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on the strikes, saying that “with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history.”Condemning the US attacks as “lawless and criminal,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country has a right to defend its sovereignty.”The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences,” he posted on X. “Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.”Not long after, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and explosions were heard from Jerusalem as Iranian state TV announced a fresh salvo of missiles launched.Tehran said Sunday there were “no signs of contamination” after the US attacks and Saudi regulators said “no radioactive effects were detected” in the Gulf region.Iranian media confirmed that part of the Fordo plant as well as the Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites were attacked.- Surprise attack -Trump had said Thursday that he would decide “within two weeks” whether to join Israel’s campaign, in a move that many saw as a window of diplomatic opportunity.But the Republican’s decision to strike Iran came far sooner.Flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump said that future attacks would be “far greater” unless Iran reached a diplomatic solution.”Remember, there are many targets left,” he said.Trump however made no mention of regime change, despite having warned last week that Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was an “easy target.”The raid on the Iran nuclear sites was carried out by B-2 stealth bombers that dropped so-called “bunker buster bombs,” along with submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, US media reported.Trump said earlier on his Truth Social site that a “full payload of BOMBS” was dropped on Fordo and said that “all planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors.” Pictures posted by the White House showed Trump in a red “Make America Great Again” cap meeting with top national security officials in the Situation Room, shortly before the strikes were announced.After the address, Trump warned Iran against “any retaliation.” Iran and its proxies have previously attacked US military bases in the region, including in Iraq.Iran’s Huthi allies in Yemen had on Saturday threatened to resume their attacks on US vessels in the Red Sea if Washington joined the war.The US president had stepped up his rhetoric against Iran since Israel first struck Iran on June 13, repeating his insistence that it could never have a nuclear weapon.Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes since then.- MAGA split -Trump spoke to Netanyahu after the attacks, while the United States also gave key ally Israel a “heads up” before the strikes, a senior White House official told AFP.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian had warned earlier Saturday of a “more devastating” retaliation should Israel’s nine-day bombing campaign continue.Iran denies seeking an atomic bomb, and on Saturday Pezeshkian said its right to pursue a civilian nuclear program “cannot be taken away… by threats or war.”Iran’s Revolutionary Guard meanwhile announced early Sunday that “suicide drones” had been launched against “strategic targets” across Israel.The US military strikes on Iran also threaten to cause political tensions at home for Trump.The issue has opened a split in Trump’s “MAGA” movement, with many key Republican supporters calling on Trump to avoid embroiling the United States in another foreign war.Trump’s first 2016 election victory in particular came on the back of his promises to get America out of its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Democrats have also assailed him.Leading US Democrat Hakeem Jeffries said Trump risked US “entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East,” while others have accused him of bypassing Congress to launch a new war.

The US military attacked three sites in Iran on Sunday — Natanz, Isfahan and the mountain-buried Fordo, all key parts of Tehran’s nuclear programme, which it maintains is purely for civilian purposes.American planes launched a “very successful attack”, US President Donald Trump said, claiming Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated”.Trump has said Tehran must never get a nuclear weapon, and ally Israel has claimed its attacks on Iran have set back the country’s nuclear weapons progress by several years.Iran has always denied any ambition to develop nuclear weapons and maintained its right to a civilian nuclear programme.Iran has significantly ramped up its nuclear programme in recent years, after a landmark deal with world powers curbing its nuclear activities in exchange for sanction relief began to unravel in 2018 when the United States under Trump unilaterally withdrew.As of mid-May, Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile was estimated at 9,247.6 kilograms — or more than 45 times the limit set out in the 2015 deal — according to the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).Among its stockpiles, Iran has an estimated 408.6 kilograms (901 pounds) enriched to up to 60 percent — just a short step from the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.The country now theoretically has enough near-weapons-grade material, if further refined, for about 10 nuclear bombs, according to the definition by the Vienna-based IAEA.Below is a list of Iran’s key nuclear sites, which are subject to regular inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog:- Uranium enrichment plants -NATANZ: About 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Tehran, Natanz is Iran’s heavily bunkered main uranium enrichment site, whose existence was first revealed in 2002.Natanz operates nearly 70 cascades of centrifuges at its two enrichment plants, one of which is underground. A cascade is a series of centrifuges — machines used in the process of enriching uranium.In April 2021, the site was damaged in an attack that Iran said was an act of sabotage by Israel.Israel said its recent strikes had hit the “heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme”, targeting the atomic facility in Natanz and nuclear scientists.IAEA head Rafael Grossi confirmed the Natanz site was “among targets”.FORDO: Secretly built in violation of United Nations resolutions under a mountain near the holy central city of Qom, Fordo was first publicly revealed in 2009.Initially described as an “emergency” facility built underground to protect it from potential air attacks, Iran later indicated it was an enrichment plant capable of housing about 3,000 centrifuges.In 2023, uranium particles enriched up to 83.7 percent were discovered at the Fordo plant, which Iran claimed were the product of “unintended fluctuations” during the enrichment process.Trump has called it “the primary site”.- Uranium conversion and research reactors -ISFAHAN: At the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan in central Iran, raw mined uranium is processed into uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) and then into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a feed gas for centrifuges.The plant was industrially tested in 2004 upon its completion.The Isfahan centre also harbours a nuclear fuel fabrication facility, which was inaugurated in 2009 and produces low-enriched fuel for use in power plants. In July 2022, Iran announced plans to construct a new research reactor there.Four of its buildings have been hit by Israel since June 13, including a uranium conversion plant.ARAK: Work on the Arak heavy-water research reactor on the outskirts of the village of Khondab began in the 2000s, but was halted under the terms of the 2015 deal.Iran has meanwhile informed the IAEA about its plans to commission the reactor by 2026. The research reactor was officially intended to produce plutonium for medical research and the site includes a production plant for heavy water.TEHRAN: The Tehran nuclear research centre houses a reactor that was supplied by the United States in 1967 for the production of medical radioisotopes.  – Nuclear power plant -BUSHEHR: Iran’s only nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr was built by Russia and began operating at a lower capacity in 2011 before being plugged into the national power grid in 2012.Russia continues to deliver nuclear fuel for the plant, which remains under IAEA control.A German company began construction on the plant with a 1,000-megawatt nominal capacity until the project was halted in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Moscow later completed it.DARKHOVIN AND SIRIK: Iran began construction in late 2022 on a 300-megawatt power plant in Darkhovin, in the country’s southwest.In early 2024, it also began work in Sirik, in the Strait of Hormuz, on a new complex of four individual plants with a combined capacity of 5,000 megawatts.

For nearly a half-century the United States has squabbled with Iran’s Islamic Republic but the conflict has largely been left in the shadows, with US policymakers believing, often reluctantly, that diplomacy was preferable.With President Donald Trump’s order of strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, the United States — like Israel, which encouraged him — has brought the conflict into the open, and the consequences may not be clear for some time to come.”We will only know if it succeeded if we can get through the next three to five years without the Iranian regime acquiring nuclear weapons, which they now have compelling reasons to want,” said Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst and supporter of the 2003 Iraq war who is now vice president for policy at the Middle East Institute. US intelligence had not concluded that Iran was building a nuclear bomb, with Tehran’s sensitive atomic work largely seen as a means of leverage, and Iran can be presumed to have taken precautions in anticipation of strikes.Trita Parsi, an outspoken critic of military action, said Trump “has now made it more likely that Iran will be a nuclear weapons state in the next five to 10 years.””We should be careful not to confuse tactical success with strategic success,” said Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.”The Iraq war was also successful in the first few weeks but President Bush’s declaration of ‘Mission Accomplished’ did not age well,” he said.- Weak point for Iran -Yet Trump’s attack — a week after Israel began a major military campaign — came as the cleric-run state is at one of its weakest points since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.Since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, which enjoys Iran’s support, Israel — besides obliterating much of Gaza — has decimated Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a militant group that would once reliably strike Israel as Tehran’s proxy. Iran’s main ally among Arab leaders, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, was also toppled in December.Supporters of Trump’s strike argued that diplomacy was not working, with Iran standing firm on its right to enrich uranium.”Contrary to what some will say in the days to come, the US administration did not rush to war. In fact, it gave diplomacy a real chance,” said Ted Deutch, a former Democratic congressman who now heads the American Jewish Committee.”The murderous Iranian regime refused to make a deal,” he said.Top Senate Republican John Thune pointed to Tehran’s threats to Israel and language against the United States and said that the state had “rejected all diplomatic pathways to peace.”- Abrupt halt to diplomacy -Trump’s attack comes almost exactly a decade after former president Barack Obama sealed a deal in which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear work — which Trump pulled out of in 2018 after coming into office for his first term. Most of Trump’s Republican Party and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long seen Iran as an existential threat, attacked Obama’s deal because it allowed Tehran to enrich uranium at levels well beneath weapons grade and the key clauses had an end date.But Trump, billing himself a peacemaker, just a month ago said on a visit to Gulf Arab monarchies that he was hopeful for a new deal with Iran, and his administration was preparing new talks when Netanyahu attacked Iran. This prompted an abrupt U-turn from Trump.”Trump’s decision to cut short his own efforts for diplomacy will also make it much harder to get a deal in the medium and long runs,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, which advocates restraint.”Iran now has no incentive to trust Trump’s word or to believe that striking a compromise will advance Iran’s interests.”Iran’s religious rulers also face opposition internally. Major protests erupted in 2022 after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was detained for defying the regime’s rules on covering hair.Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote on social media that Trump’s strikes could either entrench the Islamic Republic or hasten its downfall.”The US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities is an unprecedented event that may prove to be transformational for Iran, the Middle East, US foreign policy, global non-proliferation and potentially even the global order,” he said.”Its impact will be measured for decades to come.”