WASHINGTON : US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites, President Donald Trump said late on Saturday, and he warned Tehran it would face more attacks if it did not agree to peace.
After days of deliberation and long before his self-imposed two-week deadline, Trump’s decision to join Israel’s military campaign against its major rival Iran represents a major escalation of the conflict.”The strikes were a spectacular military success,” Trump said in a televised Oval Office address. “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
In a speech that lasted just over three minutes, Trump said Iran’s future held “either peace or tragedy,” and that there were many other targets that could be hit by the US military.”If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.”
The US reached out to Iran diplomatically on Saturday to say the strikes are all the US plans and it does not aim for regime change, CBS News reported.Trump said US forces struck Iran’s three principal nuclear sites: Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow. He told Fox News six bunker-buster bombs were dropped on Fordow, while 30 Tomahawk missiles were fired against other nuclear sites.
US B-2 bombers were involved in the strikes, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.”A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Trump posted. “Fordow is gone.”
Reuters had reported earlier on Saturday the movement of the B-2 bombers, which can be equipped to carry massive bombs that experts say would be needed to strike Fordow, which is buried under a mountain south of Tehran. Given its fortification, it will likely be days, if not longer, before the impact of the strikes is known.An Iranian official, cited by Tasnim news agency, confirmed that part of the Fordow site was attacked by “enemy airstrikes.”
Hassan Abedini, deputy political head of Iran’s state broadcaster, said Iran had evacuated the three sites some time ago.“The enriched uranium reserves had been transferred from the nuclear centres and there are no materials left there that, if targeted, would cause radiation and be harmful to our compatriots,” he told the channel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on his “bold decision”.”History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime, the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Netanyahu said.
The strikes came as Israel and Iran have been engaged in more than a week of aerial combat that has resulted in deaths and injuries in both countries.Israel launched the attacks on Iran saying that it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Diplomatic efforts by Western nations to stop the hostilities have been unsuccessful. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Saturday’s strikes a “dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security.”
