Washington | Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday that America “does not seek war” with Iran in the aftermath of a surprise attack overnight on three of that country's nuclear sites while Vice President JD Vance said the strikes have given Tehran a renewed chance of negotiating with Washington.
The mission, called “Operation Midnight Hammer,” involved decoys and deception, and met with no Iranian resistance, Hegseth and Air Force Gen Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon news conference.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Hegseth added.
Caine said the goal of the operation — destroying nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — had been achieved.
“Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine said.
Vance said in a television interview that while he would not discuss “sensitive intelligence about what we've seen on the ground,” he felt “very confident that we've substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon.”
Pressed further, he told NBC's “Meet the Press” that “I think that we have really pushed their programme back by a very long time. I think that it's going to be many many years before the Iranians are able to develop a nuclear weapon.”
The vice president said the US had “negotiated aggressively' with Iran to try to find a peaceful settlement and that Trump made his decision after assessing the Iranians were not acting “in good faith.”
"I actually think it provides an opportunity to reset this relationship, reset these negotiations and get us in a place where Iran can decide not to be a threat to its neighbours, not to a threat to the United States and if they're willing to do that, the United States is all ears,” Vance said.
He said it would make sense for Iran to come to the negotiating table and give up their nuclear weapons programme over the long term. “If they're willing to do that, they're going to find a willing partner in the United States of America,” he said, describing a possible chance of a “reset” for Tehran.
Much of the world is absorbing the consequences of the strikes and the risk that they could lead to more fighting across the Middle East after the United States inserted itself into the war between Israel and Iran. Airstrikes starting on June 12 by Israel that targeted Iran's nuclear facilities and generals prompted retaliation from Iran.
While US officials urged for caution and stressed that only nuclear sites were targeted by Washington, Iran criticized the actions as a violation of its sovereignty and international law.
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Sunday that Washington was “fully responsible” for whatever actions Tehran may take in response.
“They crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities," he said at a news conference in Turkey. “I don't know how much room is left for diplomacy.”
Both Russia and China condemned the US attack. Araghchi said he would travel to Moscow later Sunday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement warned about the risk of the conflict spreading beyond the Middle East to “a global level.”
The Pentagon briefing did not provide any new details about Iran's nuclear capabilities. Hegseth said the timeline was the result of a schedule set by President Donald Trump for talks with Iran about its nuclear ambitions.
“Iran found out" that when Trump "says 60 days that he seeks peace and negotiation, he means 60 days of peace and negotiation," Hegseth said. "Otherwise, that nuclear program, that new nuclear capability will not exist. He meant it.”
That statement was complicated as the White House had suggested last Thursday that Trump could take as much as two weeks to determine whether to strike Iran or continue to pursue negotiations. But the US benefited from Iran's weakened air defences as it was able to conduct the attacks without resistance from Iran.
“Iran's fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran's surface to air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission," Caine said.
Hegseth said that a choice to move a number of B-2 bombers from their base in Missouri earlier Saturday was meant to be a decoy to throw off Iranians. He added that the US used other methods of deception as well, deploying fighters to protect the B-2 bombers that dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on Iran's site at Fordo.
The strikes occurred Saturday between 6:40 pm and 7:05 pm in Washington, or roughly 2:10 am on Sunday in Iran.
Athens | The United States inserted itself into Israel's war against Iran, bombing three of the Islamic Republic's key nuclear sites overnight in an attack it dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer.” US President Donald Trump asserted that the sites were “completely and fully obliterated,” and warned there would be additional strikes if Iran retaliates.
The US strikes came after a week of open conflict between Israel and Iran, sparked by Israel's sudden barrage of attacks against Iran's nuclear and military structure.
Israeli strikes began on June 13. Targeting Iranian military and nuclear sites, they killed several top military officials and nuclear scientists. Iran retaliated by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, some of which penetrated the country's vaunted multi-tiered air defence system. The war so far has killed hundreds of people and wounded more than 1,000 in Iran and killed two dozen and wounded hundreds in Israel.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes. But Israel views it as an existential threat and has said its military campaign is necessary to prevent Iran from building an atomic weapon.
Although US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued it could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon, making it an imminent threat.
The region has been on edge for the past two years as Israel seeks to annihilate the Hamas militant group, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where war still rages after Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
Here's what to know about the conflict between Israel and Iran, and the United States' intervention:
US bombs Iran
Trump announced the overnight “massive precision strikes” on Iran's Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites in a televised address to the nation from the White House. Describing them as “a spectacular military success,” he said they had “completely and fully obliterated” the nuclear sites. Iran, he said, would now have to make peace.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen Dan Caine, said during a news briefing in Washington Sunday that while “final battle damage will take some time,” initial assessments indicated all three nuclear sites had been heavily damaged.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes had not aimed at toppling the Iranian government.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Hegseth said during the news briefing.
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization confirmed the attacks, but insisted its nuclear programme will not be stopped. Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog agency said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the three locations following the strikes.
The nuclear fuel enrichment site at Fordo is buried deep beneath a mountain, and the attack against it used bunker-buster bombs designed to penetrate the ground before exploding, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. Only the United States has the 13,600-kilogram munition and the stealth bombers used to deliver them.
Trump warned there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliated against US forces, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump's decision to attack.
Iran's response
Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel overnight and into Sunday, with Israeli authorities reporting that more than 80 people were wounded, the vast majority of them lightly.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the time for diplomacy had passed and his country had the right to defend itself.
“The warmongering, a lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far-reaching implications of its act of aggression,” he said in a news conference in Istanbul. “They crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities.”
How Tehran might retaliate remains unclear, but an Iranian response could mean a wave of attacks on US forces in the Middle East, an attempt to close a key bottleneck for global oil supplies or a dash to develop a nuclear weapon.
A dangerous escalation'
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely alarmed” by the United States' use of force, and called the strikes a “dangerous escalation.” World leaders issued calls for diplomacy.
“There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control — with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region and the world,” Guterres said in a statement on X. “I call on Member States to de-escalate.”
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, but urged restraint.
“I urge all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation,” she said in a social media post. Kallas will chair a meeting of the 27-nation bloc's foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, with the Israel-Iran war high on the agenda.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who had threatened to resume attacks on US vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel's military campaign, called on other Muslim nations to form “one front against the Zionist-American arrogance.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned the US on Wednesday that strikes against Iran would “result in irreparable damage for them.”
The Israeli military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran's foreign minister warned before the US attack that American military involvement “would be very, very dangerous for everyone.”