“This cannot continue,” he said, flanked by Vice President
Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco
Rubio.
“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for
Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” Trump
said.
The White House had said on Thursday that Trump would make a
decision on bombing Iran within two weeks, but B-2 bombers started crossing the
Pacific on Saturday afternoon.
Trump announced the “very successful” strikes in a Truth
Social post around 8.00pm EDT Saturday. In his remarks on Saturday night,
the president said those facilities “have been completely and totally
obliterated.”
Here are the key takeaways on the bombings:
US strikes
three nuclear sites
In his Truth Social post, Trump said “a full payload of
BOMBS” was dropped on Iran’s primary nuclear enrichment plant, Fordow — a deep
underground facility viewed as key to Tehran’s nuclear program — as well as on
Natanz and Isfahan.
Multiple
outlets reported that six “bunker buster” bombs were dropped on the Fordow
facility, and that 30 tomahawk missiles were fired at Natanz and Isfahan.
Trump, in his address, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine would give a press conference on the
strikes at 800am EDT Sunday.
Experts
say the 30,000-pound bunker busters, officially known as the GBU-57 Massive
Ordnance Penetrators, could penetrate the mountain where Fordow is located, had
reportedly been requested by Israel.
In the hours before the US unleashed airstrikes, the Defense
Department reportedly moved B-2 bombers, the only aircraft capable of
dropping the GBU-57, from their holding base in Missouri to across the Pacific
to Guam.
Iranian officials and state media have confirmed the
bombings, but said the three nuclear facilities had previously been evacuated.
Lawmakers
divided
The immediate response from lawmakers on both sides of the
aisle pointed to the deep divisions over whether the US should enter a new war
in the Middle East.
“This is not constitutional,” Rep. Thomas Massie posted on
X.
Rep. Jim Himes struck a similar note, referencing
Trump’s post announcing the attacks, which said, “Thank you for your attention
to this matter.”
“According to the Constitution we are both sworn to defend,
my attention to this matter comes befoe bombs fall. Full stop,” Himes wrote.
Massie had sponsored legislation that would have
required congressional approval for any strikes on Iran.
Sen. Bernie Sanders reacted to the news during a rally
in Tulsa, Okla., calling it “grossly unconstitutional” after the crowd chanted
“no more war.”
Leading Republicans and at least one Democrat were
supportive of the attacks.
“The President’s decisive action prevents the world’s
largest state sponsor of terrorism, which chants ‘Death to America,’ from
obtaining the most lethal weapon on the planet. This is America First policy in
action,” Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X.
“Good. This was the right call. The regime deserves it,”
Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote on X.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker,
meanwhile, said Trump had made “a deliberate —and correct— decision to
eliminate the existential threat posed by the Iranian regime.”
“As I’ve long maintained, this was the correct move by
@POTUS . Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have
nuclear capabilities,” he wrote on X.
Where
U.S. troops are most vulnerable
Some 40,000 US service members are spread out across the
Middle East at bases in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates, offering Iran a broad opportunity to hit back at American
citizens, equipment and interests.
In the days before the US strike on Iran, Tehran’s Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that any American military
intervention in its conflict with Israel “will undoubtedly be accompanied by
irreparable damage.”
And on Saturday, a news anchor on Iranian state television
declared that Trump, “started it, and we will end it,” seeming to refer to a
larger conflict between Washington and Tehran. The broadcast also showed a
graphic of American bases in the Middle East with the headline, “Within the
fire range of Iran,” as reported by The New York Times.
Experts say Iran within hours could decide to launch a
retaliatory strike on the nearby Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq or other locations
closest to its borders, and within minutes of such a decision could have its
missiles delivered.
“If Iran had the ballistic missiles ready to go, those
strikes could happen in under 15 minutes. Launched to target,” retired Col.
Seth Krummrich, vice president at security consultancy firm Global Guardian,
told The Hill on Friday.
A former Special Forces officer in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Krummrich also predicted that if the US were to use the GBU-57, “you would see
an Iranian missile strike aimed at one or multiple US bases.”
Tehran last significantly targeted US troops in January 2020
after Trump, in his first term, ordered an airstrike that killed Maj.
Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
Iran reacted swiftly, days later hammering Al-Asad and
another US base in Erbil with 13 ballistic missiles in the largest such attack
ever against US forces abroad. No Americans were killed in the strikes but more
than 100 were later diagnosed and treated for traumatic brain injuries.
Trump
jumps gun on two-week timeline
The strikes came less than 48 hours after Trump said he
would make up his mind within two weeks, suggesting there was still time for a
diplomatic solution.
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of
negotiation that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will
make my decision whether or not to go in the next two weeks,” Trump said in a
statement read aloud by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday
afternoon.
The US has reportedly maintained dialogue with Iranian
officials since Israel first struck Iran on June 13, but Trump had expressed
growing skepticism about the chances of a deal.
Iran has reportedly agreed to resume direct talks with the
US after a meeting between European foreign ministers and Iran’s top diplomat
on Friday.
This weekend saw a flurry of diplomatic activity across the
Middle East.
Ambassadors from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates and Kuwait on Saturday met with Rafael Grossi, director general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to express concerns about the
consequences of a US attack.
What
happens next?
It could take days for the US, Israel and IAEA to assess the
damage from the US strikes, which were carried out in close coordination with
the Israeli Defense Forces.
One of the key questions will be how much the US strikes,
together with over a week of Israeli attacks, have set back Tehran’s nuclear
program.
Trump said in recent days he believed Iran was on the verge
of being able to build a nuclear bomb, though U.S. intelligence agencies
believed it would take more than a year for Tehran to turn enriched uranium
into a usable nuclear weapon.
Israeli officials have also suggested that regime change in
Iran is among the goals of their war, and that Khamenei could be a target for
assassination.
Iran’s supreme leader, believed to be hiding out in a
bunker, has named three senior clerics to replace him should he die, according
to The New York Times.
On Iranian state television after the attacks, an anchor
said, “Mr. Trump, you started it, and we will end it,” along with a graphic of
American bases in the Middle East within Iran’s reach, according to the
Times.
Both Russia and China had condemned Israel’s war on Iran and
are certain to criticize the U.S. strikes too. However, Russia has shown little
interest in sending military support to Iran.
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