President Trump pumps his fist after stepping off Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Saturday.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. military has joined with Israel to launch military strikes against Iran, a dramatic escalation in the years-long effort by both nations to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
“All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Trump said in a subsequent post that he would address the nation at 10 p.m. ET.
Saturday’s attack marks the first act of direct military involvement by the U.S. in the rapidly escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.
It included a strike on the heavily-fortified Fordo nuclear site, according to Trump, which is located roughly 300 feet under a mountain about 100 miles south of Tehran. It’s a move that Israel has been lobbying the U.S. to carry out, given that only the U.S. has the kind of powerful “bunker buster” bomb capable of reaching the site. Known as the GBU-57 MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator), the bomb can only be transported by one specific U.S. warplane, the B-2 stealth bomber, due to its immense 30,000 pound weight.
A turning point
The U.S. carried out the strike despite years of promises by Trump to keep the country from entangling itself in another Middle East conflict. Yet Trump has also said it is paramount that Iran never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.
Trump initially sought to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran — one to replace the Obama-era agreement that he abandoned, despite Iran’s apparent compliance, in 2018. But in the days after Israel’s initial strike, he grew increasingly vocal in his opposition to Iran and the possibility it could attack U.S. assets in the region.
Trump has called for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” and boasted on social media that the U.S. has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran.” In a separate post, he threatened Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying the Iranian leader’s location had been identified.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump wrote. “But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.”
Khamenei has decried a potential U.S. strike, saying in a post on X earlier this month that the U.S. would be entering the conflict “100% to its own detriment.”
“The harm the US will suffer will definitely be irreparable if they enter this conflict militarily,” he wrote.
A new phase of uncertainty
Trump has previously ruled out the prospect of American ground forces in Iran. Still, the U.S. attack introduces a new phase of uncertainty into conflict that began earlier this month with dozens of Israeli air strikes against Iran.
Israel considers Iran an existential threat and says the attacks are necessary to keep Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The attacks have strictly targeted military and nuclear facilities, according to Israel, but the Iranian government says they are already responsible for the deaths of more than 200 civilians.
Iran has responded with a barrage of missile and drone strikes aimed at Israel. The Israeli military says it has intercepted many of those projectiles, but not all. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says dozens have been killed, and hundreds more wounded.
Iran has long defended its nuclear program as peaceful, but Netanyahu has argued it poses a risk not just for his nation, but for the U.S. as well.
For its part, the U.S. intelligence community has said it believes Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003, following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard relayed that guidance as recently as March during an appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
But earlier this month, Trump contradicted Gabbard, telling reporters on his way back from the G7 summit in Canada, “I don’t care what she said. I think they [the Iranians] were very close to having it.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
