President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US military had struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s efforts to decapitate the country’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a long -standing enemy in the middle of the threat of Tehran reprisals that could trigger a broader regional conflict.
The decision to directly involve the United States comes after more than a week of Israel strikes on Iran which have evolved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capacities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But the US and Israeli officials said that the American stealth bombers and 30,000 LB. Bunker Buster Bomb that they alone can offer the best chance of destroying fortified sites linked to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.
“We finished our very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan,” said Trump in an article on social networks. “All planes are now outside Iranian airspace. A complete payload of bombs has been abandoned on the main site, Fordow. All planes are safe on the way back.”
Strikes are a perilous decision for the United States when Iran has committed to retaliation if he joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally, having won the White House on the promise to keep America out of expensive foreign conflicts and have laughed at the value of American interventionism.
This is an update of news. The previous history of after follows below.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that it was preparing for the possibility of a long war, while the Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs warned that US military participation “would be very, very dangerous for everyone”.
The prospect of a broader war also threatened. The Houthi rebels supported by Iran in Yemen said they would resume attacks on American ships in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joins the military campaign of Israel. The Houthis stopped such attacks in May under an agreement with the United States
The American ambassador to Israel announced that the United States had started “assisted departure flights”, the first in Israel since the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
The Israeli army said that it had struck an Iranian nuclear research installation overnight and killed three high Iranian commanders in pursuit of its objective of destroying the Iranian nuclear program. The smoke raised near a mountain in Isfahan, where the vice-government of the province for security affairs, Akbar Salehi, confirmed that Israeli strikes have damaged the installation.
The objective was a centrifuge production site, said the Israeli army. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the attack and declared that the installation – also targeted on the first day of the war – was “largely damaged”, but that there was no risk of out -of -site contamination.
Iran has again launched drones and missiles in Israel, but there has been no report of significant damage. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity under the army guidelines, said the soldiers withdrew more than 50% of Iranian launchers.
Get daily national news
Get the best news of the day, the titles of political, economic and current affairs, delivered in your reception box once a day.
“We make them more difficult for them to pull towards Israel,” he said.
The Chief of the Israeli Army, Brig. General Effie Defrin, said later that the chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir, told the army to prepare for an “prolonged campaign”.
US Aerine Refailling Cashers
US President Donald Trump weighs an active American military involvement in the war and was to meet his national security team on Saturday evening. He said he would reject his decision for up to two weeks.
The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, said that US military participation “would be very, very dangerous for everyone”. He spoke on the sidelines of an Islamic cooperation meeting in Türkiye. Araghchi was open to a dialogue, but stressed that Iran had no interest in negotiating with the United States while Israel continues to attack.
Less than a commando raid or even a nuclear strike, the installation of underground enrichment of uranium from Uranium of Iran is considered to be out of reach of all the “bunker-business” bombs in America. The United States only configured and programmed its B-2 stealth bomber to deliver the bomb, according to the Air Force.
On Saturday, several tanks of refueling in American aerial was identified on trackers of commercial flights in accordance with escort planes from the Center of the United States to the Pacific. B-2 bombers are based in Missouri. It was not clear if the plane was a force of force or prepared for an operation. The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comments.
War toll
The war broke out on June 13, the Israeli air strikes targeting the nuclear and military sites of Iran, the superior generals and nuclear scientists. At least 722 people, including 285 civilians, were killed in Iran and more than 2,500 injured, according to an Iranian human rights group based in Washington.
A resident of Tehran, Nasrin, twisted in her hospital bed when she described how an explosion threw her against the wall of her apartment. “I underwent five surgeries. I think I have nothing here that is intact, ”she said on Saturday. Another patient, Shahram Nourmohammadi, said that he had delivered when “something exploded right in front of me”.
Several Iranians fled the country. “Everyone is leaving Tehran at the moment,” said one who did not give his name after crossing Armenia.
For many Iranians, it is difficult to know what is going on. The plaid group on Internet-Access Netblocks.org said on Saturday that limited internet access was again “collapsed”. A national internet closure lasted for several days.
Iran retaliated by pulling more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones in Israel, according to estimates by the Israeli army. Air defenses on several levels of Israel have shot down most of them, but at least 24 people in Israel were killed and more than 1,000 injured.
No date has been set for more conferences after negotiations in Geneva did not produce on Friday.
Iran nuclear program
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only non -nuclear weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60% – a short technical step in the level of weapons of 90%. Israel is largely considered to be the only country in the Middle East with a nuclear weapon program but has never recognized it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military operations would continue “as long as it takes” to eliminate what he called the existential threat of the Iranian nuclear program and the arsenal of ballistic missiles.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country will never give up his right to nuclear energy, which “cannot be removed by war and threats.” Pezeshkian told French President Emmanuel Macron by phone that Iran was ready to provide guarantees and measures to strengthen confidence to demonstrate the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities, according to IRNA, the press agency managed by the State.
Iran had previously agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium and allow international inspectors to access its nuclear sites under a 2015 agreement in exchange for the relief of sanctions. But after Trump withdrew the United States from the United States during its first mandate, Iran began to enrich uranium up to 60% and restrict access to its nuclear installations.
Iran insisted on its right to enrich uranium – at lower levels – in recent talks on its nuclear program. But Trump, like Israel, asked Iran to end his enrichment program completely.
Attacks against Iranian military commanders
The Israeli Defense Minister said the soldiers killed a paramilitary revolutionary guard commander who had funded and armed in Hamas in preparation for the October 7 attack on Israel.
Iranian officials did not immediately confirm the death of Saeed Izadi, but the office of the Governor of Qom said that a four -story apartments building had been affected and that the local media reported that two people had been killed.
Israel also said that he had killed the commander of the Arms Transfer Unit of Force Quds, who, according to him, was responsible for providing weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas. Behnam Shahriyari was killed while traveling in western Iran, the army said.
Iran threatens the head of the United Nations nuclear guard dog
Iranian leaders say that the declarations of the head of the IAEA Rafael grown on the status of the Iranian nuclear program caused the attack on Israel. On Saturday, a main advisor for the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamanei, Ali Larijani, said on social networks, without development, that Iran would make “pay” fat once the war is over.
Friday, Grossi warned against attacks against Iranian nuclear reactors, in particular its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. A direct blow “would lead to a very great release of radioactivity,” said Grosi, adding: “It is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be the most serious.”
Israel has not targeted Iranian nuclear reactors, focusing on the main uranium enrichment establishment in Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, the laboratories in Isfahan and the country’s heavy water reactor in the southwest of the capital.
