US has struck three Iranian nuclear sites, Trump says
President Donald Trump said Saturday that the US military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel ’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.
The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.
We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. 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.”
The strikes are a perilous decision for the US as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally, having won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. 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.… pic.twitter.com/AqCLmaLYJb
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 21, 2025
Key events
Trump: US Israel “worked as a team”
Trump thanks Netanyahu, saying they “worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before”, and gone a long way towards “erasing this horrible threat to Israel”.
He says the Israeli military has done a “wonderful job”, and he praises the American military and particularly the pilots that flew the “magnificent machines tonight”.
“Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity.”
Trump to Iran: Make peace or face future attacks
Trump says Iran, which he calls “the bully of the Middle East”, “must make peace”.
“If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. For 40 years, Iran has been saying death to America, death to Israel.”
Trump says Iran has been “killing our people, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs”, he says more than 1,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East and around the world “have died as a direct result of their hate”.
Trump speech – Iran facilities “obliterated”
Donald Trump is now addressing the nation, confirming the strikes on the three nuclear facilities.
“Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horrible destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility.
“The strikes were a spectacular military success,” he says, saying the key enrichment facilities have been “totally and completely obliterated”.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The international law expert, Donald Rothwell, said it was “virtually impossible” to mount a case that the US’ reported strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were legal under international law.
Under article 51 of the UN charter, states are allowed to use force to defend themselves from an armed attack.
International law experts argue the charter does not provide a broader right to preemptive attacks, such as the strikes Israel launched on Iran on 13 June on the grounds of eliminating Tehran’s nuclear threat.
Rothwell, a professor at the Australian National University, said given there had been no direct threat from Iran towards the US then Trump’s reported attack could not be justified.
He told Guardian Australia:
“It’s virtually impossible, I think, for the United States to mount any credible legal argument (for the strikes) on that basis”
Rothwell said the US attacks could set a precedent for how other countries could use the self-defence argument as cover for pre-emptive attacks.
“The really concerning aspect of this is the precedent it sets. If the United States can do this, and this is a precedent that the United States is taking in terms of its interpretation of self defence, or the way in which you can use force, then other states will take that into account in terms of how they consider their own future conduct.”
Netanyahu praises “awesome and righteous might” of US strikes
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delivered a short speech praising Trump’s strikes on Iran.
Published to his social media account, Netanyahu said the action would “change history”.
Congratulations, President Trump. Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history.
In Operation Rising Lion, Israel has done truly amazing things. But in tonight’s action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, America has been truly unsurpassed. It has done what no other country on Earth could do.
History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime the world’s most dangerous weapons. His leadership today has created a pivot of history that can help lead the Middle East and beyond to a future of prosperity and peace.
President Trump and I often say, “Peace through strength.” First comes strength, then comes peace. And tonight, President Trump and the United States acted with a lot of strength.
President Trump, I thank you. The people of Israel thank you. The forces of civilisation thank you. God bless America. God bless Israel. And may God bless our unshakable alliance, our unbreakable faith. Thanks for watching.
President Trump and I often say: ‘Peace through strength.’
First comes strength, then comes peace.
And tonight, @realDonaldTrump and the United States acted with a lot of strength. pic.twitter.com/7lTWCZkgw7
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) June 22, 2025
Israel raises alert level
Israel has raised its alert level, permitting only essential activities until further notice, the military announced on Sunday after US strikes on Iran.
“It was decided to shift all areas of the country from Partial and Limited Activity to Essential Activity,” including “a prohibition on educational activities, gatherings, and workplaces, except for essential sectors”, the Israeli military statement said.
In the US, New York’s police department says it is deploying additional resources to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across the city “out of an abundance of caution”.
Trump is picking up the phone to reporters.
The president famously is not that difficult to contact, compared to predecessors. So far tonight he’s spoken to both Axios and Reuters, reportedly telling the former “we had a great success tonight, Israel is much safer now”.
Trump has said he will make an address to the nation at 10pm, about 20 minutes from now.
Meanwhile Republican lawmakers are lining up to support the strikes.
Earlier we reported Senator Lindsey Graham said it was the right call, and “this regime deserves it”.
Since then, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he stands with Trump “to ensure a nuclear weapon remains out of reach for Iran”.
“The regime in Iran, which has committed itself to bringing ‘death to America’ and wiping Israel off the map, has rejected all diplomatic pathways to peace,” Thune said.
Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, said the strikes “should serve as a clear reminder to our adversaries and allies that President Trump means what he says”.
“The President gave Iran’s leader every opportunity to make a deal, but Iran refused to commit to a nuclear disarmament agreement. President Trump has been consistent and clear that a nuclear-armed Iran will not be tolerated. That posture has now been enforced with strength, precision, and clarity.”
Senator Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says Trump took “decisive action” to do what “only American weapons could do”.
“This is not the start of a forever war. There will not be American boots on the ground in Iran. This was a precise, limited strike, which was necessary and by all accounts was very successful.”
Senator Ted Cruz commended the strike. “As long as Iran was able to access and conduct activities at Fordow, they could still rush to build a nuclear arsenal. Tonight’s actions have gone far in foreclosing that possibility, and countering the apocalyptic threat posed by an Iranian nuclear arsenal.”
Bernie Sanders was in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a rally on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour of the US on Saturday evening when the news of the strikes came through.
He read Trump’s announcement to the crowd, prompting immediate boos and chants of “no more war”.
“I agree,” replied Sanders.
“It is so grossly unconstitutional. All of you know that the only entity that can take this country to war is the US Congress. The president does not have the right.”
The sentiment was shared by Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who has also denounced the strikes as unconstitutional. In a statement, she said:
“President Trump sending U.S. troops to bomb Iran without the consent of Congress is a blatant violation of our Constitution. The American people do not want another forever war. We have seen where decades of endless war in the Middle East gets us—all based on the lie of ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ We are not falling for it again.
“Instead of listening to the American people, Trump is listening to War Criminal Netanyahu, who lied about Iraq and is lying once again about Iran. Congress must act immediately to exert its war powers and stop this unconstitutional act of war.
US strikes hit Fordow enrichment plant – Iran official
IRNA, the state-run news agency (whose website is currently down) has cited an unnamed provincial official in confirming that part of the Fordow nuclear facility was hit.
“Hours ago, after Qom’s air defenses were activated and hostile targets were identified, part of the Fordow nuclear site was attacked by enemy airstrikes,” said Morteza Heydari, a spokesman for the Qom Provincial Crisis Management Headquarters, according to a translation by Al Jazeera.
Separately, Iranian state media has said the sites struck by US bombings did not contain materials that cause radiation, according to Reuters.
Fordow is one of Iran’s two uranium enrichment sites, estimated to be about 80-90 metres underground below a mountain. Israel struck the site on the first day of its attacks, but no damage was seen at the time, according to the IAEA nuclear watchdog.
