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By bombing three nuclear sites in Iran, the United States has joined Israel’s war against the country. Now it is bracing for Iranian retaliation.
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transcript
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Trump and Netanyahu Praise U.S. Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Sites
President Trump said the aim of attacking the three facilities was to destroy Iran’s nuclear capability. Iran said the sites had been hit but did not immediately describe the damage.
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“Thank you very much. A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.” “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.” “God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel. And God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.”
President Trump announced on Saturday that the U.S. military had “totally obliterated” three of Iran’s nuclear sites, including its uranium-enrichment facility deep underground at Fordo, injecting the United States directly into a war in the Middle East.
Neither Mr. Trump nor the Pentagon immediately provided evidence of his claim to have wiped out infrastructure that Israel’s leadership has long said could soon produce a nuclear weapon. And even as the president celebrated what he called “a spectacular military success,” he urged Iran to agree to peace terms or face further assaults.
Mr. Trump spoke for roughly four minutes, hours after he announced on social media that U.S. forces had hit the facilities. B-2 bombers dropped at least six 30,000-pound bunker busters on Fordo, and submarines fired 30 TLAM cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity,” Mr. Trump said in his televised address, flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Mr. Trump also warned Iran’s leaders that they “must now make peace” — a demand he previously framed as “unconditional surrender.” Should they refuse to submit, he suggested, much more of Iran could be soon wiped out by Israel and the United States.
“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” he said. “Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.”
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