The U.S. military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel’s effort to destroy Iran's nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe.
The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.
But U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) 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.
President Donald Trump announced the strikes. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that attacks targeted the country’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. The agency did not elaborate. Iran's foreign minister said Iran reserves the right to retaliate.
Here is the latest:
Rubio discounts criticism of US strikes from other countries
“And a bunch of these countries putting out statements condemning us, privately, they all agree with us that this needed to be done. They got to do what they got to do for their own public relations purposes. But the only people in the world that are unhappy about what happened in Iran last night is the regime in Iran,” Rubio said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
He urged Iran to enter direct talks with the U.S. and said Trump’s administration has no objection to a civilian nuclear program.
“They don’t even talk to us directly. We always have to have a middleman. They want to pass messages and notes like we’re in third grade. We’re not doing that anymore. Direct negotiations,” Rubio said.
“Let’s talk about how we peacefully resolve this problem.” He thanked Washington’s European allies for pressing Iran to engage in face-to-face talks.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the next steps are up to the Iranian government
“If the regime wants peace, we’re ready for peace. If they want to do something else, they’re incredibly vulnerable. They can’t even protect their own airspace,” Rubio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday.
Rubio also warned against Iranian attacks on countries in the region that host American military forces.
“That’s exactly why they are there. All those bases are there because those countries are afraid Iran will attack them,” Rubio said. “Those bases are there because those countries are petrified.”
3 Revolutionary Guards killed in an Israeli strike, Iranian media say
An Israeli airstrike killed three members of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, semiofficial news agencies in the Islamic Republic reported Sunday.
The Mehr and Tasnim news agencies reported the attack took place in Zanjan province.
Israel’s military said it struck sites around multiple cities in Iran
One major target claimed by the Israelis was the Imam Hussein Strategic Missile Command Center in Yazd. Social media footage showed orange smoke rising after one Israeli strike on the area. It could be the result of ammonium perchlorate, a missile fuel component, burning.
The Israeli military said other strikes targeted missile launchers in Ahvaz, Bushehr and Isfahan.
Iran has not offered any details on the damage it has sustained in the Israeli bombardment.
Ex-US diplomat in charge of Mideast believes there’s still a chance for negotiations
Barbara Leaf, the assistant secretary of state for Near-Eastern affairs under President Joe Biden, told The Associated Press that the top priority of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been “the preservation of the Islamic Republic, preservation of the theocratic style of governance and the regime itself.”
“If the regime feels that its existence is at stake, it will use any weapons that come to hand, whether the arsenal of ballistic missiles, depleted conventional forces, terrorism, asymmetrical attacks,” she said.
“But it has clearly signaled throughout the nine days of this conflict with Israel that it is trying to avoid a second front, and that is a front with the U.S. So really at this moment, how the U.S. comports itself, I think will be the decisive factor.”
UK is focused on de-escalation but also sent equipment to protect its interests
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his focus was on curbing the war and negotiating a solution, as he warned of escalation spreading beyond the Middle East.
Starmer would not say whether the U.K. would be drawn into the war if Iran targets U.S. bases, but said it was moving military equipment into the area to protect its interests, people and allies.
“I’m not going to speculate about what may happen, because all of my focus is on de-escalation,” he said.
The U.K. has sent additional Typhoon fighter jets and Voyager tankers to Cyprus since the Israel-Iran war started more than a week ago. Iran had threatened to attack U.S., French and British bases in the region if those countries helped Israel.
Vance says he isn’t worried about a ‘protracted conflict’ with Iran
U.S. Vice President JD Vance says America has “no interest in boots on the ground” in Iran, saying that he doesn’t believe the strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites would lead to a wider war.
“We have no interest in boots on the ground,” Vance said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I don’t fear that this is going to become a protracted conflict.”
Vance still stressed that there is a chance for Iran to engage in talks about its future, saying that the attacks created the environment for a “reset” of relations.
“We want to end their nuclear program and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here,” Vance said. “This a reset. This is an opportunity for the Iranians to take the smart path. We certainly hope that they will.”
Vance presses Iran to ‘go down the path of peace’
U.S. Vice President JD Vance says that the U.S. “didn’t blow up” diplomacy with its attack on Iranian nuclear sites.
He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that talks over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program were never given a real chance by Tehran.
“And our hope … is that this maybe can reset here. The Iranians can go down the path of peace or they can go down the path of this ridiculous brinksmanship of funding terrorism, of trying to build a nuclear weapon and that’
He reiterated that the U.S. wasn’t at war with Iran, has no interest in a protracted conflict or boots on the ground. Vance says he felt “very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon,” and it would be “many, many years” before Iran could develop a nuclear weapon.
BA cancels flights to the UAE and Qatar
British Airways canceled flights on Sunday from London to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar after the U.S. attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities.
All flights from Heathrow Airport to Dubai and Doha were canceled for the day. The airline diverted a Dubai-bound airliner Saturday night to Zurich. Flight BA109 was turned around after reaching Saudi Arabia, the airline said.
The airline said it was offering flexible rebooking for customers scheduled to fly to the two cities through Tuesday.
Hegseth says US intervention in Israel’s war with Iran is not open-ended
In concluding his briefing, the U.S. defense chief attempted to once again reiterate an unwillingness for America’s intervention in Iran to turn into a protracted war and labeled the overnight strikes as “intentionally limited.”
“I would just say, as the president has directed and made clear, this is most certainly not open-ended,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, adding that it doesn’t limit U.S. ability to respond and it will do so if necessary.
“The most powerful military in the world is postured and prepared to defend our people,” Hegseth said.
A Pentagon-provided map shows the path of B-2 bombers
A Pentagon-provided map of the flight path taken by B-2 stealth bombers indicates that their approach to Iran took them over the Mediterranean and then over Israel, Jordan and Iraq.
It is not immediately clear when those three countries were made aware of the flights. Israel has said the U.S. strikes were carried out in coordination with its military. The U.S. said the strikes did not involve Israeli jets.
The Pentagon released the map to journalists as it gave details of the mission, which it described as causing “extremely severe damage and destruction” to three Iranian nuclear sites.
US and Iranian officials say both countries are exchanging messages
Hours after Iran’s top diplomat disclosed that the line of communication between Washington and Tehran remains open, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed his remarks in a press conference.
“I can only confirm that there are both public and private messages being directly delivered to the Iranians in multiple channels, giving them every opportunity to come to the table,” Hegseth said.
US military increases protective measures for US troops in the Middle East
As the U.S. and the region await Iran’s response to the overnight strikes, Hegseth said that military generals have elevated force protection measures across the region, especially in Iraq, Syria, and the Persian Gulf.
“Our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which would be an incredibly poor choice,” Hegseth told reporters.
A maritime center warns of risks to US-linked ships
A Mideast-based maritime center overseen by the U.S. military warned Sunday that there’s a “high” risk to U.S.-associated ships after the American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
“The threat to U.S.-associated commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is currently assessed as HIGH,” the Joint Maritime Information Center, which is overseen by the U.S. Navy, wrote in an advisory to shippers.
“This categorization follows U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and Houthi rhetoric directly targeting the U.S.-associated maritime assets,” it said. Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saturday said they would attack U.S.-associated ships if America attacked Iran.
Pentagon stresses that ‘regime change’ was not goal of Iranian strike
The Trump administration said that its attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities was not about toppling the country’s government.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Sunday news briefing.
Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that the goal of “Operation Midnight Hammer” had destroyed the nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
“Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine said.
Hegseth says US military used decoys and deception in Iran attack
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Sunday that despite a surprise attack overnight on Iranian nuclear sites, America “does not seek war.”
Hegseth said it was important to note that U.S. strikes did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people, a veiled effort to indicate to Iran that they don’t want retaliation on American targets in the region.
Hegseth said that a choice to move a number of B-2 bombers from their base in Missouri earlier Saturday was meant to be a decoy to throw off Iranians.
He added that the U.S. used other methods of deception as well, deploying fighters to protect the B-2 bombers that dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s most powerful nuclear site. He said that all of these tactics helped the U.S. drop the bombs without tipping off Iran’s fighter jets or its air missile systems.
Iranian president condemns US strikes
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday condemned the U.S. attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites.
“This aggression showed that the United States is the primary instigator of the Zionist regime’s hostile actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Pezeshkian said Sunday. “Although they initially tried to deny their role, after our armed forces’ decisive and deterrent response and the Zionist regime’s clear incapacity, they were inevitably forced to enter the field themselves.”
Pezeshkian urged the public to come together in the face of the attacks from Israel and the U.S.
Explosions heard in Bushehr, home to Iran's only nuclear plant
Explosions boomed Sunday afternoon in the Iranian port city of Bushehr, three semiofficial Iranian media outlets reported. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts.
Bushehr is home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, which is run with Russian assistance. Iranian authorities have not reported any problem at the plant.
Meanwhile, explosions also struck the city of Yazd in central Iran, with some suggesting it came from Israeli airstrikes targeting a power plant and a military garrison.
Gaza medics report 51 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in last 24 hours
The Gaza Health Ministry says hospitals have received the bodies of 51 people killed by Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours. Another 104 have been wounded.
The new deaths brought the toll from the Israel-Hamas war to 55,959 since Oct. 7, 2023, the ministry said. Another 131,242 have been wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the dead were women and children.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7 attack. More than half the hostages have been returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals, eight have been rescued alive and Israeli forces have recovered dozens of bodies.
Israel assessing damage from US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel was still assessing damage from U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
At a press briefing, Defrin was asked whether enriched material had been removed from the Fordo site before the U.S. strike, and he replied that it was too early to know. Defrin said the strikes were carried out in coordination with the Israeli military.
France ‘has learned with concern’ about US strikes in Iran
The French foreign minister says his country did not take part in the U.S. strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Jean-Noel Barrot said in a message on social media on Sunday that France “has learned with concern” of the U.S. military action against three nuclear sites.
“It was neither involved in these strikes nor in their planning,” Barrot said, adding that France “urges the parties to show restraint in order to avoid any escalation that could lead to an extension of the conflict.”
Barrot also reiterated France’s opposition to Iran gaining access to nuclear weapons. “France is convinced that a lasting solution to this issue requires a negotiated solution within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” he said. “It remains ready to contribute to this in conjunction with its partners.”
Iran's top diplomat says he'll meet Putin in Moscow on Sunday
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, responding to a question from a Russian outlet, said he’ll travel to Moscow later on Sunday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, after the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites.
“We enjoy a strategic partnership and we always consult with each other and coordinate our positions,” he said, referring to Russia.
Iran's foreign minister says diplomacy not an option after US strikes
“The warmongering and a lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far reaching implications of its act of aggression,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a news briefing at a conference in Turkey.
Araghchi said while the “door to diplomacy” should always be open, “this is not the case right now.
Araghchi said that there is “no red line” that the U.S. has not crossed in its recent actions against the Islamic Republic.
“And the last one and the most dangerous one was what happened only last night when they crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities only,” he said.
Head of the Red Cross says ‘the world cannot absorb limitless war’
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that the escalation in the Middle East risks “engulfing the region — and the world — in a war with irreversible consequences.”
“The world cannot absorb limitless war. Upholding international humanitarian law is not a choice — it is an obligation,” Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement.
Images show damage on the mountainside at Iran’s underground nuclear site at Fordo
Satellite images taken Sunday analyzed by The Associated Press show damage on the mountainside at Iran’s underground nuclear site at Fordo after U.S. airstrikes targeted the facility.
The images by Planet Labs PBC show the once-brown mountain had parts turned gray and its contours appeared slightly different than in previous images, suggesting a blast threw up debris around the site. That suggests the use of specialized American bunker buster bombs on the facility. Light gray smoke also hung in the air.
Iran has yet to offer a damage assessment of the site.
Other satellite images suggest Iran before the strike sealed up its tunnel entrances at Fordo.
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This entry has been corrected to show Iran likely sealed up the tunnel entries to Fordo before the Sunday strike by the U.S.
Iran's top diplomat throws cold water on calls to return to diplomacy with the US
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that the U.S. strikes overnight have blown up any possibility of diplomacy with the Americans or Europeans.
“Last week, we were in negotiations with the US when Israel decided to blow up that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the US decided to blow up that diplomacy,” Araghchi wrote on X. “What conclusion would you draw?”
He added that British and European Union comments for Iran to “return” to the negotiating table is unfeasible now. “But how can Iran return to something it never left, let alone blew up?” he said.
Britain was notified in advance of US strikes on Iran
Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds told Sky News that Britain was notified as a key ally, though he didn’t know the actual timing. He said the U.S. did not ask for support and Britain was not involved.
“Whilst the British government, the U.K., has not been involved in these attacks, we have been making extensive preparations for all eventualities,” Reynolds said.
He said the government was working on how to look after British nationals as well as its military bases, personnel and infrastructure in the region.
Bahrain warns drivers to stay off main roads after US strikes in Iran
Showing the growing concern in the Gulf Arab states, the island kingdom of Bahrain issued a notice Sunday to drivers to stay off main roads if possible.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry wrote on X: “In light of recent developments in the regional security situation, we urge citizens and residents to use main roads only when necessary, to maintain public safety and to allow the relevant authorities to use the roads efficiently.”
Authorities also said they activated work-from-home protocols for some 70% of the country's government workers.
Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet and long been a threatened target of Iran.
Israel says it took out 2 of Iran's F-5 fighter jets
Israel says it hit the aircraft at Iran's Dezful airport. The F-5s are part of Iran’s aging fleet of fighter jets from the era of the shah. Israel released black-and-white footage showing one of the aircrafts being destroyed.
Israel previously hit F-14 Tomcats flown by the Iranian military in the war. However, it isn’t clear if these aircraft were airworthy as many have been grounded over the years due to a lack of parts.
Israel also said it struck other sites, including around Isfahan’s airport. Iran has not acknowledged losses of aircraft or other materiel in the war so far.
Meanwhile, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched 40 missiles, including its Khorramshahr-4, during the attack on Israel on Sunday morning. Iran has said the Khorramshahr-4 can carry multiple warheads.
