Israel Bombs Tehran

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Israel-Iran war live: Trump says Iran’s key nuclear facilities ‘obliterated’ in US strikes and that Tehran must now make peace
Trump says US has attacked three nuclear sites in Iran
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/ ... rikes-iran

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.

Trump threatens to go after "many" other targets in Iran
Trump is finishing up now, this appears to be a short speech.

“With all that being said, this cannot continue.

There will be either peace or tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonights were the most difficult by far… 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.

There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even close.”

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”.

Are you just so bereft of ethics that you're just going to spread this propaganda? How many innocent people are you prepared to let Israel murder before you accept that Israel really is the bad guy here?

wait, what? I just literally posted news feed.

The United States, the Middle East and world oil markets are bracing for Iran’s response after President Donald Trump launched punishing strikes on Iranian nuclear energy sites overnight, plunging the region into an unprecedented new phase of a decades-old conflict.

The U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities, including the key Fordo site, with 14 GBU-57s, 30,000-pound “bunker buster bombs,” according to the U.S. military. It was the first time the United States has directly bombed the Islamic Republic.

The next 48 hours are of particular concern, according to two defense officials and a senior White House official. It’s unclear whether any retaliation would target overseas or domestic locations, or both, the officials said

S. bases and assets have been at their highest state of alert for months, but after Israel began warring with Iran on June 13, the officials, who spoke earlier in the week, said concerns were heightened even more about the potential for attacks on U.S. assets from Iran or its proxies in the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, warned of “everlasting consequences.”

Iran has already shown its capacity to inflict damage on its enemies.

Iran will try to redouble its efforts against Israel in order to show its determination to inflict damage on its arch enemy,” said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. “We are likely to witness major escalation between Iran and Israel in the next few days.”

However, Gerges added, Iran will try and avoid “being dragged into an all-out war with the United States.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard argues that the sheer number and spread of U.S. bases in the region, where it has some 40,000 troops, are not a strength, but a “point of vulnerability.”

The U.S. has bases in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, among other countries. Last week, it moved some aircraft and ships that may be vulnerable to a potential attack, and has limited access to its al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

It’s unclear whether Iran could retaliate with missile attacks on U.S. or allied forces in the Gulf. Israel has managed to intercept many of the ballistic missiles and drones that Iran has fired over the past week.

And it’s also uncertain whether any retaliation will come directly from Tehran or one of its proxies in the region.

Iran has long relied on asymmetric tactics against stronger foes, including terrorist attacks. In 1983, the U.S. accused Iran of orchestrating the bombings of a Marine barracks and embassy in Beirut through its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, killing hundreds.

Iran has also threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman, which is a critical international shipping choke point, with a fifth of global oil passing through its narrow waters. Blocking it could send oil markets into chaos — but would also hurt Iran’s own struggling economy and alienate neutral powers.

Constraints
Iran’s capacity to strike is narrower than it once was.

H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, told NBC News that Iran still has the power to attack, “but only because Israelis haven’t taken out all of their missile launchers.”

Iran still has around 40% of its launchers, Hellyer said, “so the threat hasn’t been removed in that regard, but they’ve been degraded quite a lot.”

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that while the U.S. did not want war, it will “act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened.”

While Hegseth also said that Iran’s nuclear ambitions had been “obliterated,” it will be difficult for the Pentagon to verify that claim without having U.S. forces on the ground. In hours since the strikes, Iran’s state media has downplayed the damage on nuclear facilities at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

With fewer reliable partners in the Middle East and little regional appetite for a wider war, experts warn that Tehran faces a narrower set of options and a sharper set of risks as it weighs how to respond.

“They’re really stuck,” said Hellyer. “If they fight back by striking American targets, then the U.S. is very likely to respond with a much more aggressive and continual campaign that could cause even more damage, not only to the regime, but to the country at large.”

But if Iran doesn’t respond, the cohesion of its regime,” a ruling class weighed down by corruption, public discontent and growing disillusionment with its promises of resistance, “could really be challenged,” he added.

Iran’s proxy network has also been battered by years of attrition with Israel and the U.S.

Its most important ally, Hezbollah in Lebanon, has been devastated by a series of Israeli attacks and assassinations, and had indicated it would not join the fight against Israel.

The Houthis, Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias are unlikely to have much impact on Israel and the United States’ struggle with Iran. In the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, Hamas — which Iran armed and trained — has been badly weakened and its leaders have been killed.

Iran may also lack staunch support from its neighbors. Some Gulf nations, including Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, stopped short of condemning the U.S. attacks on Iran, calling instead for de-escalation.

“The rest of the region is very opposed to this war and doesn’t want it and didn’t want it, but they’re also not able to affect the outcome,” Hellyer said.

As a result, an increasingly isolated Iran has “no friends to speak of,” he said.

Cyber threats
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s cyber capabilities are formidable, and the U.S. considers Iran one of its four major adversaries in cyberspace along with China, North Korea, and Russia.

While Iran lacks Russia’s robust cybercrime syndicates or China’s vast teams of sophisticated digital spies, the U.S. has in recent years accused Iranians of working for the IRGC. These allegations have included the hacking of American defense companies and federal agencies as well as conducting ransomware attacks on American critical infrastructure.

Historically, Iran has at times responded to American attacks with thematically linked cyberattacks. After the U.S. and Israel deployed the [url]Stuxnet[/url] virus in 2009 to degrade Iranian centrifuges, the IRGC attempted to remotely hack several power facilities, including the Bowman Dam in New York. After Las Vegas Sands Casino owner Sheldon Adelson called for the U.S. to bomb Tehran, Iranian hackers allegedly broke into company computers and deleted everything they could, costing the Sands an estimated more than $40 million.

If Iran conduct retaliatory cyberattacks, they would come in the wake of the Trump administration's multiple several rounds of cuts to its top civilian cyber defense agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA’s two former directors have both warned that the administration’s cuts make U.S. infrastructure more vulnerable to hackers

Local law enforcement bracing for Iranian retaliation
If the Iranians try to retaliate for the missile strikes on their nuclear program by launching terror attacks on U.S. soil, local law enforcement is as ready as it can be, a top security expert said.

"Local law enforcement will be casting a wide net and preparing for everything from a lone wolf attack by an Iranian sympathizer to a larger organized attack on some big public event, or on a public place that attracts a lot of people like a mall or a sports venue," Brian Higgins, a former chief of the Bergen County Police in New Jersey who now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told NBC News.

Higgins, who also runs a security consulting firm called Group 77, said they're operating on the assumption that "there are already sleeper cells in the U.S. that could potentially be activated to launch domestic terror attacks."

"We have people on watch lists," he said. "Local police are in contact with the FBI."

Local law enforcement bracing for Iranian retaliation , continued
Even before the missiles began raining down on Iran, police in major cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles were already beefing up security at sensitive sites, especially synagogues and Jewish organizations.

"No doubt we’re on edge now and any domestic attack will have a chilling effect," he said.

But, said Higgins, "our response has to be carefully managed."

"Remember how after 9/11 we color-coded threat levels, so red was the highest level and yellow was an elevated condition?" Higgins said. "Well, after a while people got used to seeing yellow, began taking it for granted that it would always be yellow, and stopped paying attention. We can’t let that happen.”

DHS issues new bulletin warning of a 'heightened threat environment' in wake of U.S. strikes on Iran
The Department of Homeland Security issued a new bulletin today warning of a "heightened threat environment" following the U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran.

The bulletin warns that "low-level cyber attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against US networks."

DHS also warns of possible violence by independent actors.

"Iran also has a long-standing commitment to target US Government officials it views as responsible for the death of an Iranian military commander killed in January 2020," it says. "The likelihood of violent extremists in the Homeland independently mobilizing to violence in response to the conflict would likely increase if Iranian leadership issued a religious ruling calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the Homeland."

It continues, "Multiple recent Homeland terrorist attacks have been motivated by anti-Semitic or anti-Israel sentiment, and the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict could contribute to US-based individuals plotting additional attacks


Netanyahu visits the Western Wall
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem this evening and offered a prayer for the peace of the Israel Defense Forces soldiers and for hostages still held in Gaza.

“The people have risen as a lion," he also said. "We will continue to perform wonders and miracles to ensure the eternity of Israel for generations.”

Netanyahu also offered a special prayer for the peace of Trump.

As is customary, the Israeli prime minister inserted a note containing a prayer into the Western Wall that said: “The people have risen as a lion. Am Israel Chai!” That means “The people of Israel live” in Hebrew.

President of U.N. General Assembly 'deeply alarmed' by U.S. attacks on Iran
President of the U.N. General Assembly Philemon Yang said he is "deeply alarmed" by the U.S. attacks on Iran and called on all parties involved "to engage in diplomacy and pursue dialogue" to settle disputes.

"Military might does not bring durable peace. Dialogue does," Yang said. "The people in the Middle East need peace and not more wars."

Former Trump official questions Trump claim Iran nuclear facilities 'oblierated'
Elliott Abrams, a special representative for Iran in the State Department during Trump’s first term, took issue with Trump’s claim Saturday night that Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been “completely and totally obliterated.”

“We do not have battle damage assessment,” he told NBC News in an interview Sunday.

“The business about ‘obliterated,’ that’s Trump. Somebody wrote that line for him or it came from him naturally.”

“We may well have, but there’s no way to know that yet,” added Abrams, who is now senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

We certainly didn’t have battle damage assessment when Trump spoke.”

“One would think that with the amount of ordnance used at all three sites, they’re gone, but we don’t know that yet.”

“‘Obliterated’ — in battle damage assessment you never see a word like that,” Abrams added.


Trump decision to strike Iran divides base
President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iranian nuclear sites has divided his political base, pitting hardcore Trump loyalists who’d support him under any circumstances against those who want to see the U.S. steer clear of far-flung conflicts.

John Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, said he believes the split isn’t permanent and that the more isolationist members of Trump’s coalition will ultimately come back into the fold.

“I think his base will fall in behind him,” Bolton told NBC News in an interview Sunday. “I think people like [conservative pundit] Tucker Carlson will all fold and find some reason to kiss the ring again. Because if he [Trump] casts them out into outer darkness, then they’re just exposed as the extremists that they are.”

Long a critic of Trump, Bolton applauded the military strikes on Iran — though he believes the attack should have come years earlier.

“A lot remains to unfold, but this was clearly the right thing to do,” Bolton said.

Asked about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effusive praise of Trump at a Pentagon press conference Sunday, Bolton said: “He’s thinking about his job security.”

“For all the praise heaped on Trump,” Bolton added, “he could have done this in the first term, too — and should have.”

Seems there might be a silver lining from America's trade war.

No REM from China, no Israeli interceptor missiles.

Please don not reprint our regimes propaganda .

IRAN RESPONSE: Iran said today it launched a missile strike against the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which stations thousands of U.S. troops, in retaliation for the U.S. bombing its nuclear sites over the weekend. Qatar confirmed the strike and said there were no casualties.

ISRAEL HITS FORDO AGAIN: Israel launched further assaults throughout Iran today, hitting airports in western, eastern and central Iran as well as the notorious Evin prison in the capital, Tehran.

IRAN-RUSSIA TALKS: The Iranian foreign minister met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he said Iran will coordinate its response to the U.S. and Israeli strikes.

WARNING FROM IRAN: Before the U.S. strikes, Iran had warned President Donald Trump that it might activate terrorist "sleeper cells" inside the U.S. if it were attacked, sources said.

REGIME CHANGE: In a break with members of his administration, Trump appeared to call for a change in Iranian leadership, saying in a social media post yesterday, "Why wouldn’t there be a Regime change?"

HUNDREDS KILLED: Israeli strikes have killed at least 400 people in Iran and injured 3,000 in the 10-day conflict, according to the Iranian Health Ministry, while Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 24 in Israel.

Are you just so bereft of ethics that you're just going to spread this propaganda? How many innocent people are you prepared to let Israel murder before you accept that Israel really is the bad guy here?

U.S. President Donald Trump said that a "complete and total" ceasefire between Israel and Iran will go into force with a view to ending the conflict between the two nations, moments after both sides threatened new attacks.

Trump appeared to suggest that Israel and Iran would have some time to complete any missions that are underway, at which point the ceasefire would begin in a staged process.

"On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, 'THE 12 DAY WAR'," he wrote on his Truth Social site.

Neither Iran’s U.N. mission nor the Israeli embassy in Washington immediately responded to separate requests for comment from Reuters.

Hours earlier, three Israeli officials had signaled Israel was looking to wrap up its campaign in Iran soon and had passed the message on to the United States.