World awaits Iran retaliation after US enters war, hits nuclear sites

WASHINGTON/ TEHRAN/UNITED NATIONS: The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.

The US attacked Iran’s three key nuclear facilities early in the day in an operation involving more than 125 aircraft, according to US officials. B-2 stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen massive “bunker buster” bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz facilities, while Tomahawk missiles struck a site in the city of Isfahan.

The UN Security Council met to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.

“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear programme.”

“Peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved by the use of force.Dialogue and negotiation are the fundamental way out at present, said China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong. “Diplomatic means to address the Iranian nuclear issue haven’t been exhausted, and there’s still hope for a peaceful solution.”

But acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the council that the time had come for Washington to act decisively, urging the Security Council to call upon Iran to end its effort to eradicate Israel and terminate its drive for nuclear weapons.

“Iran long obfuscated its nuclear weapons program and stonewalled our good-faith efforts in recent negotiations,” she said. “The Iranian regime cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia recalled former US Secretary of State Colin Powell making the case at the UN Security Council in 2003 that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of the country’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

“Again we’re being asked to believe the US’s fairy tales, to once again inflict suffering on millions of people living in the Middle East. This cements our conviction that history has taught our U.S. colleagues nothing,” he said.

Iran requested the UN Security Council meeting, calling on it “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

It was not immediately clear when the council could vote on the draft resolution. Russia, China and Pakistan have asked council members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the U.S., France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.

The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the US and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”

Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one - including the IAEA - is in a position to assess the underground damage.”

Grossi told the Security Council that entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.

“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The US ‘devastated’ Iran’s nuclear programme in a series of unprecedented strikes, said Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, asserting Washington was not seeking regime change in Tehran. Trump “seeks peace, and Iran should take that path”, Hegseth continued. “This mission was not, and has not, been about regime change,” he added.

President Donald Trump said the US air strikes had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, and warned of more attacks to come if Tehran does not seek peace.

In a televised address to the nation from the White House after the United States joined Israel’s air campaign against Tehran, Trump called the US attacks a “spectacular military success.”

Trump had earlier stunned the world by announcing on the social media that US aircraft had struck Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment plant, plus the Natanz and Isfahan facilities. “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran [...] must now make peace,” said Trump.

“If they do not, future attacks will be far greater, and a lot easier,” added Trump, who was flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for his address on Saturday evening for US audiences.

Trump said earlier on his Truth Social site that a “full payload of BOMBS” was dropped on the underground facility at Fordow, describing it as the “primary site.” Trump added that “all planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors.”

Trump spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the attacks, while the United States also gave key ally Israel a “heads up” before the strikes, a senior White House official told AFP.

US Vice President JD Vance maintained his country was “not at war with Iran, we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program”. He added the strikes had “substantially delayed” the development of a nuclear weapon — something Iran has long denied pursuing.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on China to encourage Iran to not shut down the Strait of Hormuz after Washington carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

Rubio’s comments on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” show came after Iran’s Press TV reported that the Iranian parliament had approved a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 per cent of global oil and gas flows.

“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” said Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser.

“If they do that, it will be another terrible mistake. It’s economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours.”

Rubio said a move to close the strait would be a massive escalation that would merit a response from the US and others. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately provide comment.

The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society Pir Hossein Kolivand said there were no fatalities in the US strikes on the nuclear facilities, according to Iranian state television.

On the other hand, Netanyahu congratulated Trump on the strikes, saying that “America has been truly unsurpassed”, adding that “the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history”.

“History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime, the world’s most dangerous weapons,” the Israeli PM said.

Netanyahu prayed for President Donald Trump at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday following overnight US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. Netanyahu visited the wall with his wife Sara, asking God to “bless, protect and help the President of the United States, Donald Trump”, according to a video released by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which manages the site. After the prayer, the Israeli leader placed a note in the stones of the wall site, bearing the words “The people of Israel have risen—the people of Israel live!”