HISTORIC NIGHT - The US destroys Iran's nuclear sites in surprise overnight strikes

U.S. President Donald Trump announced early Sunday morning (late Saturday night in the U.S.) that the American military had “totally obliterated” Iran’s three primary nuclear facilities. 

“A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime, Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” President Trump said in a televised address to the American people from the White House. 

“Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” Trump continued, before stating that “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.” 

The decision by the U.S. president to enter the conflict, which Israel began on 13 June, with surprise strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites, was long anticipated within Israel. 

President Trump said the U.S. objective in striking the sites was to remove the “nuclear threat” of the Iranian regime. 

“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,” Trump stated in his address, which came a couple hours after the strikes.

“Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.” 

President Trump also praised the coordination between the U.S. and Israel, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump said, using the premier’s common nickname. “We worked as a team, like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” 

Trump also warned of possible future attacks if Iran retaliates. 

“If they do not [make peace], future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier,” he stated. 

He cited Iran’s history of incitement against Israel and the United States since the Islamic Revolution, saying Iran has “been killing our people.” 

“For 40 years, Iran has been saying, death to America, death to Israel,” Trump noted. “They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate.” 

“I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue,” he promised. 

Trump also referenced his decision to eliminate former Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in 2020. 

Fox News host Sean Hannity later claimed to have spoken with President Trump, confirming that the U.S. used six GBU-57 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs in the strike on Fordow, which was the most heavily protected of the three sites. 

Hannity also claimed that 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from U.S. submarines in the strikes on the Isfahan and Natanz facilities. 

Late Saturday evening, Israeli time, reports began to flood in of six B-2 bombers departing the U.S. en route to Guam, and possibly the Middle East. 

The move appears to have been an apparent misdirection, as the bombers would not have been able to arrive in time for the strikes that were carried out.

President Trump may have wanted to present the image of increasing force projection to pressure Iran to return to the negotiating table, in order to distract from the actual strike, likely carried out by units already stationed at the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean. 

Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin called the departure of the B-2 bombers on Saturday "misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had put off the decision.” 

"Those six B-2 bombers that were heading west toward Guam, they would not have made it to Iran in time to take part in this strike," Griffin told Fox News’ Bret Baier shortly after news of the strikes broke.

"So, that suggests to me that there was an additional B-1 package that perhaps flew eastward from Whiteman Air Force Base. Again, this was all part of the deception. There was a great deal of sort of misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had put off the decision and that this would happen two weeks from now.” 

While confirmation of the effectiveness of the strikes is still forthcoming and has been hindered by the Iranian regime’s decision last week to cut off internet access across the country, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi that Iran will “respond decisively.” 

“We did not start the war and we are not interested in continuing it, but if this aggression continues, we will respond decisively to it,” Pezeshkian told el-Sissi according to the regime-affiliated Tasnim News Agency. 

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the strikes violated international law and threatened to take legal action to “defend the rights” of Iran. 

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the United States' "grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT by attacking Iran's peaceful nuclear installations."

"The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences. Each and every member of the UN must be alarmed over this extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behavior. In accordance with the UN Charter and its provisions allowing a legitimate response in self-defense, Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people," he wrote on 𝕏.