The latest:
- Trump says stealth bombers hit sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
- Iran’s nuclear agency confirms attacks, says work will not be stopped.
- Iran said ‘no sign of contamination’ as a result of the attacks.
- Israeli airspace has been closed to inbound and outbound travel, but it’s not clear for how long.
- Netanyahu praises U.S. decision that ‘will change history.’
- UN secretary general brands U.S. decision as ‘dangerous escalation.’
- Tehran says ‘U.S. has … launched a dangerous war against Iran.’
- International Atomic Energy Agency to hold an emergency meeting.
- EU foreign policy chief says foreign ministers will gather on Monday.
- U.S. military leaders to hold briefing at 8 a.m. ET Sunday.
Tehran accused Washington of launching “a dangerous war” after President Donald Trump said the U.S. attacked three key nuclear sites in Iran on Sunday and they were “completedly and fully obliterated.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Washington had “betrayed diplomacy” with the military strikes in support of Israel, which has been engaged in a nine-day war with Iran in an attempt to destroy its nuclear program.
Now, “the U.S. has itself launched a dangerous war against Iran,” the ministry said in a lengthy statement.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to resist with full force against U.S. military aggression and the crimes committed by this rogue regime, and to defend Iran’s security and national interests.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. ‘completely and fully obliterated’ Iranian nuclear sites. The action came as Israel and Iran have been engaged in more than a week of aerial combat.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned in a post on X Sunday that the U.S. attacks “will have everlasting consequences.”
There’s been no independent damage assessment in the wake of the U.S. attacks.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed the U.S. strikes took place on its Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites, but it insisted its nuclear program won’t be stopped. Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the three locations following the strikes.
After announcing the attacks on social media, Trump gave an address to the nation from the White House, saying, “There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran.”
It was not clear if the U.S. would continue attacking Iran alongside its ally Israel. Trump, who acted without congressional authorization, warned there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliated against U.S. forces.
Tehran says Washington ‘betrayed diplomacy’
Hours after the American attacks, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched 40 missiles at Israel, including its Khorramshahr-4, which can carry multiple warheads. Israeli authorities reported more than 80 people suffered mostly minor injuries, and there were reports of damage in the cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv and along the coast.
A week after Israel’s initial strikes on nuclear and military targets across Iran, many are asking: What comes next? As deadly attacks and counterattacks between the two countries continue with no end yet in sight, Andrew Chang explores what Israel’s endgame might be in its war with Iran and why its ambitions could go well beyond preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.
(Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters)
Following the Iranian barrage, Israel’s military said it had “swiftly neutralized” the Iranian missile launchers that had fired and it had begun a series of strikes toward military targets in western Iran.
- This afternoon, Cross Country Checkup will have a two-hour special about the U.S. bombing and its entry into the Israel-Iran war. What questions do you have? How does this affect you? You can share your thoughts here.
Iran has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon, making it an imminent threat.
The decision to directly involve the U.S. in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel that significantly degraded Iran’s air defences and offensive missile capabilities, and damaged its nuclear enrichment facilities. But U.S. and Israeli officials have said American B-2 stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bomb that only they have been configured to carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.
Israel announced Sunday that it had closed its airspace to both inbound and outbound flights in the wake of the U.S. attacks.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s decision to attack in a video message directed at the American president.
“Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history.”
Netanyahu said the U.S. “has done what no other country on Earth could do.”
Israeli military spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel was still assessing the damage to Iran’s nuclear sites.
At a media briefing, Defrin was asked whether enriched material had been removed from the Fordow site before the U.S. strike, and he replied it was too early to know. Defrin said the strikes were carried out in co-ordination with the Israeli
military.
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation. U.S. military leaders are scheduled to provide a briefing at 8 a.m. E.T. Sunday that CBC will carry live.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrote on X that there has been “no increase in off-site radiation levels” after the strikes, but it would continue to monitor the situation.
Iran wants an investigation of the U.S. strikes on its nuclear sites, its nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said in a letter to IAEA’s chief, Rafael Grossi, urging him to condemn the U.S. action and take appropriate measures, according to Iran’s SNN news network.
Eslami criticized Grossi for his “inaction and complicity,” and added Iran would pursue appropriate legal measures to tackle the matter.
The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers.
He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations.
It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.
—@AOC
Grossi said on Sunday that he’d be calling an emergency meeting of his agency’s 35-nation board of governors after the U.S. attacks.
Trump’s decision to attack
The decision to attack was a risky one for Trump, who won the White House partially on the promise of keeping the U.S. out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.
But Trump also vowed he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and he had initially hoped the threat of force would bring the country’s leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully.
For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. In April and again in late May, he persuaded Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.
After Israel began striking Iran, Trump went from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a “second chance” for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.
The U.S. president has bristled at criticism from some supporters who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to those who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars.
Fears of a broader war
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the U.S. attacks a “dangerous escalation” as world leaders began chiming in with calls for diplomacy.
“There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control – with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region and the world,” he said in a statement.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who had threatened to resume attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel’s military campaign called on other Muslim nations to form “one front against the Zionist-American arrogance.”
On Wednesday, Khamenei warned the U.S. that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”
The Israeli military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran’s foreign minister warned before the U.S. attack that American military involvement “would be very, very dangerous for everyone.”
Iranian Canadian Bahar Montamedian, whose 72-year-old father is currently stranded in Iran amid Israeli strikes, told CBC News she wants the federal government to find a way to bring not only citizens out of Iran but also valid temporary visa holders like her father. “I just want my dad to be here. I don’t know when will be the next time I can see him or talk to him,” Montamedian said.
After the U.S. attacks, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Sunday urged all sides to return to the negotiating table.
“Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon,” Kallas said in a post on X.
“I urge all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation,” she said, adding that EU foreign ministers will discuss the situation on Monday.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 865 people and wounded 3,396 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group said of those dead, it identified 363 civilians and 215 security force personnel.