US President Donald Trump has threatened Iran of further military action if peace is not achieved in the region. He made the remarks in his first public statement since the “precision” strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities–Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan by the US on Saturday (US local time).
In his address from the White House, Trump said, “Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight was the most difficult of them all by far and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.”
Stating that the other sites can be taken out in “a matter of minutes”, Trump praised the military prowess of America in his speech. “Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There’s no military in the world that couldn’ve done what we did tonight, not even close. There has never been a military that can do what took place just a little while ago.”
Trump announced that Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General Dan Caine will hold a press conference on Sunday (US local time) at the Pentagon.
Trump thanked the “military minds” involved in the attack.”
I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done and most importantly I want to congratulate great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight, and all of the United States’ military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades. Hopefully we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that so.”
Trump’s announcement comes just two days after he said that he had opened a two-week window for diplomacy.
Hours ahead of his remarks, the US President took to his Truth Social platform to state that the US had bombed the three Iranian nuclear facilities and in his address from the White House on Saturday night (local time), Trump said those facilities “have been completely and totally obliterated” thereby meeting the objective to stop the “nuclear threat”.
In his concluding remarks, Trump said, “I want to thank everybody and in particular god, I just want to say, we love you god and we love our great military, protect them. God bless the Middle East, god blesses you and God bless America.”
As per a report in the CNN which cited a US official, the US used six B-2 bombers to drop a dozen “bunker buster” bombs on the Fordow nuclear site.
Navy submarines fired 30 TLAM cruise missiles at two other sites, Natanz and Isfahan, and a B2 dropped two bunker busters on Natanz, the official said.
The underground site at Fordow and the larger Natanz plant were Iran’s two primary uranium enrichment facilities, out of which Natanz had already been hit by Israel with smaller weapons earlier in the week, the New York Times reported.
The conflict between Israel and Iran entered its ninth day on Saturday, with the US now joining in support of Israel. The conflict started after Israel, on June 13, launched a massive airstrike on Iranian military and nuclear sites, dubbed “Operation Rising Lion.”
In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a large-scale drone and missile operation, ‘Operation True Promise 3’, targeting Israeli fighter jet fuel production facilities and energy supply centres. (ANI)
