President Donald Trump announced in a White House address on Saturday night that the United States had conducted “massive precision strikes” to destroy Iran’s three key nuclear enrichment sites, declaring them “completely and totally obliterated.”
Trump spoke at the White House flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. His address took place shortly after he announced on his website Truth Social that the U.S. military had recently completed an incursion into Iranian skies to target the sites: the Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz uranium enrichment sites. The strikes occurred a little over a week after the government of Israel announced “Operation Rising Lion,” a military campaign also targeting Iran’s illicit nuclear development.
In his message, President Trump emphasized that the American armed forces were the only military on earth capable of the destruction carried out on Saturday, apparently addressing why the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had not similarly targeted the sites in question. He thanked the nation’s highest-ranking military leaders and congratulated them on their success.
The military, he explained, concluded “massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.”
“Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horrible destructive enterprise,” Trump said, describing the goal of the apparently isolated military operation as putting “a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”
“Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” the president stated. “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” Trump continued. “If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”
Trump explained the vested interest that the United States has in limiting Iran’s nuclear development, stating, “For 40 years, Iran has been saying ‘death to America,’ ‘death to Israel,'” and targeting American soldiers, “blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs.”
“We lost over 1,000 people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and the world,” he asserted, “have died as a result of their hate.”
Trump stated that he hoped the United States would not need to take any further military action and that the current state of conflict between Israel and Iran “cannot continue.”
“There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed in the last eight days,” Trump warned. “There are many targets left … if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed, and skill.”
Trump concluded by thanking God and asking God to bless America, Israel, and the world.
The Israeli and American military action followed a rare condemnation by the United Nation’s top nuclear arm, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), against Iran last week for violating international law on nuclear development. The organization passed a resolution urging Iran to limit its ongoing uranium enrichment, which experts believe is far beyond the volume necessary for any civilian purpose. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the organization that he had evidence that Iran was running secret nuclear facilities, keeping activities from the agency’s inspectors, and attempting to “sanitize” the sites to avoid detection.
The Iranian government responded to the IAEA resolution by announcing the construction of another uranium enrichment site on July 12, hours before Israel began “Operation Rising Lion.”
Following the first round of strikes by Israel, Iranian officials agreed to send diplomats to talks on Friday with representatives of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, three of the remaining parties in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The parties reportedly encouraged the Iranian government to engage in negotiations with the United States once more, after five rounds of talks with the Trump administration this year failed to yield a new agreement. The talks with the United States, mediated by Oman, failed due to Iran’s repeated insistence that it would not accept any limits on its uranium enrichment while demanding a full lifting of sanctions on the rogue regime.
This is a developing breaking news story and has been updated since publication.
