Trump speech – Iran facilities ‘obliterated’
Donald Trump is now addressing the nation, confirming the strikes on the three nuclear facilities.
“Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horrible destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility.
“The strikes were a spectacular military success,” he says, saying the key enrichment facilities have been “totally and completely obliterated”.
Key events
Israel closes airspace
Israel’s airport authority has announced it is closing its airspace following the US attack on Iranian nuclear sites, but borders between Sinai and Jordan will remain active.
Democrats call on Senate to enforce War Powers act
More US domestic political reaction coming in, with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer calling on the Republican senate leader, John Thune to enforce the War Powers act and bring it to the floor of the Senate “immediately”.
“President Trump must provide the American people and Congress clear answers on the actions taken tonight and their implications for the safety of Americans. No president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy. Confronting Iran’s ruthless campaign of terror, nuclear ambitions, and regional aggression demands strength, resolve, and strategic clarity. The danger of wider, longer, and more devastating war has now dramatically increased.
Democratic Senator Jack Reed, the ranking member of the Senate armed services committee, has called for an immediate classified briefing for Congress, “to ensure the American people get the facts and answers they deserve”. Reed said US military personnel involved “expertly supported and executed” the strike, but Trump’s move was “a massive gamble…and nobody knows yet whether it will pay off”.
The Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin has also called for a briefing to Congress.
“Americans do not want a president who bypasses our constitution and pulls us towards war without Congressional approval,” Martin said.
Meanwhile, Democratic representative for New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has raised the prospect of impeachment. She said:
“The president’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorisation 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.”
Palestinian militant group Hamas condemned “blatant US aggression” against Iran with the strikes, AFP reports.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemns in the strongest terms the blatant US aggression against the territory and sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the group said in a statement issued after Trump announced the United States had joined Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran.
“This brutal aggression is a dangerous escalation,” the Hamas statement added, calling the attack “a flagrant violation of international law, and a direct threat to international peace and security”.
Posting to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump has repeated his threat to Iran of further strikes if it decides to retaliate against the US.
ANY RETALIATION BY IRAN AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE MET WITH FORCE FAR GREATER THAN WHAT WAS WITNESSED TONIGHT. THANK YOU! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Iranian officials have said there is no danger to the residents living near the nuclear facilities hit by US strikes, according to Iranian state media. Quoting the Crisis Management Headquarters in the province of Qom, where the Fordow facility is located, the IRNA news service said “there is no danger to the people of Qom and the surrounding area”.
Al Jazeera reported earlier that another official said Fordow has “long been evacuated and has not suffered any irreversible damage”.
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia’s Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority has said no radioactive effects have been detected in Gulf states.
The Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation has called the US attack “a barbaric act that violated international law, especially the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty”.
It accused the global watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), of indifference “or even complicity”., and said it expected the global community to support Iran and condemn “these lawless acts rooted in the law of the jungle”.
The organisation said that despite the “malicious conspiracies of the enemies”, it wouldn’t allow the development of the national industry to be stopped.
It also threatened potential legal action.
Royce Kurmelovs
The Iranian response to US strikes on its nuclear facilities will depended on whether the attacks were as successful as Trump claims, a Middle East analyst says.
Speaking to the Australian national broadcaster, Mouin Rabbani, a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said what happens next will depend on whether Iran directs its anger at Israel, or the US. The scale of the damage, he said, may create an incentive for Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz in the Red Sea and seek to block the Bab Al-Manab to disrupt global oil and gas supplies.
On the prospect of Iranian retaliation, Rabbani said there were more questions than answers.
One thing that has distinguished the Iranians over the years is that they tend to act strategically rather than impulsively.
Rabbani said that in the context of an escalation by Israel and a direct strike on its facilities by the US, he would be “extraordinarily surprised” if Iran were to respond to the attack on its nuclear facilities by re-entering negotiations.
I think one thing we can exclude is seeing American and Iranian diplomats sitting around the negotiating table later this week.
Rabbani said that striking the Iranian nuclear program is not enough to end the program as the knowledge of how to construct the weapon remained. He added that the attacks are likely to create internal pressure within Iran for the regime to acquire nuclear weapons to defend itself.
Rabbani said that, unlike Israel, Iran was a signatory to the Nuclear non-proliferation treaty since 2015 and had been complying with requirements as part of its obligations.
He said a change of course by Iran followed a decision by the first Trump administration to rip up an earlier deal over the future of its nuclear program in 2018 that it changed.
I think it’s also important with all this talk about the Iranian nuclear weapon, which should, of course, be discussed. We often forget Iran is not a nuclear power. It is a nuclear threshold state. There is only one nuclear power in the Middle East, and that is Israel. And Israel is fighting this war very much to maintain its monopoly on the possession of these weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat leader in the Senate, says the strikes have “dramatically increased” the risk of war.
In a post on X, Jeffries said Trump “misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorisation for the use of military force, and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East”.
First, the Trump administration bears the heavy burden of explaining to the American people why this military action was taken.
Second, Congress must be fully and immediately briefed in a classified setting.
Third, Donald Trump shoulders complete and total responsibility for any adverse consequences that flow from his unilateral military action.
UN head Guterres calls strikes a threat to international security
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday branded the US strikes on Iran as a “dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security.”
“There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control – with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world,” Guterres said in a statement.
“At this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace,” he said.
A quick summary of Trump’s main remarks:
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“Massive precision strikes” on Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan have “completely obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities
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He called Iran “the bully of the Middle East” and said it must now “make peace” or face further attacks which would be “far greater and a lot easier”.
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He said hundreds of thousands of people had died “as a direct result of their hate”.
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Trump thanked Israeli PM Netanyahu, saying the two have “worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before”.
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He praised Israel’s efforts against Iran but said Saturday’s strikes could only be done by the US.
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He warned Iran “there will either be peace or there will be tragedy”, saying there are “many targets left” in the country for the US to hit. “If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed, and skill.”
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Senior officials from the Pentagon, including secretary of defence Pete Hegseth, will hold a press conference at 8am Sunday.
Trump threatens to go after ‘many’ other targets in Iran
Trump is finishing up now, this appears to be a short speech.
“With all that being said, this cannot continue.
There will be either peace or tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonights were the most difficult by far… But if peace does not come quickly we will go after those other targets with precision speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.
There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even close.”
And with that, he’s finished speaking.