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US defense secretary Pete Hegseth says attacks have devastated Iran’s nuclear programme
Hegseth claims US ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear sites
We’re also still awaiting reactions from the Democratic leadership in the US.
Trump’s closest supporters have posted their support for the attack on social media.
South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham says:
Good. This was the right call. The regime deserves it. Well done, President @realDonaldTrump
To my fellow citizens: We have the best Air Force in the world. It makes me so proud. Fly, Fight, Win.
The prospect of an Iranian regime acquiring nuclear weapons represents the most acute immediate threat to America and our allies.
President Trump has persistently and unequivocally stated that those threats cannot be countered without dismantling the Iranian regime’s enrichment capacity.
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Trump claims the assault ‘totally obliterated’ the key facilities, but what do we know about its impact?
Middle East crisis – latest updates
Donald Trump was quick to claim that US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities had “completely and totally obliterated” them. Still, it remains unclear how much physical damage has been done or what the longer-term impact might be on Iran’s nuclear programme.
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Marjorie Taylor Greene and Steve Bannon lead voices on right seeing airstrikes as break with ‘America first’ doctrine
Middle East war –live updates
Saturday’s US strikes on Iran provoked conflicting reactions from isolationist Republicans who support Donald Trump’s Make America great again (Maga) movement, catching them – like many Democrats – between supporting efforts against nuclear proliferation and opposing American intervention in foreign conflicts.
The far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – a loyalist to the president – reacted to the strikes by urging those in the US to pray that terrorists do not attack “our homeland” in retaliation.
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Defence secretary denies US is pursuing policy of regime change after strikes on Iranian nuclear sites
Middle East crisis – latest updates
The surprise overnight US attack on Iran inflicted major damage and destruction on three of its key nuclear sites, senior Pentagon officials said, as the US defence secretary denied that the Trump administration was pursuing a policy of regime change in the Middle East.
In a press conference in Washington, Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, detailed Operation Midnight Hammer, in which seven B-2 Spirit bombers flew 18 hours from the US to sites in Iran to drop 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators in strikes that were said to have caused “extremely severe damage” to Iranian uranium enrichment facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
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Leading figures on Senate and House intelligence committees not briefed in advance in break with custom
Middle East war – live updates
Senior Democrats have claimed they were left in the dark about operation Midnight Hammer, the US’s highly coordinated strike on Saturday on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.
Neither Mark Warner, a US senator of Virginia, nor Jim Himes, a representative of Connecticut, both top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence panels, were briefed before the attack, according to reports.
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Blasts were heard in Isfahan after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. Explosions from the direction of the Isfahan nuclear site could be heard in a video posted on social media, and at least one fiery ball illuminated the night sky
Middle East crisis – latest updates
Donald Trump says US has attacked three Iranian nuclear sites and ‘totally obliterated’ them
Keir Starmer backs US strike on Iran and calls for Tehran to return to talks
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Pete Hegseth said overnight airstrikes targeting the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan facilities ‘devastated’ Iran’s nuclear programme. At a press conference at the Pentagon, he said the strikes, which followed a ‘focused, powerful and clear’ order from the US president, Donald Trump, did not target Iranian troops or civilians
Middle East crisis – latest updates
Donald Trump says US strikes ‘totally obliterated’ three Iranian nuclear sites
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Strikes hit uranium enrichment sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan; Iran says US has ‘blown up diplomacy’
Middle East crisis – latest updates
Explainer: What is Iran’s Fordow nuclear site and why was a US strike needed?
Donald Trump has announced that the US has bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear programme, in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.
“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 said in a speech from the White House.
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Politicians express ‘grave concern’ and urge all parties to de-escalate and return to talks on Iran’s nuclear programme
Middle East crisis – latest updates
Nations in the Middle East and beyond responded with alarm after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday night as the EU and the UN called for immediate diplomacy, amid mounting fears that the war could trigger a wider escalation that could spiral out of control.
Qatar, which hosts the biggest US military base in the Middle East, said on Sunday that it feared there could be serious repercussions regionally and internationally.
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