By MIKE PESOLI and JOSH BOAK
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Sunday signaled a willingness to resume talks with Iran and keep away from a chronic struggle within the aftermath of a shock assault on three of the nation’s nuclear websites as U.S. officers assessed Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and the specter of retaliation in opposition to American pursuits.
President Donald Trump, who had addressed the nation from the White Home on Saturday evening, allowed his nationwide safety staff to talk for him the subsequent morning, staying quiet on social media and scheduling no public appearances. The coordinated messaging by his vice chairman, Pentagon chief, prime navy adviser and secretary of state advised a confidence that any fallout from the assault can be manageable and that Iran’s lack of navy capabilities would finally pressure it again to the bargaining desk.
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated at a information convention that America “doesn’t search struggle” with Iran whereas Vice President JD Vance stated the strikes have given Tehran the opportunity of returning to barter with Washington.
“Operation Midnight Hammer, concerned decoys and deception, and met with no Iranian resistance, in accordance with Hegseth and Air Pressure Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Hegseth added. Caine stated the aim of the operation — destroying nuclear websites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — had been achieved.
“Remaining battle harm will take a while, however preliminary battle harm assessments point out that every one three websites sustained extraordinarily extreme harm and destruction,” Caine stated.
Vance stated in a tv interview that whereas he wouldn’t talk about “delicate intelligence about what we’ve seen on the bottom,” he felt “very assured that we’ve considerably delayed their growth of a nuclear weapon.”
Pressed additional, he advised NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “I believe that we’ve got actually pushed their program again by a really very long time. I believe that it’s going to be many a few years earlier than the Iranians are in a position to develop a nuclear weapon.”
The vice chairman stated the U.S. had “negotiated aggressively’ with Iran to attempt to discover a peaceable settlement and that Trump made his choice after assessing the Iranians weren’t appearing “in good religion.”
“I really assume it offers a possibility to reset this relationship, reset these negotiations and get us in a spot the place Iran can determine to not be a menace to its neighbors, to not a menace to the USA and in the event that they’re prepared to do this, the USA is all ears,” Vance stated.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “there aren’t any deliberate navy operations proper now in opposition to Iran, until, until they fiddle they usually assault” U.S. pursuits.
Trump has beforehand threatened different international locations, however usually backed down or did not comply with by, given his guarantees to his coalition of voters to not entangle the USA in an prolonged struggle. It was not instantly clear whether or not Iran noticed the avoidance of a wider battle as in its greatest pursuits.
A lot of the world is absorbing the implications of the strikes and the danger that they might result in extra combating throughout the Center East after the U.S. inserted itself into the struggle between Israel and Iran. Airstrikes beginning on June 12 by Israel that focused Iran’s nuclear services and generals prompted retaliation from Iran, making a sequence of occasions that contributed to the U.S. assault.
Whereas U.S. officers urged for warning and harassed that solely nuclear websites had been focused by Washington, Iran criticized the actions as a violation of its sovereignty and worldwide legislation.
Iran’s international minister, Abbas Araghchi, stated Washington was “totally accountable” for no matter actions Tehran could soak up response.
“They crossed a really huge crimson line by attacking nuclear services,” he stated at a information convention in Turkey. “I don’t know the way a lot room is left for diplomacy.”
China and Russia, the place Araghchi was heading for talks with President Vladimir Putin, condemned the U.S. navy motion. The assaults had been “a gross violation of worldwide legislation,” stated Russia’s International Ministry, which additionally advocated “returning the state of affairs to a political and diplomatic course.” A Turkish International Ministry assertion warned in regards to the danger of the battle spreading to “a world stage.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated the UK was shifting navy tools into the world to guard its pursuits, individuals and allies, however that he was targeted on discovering an answer. The leaders of Italy, Canada, Germany and France agreed on the necessity “a fast resumption of negotiations.” France’s Emmanuel Macron held talks with the Saudi crown prince and sultan of Oman.
Iran might attempt to cease oil exports by the Strait of Hormuz, which might create the identical type of inflationary shocks that the world felt after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Oil costs have elevated within the monetary markets because the struggle between Israel and Iran had intensified, climbing by 21% over the previous month.
The Pentagon briefing didn’t present any new particulars about Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Hegseth stated the timeline for the strikes was the results of a schedule set by Trump for talks with Iran about its nuclear ambitions.
“Iran came upon” that when Trump “says 60 days that he seeks peace and negotiation, he means 60 days of peace and negotiation,” Hegseth stated. “In any other case, that nuclear program, that new nuclear functionality is not going to exist. He meant it.”
That assertion was sophisticated because the White Home had advised final Thursday that Trump might take as a lot as two weeks to find out whether or not to strike Iran or proceed to pursue negotiations. However the U.S. benefited from Iran’s weakened air defenses because it was in a position to conduct the assaults with out resistance from Iran.
“Iran’s fighters didn’t fly, and it seems that Iran’s floor to air missile techniques didn’t see us all through the mission,” Caine stated.
Hegseth stated {that a} alternative to maneuver a variety of B-2 bombers from their base in Missouri earlier Saturday was meant to be a decoy to throw off Iranians. He added that the U.S. used different strategies of deception as nicely, deploying fighters to guard the B-2 bombers that dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s website at Fordo.
The strikes occurred Saturday between 6:40 pm and seven:05 pm in Washington, or roughly 2:10 am on Sunday in Iran.
Related Press writers Brian Melley and Elise Morton in London, Samuel Petrequin in Paris and Giada Zimpano in Rome contributed to this report.
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