Tensions heightened Monday over possible payback by Tehran against the U.S. or its allies after strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities amid fears that the Mideast conflict could spiral into a wider war.
The Israeli military launched strikes on Tehran on Monday, focusing on military and government targets, according to Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister. He said in a statement that the strikes hit Evin Prison and the internal security headquarters of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, among other “regime targets.”
The latest strikes also targeted airports and routes near Iran’s Fordow enrichment site, which was struck by the U.S. on Sunday, the Israeli military said in a statement. Sirens sounded across northern and southern Israel amid reports of missile launches by Iran.
The U.S. remained on alert with its 40,000 troops in the region two days after President Donald Trump ordered the bombing of Fordow, a uranium enrichment facility deep inside a remote mountain in Iran, and facilities at Natanz and Isfahan.
Many world leaders − including those from the UK, France and Germany − called for restraint and a return to the diplomatic table. And protesters in some U.S. cities such as the nation’s capital and New York took to the streets to voice ardent opposition to intervention in Iran.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning of a “heightened threat environment” in the U.S. The State Department also sent out a “worldwide caution security alert” advising U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased vigilance.
The extent of the damage to the Iran nuclear sites remains a question mark since there has so far been no independent assessment. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the main agency that assesses Iran’s nuclear program, was holding an emergency meeting Monday.
Iranian official Ebrahim Zolfaqari warned that the U.S. should expect severe consequences. “Mr. Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it,” Zolfaqari said in English in a video shared Monday.
Trump is set to meet with his national security team at 1 p.m., according to his public schedule, as tensions in the Middle East grow after the president ordered a trio of strikes at Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday.
In a post on his social media platform, Trump raised the prospect of regime change while officials in his administration said they were seeking to resume negotiations talks with Iran.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!” Trump wrote.
Following the latest round of Israeli missile strikes on Tehran, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency said electricity was cut off in several city districts and that the situation at Evin Prison is “under control.”
The judiciary said on of the strikes in northern Tehran hit one of the main lines supplying the area, resulting in power outages.
The notorious Evin Prison was built in 1971 and has housed political prisoners, Westerners and journalists used as bargaining chips by Iran. It has previously been targeted by sanctions, and human rights groups have long condemned the treatment of prisoners there.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said he expects that U.S. bombing on Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment site caused “very significant damage,” but he added that the extent of any damage remains unclear as the International Atomic Energy Agency has not been able to carry out an inspection.
“Given the explosive payload utilized and the extreme(ly) vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred,” Grossi said in a statement Monday to an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors.
Concerns also mounted over the possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil and gas route. The Iranian parliament backed a measure to close the strait, but the final decision was up to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Iranian TV said.
Around 20% of the world’s oil and gas flow through the narrow channel connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. Its closure would likely mean rising fuel costs for global consumers, including Americans.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned against closing the strait, telling CBS in an interview, “That would be a suicidal move on their part, because I think the whole world would come against them if they did that.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Moscow that aggression against Iran was groundless.
Putin made the comments at the start of Kremlin talks and said Russia, which has condemned the U.S. strikes, was ready to help the Iranian people.
Iran and its hard-line supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are almost certainly going to strike back in response to historic U.S. military strikes on three of its suspected nuclear facilities.
But if history is any guide, that response could happen at any time − and anywhere, and in any form, former U.S. intelligence officials and diplomatic experts say.
“Missiles, militias and acts of hostage-taking – that’s their go-to” range of options, the Biden administration coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, said on CNN June 21. “I suspect Iran will have to do something.” Read more here.
−Josh Meyer
The U.S. used more than a dozen multimillion-dollar, 30,000-pound “bunker busters” to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities in the strike, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, marking the weapon’s first operational use, according to the Pentagon.
U.S. bomber planes dropped 14 of the massive bombs on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said.
The bombs used in the strikes, called Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, weigh 30,000 pounds each and cost millions to produce. MOPs, also known as the Guided Bomb Unit, or GBU-57, are GPS-guided weapons designed to burrow deep into underground targets, such as fortified tunnels or bunkers. The bombs are about 20 feet long and span 6 feet at their widest point. Read more here.
− Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Some lawmakers, including hard-line conservatives and key progressives, are calling the U.S. strikes a breach of the Constitution,.
“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, posted on X.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, responded to Trump’s social media assessment of the attack with the statement: “This is not Constitutional.”
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of military action. The law also limits the deployment of armed forces beyond 90 days in the absence of a formal declaration of war.
− Savannah Kuchar
Trump ordered the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, effectively joining a war that Israel started on June 13 when it began bombing Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. Israel said it helped the U.S. coordinate and plan the strikes.
Trump said all three sites were “totally obliterated.” But an independent assessment has not yet been carried out. The International Atomic Energy Agency − the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog − released a statement saying that so far it had not detected an increase in “off-site radiation levels,” one of the feared consequences of the strikes.
Vice President JD Vance insisted Sunday that the U.S. is not entering an open-ended conflict in the Middle East. “We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.” Vance said on NBC.
Contributing: Reuters