Donald Trump has said the US has carried out attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran. Watch Sky News in the stream below.
Sunday 22 June 2025 03:28, UK
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Just before Donald Trump spoke, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said he was “gravely alarmed” by the US strikes on Iran’s facilities sites.
Rafael Grossi said American strikes on the facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were a “dangerous escalation” and a “direct threat to international peace and security”.
We have just heard from Donald Trump, who gave a short statement after the US launched strikes against three of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Here is what he said in full:
A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan.
Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.
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.
Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.
Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.
For 40 years Iran has been saying death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their speciality.
We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate.
In particular, so many were killed by their general, Qassem Soleimani.
I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen.
It will not continue.
I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.
I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.
Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that so.
I also want to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Rosen Kane, spectacular general and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack.
With all of that being said, this cannot continue.
There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.
Remember, there are many targets left.
Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal.
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. There’s never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.
Tomorrow, General Kaine, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth will have a press conference at 8am at the Pentagon.
I want to just thank everybody and in particular, God, I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel, and God bless America.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Donald Trump says Iran’s nuclear facilities have been “completely and totally obliterated”.
He called the strikes a “spectacular military success”, without going into detail about the attack itself.
“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” he says. “If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.”
He adds: “There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left.”
Donald Trump is just about to address the US, after America conducted strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites.
You can watch what he says from the White House at the top of this page.
We’ll also be providing text updates here in the blog.
Benjamin Netanyahu says Donald Trump and the US have acted with strength following strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Posting on X, the Israeli leader says Trump’s “bold decision” to target the three nuclear sites “will change history”.
“America has done what no other country on earth could do,” he says.
“History will record that president Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime, the world’s most dangerous weapons.
“His leadership today has created a pivot in history that can help lead the Middle East and beyond into a period of prosperity and peace.”
We’re starting to get more information about the US attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
The US used six 30,000lb bunker buster bombs dropped from B-2 stealth bombers in its strikes on Fordow, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Additionally, 30 tomahawk missiles launched from US submarines were used in the attacks on the Nanatz and Isfahan facilities.
Donald Trump is expected to say that the US is not currently planning additional strikes inside Iran when he speaks from the White House at 8pm (3am UK time), senior White House officials have told our US partner network NBC News.
These officials say Trump hopes the strikes propel Iran back to negotiations as he presses its leaders to an agreement that will end this war.
In a brief call with NBC, the US president called the strikes a “complete and total success”.
Iran will “have to respond” to the US attacks, but just how it will do this is uncertain, our Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall says.
He says Iran may target the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, and global shipping, or US military bases.
“If they [Iran] kill US service personnel, then this could get very messy very quickly. If they do something limited, then I think they will have had their riposte,” Bunkall says.
“I think Trump doesn’t want to continue it and I can imagine Trump will say to the Israelis: ‘Enough now, you’ve had just over a week striking hundreds of targets. I’ve now done this. It’s time to bring it to an end’.”
Iranian state TV downplays damage caused
Addressing claims on Iranian state television that there has only been damage to the entrance and exit tunnels of the Fordow nuclear site, Bunkall says it is a “little too early” to read into such statements.
“Six massive ordnance penetrators would have done considerably more than just simply blowing the doors off,” he says.
“Iranian state TV will be an interesting place to watch over the coming hours and see their messaging, if their messaging does remain similar to that, it is an indicator of the message internally to the people within Iran.
“If you downplay the damage that the Americans have done, then potentially you bring down the scale of what kind of retaliatory action you need to take as well.”
The Israeli military has stepped up the state of alert across the country following US strikes on Iran.
All areas of the country are now limited to only essential movement. Schools and workplaces will all be closed, with the only exceptions being for “essential sectors”.
Donald Trump has threatened further strikes on Iran unless it doesn’t agree to an immediate peace with Israel.
Speaking to Reuters news agency in a brief phone interview, Trump said US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites were an “amazing success”.
“They should make peace immediately. They should stop immediately. Otherwise they’ll get hit again.”
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