Iran hit by fresh strikes after Israel launches major attack on nuclear facility

[Raw Shark]

I hate him. Kill him with an axe if I got the chance. I'm Raw Shark and thank you for your time.

[LadyTevar]

TRUMP SAYS US HAS BOMBED IRANIAN BUNKER

WHAT THE UNHOLY FUCK IS TRUMP FUCKING THINKING BOMBING IRAN?!?!? WE'RE NOT AT WAR WITH IRAN, THEY ARE NOT HARMING OR SHOOTING AT US, WHY THE FUCKING HELL DID HE SEND BOMBERS OVER?!?!?

[MKSheppard]

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrum ... 5571020048

We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[Elfdart]

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrum ... 5571020048

We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Looks like Il Douchebag learned diplomacy from Imperial Japan:

1) Threaten war if they don't give you what you want.
2) Send a special envoy to "negotiate" (which is to say, stall for time while you make ready to attack).
3) Bomb the shit out of them.
4) Expect the people you just sucker-punched in the balls to sue for peace.

That's right, the Japanese thought that bombing Pearl Harbor and wiping out US forces in the Philippines would make Uncle Sam agree to whatever terms Hirohito demanded. In fact, after the Japanese attacked and then declared war, no American in his right mind would dare suggest negotiation with the Japanese Empire. Deranged as they were, the leaders in Japan were never crazy or stupid enough to think the American people would rise up against Franklin Roosevelt and overthrow him. But that's what Trump (or the fucktards who write his social media posts) thinks Iran will do now. Then he plans to have a go at Badistan:

[bilateralrope]

Now we get to see two things:

- If Israel really only cares about Iran's nuke program. Or if they come up with another lie to continue bombing Iran because Netanyahu is doing to keep support in Israel.
- If Iran has any allies worth talking about.

[Zaune]

Here we fucking well go again. Except worse, because a) Iran's military is in much better shape than Iraq's was in 2003 and b) the Trump Administration is going to treat the civilian population with deliberate and premeditated cruelty on a scale that would have sickened Bush Jr's cabinet.

[Ralin]

a) Iran's military is in much better shape than Iraq's was in 2003

They also got an up close view of how the Iraqi military crumpled and have had twenty years to plan how to do better.

[Elfdart]

Jon Schwarz:

Donald Trump will definitely go down in history, if we have much more history, as the father of the Iranian bomb.


Not just Iran: Other countries are now going to go full-tilt to get their own nukes -or if they've already got them (like Pakistan and North Korea), the means to drop them on the US. There is simply no other way to fend off American depredation. As Bad Empanada points out, anyone who takes issue with this is like a rapist getting upset that women are carrying mace.

[Solauren]

Question; Did Trump even have the legal authority to authorized a unilateral airstrike on a place the United States was not in a state of war with?

[bilateralrope]

Question; Did Trump even have the legal authority to authorized a unilateral airstrike on a place the United States was not in a state of war with?

I don't think so. But when has that stopped a president ?

[bilateralrope]

Vance says U.S. 'not at war with Iran, we're at war with Iran's nuclear program'

President Donald Trump said Saturday night that the U.S. had dropped bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites, the first time the U.S. has directly attacked Iran.

June 23, 2025, 1:06 AM GMT+12 / Updated June 23, 2025, 2:07 AM GMT+12
By Megan Lebowitz

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that the U.S. is not at war with Iran, but with Tehran's nuclear weapons program, and declined to confirm with 100% confidence that the country’s nuclear sites had been completely destroyed.

During an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” moderator Kristen Welker asked the vice president whether the U.S. was now at war with Iran after President Donald Trump said the U.S. military had dropped bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday.

The move marked the first time that the U.S. had directly attacked Iran and prompted concerns about whether attacks could drag the U.S. into a wider war. Hours later, Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel, causing damage in Tel Aviv.

“We’re not at war with Iran,” Vance said. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”

Vance also declined to confirm with 100% certainty that Iran’s nuclear sites were completely destroyed, saying instead that he believes the U.S. has “substantially delayed” Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

"Do you have 100% confidence that Iran's nuclear sites were totally destroyed?" Welker asked.

“I’m not going to get into sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground there in Iran, but we’ve seen a lot, and I feel very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon, and that was the goal of this attack," Vance said.

He separately said during the interview that the U.S. “destroyed the Iranian nuclear program,” adding, “I think we set that program back substantially.”

When pressed in a separate interview on ABC News' "This Week" over whether the Fordo facility was damaged or destroyed, Vance declined to draw a distinction.

"Severely damaged versus obliterated — I’m not exactly sure what the difference is," Vance said. "What we know is we set their nuclear program back substantially."

Trump had said Saturday night that the facilities were “completely and totally obliterated,” but an Iranian parliament member said on Sunday that Fordo was not seriously damaged in the strike. NBC News cannot independently verify either claim.

“Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” Trump said in his Saturday-night address to the nation. “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Sunday morning press briefing that “Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated.” During the same briefing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said that "final battle damage will take some time."

"But initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction," Caine added.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has also said that Iran “reserves all options” for its response. Trump said in an all-capitalized post to Truth Social on Saturday that “any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight.”

In the hours since the strike, the U.S. has received “some indirect messages from the Iranians,” Vance said.

Asked whether the U.S. would draw a red line if Iran disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a major route, Vance said the move would be “suicidal” for Iran.

“Their entire economy runs through the Strait of Hormuz. If they want to destroy their own economy and cause disruptions in the world, I think that would be their decision,” he said. “But why would they do that? I don’t think it makes any sense.”

The vice president said that the U.S. wants peace with Iran “in the context of them not having a nuclear weapons program.” He argued that the U.S. did not “blow up” diplomacy, casting blame instead on Iran for not giving diplomacy “a real chance.”

“The Iranians are clearly not very good at war. Perhaps they should follow President Trump’s lead and give peace a chance,” Vance said. “If they’re serious about it, I guarantee you the President of the United States is too.”

The U.S. attack came after Israel launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this month, prompting Iran to retaliate with strikes against Israel. The two countries have been locked in a military conflict since then.

The U.S. initially denied its involvement, but in the days following the initial attacks, the president weighed whether the U.S. should unleash the military to back Israel. U.S. has “bunker buster” bombs that could penetrate Fordo, which is built inside a mountain — the only country known to have this type of weapon.

Support for the president’s decision largely fell along party lines. Some Democratic lawmakers — as well as at least two GOP lawmakers — argued that it was unconstitutional for the president to decide to conduct military strikes without Congressional approval, pointing to the Constitution’s delegation of power and the War Powers Act. A handful of Democrats argued that Trump’s actions were grounds for impeachment.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., brushed off concerns, saying during an interview on "Meet the Press" that Trump was acting within his authority.

"Congress can declare war or cut off funding. We can't be the commander-in-chief. You can't have 535 commander-in-chiefs," Graham said, referring to the number of representatives and senators.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said that the president can act militarily "when there's a clear and imminent threat to U.S. citizens, to the United States, to the homeland."

"That wasn't the case here," Kelly said.

In the days leading up to the strikes, Trump’s MAGA movement allies split over whether the U.S. should get involved militarily against Iran. The disagreement spilled into the open, with the sides criticizing each other on social media.

It sounds like the US is going to be dropping more bombs on Iran soon. As soon as they can come up with an excuse.

[Ralin]

It sounds like the US is going to be dropping more bombs on Iran soon. As soon as they can come up with an excuse.

I read somewhere that they have a very limited number of those bombs. Like a dozen or so. If they didn't get their target the first time they only have so many more chances and presumably it won't get easier.

[bilateralrope]

It sounds like the US is going to be dropping more bombs on Iran soon. As soon as they can come up with an excuse.

I read somewhere that they have a very limited number of those bombs. Like a dozen or so. If they didn't get their target the first time they only have so many more chances and presumably it won't get easier.

That's only a problem if Trump wants to keep blowing up things that are underground.

[kavin223]

This isn’t just reckless, it’s straight-up destabilizing. Trump’s framing of “we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program” is a semantic game that doesn’t change the real-world fallout: militarily, diplomatically, or literally. The fact that retaliatory strikes are already hitting Tel Aviv should be a massive wake-up call. And let’s be real: Iran saw Iraq get steamrolled, and they’ve been prepping ever since. This isn’t going to be shock and awe, it’s going to be grind and blowback.

[bilateralrope]

Israel destroys Iran's countdown clock to "Israel's destruction"

Then there was a ceasefire, with Trump claiming credit, Israel saying they had accomplished what they set out to do and Iran

Israeli defence minister orders attacks on Iran after ceasefire 'violation

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says he has ordered the country's military to respond forcefully to what he said was Iran's violation of a ceasefire with Israel.

The directive followed an announcement by the military that it had detected missile launches from Iran towards Israel.

But Iran has denied launching a missile attack on Israel after the ceasefire, according to state TV.

Less than three hours earlier, US President Donald Trump had said that the ceasefire was now in effect. Katz said the military had now been instructed to carry out high-intensity operations against targets in Tehran

Earlier, Israel said it had agreed to Trump's ceasefire proposal.

A statement on behalf of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government - Israel's first official comments about the ceasefire - said Israel had achieved all of its objectives "and far beyond" after nearly two weeks of strikes on Iran.

"Israel has eliminated an immediate and dual existential threat - both in the nuclear domain and in the realm of ballistic missiles," the statement said.

"Additionally, the IDF has achieved full aerial control over Tehran's skies, dealt a severe blow to the Iranian military leadership, and destroyed dozens of key regime targets in Iran."

Israel thanked Trump and the US for its military support "in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat".

"Israel will respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire," the statement warned.

I guess this is what a ceasefire looks like when Trump is involved.

[MKSheppard]

Missile Count from the TWELVE DAY WAR

[bilateralrope]

U.S. airstrikes set back Iran's nuclear program by just months, report says

New U.S. intelligence report contradicts Trump's claims that Iran's nuclear capacity was 'obliterated'
The Associated Press · Posted: Jun 24, 2025 6:02 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

A U.S. intelligence report suggests that Iran's nuclear program has been set back by only a few months after U.S. strikes, and was not "completely and fully obliterated" as U.S. President Donald Trump has said, according to two people familiar with the early assessment.

The report issued by the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) on Monday contradicts statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran's nuclear facilities. According to the people, the report found that while the Saturday strikes at the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, the sites were not totally destroyed. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. has held out hope of restarting negotiations with Iran to convince it to give up its nuclear program entirely, but some experts fear that the U.S. strikes — and the potential of Iran retaining some of its capabilities — could push Tehran toward developing a functioning weapon.

The assessment also suggests that at least some of Iran's highly enriched uranium, necessary for creating a nuclear weapon, was moved out of multiple sites before the strikes and survived, according to the people. It also found that Iran's centrifuges, which are required to further enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, are largely intact.

At the deeply buried Fordow uranium enrichment plant, where U.S. B-2 stealth bombers dropped several 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, the entrance collapsed but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, the assessment found. The people said intelligence officials had warned of this outcome in previous assessments ahead of the strike on Fordow.

White House pushes back

The White House strongly pushed back on the DIA assessment, calling it "flat-out wrong."

"The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration."

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) declined to comment on the DIA assessment. ODNI co-ordinates the work of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the U.S. Defence Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries. The Israeli government also has not released any official assessments of the U.S. strikes.

David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector, said that based on post-strike commercial satellite imagery, he believed the U.S. attack effectively destroyed Iran's uranium enrichment program for now, but failed to eliminate the longer-term threat.

"Iran retains an ability to break out and produce weapon-grade uranium," Albright, the head of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said in a post on X.

Netanyahu applauds 'historic' U.S. involvement

Trump has said in comments and posts on social media in recent days, including Tuesday, that the strikes "totally destroyed" the sites and that Iran will never rebuild its nuclear facilities.

In a televised statement Tuesday, Netanyahu said, "For dozens of years I promised you that Iran would not have nuclear weapons and indeed ... we brought to ruin Iran's nuclear program."

He said the U.S. joining Israel was "historic" and thanked Trump.

The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. Reuters and the New York Times also published reports on the DIA assessment, as did the ABC, CBS and NBC news networks.

Outside experts had suspected Iran had likely already hidden the core components of its nuclear program as it stared down the possibility that American bunker-buster bombs could be used on its nuclear sites.

Bulldozers and trucks visible in satellite imagery taken just days before the strikes have fuelled speculation among experts that Iran may have transferred its stockpile of enriched uranium to an unknown location. And the incomplete destruction of the nuclear sites could still leave the country with the capacity to spin up weapons-grade uranium and develop a bomb.

Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, but it has enriched significant quantities of uranium beyond the levels required for any civilian use. The U.S. and others assessed prior to the U.S. strikes that Iran's theocratic leadership had not yet ordered the country to pursue an operational nuclear weapons, but the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs should it choose to do so.

American satellite imagery and analysis firm Maxar Technologies said its satellites photographed trucks and bulldozers at the Fordow site beginning on June 19, three days before the Americans struck.

Subsequent imagery "revealed that the tunnel entrances into the underground complex had been sealed off with dirt prior to the U.S. airstrikes," said Stephen Wood, senior director at Maxar. "We believe that some of the trucks seen on 19 June were carrying dirt to be used as part of that operation."

Some experts say those trucks could also have been used to move out Iran's enriched uranium stockpile.

Skepticism from Democrats

Democrats have previously said Trump's claims that the weekend strikes eliminated or seriously set back Iran's nuclear program were not yet backed by evidence.

"There's zero evidence that I've seen that the nuclear program was completely and totally obliterated," U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday.

Classified briefings on the matter for members of Congress were cancelled Tuesday.

William Hague, a former U.K. foreign secretary, said regardless of how much damage was done by the U.S. strikes, it will still be an ongoing challenge to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

"In the long run, it's going to be very hard to stop nuclear weapons proliferating by using force," Hague told Times Radio. "That is going to need agreements.

"And a humiliated and defeated power in history normally finds a way of coming back again — in this case, with a nuclear weapon — in the future."

Looks like Iran will be getting nukes soon.

[Solauren]

Looks like Iran will be getting nukes soon.

Or it's military will be under constant missile and drone assault.