The United States has officially entered the war threatre in the Middle East siding with Israel which is currently at war with Iran.
“They tried to conceal their involvement initially, but after seeing Israel was getting crushed, they had no choice but to enter the war directly,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated during a cabinet meeting.
On Sunday President Donald Trump of the US, ordered B-2 bombers to attack targets inside Iran. The bombers struk Iran’s nuclear facilities in three locations.
President Trump later took to his social media platform to announce the attacks were a “spectacular military success” and that Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.”
However, Iran said the two sites the bombers struck, Esfahan and Natanz, had been previously attacked by Israel last Friday, and the facilities had been emptied of enriched uranium and critical enrichment technology.
“Satellite images show only one entrance and one exit, out of the existing five, was damaged. The main site itself – buried dozens of meters underground and protected by a mountain – remains intact,” Iran said.
Hours after the attack, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth broke his silence, stating the Trump administration is not seeking to expand the war and has sent private messages to Tehran requesting a “return to negotiations.”
However, Iranians had previously warned that direct American attacks would be met with retaliation. Earlier in the week, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei stated in a video message that any U.S. strikes would bring about “irreparable harm” for the Americans.
Iran has several options. These include attacks on one or more of the 19 American bases in the region, housing approximately 50,000 troops or workers, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a quarter of the world’s oil passes, and a change in its nuclear doctrine.
Since Iranians have indicated they will adhere to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), at least for the time being, a direct military response remains the most probable next step.