TEHRAN: Aerial assaults raged between Iran and Israel early Monday, while Tehran vowed retaliation over the bunker-buster bombs American warplanes unleashed at the weekend on three nuclear sites.
US President Donald Trump insisted the attack had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but other officials said it was too soon to determine how significantly Tehran’s nuclear programme had been impacted.
As the world awaited Iran’s reply, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the bombing campaign Israel launched on June 13 “a big mistake”.
“The Zionist enemy… is being punished right now,“ Khamenei wrote on social media.
Sirens sounded across Israel and Iran early Monday as the arch enemies exchanged their latest round of fire.
The Israeli army said it was intercepting missiles from Iran, while Iranian state media Fars said the air defence system was working to counter a drone attack.
In a sign of possible nervousness about the conflict spilling into a wider regional war, oil prices jumped by more than four percent in early trading on Monday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged China to help deter Iran from shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial trade route through which one-fifth of global oil output passes.
With Iran threatening US bases in the Middle East, the State Department issued a worldwide alert cautioning Americans abroad.
“The conflict between Israel and Iran has resulted in disruptions to travel and periodic closure of airspace across the Middle East. There is the potential for demonstrations against US citizens and interests abroad,“ the department’s security alert said.
It made no mention of the US strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.
‘Regime change’
In central Tehran on Sunday, protesters waved flags and chanted slogans against US and Israeli attacks.
In the province of Semnan east of the capital, 46-year-old housewife Samireh told AFP she was “truly shocked” by the strikes.
“Semnan province is very far from the nuclear facilities targeted, but I’m very concerned for the people who live near,“ she said.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said the US strikes revealed Washington was “behind” Israel’s campaign against the Islamic republic and vowed a response.
After the Pentagon stressed that the goal of American intervention was not to topple the Iranian government, Trump openly toyed with the idea.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,‘ Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “But if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”
Hours later he doubled down on emphasising the success of his strikes.
“Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term!” Trump wrote, without sharing the images he was referencing.
“The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!” he added.
At a Pentagon press briefing earlier in the day, top US general Dan Caine said that while it would be “way too early” for him to determine the level of destruction, “initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said his country’s bombardments will “finish” once the stated objectives of destroying Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities have been achieved.
“We are very, very close to completing them,“ he told reporters.
‘Grave consequences’
In response to the US attack, which used over a dozen massive “bunker buster” bombs, Iran’s armed forces targeted sites in Israel including Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, with at least 23 people wounded.
Nine members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed Sunday in Israeli attacks on central Iran, local media reported, while three people were killed after an ambulance was struck.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed more than 400 people, Iran’s health ministry said. Iran’s attacks on Israel have killed 24 people, according to official figures.
Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that craters were visible at the Fordo facility, but it had not been possible to assess the underground damage.
He added that “armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place and could result in radioactive releases with grave consequences within and beyond the boundaries of the State which has been attacked.”
The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, which had been mediating Iran-US nuclear talks, criticised the US strikes and called for de-escalation, while France, Germany and Britain called on Tehran “not to take any further action that could destabilise the region.”
North Korea, which is also at odds with Washington over its own nuclear weapons, condemned the US strikes as a violation of the United Nations charter.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States of deciding to “blow up” nuclear diplomacy with its intervention in the war.
He headed to Moscow on Sunday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Sunday, Russia, China and Pakistan circulated a draft resolution with other Security Council members that calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Iran.
