(Washington) Iran clearly threatened the United States with reprisals on Sunday, with the risk that the situation becomes out of control in the Middle East, after the unprecedented American strikes which, according to Washington, destroyed the Iranian nuclear program.
An Ayatollah Ali Khamenei advisor, the Iranian Supreme Guide, said the United States “no longer had their place” in the Middle East, saying that it should expect “irreparable consequences”.
Ali Akbar Velayati, quoted by the official Irna agency, warned that the bases used by American forces to launch attacks against Iranian nuclear sites would be considered “as legitimate targets”.
Donald Trump urged Tehran to end the conflict after the surprise attack on Saturday to Sunday, using B-2 strategic bombers, targeting three Iranian nuclear sites, where the extent of the damage remains to be evaluated.
According to Washington, the strikes that targeted an underground site for enriching uranium in Fordo, as well as facilities in Ispahan and Natanz, were a success.
“Damage to nuclear sites in Iran is described as” monumental “,” said Donald Trump on his social social platform.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
US President Donald Trump
Although the American president did not directly plead for a regime change in Tehran, he seemed to flirt with this idea on Sunday, while several senior officials of his administration had said earlier that it was not the objective of the American intervention.
“If the current Iranian regime is unable to give Iran its greatness, why would there not be a change of diet?” ? ? “Said Donald Trump on his social network.
Earlier, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the United States “devastated the Iranian nuclear program”.
Ali Shamkhani, another adviser to the Iranian supreme guide, however said on X that Iran still had enriched uranium stocks.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA) announced an “emergency meeting” on Monday after the American strikes, believing impossible at this stage to assess the extent of the damage.
In Fordo, an uranium enrichment factory buried under a mountain south of Tehran, the ground seems to have been affected by the strikes and the color of the mountain changed compared to June 19, according to an analysis of satellite images of AFP from the data of the American company Planet Labs PBC.
“Very worried”
In the province of Semnan, east of Tehran, Samireh, a 46 -year -old Iranian housewife, said she was “shocked” by American strikes.
“The province of Semnan is very far from targeted nuclear installations, but I am very worried about people who live near these nuclear sites,” she told AFP.
In Tehran, demonstrators shouted “revenge” against the United States, according to images broadcast by state television.
While Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian promised a “response” to American strikes, Washington called on his world’s nationals on Sunday evening to “increased vigilance” in the face of “potential demonstrations against American citizens and interests abroad”.
In front of the UN Security Council, which gathered in emergency on Sunday, its secretary general Antonio Guterres warned, against a “cycle without reprisals”, qualifying the American strikes as “dangerous turning”.
On Sunday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said that his country was “very close” to his war objectives against Iran thanks to American strikes, while leaving doubt about the continuation of military operations.
The Israeli army announced in the evening that it had hit missile sites and other military infrastructure in western Iran, on the tenth day of the war between the two countries.
At least three people were killed in the center of the country after a drone strike in Israel has touched an ambulance, Iranian news agency ISNA reported.
“Ready to discuss”
Before the massive offensive launched on June 13 by Israel against Iran, Tehran and Washington have led talks via Oman mediation for a nuclear agreement since April.
The United States is “ready to discuss” with Iran on its civilian nuclear program, the American chief of diplomacy Marco Rubio said on Sunday. But for his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, visiting Istanbul, the United States and Israel “crossed a major red line”.
The American surprise attack, baptized “Midnight hammer”, was led using seven B-2 stealth bombers. For the first time, Washington used powerful GBU-57 anti-bunker bombs, capable of sinking tens of meters deep before exploding.
On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented offensive on Iran to prevent the country from acquiring the atomic bomb and has been struck since the war of the hundreds of military sites or linked to the Iranian nuclear program since the war.
His army also beheaded the general staff of the armed forces and killed a dozen nuclear scientists.
Iran retaliated by ballistic drone and missile salvan, most of them intercepted by Israeli defense systems.
On the Iranian side, the war left more than 400 people dead and 3056 injured, mostly civilians, according to an official assessment. Iranian shots on Israel left 24 people dead, according to the Israeli authorities.
