The United States struck three nuclear sites in Iran overnight, escalating a conflict in which Iran and Israel were already exchanging attacks. US officials presented the operation as an effort to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but the extent of the damage—and the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium—remained uncertain.
President Donald Trump claimed the strikes had removed the bomb from Iran’s reach and later described the damage as monumental. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the mission was aimed at Iran’s nuclear programme rather than regime change. Trump subsequently raised the possibility of political change in a social-media post, creating tension with that stated objective.
Independent confirmation of the operation’s full effect was not available. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not determine with certainty the damage inside uranium-enrichment halls at Fordo, the deeply buried facility central to questions about the strike’s effectiveness. Satellite images reviewed by BBC Verify showed damage at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, but did not settle whether Iran retained the ability or material to continue its programme.
The IAEA said Iran held about 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. Weapons-grade material generally requires enrichment to about 90%, although possession of enriched uranium alone is not sufficient to build a weapon. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most highly enriched uranium at Fordo had been moved before the US attack, according to the BBC report. That account was not independently verified in the supplied evidence.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the United States would receive a response. At the UN Security Council, Iranian representative Amir Saeid Iravani called the operation aggression and said Iran’s armed forces would decide the timing, scale and form of a proportionate reply. He rejected the argument that Iran had been on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran’s foreign minister separately said technical knowledge could not be eliminated through bombing.
Israel defended the US action. Its UN ambassador, Danny Danon, argued that diplomacy had failed and said Iran had enriched uranium beyond civilian requirements while developing protected facilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had intelligence about the location of Iran’s 60%-enriched stockpile but declined to disclose it.
The immediate military exchanges continued. Israel said it attacked dozens of Iranian military targets, while Iran and Israel launched further fire at one another. Iranian reports accused Israel of striking civilian and medical facilities; Israel said its campaign was directed at military sites.
The central strategic question was therefore unresolved on the event date: whether the strikes had substantially delayed Iran’s nuclear capabilities or instead increased Tehran’s incentive to pursue a weapon. Available assessments established that sites were hit, but not that the programme, its material or its expertise had been destroyed.
