Israel and Iran agree on ceasefire to end 12-day war, Trump says
He said Iran fired 14 missiles at the US airbase, calling it 'a very weak response, which we expected, and have very effectively countered'.
Iran's handling of the attack recalled earlier clashes with the US and Israel, with Tehran seeking a balance between saving face with a military response but without provoking a cycle of escalation it can't afford.
Tehran appears to have achieved that goal.
Iran's attack came after US bombers dropped bunker-buster bombs on Iranian underground nuclear facilities at the weekend, joining Israel's air war.
Much of Tehran's population of 10-million has fled after days of bombing.
The Trump administration maintains its aim was solely to destroy Iran's nuclear programme, not to open a wider war.
'Iran was very close to having a nuclear weapon,' Vance said in an interview on Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier.
'Now Iran is incapable of building a nuclear weapon with the equipment they have because we destroyed it,' Vance said.
Trump has cited intelligence reports that Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon, without elaborating. However, US intelligence agencies said earlier this year they assessed Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and a source with access to US intelligence reports told Reuters last week that assessment hadn't changed.
However, in a social media post on Sunday, Trump spoke of toppling the hardline clerical rulers who have been Washington's principal foes in the Middle East since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel, however, had made clear its strikes on Evin prison, a notorious jail for housing political prisoners, and other targets in Tehran were intended to hit the Iranian ruling apparatus broadly, and its ability to sustain power.
Reuters
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