Latest news with #Fordow
CBC
31 minutes ago
- Politics
- CBC
In wake of U.S. attack, some fear Iran may speed up efforts to build a bomb
Social Sharing Hiding key Iranian nuclear facilities deep under a mountain made them that much harder for U.S. and Israeli weapons to reach. It will also make it more difficult to assess just how successful the historic U.S. strikes against them overnight Saturday were and more challenging to predict Iran's next steps. In his statement moments after the U.S. attack by B-2 bombers and their deep-penetrating almost 14 tonne bombs, U.S. President Donald Trump was unequivocal in his claim: "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded equally conclusive, claiming his promise to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities had been "fulfilled." Yet, within hours, Iranian officials were giving Reuters news agency a conflicting account, claiming that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. The International Atomic Energy Agency, charged with monitoring Iran's nuclear facilities, also later reported there was no evidence of enriched uranium being present at another attack site in Isfahan, an indication that it might be stored elsewhere. U.S. strike on Iran not about 'regime change,' U.S. defence secretary says 1 hour ago Duration 9:46 'Severely degraded' In his morning-after briefing, General Dan Caine, the head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said while the operation had "severely degraded" the targeted nuclear sites, he acknowledged a proper damage assessment may take some time. "The fundamental reality remains that military action alone can only roll back the program by degrees, not eliminate it fully," said Daria Dolzikova, with the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based military think tank. Given that, Dolzikova says, there are two key questions for both sides to consider: how much damage is enough for the U.S. and Israel to feel they have curtailed Iran's nuclear program sufficiently; and equally important, what have the strikes done to Iran's resolve to speed up enrichment and potentially create a nuclear weapon? "One thing that I'm looking out for ... is Iran's future within the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and whether these strikes actually convince it to potentially pull out of that treaty," Dolzikova told CBC News in an interview. Exiting the NPT would banish IAEA inspectors from Iran and effectively send its nuclear program into the shadows. The NPT, which went into effect 55 years ago, is aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons while at the same time allowing countries to build nuclear programs for peaceful purposes. Iran is a signatory and as part of the monitoring provisions, its nuclear facilities have been open to the IAEA for inspection. A deal signed in 2015 known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action had also aimed to restrict Iran's nuclear capabilities in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions but fell apart after Trump withdrew the U.S. from it in his first term. In its latest report on Iran earlier this month, the IAEA said it had no evidence that the regime was trying to build a nuclear weapon but nonetheless declared the country non-compliant for being evasive and failing to account for the whereabouts of all of its supplies of enriched uranium. It also said it's inspectors had limited access to the Fordow facility and that Iran had previously removed cameras that were part of the monitoring process. When asked at a news conference Sunday morning in the aftermath of the U.S. attacks if Iran was now going to pull out of the NPT, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqhchi refused to say. Sprint for a nuclear weapon? Robert E. Kelly, an American academic based in Seoul, South Korea, who has studied North Korea's nuclear program, says he fears the U.S. strikes on the Iranian facilities in Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz could spur Iran to build a bomb faster. "That's what I'm really worried about, that this is going to deeply incentivize the nuclear hawks in Iran to sprint for a nuclear weapon," Kelly told CBC News. "[They are going to say], 'We should have sprinted for a bomb 10 years ago. We should've been like North Korea.'" North Korea is now believed to have around 50 warheads and has repeatedly used its nuclear capabilities to threaten its neighbours, especially South Korea and Japan. "The North Korea strategy on nuclearization has been validated by the strike," Kelly said. "I mean the North Koreans were telling us for 30 years this is exactly why we built nuclear weapons, so you can't do these kind of big air attacks against us." WATCH | Trump comments on U.S. strikes against 3 nuclear sites in Iran: FULL SPEECH: U.S. strikes 'completely and fully obliterated' Iranian nuclear sites, Trump says 13 hours ago Duration 3:39 U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. 'completely and fully obliterated' Iranian nuclear sites. The action came as Israel and Iran have been engaged in more than a week of aerial combat. Notably, the first stop for Iran's foreign minister Sunday was Moscow for a meeting with Russian officials and President Vladimir Putin. Russia, which has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, is a major backer of Iran's nuclear program. In an ominous sounding social media post, the country's former president Dmitri Medvedev said the U.S. attacks will have no lasting impact on Iran's nuclear ambitions if its leaders choose to pursue a weapon. "A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads," he wrote, a move that would be a direct violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which Russia is a signatory to. Israel is not a signatory and does posses its own nuclear weapons although it has never acknowledged that publicly. Immediate decisions Both Iran and Israel will have to make immediate decisions on whether to continue the cycle of strikes and retaliations that have played out since Israel attacked Iran 11 days ago. Within hours of the U.S. strikes, Iran launched two large salvos of ballistic missiles at targets in Israel, with several impacts in the Tel Aviv area that injured dozens. There were no immediate indications, however, that any U.S. interests in the region were being targeted. Iran's Health Ministry has said more than 400 people have been killed so far in the exchange of missile strikes between Israel and Iran while Israeli authorities say at least 24 have been killed. Analysts say the weakened Islamic regime in Tehran faces difficult choices in calibrating its responses so as to not invite further American attacks. That could range from Iran doing nothing to turning its large short-range missile arsenal against U.S. military bases or assets in the Persian Gulf. Its leadership could also decide to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz to cripple the global economy or hit out at the energy infrastructure of U.S. allies in the region, including Saudi Arabia or the UAE. In a series of social media posts, Andreas Krieg of the School of Security Studies at King's College London, said Iran cannot let the U.S. strikes go without a response at it would signal weakness, which would be unacceptable domestically. He says those options include missile and drone attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq but done in such a way as to limit U.S. casualties and keep the potential escalation minimal. Iran's proxy militias in Lebanon and Yemen, Hezbollah and the Houthis, could also be used to harass U.S. positions. Cyber attacks would be another option, Krieg said. War of attrition a risk for Israel In a briefing Sunday morning, Israeli military officials indicated that as far as they are concerned the U.S. strikes on the Iranian nuclear facilities are far from the end of the war. "We have more objectives, and we are acting all the time to achieve them," Brig.-Gen Effie Defrin said in a press conference. "We will continue to act to achieve these objectives." But some Israeli analysts say without a clear vision for victory, Netanyahu could be committing Israel to another drawn out conflict that will come at an unacceptable cost to the country. Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza for more than a year and eight months, with Israeli attacks decimating the territory and killing close to 56,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, with no end in sight. "Netanyahu's problem is that if Trump does not broaden the operation, and Iran doesn't agree to comply with the administration's dictates, Israel could slide into a war of attrition with Iran with the U.S. standing by and refusing Netanyahu's ambitions to expand the campaign," said Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies.
CNN
33 minutes ago
- Politics
- CNN
How badly have US strikes damaged Iran's nuclear facilities? Here's what to know
Warplanes. Submarines. Cruise missiles. Bombs that weigh 30,000 pounds. After initially favoring diplomacy, US President Donald Trump resorted to an extraordinary use of force against Iran on Saturday night, striking three of the regime's key nuclear sites. Trump claimed Iran's nuclear facilities had been 'obliterated,' but some Iranian officials downplayed the impact of the strikes – just as they did when Israel first struck Iran's facilities on June 13. With satellite imagery of the overnight strikes beginning to emerge, here's what we know about the damage the US inflicted on Iran's nuclear program. Fordow is Iran's most important nuclear enrichment facility, buried deep inside a mountain to guard it from attacks. The main halls are believed to be some 80 to 90 meters (262 to 295 feet) below ground. Analysts have long said that the US is the only military in the world with the kind of bomb required to burrow that deeply – the enormous, 30,000-pound GBU-57. The US used six B-2 bombers to drop 12 of those 'bunker-busting' bombs on the site, a US official told CNN. A CNN analysis of satellite imagery showed that the US strikes left at least six large craters at the Fordow site, pointing to the use of bunker-busting bombs. The images, captured by Maxar, showed six separate impact craters in two nearby locations at Fordow. The craters are visible along a ridge running over the underground complex. Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, told CNN that there had been a 'direct kinetic impact' on Fordow, but that it was too soon to judge whether it had caused internal damage to the underground site. 'Of course, one cannot exclude (the possibility) that there is significant damage there,' he said. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), told CNN that the satellite imagery suggested 'a considerable amount of damage could have been done to the enrichment hall and adjacent halls that provide support to enrichment.' 'Total destruction of the underground hall is quite possible,' Albright said, while stressing that a full assessment of the damage will take time. N.R. Jenzen-Jones, a munitions specialist and director of the research company Armament Research Services (ARES), concurred that there are at least six entry points in Fordow following the US strikes. 'The larger, central entry holes in the two groupings have irregular shapes and suggest multiple munitions struck the same precise location,' Jenzen-Jones told CNN. 'This is consistent with the theory of an attack on such a deeply buried target as the Fordow site, which would require multiple precisely delivered, and carefully calibrated, penetrating munitions to essentially 'smash' and blast their way through to the deeper, more protected areas of the site,' he added. Satellite imagery also showed significant changes to the color of the mountainside where the facility is housed, indicating a vast area was covered with a layer of grey ash in the aftermath of the strikes. A CNN analysis of imagery collected before the US strikes suggested Iran had taken steps to reinforce the entrances to the tunnels believed to lead into the underground facility, likely in anticipation of a coming strike. That imagery showed dirt piled up in front of at least two of the six entrances. Although Iran's foreign minister said the US had crossed a 'very big red line,' other Iranian leaders downplayed the strikes' impact. Manan Raeisi, a lawmaker representing the city of Qom, near Fordow, said the damage from the attack was 'quite superficial.' But Albright, of the ISIS, told CNN that initial reports from Iran 'should be dismissed.' He said that, during previous rounds of strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, Tehran has soft-pedaled their impact, only for satellite imagery to tell a very different story. Natanz is the site of Iran's largest nuclear enrichment center and was targeted in Israel's initial attack on Iran on June 13. The site has six above-ground buildings and three underground structures, which house centrifuges – a key technology in nuclear enrichment, turning uranium into nuclear fuel. The above-ground facilities were damaged in Israel's initial attack. The IAEA said the strikes damaged electrical infrastructure at the plant. Although it is not clear if Israel's strikes caused direct damage to the underground facilities, the IAEA said the loss of power to the underground cascade hall 'may have damaged the centrifuges there.' The US also targeted Natanz in its Saturday night operation. A US official said a B-2 bomber had dropped two bunker-busting bombs on the site. US Navy submarines also fired 30 TLAM cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan, the third Iranian site targeted by the US. Isfahan, in central Iran, is home to the country's largest nuclear research complex. The facility was built with support from China and opened in 1984, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). Some 3,000 scientists are employed at Isfahan, NTI says, and the site is 'suspected of being the center' of Iran's nuclear program. Albright said initial reports suggested that the US also struck tunnel complexes near the Isfahan site, 'where they typically store enriched uranium.' If confirmed, Albright said this would show that the US was trying to take out Iran's stocks of uranium that had been enriched to 20% and 60%. Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to 90%. CNN could not independently verify reports that tunnel complexes near the Isfahan site were targeted. At a Pentagon news conference Sunday, Gen. Dan Caine, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a US submarine had 'launched more than a dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets' at the Isfahan site.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Badly Damaged Is Fordow? Unclear, Says U.N. Atomic Agency Chief
The impact of the U.S. strikes on Fordow could be significant but without inspectors there, nobody can tell the extent of the damage, U.N. atomic energy agency chief Rafael Grossi said Sunday. Speaking to CNN, he said Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan have suffered significant damage.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
US attacks on Iran inflicted major destruction, Pentagon officials say
The surprise overnight US attack on Iran inflicted major damage and destruction on three of its key nuclear sites, senior Pentagon officials said, as the US defense secretary denied that the Trump administration was pursuing a policy of regime change in the Middle East. In a press conference in Washington, Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, detailed operation 'Midnight Hammer' in which seven B-2 Spirit bombers flew 18 hours from the United States to sites in Iran to drop 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators in strikes that they said caused 'extremely severe damage' to Iranian uranium enrichment facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Caine said it was not clear whether Iran retained some nuclear capability and stopped short of using the same language as Donald Trump, who said that the sites had been 'completely and totally obliterated'. Trump announced the US intervention last night, directly joining Israel's effort to destroy Iran's nuclear programme in a risky gambit that triggered alarm across the world and raised fears of a wider regional conflict. Satellite imagery of the attack site from Maxar Technologies showed six fresh craters at the Fordow nuclear enrichment site, probably the entry point for the 'bunker buster' bombs meant to penetrate deep into the facility before detonation. The scale of the damage underground was not yet confirmed, Caine said. Iranian sources were quick to deny that the country's nuclear programme was devastated, as its leaders condemned the US strikes and warned they would have long-term repercussions for the region and the global order. Iran launched about 20 ballistic missiles at Israel on Sunday morning, triggering country-wide air raid sirens and injuring 16 people. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a recorded statement aired on state television after the strikes: 'The Iranian nation is not one to surrender. Americans should know that any military involvement by the US will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage to them.' Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said diplomacy was not an option after the US attack and that Iran 'reserves all rights to defend its security, its interests and its people'. 'My country has been under attack, and we have to respond based on our legitimate right to self-defence. We will do that for as long as needed and necessary,' he told reporters at a press conference in Istanbul on Sunday. Araghchi also said the US had 'blown up diplomacy' that Tehran was engaged in with Europe and said he would meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Monday. Iran's parliament on Sunday approved a measure allowing the country's leadership to close the strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea that handles about 26% of the global oil trade. While the final decision rests with the country's leadership and not its pliant legislature, the decision indicated an Iranian threat to disrupt global energy shipping as a potential retaliation to the strike. It was unclear whether an Iranian response would include its network of proxies across the Middle East, including militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. On Saturday, the Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree pledged to attack US ships and warships in the Red Sea if the US intervened in Iran, despite a May ceasefire between the US and the Yemeni militia. US officials said that they were sending signals to Iran to encourage it to negotiate rather than launch a retaliation that could escalate into a protracted war. Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, denied that the US was pursuing a policy of regime change in Iran. 'This mission was not and has not been about regime change,' Hegseth said. 'Anything can happen in conflict. We acknowledge that. But the scope of this was intentionally limited. That's the message that we're sending. With the capabilities of the American military nearly unlimited.' The US vice-president, JD Vance, who has been an outspoken opponent of US military interventions, said during an interview on MSNBC that the US was 'not at war with Iran, we're at war with Iran's nuclear programme'. Speaking from the White House last night, Trump said: 'Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. 'There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight's was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.' The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed the strikes. 'Congratulations, President Trump, your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history,' he said in a video statement. Trump also said that he and Netanyahu had 'worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel'. Previously, Iranian officials said that any US involvement would trigger an attack on US military bases in the Middle East, which host thousands of US troops across at least eight countries. After Iran's barrage of missiles, Israeli warplanes began strikes in western Iran, hitting missile launchers and Iranian soldiers, the Israeli military said. In Iran, the media played down the US strikes, with the state-run IRNA news agency acknowledging early on Sunday an attack on the country's Fordow nuclear site, but saying it was evacuated beforehand. The semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, quoted another official saying air defences opened fire near Isfahan and explosions had been heard. Later, Iran's atomic agency said that the country would carry on with its nuclear activities despite the US attacks on key facilities. The Iranian member of parliament Mohammad Manan Raisi, representing the city of Qom where Fordow is located, said that the damage to the nuclear facility was not major and 'only on the ground, which can be restored'. The International Atomic Energy Agency said there had been 'no increase in off-site radiation levels' after the attacks on the three nuclear sites. Israel has been launching strikes on Iran for two weeks. It has sought to systematically eradicate the country's air defences and offensive missile capabilities and damage its nuclear enrichment facilities. US and Israeli officials have said 13,500kg (30,000lb) bunker buster bombs that US stealth bombers alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground at Fordow.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump says US strikes on Iran were a ‘success': what we know so far
Donald Trump announced on Saturday the , and claimed that key enrichment facilities there had been 'totally and completely obliterated'. The sites struck were Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. Iranian officials said there was no danger to the residents living near the nuclear facilities hit by US strikes, according to Iranian state media. Quoting the Crisis Management Headquarters in the province of Qom, where the Fordow facility is located, the IRNA news service said 'there is no danger to the people of Qom and the surrounding area'. Al Jazeera reported earlier that another official said Fordow has 'long been evacuated and has not suffered any irreversible damage'. Saudi Arabia's Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority has said no radioactive effects have been detected in Gulf states. Trump said Iran must now make peace, adding: 'If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. For 40 years, Iran has been saying death to America, death to Israel.' He said there were 'many targets left' in the country for the US to hit. He later warned that any retaliation by Tehran against the US would be met with 'force far greater than what was witnessed tonight'. He praised Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they 'worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before', and gone a long way towards 'erasing this horrible threat to Israel'. Netanyahu praised the attack, saying that the 'awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history'. The Israeli prime minister said in a video address, the US 'has done what no other country on Earth could do'. Early on Sunday Iran's state TV announced on new missile launches against Israel. Explosions were heard above Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Iran's foreign minister condemned the US attack as a breach of international law which will have 'everlasting consequences'. In a statement posted to social media, Seyed Abbas Araghchi said: 'The United States, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has committed a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT by attacking Iran's peaceful nuclear installations.' A Yemeni Houthi official said on Sunday that the Iran-aligned group's response to the US attack on was 'only a matter of time'. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday branded the US strikes on as a 'dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security.' He added: 'There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control - with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world.' The Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation called the US attack 'a barbaric act that violated international law, especially the nuclear non-proliferation treaty'. The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. Iran has retaliated with strikes against launched the attacks on Iran saying that it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons. Iran has argued that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian had warned earlier on Saturday of a 'more devastating' retaliation should Israel's nine-day bombing campaign continue, saying the Islamic republic would not halt its nuclear program 'under any circumstances.' Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday that US strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will 'result in irreparable damage for them'.
