Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Pentagon briefing on Sunday that despite a surprise attack overnight on Iranian nuclear sites, America “does not seek war.”
Mr. Hegseth said it was important to note that U.S. strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people, a veiled effort to indicate to Iran that they don’t want retaliation on American targets in the region.
“When POTUS says 60 days that he seeks peace and negotiation, he means 60 days of peace and negotiation; otherwise, that nuclear program, that nuclear capability, will not exist; he meant it,” Mr. Hegseth told reporters.
“Iran should listen to the president of the United States,” he said. “And know that he means it — every word.”
The U.S. bomber attack was an “incredible and overwhelming success” that completely obliterated Tehran’s atomic ambitions, Mr. Hegseth said.
The mission, named Operation Midnight Hammer, launched late Friday from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and included seven B-2 Spirit bombers dropping a total of 14 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs. They struck the buried Fordo and Natanz nuclear sites. Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine hit targets in Isfahan, the third targeted nuclear facility.
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Mr. Hegseth said that a choice to move a number of B-2 bombers from their base in Missouri earlier Saturday was meant to be a decoy to throw off Iranians.
He added that the U.S. used other methods of deception as well, deploying fighters to protect the B-2 bombers that dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s most powerful nuclear site. He said that all of these tactics helped the U.S. drop the bombs without tipping off Iran’s fighter jets or its air missile systems.
The B-2 bombers completed several in-flight refueling operations before they entered Iranian airspace. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said they linked up with escort and support aircraft in a “complex, tightly timed maneuver requiring exact synchronization.”
“This type of integration is exactly what our Joint Force does better than anyone else in the world,” Gen. Caine said.
The operation involved considerable planning as well as a misdirection effort that sent another group of B-2 bombers heading west over the Pacific. The deception, well reported in the media, was known only to an “extremely small number of planners and key leaders” in Washington and at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida., Gen. Caine said.
Just before the B-2 strike package entered Iran, a U.S. submarine in the Central Command area launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Iran.
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“Final battle damage assessment will take some time, but initial battle damage assessment indicates that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Gen. Caine said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday condemned the U.S. action.
“This aggression showed that the United States is the primary instigator of the Zionist regime’s hostile actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mr. Pezeshkian said Sunday. “Although they initially tried to deny their role, after our armed forces’ decisive and deterrent response and the Zionist regime’s clear incapacity, they were inevitably forced to enter the field themselves.”
Iranian officials have threatened that Operation Midnight Hammer means U.S. military personnel and units can themselves be considered targets. American troops are at several bases in the Middle East, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. base in the region, Al Asad Air Base in Iraq, and the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
Gen. Caine said the U.S. increased regional force protection measures ahead of the strikes. However, they were not given any warning to minimize the threat to the bomber mission.
Explosions boomed Sunday afternoon in the Iranian port city of Bushehr, three semiofficial Iranian media outlets reported. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts.
Bushehr is home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, which is run with Russian assistance. Iranian authorities have not reported any problems at the plant.
Meanwhile, explosions also struck the city of Yazd in central Iran, with some suggesting it came from Israeli airstrikes targeting a power plant and a military garrison.
Mr. Hegseth said congressional leaders were notified about the operation once U.S. aircraft were safely out of Iranian airspace.
Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said President Trump gave the Tehran regime every chance to pursue diplomacy and spare their people further devastation.
“Instead, they chose to escalate their nuclear ambitions - announcing a new enrichment site just last week,” Mr. McCaul said Sunday. “Make no mistake: If Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons, the regime would pose an existential threat not only to Israel, which they call the ‘little Satan,’ but especially to the United States, their so-called ‘great Satan.’”
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel was still assessing damage from U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
At a press briefing, Gen. Defrin was asked whether enriched material had been removed from the Fordo site before the U.S. strike, and he replied that it was too early to know. Gen. Defrin said the strikes were carried out in coordination with the Israeli military.
The French foreign minister said his country did not take part in the U.S. strikes. Jean-Noel Barrot said in a message on social media on Sunday that France “has learned with concern” of the U.S. military action.
“It was neither involved in these strikes nor in their planning,” Mr. Barrot said, adding that France “urges the parties to show restraint in order to avoid any escalation that could lead to an extension of the conflict.”
Russia said it “resolutely condemns” the U.S. strikes, calling the action a “reckless decision” that violates international law and the U.N. Charter. On Sunday, officials in Moscow said the full consequences of the bomber mission, including potential radioactive effects, have yet to be determined.
“It is already evident that a dangerous escalation is underway, one that threatens to further destabilize security both in the region and globally. This has drastically increased the likelihood of a larger conflict in the Middle East, a region already plagued by numerous crises,” Russian Foreign Ministry officials said Sunday in a statement. “Particularly concerning is the fact that the strikes were executed by a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.”
Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, responding to a question from a Russian outlet, said he’ll travel to Moscow later on Sunday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, after the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites.
“We enjoy a strategic partnership and we always consult with each other and coordinate our positions,” he said, referring to Russia.
“The warmongering and a lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far-reaching implications of its act of aggression,” Mr. Araghchi said in a news briefing at a conference in Turkey.
Mr. Araghchi said while the “door to diplomacy” should always be open, “this is not the case right now.
Mr. Araghchi said that there is “no red line” that the U.S. has not crossed in its recent actions against the Islamic Republic.
“And the last one and the most dangerous one was what happened only last night when they crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities only,” he said.
Satellite images taken Sunday analyzed by The Associated Press show damage on the mountainside at Iran’s underground nuclear site at Fordo after U.S. airstrikes targeted the facility.
The images by Planet Labs PBC show the once-brown mountain had parts turned gray and its contours appeared slightly different than in previous images, suggesting a blast threw up debris around the site. That suggests the use of specialized American bunker buster bombs on the facility. Light gray smoke also hung in the air.
Iran has yet to offer a damage assessment of the site.
Other satellite images suggest Iran before the strike sealed up its tunnel entrances at Fordo.
— This article includes wire reports.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated Rep. Michael McCaul’s leadership position in the House.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.