Israel faced a missile attack on Sunday as Iran said it reserved all options to defend itself after unprecedented US strikes that Donald Trump said had “obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear facilities.
The missile attack came hours after the US president dramatically escalated Middle East tensions by sending B-2 bombers to Iran.
“The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences,” said Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, calling the US strikes a “grave violation” of international law. He later said the strikes marked a “betrayal” by Mr Trump.
Israel prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised the US president for the strikes, but the move has been criticised by China and Russia, among others. US Democratic politicians have also stated that the move was a violation of the US constitution.
The Pentagon revealed details of the US strikes at a press conference on Sunday, saying the operation - dubbed Midnight Hammer - involved submarines launching Tomahawk missiles and B-2 bombers dropping 14 bunker-buster bombs.
Key Reads
- Trump says US strikes have ‘obliterated’ Iran nuclear sites as Israel faces missile attack
- Analysis: Strikes on Iran mark Trump’s biggest, and riskiest, foreign policy gamble
- ‘Avoid a spiral of chaos’: World leaders react to US attack on Iran
- Explainer: How Iran could hit back at the US and what that could mean
The UN Security Council is set to convene later today to discuss the US strikes on Iran. The emergency meeting comes after a request was made by the administration in Tehran.
America “does not seek war” with Iran, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has said in the aftermath of a surprise US attack on three of Tehran’s key nuclear sites.
He said it was important to note the US strikes did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people, a veiled effort to indicate to Tehran they do not want retaliation on American targets in the region.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Mr Hegseth added.
War does not solve problems, on the contrary it amplifies them - Pope Leo XIV
US vice-president JD Vance has told NBC News “the United States is not at war with Iran.... We are at war with its nuclear ambitions.”
Flights from London to Dubai and Doha have been cancelled today, a move that comes after a British Airways (BA) flight from London Heathrow to Dubai was diverted to Zurich on Saturday night.
The BA109 flight departed from the UK at 9.53pm on Saturday and reached Saudi Arabia before the Boeing 787 Dreamliner changed its course, landing in Switzerland, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
All of the airline’s flights to Dubai and Doha that were scheduled to depart from Heathrow on Sunday have been cancelled, including return flights, the company said.
Israel announced on Sunday that it had closed its airspace to inbound and outbound flights in the wake of the US attacks.
The US strikes that targeted Iran’s nuclear sites involved submarines launching Tomahawk missiles and B-2 bombers dropping 14 bunker-buster bombs, the Pentagon said in the first public account of the operation.
The operation — dubbed Midnight Hammer — saw the US deploy B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, Air Force General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a press conference Sunday morning. He said there are no reports of US forces coming under fire.
According to Caine, B-2 bombers took off early Saturday US time and later dropped the bunker busters, or the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, which had never before been used in combat.
Another group of the planes went west — and their flight was widely reported and picked up by flight-tracker data — and were decoys meant to maintain tactical surprise, he said.
“This is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation, so that we could be ready when the president of the United States called,” defense secretary Pete Hegseth said. “It took a great deal of precision. It involved misdirection and the highest of operational security.”
The officials said 75 precision-guided weapons were used and the operation involved some 125 aircraft. Caine said the battle damage would take time to assess but “all three sites sustain extremely severe damage and destruction.”
The flights to deliver the targets amounted to the second-longest flights in the B-2’s operational history, according to Hegseth. The longest was a 40-hour round trip in October 2001 in the initial phase of the Afghanistan war.
Tánaiste Simon Harris has said the recent strike on Iran resulted in “an extraordinary dangerous escalation of a conflict that could already be described as a tinderbox”.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One on Sunday, Mr Harris said there is a “real prospect” of the international community “losing all control” of the conflict in the Middle East.
“All of this is happening against a backdrop when talks are possible. Iran should never be allowed possess nuclear weapons,” he said, but added that talks were under way in relation to this.
Mr Harris said a small number of Irish citizens, most of whom have dual citizenship, are seeking evacuation. The airspace is closed, he said, meaning the only way out is over the land border, which is “not without challenge, to put it mildly”.
He said there are mechanisms in which European countries can work together to get citizens out, and he expects to have a “significant update in the coming hours” in relation to this.
The Taoiseach Micheál Martin has released a statement on the Middle East
“It is now urgent that all actors in the region work to de-escalate the conflict between Iran and Israel.
Diplomacy and dialogue are ultimately the only ways to resolve the issues and bring peace and security to the region.
Iran should commit unequivocally to not developing nuclear weapons and disavow its uranium enrichment programme.
Nuclear safety is an important issue here. Modern warfare is very destructive, and it is civilians who ultimately suffer.
That is why there is a responsibility for all involved to end conflict in the region. We should not lose sight of the catastrophe that is still unfolding in Gaza while the war between Iran and Israel continues
What is happening in Gaza is appalling, with innocent civilians and children being slaughtered in clear breach of international humanitarian law.
We need the violence to come to an end, a huge surge in humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
We will continue to work with European partners to find a peaceful solution ahead of next week’s EU Council."
The White House has shared multiple images of the Situation Room overnight.
Briefing from the Pentagon is happening now.
The US defense secretary Pete Hegseth has said the military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities were an incredible and overwhelming success that took months and weeks of positioning to carry out.
Mr Hegseth said the strikes did not target Iranian troops or people, but they did obliterate Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“The operation President Trump planned was bold and it was brilliant, showing the world that American deterrence is back. When this President speaks, the world should listen,” he said.
China has condemned the US attack on Iran and on nuclear facilities supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Chinese foreign ministry said the move violates the United Nations Charter and worsens tensions in the Middle East, in a statement on its website.
“China urges parties to the conflict especially Israel to cease attacks as soon as possible and begin dialogue and negotiations,” the ministry said.
Pope Leo has said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss”, and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
He said “every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
“A negotiated solution is the way forward,” says the Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
“This is a poisonous moment for our country, with Trump unleashing our military on American citizens and letting ICE officers rough up Democratic lawmakers,” writes Maureen Dowd.
“He’s still posting, madly, about the 2020 election being “a total FRAUD,” and now he’s calling for a special prosecutor to look into it.
“The former opponent of forever wars in the Middle East is debating dropping bombs in the Middle East without military provocation against the United States – which did not work out well for us in the past – and dragging us into another unpredictable, interminable war.
“We find this truth to be self-evident: this is the moment when we find out just how mad a king Donald Trump is.”
She is certainly s pulling no punches in her latest column.
Russia’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned the US attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites.
“The irresponsible decision to subject the territory of a sovereign state to missile and bomb attacks, whatever the arguments it may be presented with, flagrantly violates international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council,” the ministry said in its statement.
“We call for an end to aggression and for increased efforts to create conditions for returning the situation to a political and diplomatic track,” the statement continued.
The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi is to fly to Russia, with whom Iran has a strategic partnership, and consult with President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
The US military struck sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has described the bombing as a “grave violation” of the constitution and congressional war powers, and “absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment”.
“He [Trump] has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations.
Fellow congresswoman Rashida Tlaib also condemned the “blatant violation” of the US constitution and called for an immediate intervention from Congress.
“We have seen where decades of endless war in the Middle East gets us - all based on the lie of ‘weapons of mass destruction’. We are not falling for it again.”
Congressman Jim McGovern called the situation “insane”.
“Trump just bombed Iran without Congressional approval, illegally dragging us into war in the Middle East. Have we not learned our lesson?”
Satellite images taken today show damage to the mountainside at the underground site at Fordo.
The images, by Planet Labs PBC, show the once-brown mountain now has parts turned grey and its contours appear slightly different than in previous images, suggesting a blast threw up debris around the site.
That suggests the use of specialised American bunker-buster bombs on the facility. Light grey smoke also hung in the air.
The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has delivered a televised response to the overnight strikes and says the US president Donald Trump “betrayed” not only Iran but the American people.
“While President Trump was elected on a platform of putting an end to America’s costly involvement of forever wars in our part of the world, he’s betrayed not only Iran by abusing our commitment to diplomacy but also deceived his own voters by submitting to the mission of a wanted war criminal who has grown accustomed to exploiting the lives and wealth of American citizens to further the Israeli regime’s objectives,” Mt Araghchi said.
He said while the “door to diplomacy” should always be open, “this is not the case right now”.
He added that the “warmongering, lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far reaching implications of its act of aggression”.
He said “there is no red line” that the US has not crossed, adding: “The most dangerous one was what happened only last night when they crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities only.”
France has urged all sides to show restraint after the US air strikes with its foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot saying a negotiated solution to the crisis is the only way forward.
“France is convinced that a lasting resolution to this issue requires a negotiated solution within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Barrot wrote on X.
What might an Iranian response to the US bombings look like?
US president Donald Trump’s decision to intervene on Israel’s behalf in its war with Iran is likely to see crude oil prices spike when commodities markets open on Sunday night, experts have warned, with potential consequences for the Irish and world economies.
Oil prices have increased by 11 per cent since Israel’s June 13th attack on Iran, but moved sharply up and down last week as investors weighed the potential for the conflict to impact global oil supply.
Mr Trump’s decision to bomb Iranian nuclear sites overnight on Saturday is likely to see spot crude prices surge in early trading when the market reopens at 11pm on Sunday.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, closed at $77 a barrel on Friday evening.
While it could take several weeks for higher crude oil prices to feed into petrol and diesel prices in Ireland, prices at the pump have been ticking upwards as tension ratcheted up in the Middle East in recent weeks.
The US president was also very active on social media platforms overnight.
Experts have said military strikes on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities pose limited risks of contamination, while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said no increased off-site radiation levels had been reported following the bombing.
The US military struck sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan with the attacks following previously announced Israeli attacks on nuclear sites in Natanz, Isfahan, Arak and Tehran itself.
Israel says it aims to stop Iran building a nuclear bomb and the US says Tehran would not be allowed to get such weapons. Iran denies ever seeking nuclear arms.
Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow at London think-tank RUSI, said attacks on facilities at the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle - the stages where uranium is prepared for use in a reactor - pose primarily chemical, not radiological risks.
At enrichment facilities, UF6, or uranium hexafluoride, is the concern.
The major concern would be a strike on Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr on the Gulf coast.
Fears of catastrophe rippled through the Gulf on June 19 when the Israeli military said it had struck a site in Bushehr, only to say later that the announcement was a mistake.
For Gulf states, the impact of any strike on Bushehr would be worsened by the potential contamination of Gulf waters, jeopardising a critical source of desalinated potable water.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is on high alert to monitor for any possible environmental contamination after the attacks, said a source with knowledge of the matter.
There have been no signs of radiological contamination so far, the source said, adding that the GCC had emergency plans in place in case of a threat to water and food security in the Gulf.
In the United Arab Emirates, desalinated water accounts for more than 80% of drinking water, while Bahrain became fully reliant on desalinated water in 2016, with 100 per cent of groundwater reserved for contingency plans, authorities say.
Qatar is also 100 per cent dependent on desalinated water.
In Saudi Arabia, a much larger nation with a greater reserve of natural groundwater, about 50 per cent of the water supply came from desalinated water as of 2023, according to the General Authority for Statistics.
“If a natural disaster, oil spill, or even a targeted attack were to disrupt a desalination plant, hundreds of thousands could lose access to freshwater almost instantly,” said Nidal Hilal, professor of engineering and director of New York University Abu Dhabi’s Water Research Center.
“Coastal desalination plants are especially vulnerable to regional hazards like oil spills and potential nuclear contamination,” he said.
The US president Donald Tump’s address to the nation last night in which he said the strikes were a “spectacular success”.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said that the negotiating table was the only place to end the crisis in the Middle East, adding that Iran must under no circumstances acquire nuclear weapons.
“Iran must never acquire the bomb,” von der Leyen wrote in a post on social media platform X.
“With tensions in the Middle East at a new peak, stability must be the priority. And respect for international law is critical,” she said.
“Now is the moment for Iran to engage in a credible diplomatic solution. The negotiating table is the only place to end this crisis,” she added.
Britain was informed in advance of the US attack on Iran, senior minister Jonathan Reynolds said on Sunday.
Reynolds said Britain had moved military assets to the region and would take “all action necessary” to defend its key allies if they came under threat. He added that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was talking to allies on Sunday.
“No request was made,” the business and trade minister told Sky News. “I know often because of British military assets, RAF Akrotiri [in Cyprus] or Diego Garcia, sometimes that request is made. And this was not a situation where that request was made”.
Reynolds added that Britain had been informed of the strike “I can’t tell you exactly when we did know, but we were informed, as you might expect,” he said.
Simon Harris deeply concerned by overnight developments.
Reaction from world leaders has been coming over the course of the morning.
“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... History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime the world’s most dangerous weapons.” - Israel prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu
:“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 (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) by attacking Iran’s peaceful nuclear installations. The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences. Each and every member of the UN must be alarmed over this extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behaviour. In accordance with the UN Charter and its provisions allowing a legitimate response in self-defence, Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.” - Iran foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, on X
“I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today. This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security. There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control – with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world. I call on Member States to de-escalate and to uphold their obligations under the UN Charter and other rules of international law. At this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace.” UN secretary-general António Guterres
“Iran’s nuclear programme is a grave threat to international security. Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the U.S. has taken action to alleviate that threat. The situation in the Middle East remains volatile and stability in the region is a priority. We call on Iran to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis.” - UK prime minister Keir Starmer
“Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, as it would be a threat to international security. I urge all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation. EU Foreign Ministers will discuss the situation tomorrow.” - EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, on X
“Now (Iranian Supreme leader Ali) Khamenei must go. The Iranian people welcome the end of the war and seek peace and freedom.” Khamenei is responsible for an unpatriotic project that, in addition to costing countless lives, has cost the Iranian people at least $2 trillion - and now, it has all gone up in smoke.” - Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
“The State of Qatar regrets the deterioration of the situation following the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities and is following with great concern the developments following the recent attacks on the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities.” - Qatari foreign ministry, on X
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns that the dangerous tension currently witnessed in the region will lead to catastrophic repercussions at the regional and international levels.” - Japanese foreign minister Shigeru Ishiba.
“It is crucial that there be a quick de-escalation of the conflict. We are closely monitoring the situation there with grave concern.” - Italy foreign minister Antonio Tajani
“We acknowledge developments in the last 24 hours, including President Trump’s announcement of US strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran. Ongoing military action in the Middle East is extremely worrying, and it is critical further escalation is avoided. New Zealand strongly supports efforts towards diplomacy. We urge all parties to return to talks. Diplomacy will deliver a more enduring resolution than further military action.” - Australian government spokesperson
In terms of what happened, when, here is a timeline with all times Irish time.
00:50 US president Donald Trump announces that three strikes have been carried out on Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
The US reportedly used heavy bunker-busting bombs dropped from B-2 strategic stealth bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles although that was not confirmed by Mr Trump.
01:56: The attacks are confirmed by Iran.
02:43: “President Trump and the United States acted with a lot of strength,” says Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. A minute later the head of the United Nations describes the bombing as a “dangerous escalation”.
03:00: Donald Trump addresses the nation and in a televised address calls on Iran to “now make peace” or face “far greater” attacks.
05:31: A fresh missile strike on Israel is launched by Iran.
06:00: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports “no increase” in radiation levels at the targeted sites struck by the US bombers.
Shortly before 1am Irish time, US B-2 bombers carried out an attack on three nuclear facilities in Iran using heavy “bunker-busting” bombs.
US president Donald Trump - in a televised address - hailed the operation as a “spectacular military success and he warned Tehran to quickly make peace or face “far greater” attacks.
“The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences,” the Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said as he called the US strikes a “grave violation” of the UN charter, international law and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
He said that “Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.”
In the wake of the US attack, Israeli military warned people to seek cover from a missile barrage from Iran that appeared heavier than the attacks that have been recorded in recent days.
Reaction to the bombing and the dramatic escalation of tension in the Middle East has been coming in through the night and will continue throughout today.
