��һ�ǿ�����

The United States has carried out a “very successful attack” on three Iran nuclear sites, US President Donald Trump wrote in a post on social media.

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social today to announce the alleged success of the attacks.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump posted. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter [sic].”

Trump added: “This is an historic moment for the United States of America, Israel and the World. Iran must now agree to end this war.”

He said he would publicly speak from the White House at 2pm (NZ time).

“I will be giving an Address to the Nation at 10:00 P.M., at the White House, regarding our very successful military operation in Iran. This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU! [sic]” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

CNN reported American B-2 bombers were used in the weekend operation to target the three Iranian nuclear sites Trump referenced in his Truth Social post, according to a source familiar with the matter.

A B-2 Spirit multi-role bomber conducting air refuelling operations with a KC-135 Stratotanker over the Pacific Ocean. US stealth bombers were flying on June 21, 2025 across the Pacific Ocean, according to tracking data and media reports. Photo / US Department of Defence / AFP

Trump’s post comes amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, with Israeli and US military operations intensifying their targeting of Iranian assets.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and one of the most vocal supporters of US intervention in Iran, congratulated Trump following the strike, saying it “was the right call” and that “the [Iranian] regime deserves it”. He added the US has “the best Air Force in the world”, which makes him “so proud”.

Residents of Qom, a city about 87 miles south of Tehran, heard several explosions outside of their city, according to Iranian state media outlet FARS ��һ�ǿ�����.

The Fordow nuclear plant is located close to Qom, built into a mountainside.

The explosions came after the air defence system at Fordow was activated, FARS reported.

The United States’ airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites mark 45 years since the US has directly used its Air Force on Iranian soil. The last use of the Air Force in Iran was in 1980, when then-US President Jimmy Carter ordered an attempt to rescue US citizens taken hostage amid the Iranian Revolution. That operation, nicknamed Eagle Claw, was aborted after a series of procedural failures that ultimately left eight US servicemen dead and no hostages rescued.

Earlier: Iran threatens ‘more devastating’ response to Israel’s attacks

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Saturday of a “more devastating” retaliation should Israel’s nine-day bombing campaign continue, saying the Islamic republic would not halt its nuclear programme “under any circumstances”.

Israel said on Saturday it had killed three more Iranian commanders in its unprecedented offensive, and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Tehran’s alleged progress towards a nuclear weapon had been set back by two years.

“We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat,” Saar told the German newspaper Bild, adding that Israel would keep up its onslaught.

Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes since Israel launched its aerial campaign on June 13, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

On Saturday, Israel said it had attacked Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site for a second time, with the UN nuclear watchdog reporting that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop had been hit.

Later on Saturday, Iran’s Mehr news agency said Israel had launched strikes on the southern city of Shiraz, which hosts military bases.

And early on Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced a “vast” wave of “suicide drones” had been launched against “strategic targets” across Israel.

Iran denies seeking an atomic bomb, and on Saturday Pezeshkian said its right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme “cannot be taken away ... by threats or war”.

‘Not prepared to negotiate’

In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Pezeshkian said Iran was “ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities”.

“However, we do not agree to reduce nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances,” he added, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

Referring to the Israeli attacks, he said: “Our response to the continued aggression of the Zionist regime will be more devastating.”

Iran’s armed forces threatened to strike shipments of military aid to Israel “from any country”.

Israel’s main arms supplier is the United States, whose President Trump warned on Friday that Tehran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes as Washington weighed whether to join Israel’s campaign.

Israeli air defence systems intercept Iranian missiles over the Israeli city of Tel Aviv early on June 15, 2025. Air raid sirens and booms rang out in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv early on June 15, AFP journalists said. Photo / Jalaa Marey / AFP

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Istanbul on Saturday for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the conflict.

Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume nuclear talks with the United States that had been derailed by the war.

But Araghchi said Saturday: “Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again, and once aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed.”

“We’re not prepared to negotiate with them [the Americans] anymore, as long as the aggression continues”.

Hundreds killed

Trump, dismissive of European diplomatic efforts, said he was unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table.

“If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do,” he said of Israel’s campaign.

Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo.

US B-2 stealth bombers capable of carrying bunker busters were flying across the Pacific Ocean, according to tracking data and media reports, fuelling speculation over their intended mission.

Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen on Saturday threatened to resume their attacks on US vessels in the Red Sea if Washington joined the war, despite a recent ceasefire agreement.

The US-based Human Rights Activists ��һ�ǿ����� Agency said Friday that, based on its sources and media reports, at least 657 people had been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.

Iran’s health ministry on Saturday gave a toll of more than 400 people killed and 3056 in the Israeli strikes.

Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 25 people in Israel, according to official figures.

The Israeli military said it had launched a fresh wave of strikes on Saturday in the area of southern Iran’s Bandar Abbas, targeting drone storage sites and a weapons facility.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said air defences were activated in the area.

Overnight, Iran said it had targeted central Israel with drones and missiles. Israeli rescuers said there were no casualties after an Iranian drone struck a residential building.

Revolutionary Guards spokesman Mohammad Ali Naini said Iran’s armed forces had “hit 14 strategic military” targets in the overnight attack, including Haifa’s Sail Tower, the city’s oil refinery and the Ovda airbase.

On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, Israel said Saturday that an Iranian terror plot targeting Israeli citizens had been “thwarted”.

The wreckage of what the Iranian Army said is an armed Israeli Air Force Hermes drone, downed after being hit by a surface-to-air missile, in the central city of Isfahan. The Israeli military said on June 18 that one of its drones had been downed while operating over Iran, the first such loss it has acknowledged since the start of hostilities last week. Photo / Iranian Army Media Office / AFP

‘T�������’

Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate said more than 450 missiles had been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones.

In Tel Aviv, where residents have faced regular Iranian strikes for nine days, some expressed growing fatigue under the constant threat from Iran.

The streets of Tehran, meanwhile, were still largely quiet Saturday, though a few cafes and restaurants were open.

In the afternoon, supporters of the government gathered briefly in front of the headquarters of state television to wave Iranian, Palestinian and Hezbollah flags to a soundtrack of electronic music whose lyrics called for the “death of Israel”.

Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country’s accelerated uranium enrichment.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has said Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent.

However, his agency had “no indication” of the existence of a “systematic programme” in Iran to produce a bomb.

Grossi told CNN it would be “pure speculation” to guess at how long it would take Iran to develop one.

- Agence France-Presse; additional reporting NZ Herald