US Bombs Iran, Tehran Warns of “Everlasting Consequences”

Last night, America bombed three different nuclear sites in Iran, bringing the country directly into the Israel-Iran conflict. It is the most consequential decision of Donald Trump’s presidency to date.

Because this is a breaking news story, it’s probably easier to follow it on live, rolling blogs rather than link to a definitive account of the bombing.

The BBC’s live blog is here; the Telegraph’s is here; the Times’s is here; the Guardian’s is here; and the Mail’s is here. If you want a non-paywalled account of exactly what happened, how Iran has responded (made blood-curdling pledges to retaliate, obviously) and what line Sir Kier Starmer is taking (qualified support with a bit of guff about the need to return to the negotiating table) the Mail’s account is as good as any. Here’s how it begins:

Donald Trump stunned the world by launching a massive military strike intended to terminate Iran’s quest for a doomsday nuclear weapon.

Trump ordered the devastating attack on Saturday as six B-2 stealth bombers dropped a dozen 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs on Iran’s primary nuclear facility.

“The strikes were a spectacular military success,” Trump said in a late-night address to the nation from the White House.

Trump claimed the top secret uranium enrichment base hidden deep inside a mountain at Fordow, 80 miles south of Tehran, was flattened.

U.S. submarines also fired 30 Tomahawk missiles and wiped out two other Iranian nuclear sites at Natanz and Isfahan.

Iran’s foreign minister condemned the offensive as “extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behavior”.

“The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences,” Seyed Abbas Araghchi said. “Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.”

By Sunday morning, Israel was being struck by a barrage of missiles as Iran launched a retaliatory attack.

A rescue worker could be seen helping children in Haifa and buildings in Tel Aviv suffered significant damage as a number of people were reported wounded.

The dramatic series of events caught everyone off guard when Trump acted swiftly after meeting with his national security council at the White House.

Just 48 hours earlier, the president had said he would decide ‘within two weeks’ whether to send in U.S. bombers to help Israel destroy Iran’s nuclear program.

After that statement the world let out the breath it had been collectively holding, and it seemed the immediate prospect of a strike had receded.

Trump’s own MAGA movement had been tearing itself apart over the prospect of another Middle East war, and the president himself suggested there was still a chance for a diplomatic solution.

But all that changed very quickly as Trump became convinced that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would never voluntarily give up his quest for a nuclear bomb.

On Friday afternoon, Trump flew on Air Force One to a fundraising event at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Already, his mind appeared to be firming up and, speaking on the runway, he described two weeks as a “maximum” deadline.

He was in constant communication with his advisers and came to rely on the judgment of four key people – Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and perhaps most crucially, Dan ‘Razin’ Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the man Trump credits with annihilating ISIS in his first term.

Ratcliffe and Caine, in particular, were briefing Trump on the intelligence of how close Iran was to getting a nuclear bomb – a matter of weeks – and the chances of military success if the commander in chief ordered a strike.

Worth reading in full.