Iran - Israel

NY Times - The Israeli military, in an initial analysis, believes the heavily fortified nuclear site at Fordo has sustained serious damage from the American strike but has not been completely destroyed. The officials also said it appeared Iran had moved equipment, including uranium, from the site. 

Daily Mail, UK -   Cities across the United States are on high alert following Donald Trump's airstrikes on three nuclear cites in Iran.  

... After Trump's announcement, police in New York City and Washington DC revealed they increasing their presence amid fears of a retaliatory attack. The New York City Police Department said in a post to X: 'We're tracking the situation unfolding in Iran.

'Out of an abundance of caution, we're deploying additional resources to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across NYC and coordinating with our federal partners. We'll continue to monitor for any potential impact to NYC.'

Police in New York City (pictured) and Washington DC revealed they are on high alert amid fears of a retaliatory attack

... Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass posted to X saying the city was 'closely monitoring any threats to public safety.'

What Trump has said in the past 

NOTV - In Moscow, Dmitry Medvedev, ex-Russia president and the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, launched an attack on President Trump, accusing him of plunging the United States into a new war in the Middle East. Medvedev published his reaction on Telegram, stating bluntly, "Trump, who came in as a peacemaker president, has started a new war for the U.S."

.... Mr Medvedev claimed that "a number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads." He did not identify which nations he was referring to.

 Axios -   Trump warned that the U.S. still has many targets left in Iran, and that the military will "take them out within minutes" if peace with the Islamic Republic "doesn't come quickly."

The Guardian -  Donald Trump has announced that the US has bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear programme in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.

“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,” Trump said in a speech from the White House. “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.”

Iran condemned the strikes, warning they would have long-term repercussions for the region and the global order.

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,” Araghchi told reporters at a press conference in Istanbul on Sunday.

Araghchi further claimed that 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.

Trump had previously said he would wait two weeks before deciding whether or not to intervene in Israel’s war with Iran, in order to give diplomacy a chance.

The Guardian -   Iran had sought to deter Donald Trump from joining Israel’s bombing campaign with dire threats of retaliation, but its options now are limited and fraught with risk.

Iranian officials have said specifically that US ships and military bases would be targeted, but much of the capacity it had relied on as a deterrent has been stripped away over the past few days by Israeli strikes. Those strikes however, have focused on long-range ballistic missile launchers. Iran still has a formidable arsenal of shorter-range missiles and drones.

The US has taken precautions over the past few weeks, dispersing its naval presence in the region and beefing up air defences, to try to ensure it presents as hard a target as possible.

Furthermore, Trump warned of broader US involvement in Israel’s war if Iran attempts to strike back, and in recent days suggested that one of the targets for US bombers would be the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s other principal weapon, built up over decades, is its network of alliances with regional militias, its “axis of resistance” but that too has been depleted. Hezbollah’s extensive missile arsenal was pulverised by the Israeli air force last year. Israeli planes have returned to keep the Lebanese Shia force in check, bombing an alleged missile stockpile in south Beirut in April.

A Tehran-backed Shia militia in Iraq, Kata’ib Hezbollah, has threatened to target “US interests” in the Middle East in response to Washington’s participation in Israel’s support. One of its commanders, Abu Ali al-Askari, was quoted on CNN as saying that US bases in the region “will become akin to duck-hunting grounds”. The United States has military facilities across at least nineteen sites across the Middle East, eight of them permanent.

New Republic -    Despite the extremely stiff competition, it’s fair to say that Donald Trump may be about to win the historical contest to become the all-time “Bibi’s Lapdog” among American presidents. 

After repeatedly rejecting the idea of joining with Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and distancing himself when it finally happened, then reversing himself again to take partial credit for it, Trump appears to be ready to go one massive step further and turn the Israeli attack into a full-fledged American war.

To be more than fair to two profoundly corrupt leaders who don’t remotely deserve it, this is alas nothing new: Israeli prime ministers who bend American presidents to their will have a long and distinguished pedigree. The last U.S. president to stand up to Israel and demand that it reverse itself in a matter of war was Dwight Eisenhower, who, after the 1956 Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt over the closing of the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, insisted on an immediate withdrawal. (It did not endear Israel to Eisenhower that he was trying to focus the world on Moscow’s invasion of Hungary at the same time.) Even then, France and England immediately complied. Israel took its time and eventually extracted most of the concessions it wanted from the U.S. 

The Guardian -   American politicians reacted to the news of the US bombing of nuclear targets in Iran with a mix of cheering support and instant condemnation, reflecting deep divisions in the country that cross party lines as Washington grapples with yet another military intervention overseas....

The move sparked condemnation from Democratic California congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive in the party who has been critical of any US military action against Iran. Khanna and hard-right Republican congressman Thomas Massie were planning to introduce a measure that would force Trump to get congressional approval to enter Israel’s conflict with Iran.

Khanna posted on X that Congress needed to vote on such action.  “Trump struck Iran without any authorization of Congress. We need to immediately return to DC and vote on @RepThomasMassie and my War Powers Resolution to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war,” he said.

Massie himself tweeted on X: “This is not Constitutional.”

Massie and Khanna represent a rare moment of cross party cooperation in the deeply divided US political landscape, though some other Republicans also expressed doubt. Far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – a stalwart of Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) politics – has been critical of any US attack on Iran and posted simply on X: “Let us all join together and pray for peace.”

US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, demanded of Senate majority leader and South Dakota Republican John Thune that he should immediately call a vote on the matter.

Schumer said the US Congress must enforce the War Powers Act “and I’m urging leader Thune to put it on the Senate floor immediately”. The law is also known as the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and is intended as a check on the US president’s power to devote the United States to armed conflict without the consent of the US Congress.

Meanwhile, at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday, on his “fighting oligarchy” tour, leftist Vermont senator Bernie Sanders read out Trump’s statement announcing the attack, prompting boos and rapid, loud chanting of “no more war” from the crowd. Sanders said: “I agree.”

He then called the attack “alarming” and added: “It is so grossly unconstitutional”.

New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went further and called for Trump’s impeachment – something that has been tried twice before. “The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” she said on X.

Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, said Trump had “misled” Americans. “The risk of war has now dramatically increased, and I pray for the safety of our troops in the region who have been put in harm’s way,” he said in a statement.

He added: “Trump misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East.”...

Other Democrats also came out strongly against the attack, echoing Khanna’s stance. “President Trump has no constitutional authority to take us to war with Iran without authorization from Congress, and Congress has not authorized it,” said Virginia congressman Don Beyer.

Illinois congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi told the Guardian: “If Iran was not fully committed to building a nuclear bomb in an accelerated timeframe I’d be shocked if they are not now – have we just unleashed something that’s worse than what was happening before?”

However, the strike on Iran also had support among some Democrats, notably Pennsylvania Democratic senator John Fetterman, who has been a hawkish supporter of Israel and advocated for the US to join Israel’s assault on Iran.

“This was the correct move by @POTUS. Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities,” Fetterman posted.

More predictably, hawks among Republican ranks reacted to the attack with congratulations to Trump for making the decision to intervene.

“This was the right call. The regime deserves it. Well done, President @realDonaldTrump. To my fellow citizens: We have the best Air Force in the world. It makes me so proud. Fly, Fight, Win,” said Iran hawk South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who has long advocated for taking a hard line in support of Israel’s attack on Iran, on X.