WASHINGTON: Iran on Sunday (Jun 22) threatened US bases in the Middle East after massive air strikes that Washington said had destroyed Tehran’s nuclear programme, though some officials cautioned that the extent of damage was unclear.
International concern focused on fears that the unprecedented US attacks would deepen conflict in the volatile region after Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran earlier this month.
Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said bases used by US forces could be attacked in retaliation.
“Any country in the region or elsewhere that is used by American forces to strike Iran will be considered a legitimate target for our armed forces,” he said in a message carried by the official IRNA news agency.
“America has attacked the heart of the Islamic world and must await irreparable consequences.”
US President Donald Trump urged Iran to end the conflict after he launched surprise strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.
“We had a spectacular military success yesterday, taking the ‘bomb’ right out of their hands (and they would use it if they could!)” he said on social media.
And while Trump did not directly advocate regime change in the Islamic republic, he openly played with the idea – even after his aides stressed that was not a goal of American intervention.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “But if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing earlier that Iran’s nuclear programme had been “devastated,” adding the operation “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people”.
Standing beside Hegseth, top US general Dan Caine said that while it would be “way too early” for him to determine the level of destruction, “initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction”.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said his country’s military strikes will “finish”, once the stated objectives of destroying Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities have been achieved.
“We are very, very close to completing them,” he told reporters.
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