Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in his first remarks since the US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites, said the attack revealed that Washington is the main force behind Israel’s military campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Quoted by state news agency IRNA, Pezeshkian said the United States “joined the arena after witnessing Israel’s impotence.”
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“This aggression showed that America is the main factor behind the Zionist regime’s hostile actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Pezeshkian said.
The United States has entered the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, launching airstrikes on three major nuclear sites in Iran overnight.
US President Donald Trump declared that the facilities were “completely and fully obliterated” and warned that further strikes would follow if Iran chose to retaliate.
The American intervention follows a week of intense hostilities between Israel and Iran, ignited by a sudden wave of Israeli strikes on June 13 targeting Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure.
Read: Iran reacts to EU’s negotiation call after US strikes: ‘Can’t return to something it never left’
Those Israeli attacks killed several senior military officials and nuclear scientists. In response, Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, with some breaching the country’s advanced multi-layered air defence system.
The ongoing conflict has so far claimed hundreds of lives and injured more than 1,000 people in Iran, while in Israel, over two dozen have been killed and hundreds wounded.
Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes. However, Israel considers it an existential threat and argues that its military campaign is essential to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
While US intelligence agencies assess that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb, President Donald Trump and Israeli officials claim Iran could quickly assemble one, posing an imminent danger.
Tensions in the region have remained high over the past two years, as Israel wages a military campaign to destroy Hamas, an Iranian ally in Gaza, following the group’s October 7, 2023 assault on southern Israel.
Trump calls Iran strikes a ‘spectacular success’
In a televised address from the White House, Trump announced the overnight “massive precision strikes” on Iran’s Fordo, Isfahan, and Natanz nuclear facilities. He hailed the operation as “a spectacular military success” and declared the sites “completely and fully obliterated.” Trump added that Iran would now “have to make peace.”
Read more: Satellite images show trail of destruction at Iran’s Fordo nuclear site after US strike
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization confirmed the attacks but asserted that its nuclear programme would continue. Both Iranian authorities and the UN nuclear watchdog reported no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the targeted sites.
With agencies inputs
