US assessing bomb damage to Iran nuclear sites

Trump claims this weekend's US bombing obliterated Tehran's nuclear program, while JD Vance insists the US is 'not at war with Iran'

President Donald Trump in the White House Situation Room
The Trump administration has given the public 'conflicting' messages about the scope of US involvement
(Image credit: Daniel Torok / The White House via Getty Images)

What happened

President Donald Trump said Sunday night that the U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday resulted in the "obliteration" of Tehran's nuclear program. The U.S. military and the United Nations said it was too soon to assess the damage. Vice President J.D. Vance insisted the U.S. was "not at war with Iran," just "Iran's nuclear program," and he and other Cabinet officials stated on TV that the Trump administration was not aiming for "regime change." But Trump Sunday night said toppling the "current Iranian regime" was certainly on the table.

Who said what

The Trump administration's "conflicting" messages about the scope of U.S. involvement "highlights the difficulty" it faces as it "tries to navigate the fallout" from "its massive strike on Iran" and "mollify the factions of the MAGA base" opposed to joining Israel's war, Politico said. This is a "risky moment for Trump," The Associated Press said, especially as he has long "belittled his predecessors for tying up America in 'stupid wars'" in the Middle East.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that initial assessments indicated "extremely severe damage and destruction" at the three nuclear facilities — Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — hit by 30,000-pound U.S. "bunker-buster" bombs and Tomahawk missiles. But Rafael Grossi, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, said that "at this time, no one, including the IAEA, is in a position to assess the underground damage" at the sites.

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U.S. officials also "conceded they did not know the whereabouts of Iran's supply of near-bomb-grade uranium," The New York Times said. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that the highly enriched uranium had been moved to undisclosed locations before the attack, a claim deemed probably true by outside experts and Israeli officials and bolstered by satellite photos.

What next?

At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Sunday, Iran's ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the U.S. had "recklessly chosen to sacrifice its own security merely to safeguard" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Tehran's military will decide the "timing, nature and scale of Iran's proportionate response." U.S. intelligence officials had "already detected signs that Iran-backed militias were preparing to attack U.S. bases in Iraq, and possibly Syria," the Times said.

Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.