US President Donald Trump urged Iran to accept a nuclear deal to avoid further attacks, hours after Israel bombed the Islamic Republic’s atomic facilities and killed some of its top commanders.
“There is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end,” Trump said on Truth Social. Tehran must make a deal “before it is too late,” he said.
Israel said it struck around 100 targets across Iranian cities on Friday morning, using 200 planes. The attacks, which Israel has said will likely continue over the coming days, caused oil to surge as much as 13 percent, though it later pared its gains, and investors to buy havens such as gold and US Treasuries.
Iran quickly responded by sending a wave of drones toward Israel, though it was unclear if they caused any damage. Some were intercepted over Jordan.
Still, Israel expects Iran to retaliate with more drone strikes and also by firing ballistic missiles, according to a military official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Explosions were heard across Tehran, Natanz – home to a key atomic site – and other cities, according to local and social media. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program.”
The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, and the military’s chief of staff, Mohammad Bagheri, were both killed, according to Iranian media. At least two other senior IRGC members also died.
The United Nations’ atomic watchdog said there were no indications of increased radiation levels at Iran’s main uranium-enrichment site of Natanz, an early sign the strikes haven’t penetrated the layers of steel and concrete protecting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear stockpile.
Still, Netanyahu said the strikes “will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
Iranian media said at least 95 people were wounded and that several residential buildings in the capital’s suburbs were hit. Iran hasn’t yet released an official death toll.
Netanyahu said the opening strikes were “very successful,” adding that Israelis would need to prepare for a retaliation and prepare to spend long periods in shelters.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel will “pay a very heavy price” and should “expect a severe response from Iran’s armed forces.”
While Trump said he knew about Israel’s operations in advance, it’s unclear if he had much notice. As recently as Thursday he’d suggested he was against strikes, saying his administration remained “committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue!”
“Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table,” Trump said to Fox News on Friday.
The US was “not involved” in Israel’s strikes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. Rubio warned Iran against targeting US interests or personnel in retaliation.
The US and Iran were meant to meet for their next round of nuclear talks on Sunday in Oman. It’s unclear if those negotiations will still happen. Oman’s government – in the first comments from a Gulf state – said Israel’s actions were reckless and would undermine regional security.
Other Arab states echoed those comments, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged “all parties to step back and reduce tensions urgently” and said “escalation serves no one in the region.”
Regional Crisis
The attacks on Iran risk plunging the Middle East – which has been mired in various conflicts since militant group Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza in October 2023 – even deeper into crisis and hitting the global economy.
“Risks are high this will escalate into a broader regional conflict,” say Bloomberg Economics analysts including Jennifer Welch, Adam Farrar and Tom Orlik. The clearest hit to the global economy will come via higher energy prices, they said.
Iran said its oil refineries and storage tanks weren’t damaged. Still, Brent crude was up by 8.3 percent to $75 a barrel as of 10:41 a.m. in London.
“Israel’s alarming decision to launch airstrikes on Iran is a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence,” Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. He said Trump and other nations need to push for “diplomatic de-escalation before this crisis spirals further out of control.”
Republican politicians refrained from criticizing Israel and largely said the country was provoked by Iran.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was a “preemptive strike,” with the country’s officials saying they had evidence Iran was planning an attack.
Tehran has repeatedly insisted that its atomic activities are for peaceful, civilian purposes only. But it has significantly expanded uranium enrichment since 2019 – a response to Trump’s withdrawal the year before from a 2015 nuclear deal signed under Barack Obama’s administration.
Efforts by Trump to forge a new deal since he returned to power in January have made stuttering progress. The two sides have struggled to bridge their main dispute. The US – along with Israel – argues that Iran mustn’t be allowed to enrich uranium, while Tehran had said it must retain that right. The Islamic Republic says it needs to process uranium, at least to a low level, for civilian purposes such as fueling nuclear power plants.
Iran had ratcheted up tensions on Thursday, when officials announced they would inaugurate a new uranium-enrichment facility. That was after the International Atomic Energy Agency – the United Nations’ atomic watchdog – said Iran wasn’t complying with its international obligations. The IAEA’s move set Iran up for a potential renewal of widespread UN sanctions.
Shortly before, the US ordered some staff to leave its embassy in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, which neighbors Iran. CBS News reported that was partly down to the US being told Israel was closer to striking Iran.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have soared since Hamas, a Palestinian militant group backed by Tehran, attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023.
The two countries engaged in unprecedented, direct missile and drone attacks on each other in April and October last year. Each time, Israel responded to Iranian strikes – most of which were intercepted – with some of its own.
Israel, however, refrained for hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities, instead concentrating on military targets such as air-defense systems and missile-making factories.
This is the first time Israel has decided to go after Iran’s atomic facilities, which it views as an existential threat, with airstikes.
