U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Saturday that the military has started “major combat operations” in Iran.
In a video message on his Truth Social account, Trump said, “Our goal is to protect the American people by getting rid of immediate threats from the Iranian regime, which is made up of awful, cruel people.”
The Reuters news agency said that a U.S. source earlier confirmed that American forces attacked Iran by sea and air.
An unnamed Iranian source told Reuters that several ministries in the southern part of Tehran, the capital of Iran, were attacked.
The news said that people heard explosions in important towns in the Middle East.
Trump said that Iran has kept working on nuclear weapons even though talks to stop its program are still going on.
“We wiped out the regime’s nuclear program at Fordow Nets during operation midnight hammer in June of last year.” Isfahan as well. “After that attack, we told them they should never go back to their evil plans to get nuclear weapons, and we tried many times to make a deal,” Trump said. “But Iran said no.”
He said, “Instead, they tried to rebuild their nuclear program and keep working on the long-range missiles that can now threaten our good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed abroad, and could soon reach the United States.”
A Pentagon press officer on duty said that the department had gotten CNBC’s emails asking for comment but did not say anything else.
Israel attacked Iran’s capital during the day on Saturday, and the Associated Press said that a cloud of smoke rose from the city’s center.
It wasn’t clear what the goal was at first. To try to get Iran to agree to a deal about its nuclear program, the US has sent a huge fleet of fighter jets and warships to the area. This is when the attack happened.
Israel Katz, the defense minister of Israel, said that the attack was done “to get rid of threats.” He didn’t say more right away.
The Israel Defense Forces said they knew which rockets came from Iran and were aimed at Israel.
“Defense systems are working to stop the threat.” “Within the last few minutes, the Home Front Command has sent a safety message directly to cell phones in the affected areas,” the IDF said in a tweet.
When talks between the US and Iran were almost over, a top Middle Eastern diplomat told MS Now, “Yet again when negotiations get close to success… Israel has stepped in to preempt diplomacy.”
In Tehran, sirens were heard.
The blast was heard in Tehran. Later, Iranian state TV talked about the blast without saying what caused it.
All over Israel, sirens went off at the same time. The military in Israel said it had sent out a “proactive alert” to get people ready for the chance of missiles being fired at the state of Israel.
Bahrain said that missiles were fired at the service center of the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
A security alert was sent out by the U.S. embassy in Manama, the city of Bahrain, saying that there would be a “imminent drone/missile attack in Bahrain.”
In a tweet, the embassy told “U.S. citizens in Bahrain to stay put, review their security plans in case of an attack, and stay alert in case there are more attacks in the future.” People working at the U.S. Embassy are staying put.
A “shelter-in-place” warning was also sent out by the U.S. embassy in Abu Dhabi, which is the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
As soon as the attacks began, airlines began changing the routes of planes.
Emirates, a company based in Dubai, said it is “adjusting our operations in line with the latest developments.”
Reuters reported that Lufthansa said it would stop flying to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut, and Oman until March 7. KLM, a Dutch airline, is said to have canceled flights from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv.
Trump said in the beginning of February that “really bad things” would happen if Iran did not agree to a deal about its nuclear program. People launched the attack after a lot of military equipment was sent to the oil-rich Middle East.
The United States and Iran held their third round of talks in Switzerland on Thursday to try to end their standoff.
Before the talks, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was a “big, big problem” that Iran didn’t want to talk about its nuclear program or its work on ballistic missiles. Iran had said it was ready to make concessions on its nuclear program, but it had said over and over that the talks had never been about Tehran’s missile program.
Before, when the White House said that Iran wasn’t meeting its main demands after past talks, there were signs that Washington was losing patience with Iran.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier in February, Iran is said to have said that it would react “decisively” to military aggression.
People in the energy market have been paying close attention to the rising global tensions. After Trump’s speech, oil prices hit their highest level in six months out of fear of a possible supply shock.
Iran is one of the founding members of OPEC. It is a big oil producer and lies at the center of the Strait of Hormuz, which about 20% of the world’s oil passes through.
In June of last year, the U.S. attacked three Iranian nuclear sites, which intelligence showed did a lot of damage to Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran reacted by attacking an American air base in Qatar as a form of retaliation. The attack was said to have caused minor damage but no injuries.
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