Tehran, June 22: Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Sunday issued a scathing condemnation of the United States, accusing it of committing a “grave violation” of the UN Charter, international law, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) after American forces, in coordination with Israel, carried out precision military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Araghchi’s strong response followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement late Saturday that the United States had struck the Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan nuclear sites in a joint operation with Israel.

The move marks a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict, which began when Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran on June 13.

“The United States, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has committed a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT by attacking Iran’s peaceful nuclear installations,” Araghchi posted on X.

“The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences. Each and every member of the UN must be alarmed over this extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behaviour,” he added.

Invoking Iran’s right under international law, he warned, “In accordance with the UN Charter and its provisions allowing a legitimate response in self-defence, Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.”

Hours earlier, Trump hailed the US military’s execution of the operation, declaring it a necessary action to prevent Iran from advancing its nuclear capabilities.

Addressing a media briefing just hours after the strikes on Saturday (US time), Trump stated, “I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on a operation, the likes of which the world has not seen in many many decades. Hopefully we no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope so.”

“This cannot continue. There will either be peace or tragedy for Iran, far greater than what we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left.”

The US President asserted that the strikes were aimed at crippling Iran’s “nuclear enrichment capacity and put a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”

Despite weeks of diplomatic efforts to renegotiate a nuclear agreement with Tehran — following the US withdrawal from the 2015 accord in 2018 — Trump has now thrown full support behind Israel’s military campaign against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and high-ranking military officials, a campaign launched a little over a week ago.

In his statement, Trump extended gratitude to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, “I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team, like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done.”

The air conflict between the two nations erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a surprise strike on Iran.

Israeli authorities claimed the offensive was a preemptive measure to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons — an ambition Iran has consistently denied.

The conflict has since raised tensions across the region, already on edge following Israel’s prolonged war in Gaza since October 2023.

The latest exchange has now drawn in the United States in a direct military capacity.

Iranian state media confirmed that parts of the Fordow nuclear facility were hit in what it called “enemy strikes,” though further details on the extent of the damage remain limited.

New Delhi, June 22: Iran has launched a fresh wave of missiles toward Israel in what appears to be a sharp retaliation following U.S. airstrikes on three of its most critical nuclear sites. Multiple blasts over Jerusalem were heard. This comes shortly after the Israel Defence Forces’ warning of incoming Iranian missiles.

According to CNN, Israel’s military confirmed the attack early Sunday and urged citizens to immediately seek shelter. “A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the Israel defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement carried by CNN. “Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” it added, urging the public to enter a protected space and remain there until further notice.”

This marks the first missile barrage from Tehran since U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that American B-2 bombers had struck Iran’s Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities. The escalation has now thrown the region into a dangerous new phase of conflict, prompting fears of a broader war.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), strongly condemned the U.S. strikes, calling them a “grave violation” of international norms. “The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences,” Araghchi said. “Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.”

He further accused Washington of breaching the UN Charter and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT): “The United States, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has committed a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT by attacking Iran’s peaceful nuclear installations,” reports CNN.

While Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful energy purposes, international experts have long expressed concerns. The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has noted that Iran possesses uranium enrichment capabilities unmatched by any other non-nuclear weapons state.

The U.S. strikes, confirmed by the President of the U.S., BBC and Reuters, targeted three of Iran’s most fortified nuclear installations:

Fordo, a deeply buried enrichment facility carved into a mountain near Qom; Natanz, the centerpiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts; and Isfahan, home to a key uranium conversion plant.

According to the BBC, the attack was carried out using B-2 Spirit stealth bombers equipped with the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator — the only weapon capable of breaching the reinforced bunkers at Fordo. In a live address from the White House, President Trump, flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, declared the mission a resounding success. ” Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” Trump sadi in his White House statement. Earlier, B-2 bombers were quietly repositioned to Guam, raising speculation of an impending strike. Now that the attacks have taken place, observers say the geopolitical stakes have dramatically shifted.

Across Asia people woke up to news that the Fordo site, housing Iran’s most secretive enrichment efforts had been hit. The immediate question, analysts say, is whether this U.S. action brings the Israel-Iran conflict closer to resolution, or whether it marks the beginning of a far more dangerous and unpredictable phase. For now, the skies above Israel are once again lit up by missile defence systems, as fallout from a widened war that enters into ninth day continues to unfold.

Dubai, June 22: Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 865 people and wounded 3,396 others, a human rights group said Sunday.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 363 civilians and 215 security force personnel being killed.

Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. On Saturday, Iran’s Health Ministry said some 400 Iranians had been killed and another 3,056 wounded in the Israeli strikes.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Airport Authority announced Sunday it was closing the country’s airspace to both inbound and outbound flights in the wake of the US.attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.

The agency said it was shutting down air traffic “due to recent developments” and did not say for how long.

The US struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel’s war aimed at destroying the country’s nuclear programme in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe despite fears of a wider regional conflict.

Iran said there were “no signs of contamination” at its nuclear sites at Isfahan, Fordo or Natanz after U.S. airstrikes targeted the facilities.

Iranian state media quoted the country’s National Nuclear Safety System Centre, which published a statement saying its radiation detectors had recorded no radioactive release after the strikes.

“There is no danger to the residents living around the aforementioned sites,” the statement added.

Earlier Israeli airstrikes on nuclear sites similarly have caused no recorded release of radioactive material into the environment around the facilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said.

United Nations, June 22: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he was “gravely alarmed” by the “dangerous escalation” of American bombers attacking nuclear sites in Iran.

“There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control – with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world,” he said in a statement.

He added that “at this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos” and called for further diplomacy.

Tel Aviv, Jun 22: The US military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel’s war aimed at destroying the country’s nuclear programme in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.

President Donald Trump said Iran’s key nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated,” and he warned Iran against carrying out retaliatory attacks, saying the US could hit more targets “with precision, speed and skill.”

“There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” Trump said in an address to the nation from the White House.

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran confirmed that attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz sites, but it insisted that its work will not be stopped.

The decision to directly involve the US in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that aimed to systematically eradicate the country’s air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.

But US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound (13,500-kilogramme) bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump said in a post on social media. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.”

Trump added in a later post: “This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s decision to attack in a video message directed at the American president.

“Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history,” he said. Netanyahu said the US “has done what no other country on earth could do.”

The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation. But Fox News host Sean Hannity said shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern that he had spoken with Trump and that six bunker buster bombs were used on the Fordo facility. Hannity said 30 Tomahawk missiles fired by U.S. submarines 400 miles away struck the Iranian nuclear sites of Natanz and Isfahan.

The strikes are a perilous decision, as Iran has pledged to retaliate if the U.S. joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally. He won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he was “gravely alarmed” by the “dangerous escalation” of American strikes.

“There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control — with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world,” he said in a statement.

Trump told reporters Friday that he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran, saying it’s “the last thing you want to do.” He had previously indicated that he would make a final choice over the course of two weeks.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States on Wednesday that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them.” And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”

Trump has vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, and he had initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country’s leaders to give up its nuclear programme peacefully.

The Israeli military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran’s foreign minister warned before the U.S. attack that American military involvement “would be very, very dangerous for everyone.”

The prospect of a wider war loomed. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would resume attacks on US vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel’s military campaign. The Houthis paused such attacks in May under a deal with the US.

The US ambassador to Israel announced that the US had begun “assisted departure flights,” the first from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump planned to make his decision on the strikes within two weeks. Instead, he struck just two days later.

Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran’s nuclear programme, perhaps permanently.

The Israelis say their offensive has already crippled Iran’s air defences, allowing them to already significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites.

But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel appealed to Trump for the bunker-busting American bomb known as the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The bomb is currently delivered only by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is only found in the American arsenal.

If deployed in the attack, it would be the first combat use of the weapon.

The bomb carries a conventional warhead, and is believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility.

Previous Israeli strikes at another Iranian nuclear site, Natanz, on a centrifuge site have caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area, the IAEA has said.

Trump’s decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear programme.

For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.

The US in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and US bases from Iranian attacks.

All the while, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a “second chance” for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.

“We know exactly where the so-called Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said in a social media posting. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

The military showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, U.S. and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.

Trump has bristled at criticism from some of his MAGA faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further US involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end US involvement in expensive and endless wars.