US President Donald Trump said he had “obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites in strikes overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.

Trump, in a televised address to the US people, called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and warned Tehran against retaliation, saying it would face more devastating attacks if it did not agree to peace.

Iran, which has responded to Israel’s sudden blitz on its nuclear and military apparatus since June 13 with missile fire on Israeli cities, called the US attack a grave violation of international law that would have “everlasting consequences”.

“Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest and people,” wrote Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a social media post, noting that the Israeli and US attacks on Iran came despite ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran.

The US strikes, with bunker-buster bombs and Tomahawk missiles, pushes the Middle East to the brink of a major new conflagration in a region already aflame for more than 20 months with wars in Gaza and Lebanon and a toppled dictator in Syria.

The Islamic Republic has been a sworn enemy of both Israel and the United States since its 1979 revolution, and the eruption of open warfare after decades of proxy shadow-fighting could have vast unforeseen consequences.

While Western hawks have long hoped military action against Iran’s clerical rulers would spark an internal revolt and regime change, opponents of the idea fear it could instead push Iran to accelerate its atomic programme or trigger chaos and bloodshed that could spill well beyond its borders.

CBS News reported that Washington had contacted Tehran to say it did not aim for regime change. However, Trump said Iran’s future held “either peace of tragedy” and “if peace does not come quickly we will go after those other targets”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on a “bold decision”.

Nuclear sites

Trump’s decision is the biggest foreign policy gamble of his two presidencies and he was flanked during the announcement by Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

He said US bombing had taken out Iran’s three principal nuclear sites: Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, which are involved in production or storage of enriched uranium, a material used as fuel for power plants but also to make atomic warheads.

Trump told Fox News that “bunker-buster” bombs were dropped on the deep-underground Fordow site, where it may be days before the impact of the attack is known, and Tomahawk missiles were fired against the other facilities.

The UN nuclear watchdog said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the U.S. strikes, and the agency’s head Rafael Grossi said he was calling an emergency meeting of its 35-nation board of governors for Monday.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack and the number of nuclear personnel there had been reduced to a minimum.

Mohammad Manan Raisi, a member of parliament for Qom, near Fordow, told the semi-official Fars news agency the facility had not been seriously damaged, without elaborating.

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said it would not allow development of its “national industry” to be stopped.

The head of the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy committee said Tehran had a legal right to quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the document that allows it rights to a civilian atomic programme while barring it from seeking a bomb.