US strike on Iran escalates conflict and ignites fears of wider war

Key topics:US bombers destroy Iran's key nuclear sites, Trump threatens more strikesIran vows retaliation; risks rise for US troops, oil prices, and regional warGlobal fears grow as Trump defies allies, escalating US role in conflict.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Akayla Gardner and Arsalan Shahla.US President Donald Trump said American bombers struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites and threatened more attacks if Tehran doesn’t capitulate, pulling the US directly into the country’s conflict with Israel despite his longtime promises to avoid new wars.Addressing the nation, Trump said Iran’s “key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He threatened “far greater” attacks if Iran doesn’t now make peace, raising the specter of even deeper US involvement in the Middle Eastern conflict.Trump had said earlier in a social media post that a “payload of BOMBS” was dropped on Fordow, the uranium-enrichment site buried deep under a mountain and seen as vulnerable only to “bunker buster” munitions that the US possesses. Natanz and Isfahan, two other sites, were also struck.“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” Trump said. “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater — and a lot easier.”Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the US’s move is “outrageous and will have everlasting consequences.”“Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people,” he said.Tehran’s nuclear regulatory agency said there was no sign of radiation contamination at the sites and that it had take precautions in anticipation of an attack..Read more:.Tehran under siege: Iran’s uncertain future amid escalating Israeli strikes.Nonetheless, the move marks an extraordinary escalation by the president after Israel began airstrikes across Iran on June 13. It amounts to the most serious foreign-policy decision of his two terms so far.Trump’s decision goes against the advice of US allies in Europe and the Middle East, as well as the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. Known as the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has repeatedly warned that nuclear facilities must not be attacked given the potential for radiation leaks.Iran has long said it doesn’t want a nuclear bomb, and Trump’s own intelligence agencies had assessed recently it still hadn’t committed to developing such a weapon. Trump, however, had dismissed those findings and had declined to rule out joining the Israeli strikes, which had also killed several prominent Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.Fears about Iran’s nuclear program among Western and Arab nations have grown in recent years because the Islamic Republic has enriched uranium far beyond the levels needed for civilian purposes such as fueling nuclear power plants. It’s processing uranium almost to the levels needed to make a bomb, without giving a clear reason why..The US strikes could lead to attacks on American assets in the Middle East. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Washington of “irreparable damage” if it bombed his country.The US will likely have to put its troops on high alert. It has around 50,000 service members in the region, the bulk being in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.Qatar hosts the largest US base in the area. Called Al Udeid, it’s also the regional headquarters for US Central Command, which oversees the American military in the Middle East. Bahrain is the site of the US’s main naval base there.Trump’s combative language in the last couple of days had also triggered new threats from the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. The president agreed a ceasefire with the Houthis in early May. If that falls apart, US naval ships in the Red Sea could once again come under assault from the group’s drones and missiles.Iran’s retaliation could also come in the form of cyber attacks against American or Israeli interests.It’s also possible that Tehran opts to leave the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, according to Ali Vaez, the director of the International Crisis Group’s Iran Project and a long-time analyst of the country’s atomic program. The NPT is the bedrock arms-control agreement that compels signatories to accept inspections from the IAEA. If Iran left, the world would get even less information about what remains of its atomic sites.Earlier Saturday, the State Department said the US had begun evacuating US citizens from Israel. The agency organized two flights to Athens from Tel Aviv with about 70 US citizens, family members and permanent residents.“I hope that the Iranians are measured in their response but there will be a response,” said Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center. “This is an act of war by the United States against a foreign country which has not attacked us lately. Americans are at risk all over the Middle East, all over the world.”Citing a US official it didn’t identify, the New York Times reported that six B-2 bombers dropped a dozen of the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Fordow. It said two other B-2s dropped bunker-busters on Natanz and fired cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan.Israel was notified in advance of the strikes, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. Trump spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the attacks, a senior White House official said. Netanyahu later said the US and Israel had coordinated fully on them.Fears of an impending strike had eased after Trump’s team said on Thursday he would make a decision within two weeks. On Friday, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK met their Iranian counterpart, Araghchi, in Geneva to try to get Tehran to restart nuclear talks with the US.Iran had been in negotiations with the US for about two months, but called them off after Israel started bombing its territory. The two have made some progress toward a deal that would curb Tehran’s atomic activities in return for sanctions relief, but stalled on enrichment. Iran insisted it must be allowed to continue that process, even if to the low level needed for civilian purposes. Trump and Israel said it shouldn’t be able to carry out any enrichment at all.Energy PricesThe war between Israel and Iran had evoked fears of a regional conflict that results in massive civilian casualties, and disrupts the flow of energy and other trade through the region. Those concerns among world powers and investors will only increase..Read more:.The Economist: How the Arab world sees the Israel/Iran War - a spectator sport with scary consequences..The most immediate impact on the global economy could be through higher oil and liquefied natural gas prices. About a fifth of the world’s daily oil supply goes through the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbors such as Saudi Arabia. One option for Iran would be to hit or hassle crude and LNG tankers passing through the area.For days, Trump had faced conflicting advice from his supporters, after he campaigned on promises to keep the US out of foreign wars, pointing to American involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq this century. MAGA allies, including longtime Trump supporter Steve Bannon, have warned against any US intervention, insisting this is Israel’s fight to finish.Other Republicans urged Trump to join the fight against Iran, arguing that Tehran was more vulnerable following Israel’s attacks. They said it was an opportunity to deliver on the president’s pledge that Iran’s regime would never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.Trump and his advisers suggested in recent days that any strike would be limited. Trump briefed Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to people familiar with the matter.“This is not the start of a forever war,” Senator Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on X. “There will not be American boots on the ground in Iran. This was a precise, limited strike, which was necessary and by all accounts was very successful.”Israel said its attacks on Iran were aimed at setting back or destroying its nuclear program. Those seriously damaged Iranian military sites and some nuclear facilities. They also neutralized Iran’s air defenses, given Israeli planes dominance over Iran’s airspace and making a US strike easier.Israel needed the US because it lacked the heavy bombs and B-2 stealth jets required to destroy nuclear sites buried deep underground at Fordow and Natanz..Natanz’s above-ground facilities were already damaged by Israeli strikes, but not its enrichment sites underground. Fordow was likely unscathed by Israel’s attacks.Tehran responded to Israeli bombing by firing waves of ballistic missiles and drones at the Jewish state.While around 24 people have been killed in Israel and hundreds injured, according to the government, Iran’s attacks have waned in recent days, suggesting its trying to preserve its weaponry.Iran’s government says at least 200 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israel’s attacks.“Iran is going to be facing a real dilemma, because they’ve already been dramatically weakened,” said Dennis Ross, who served as former US President Bill Clinton’s Middle East envoy and is now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They will try to do something to show they didn’t just capitulate or submit, but they have their own interest in trying to limit this.”Iran’s ability to react may be limited by its economic weakness, with inflation running at around 40%. It is also largely isolated internationally. While allies such as Russia and China condemned Israel’s strikes and warned against US intervention, they’ve offered little concrete support to Tehran..© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

US strike on Iran escalates conflict and ignites fears of wider war

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