UPDATE 4:15 p.m. PT:
Hours after Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary, generals and other cabinet members sought to assuage fears of another Middle East quagmire by saying the U.S. involvement in Iran would be limited, the president signaled on his Truth Social platform that he may have other ambitions.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!,” Trump posted Sunday afternoon.
The president’s apparent desire to broaden the conflict’s scope – which his lieutenants said Sunday morning would limited to its nuclear program – came less than 24 hours after the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear sites.
On Sunday morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio vehemently denied that the Trump Administration was seeking regime change in Iran, bristling at the suggestion by host Margaret Brennan, shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the conflict “is most certainly not open-ended.
UPDATE 12:50 p.m. PT:
At a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on Sunday, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said there is still a path for diplomacy, calling on Iran to return to the table to negotiate its nuclear program.
“Any arrangement will have as a prerequisite the establishment of the facts on the ground. This can be done only with I.A.E.A. inspectors,” he said, adding that hostilities would need to end before inspectors could come in to assess the damage and state of Iran’s nuclear sites.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres also addressed the Security Council, saying that the Middle East “cannot endure another cycle of destruction, and yet we now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation. … To avoid it, diplomacy must prevail.”
PREVIOUSLY:
U.S. military officials said Sunday that airstrikes caused “severe damage” to three key nuclear sites in Iran, but it was too soon to determine the scope of its remaining nuclear capabilities, walking back President Trump’s declaration from the night before that the facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.”
In a morning press conference, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said damage assessment showed all three sites sustained “severe damage and destruction,” while a senior U.S. official told the New York Times that the bunker-buster bomb attack had not destroyed the heavily fortified Fordow site, buried deep within the mountains of norther Iran.
Trump said in his Saturday night address that “the bully of the Middle East,” must “now make peace … If they do not, future attacks will be far greater – and a lot easier.” On Sunday morning, Vice President JD Vance sought to ease fears of an escalating conflict in the Middle East, saying “We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”
At the Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the conflict “is most certainly not open-ended,” adding that Trump had given him “a focused, powerful and clear mission” that was limited to the overnight strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a different tone Sunday, thanking President Trump and saying that Israel was very close to its goal of neutralizing Iran’s nuclear threat – but that the fighting will not end until “the goals have been achieved.”
Israel continued Sunday to strike targets in Iran, around ballistic missile sites in central Iran. IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said that despite the damage caused through the weekend, “the regime still maintains capabilities.”
This story will be updated …
