Within the hours after its army strikes on Iranian nuclear websites, U.S. officers prompt Iran should embrace a diplomatic off-ramp quite than selecting to retaliate.
“Iran, the bully of the Center East, should now make peace,” President Donald Trump mentioned late Saturday in an handle to the nation, flanked by Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“This can’t proceed. There can be both peace or there can be tragedy for Iran far higher than we now have witnessed during the last eight days,” Trump mentioned.
U.S. officers on Sunday morning doubled down on the president’s message, calling for a diplomatic course of and threatening Iran with extra army motion ought to it select to retailiate for the U.S. assault.
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks throughout a information convention on the Pentagon, June 22, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Photos
Vance prompt the U.S. was not taken with a broader battle or a battle past its strikes on the Iranian nuclear program.
“We’re not at battle with Iran; we’re at battle with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vance mentioned on ABC Information’ “This Week.”
At a Pentagon news conference, Hegseth mentioned the nuclear program was “the road the president set” and that the “overwhelming” army motion ought to invite peace.
“Iran, in that sense, has a alternative,” Hegseth mentioned. “However we have made it very clear to them — that is nuclear websites, that is nuclear capabilities. That is the road that the president set, and we set that again.”
“Now could be the time to come back ahead for peace,” he mentioned.
The protection secretary didn’t make clear any potential parameters for negotiations however mentioned the U.S. was sending messages on to Iran and “giving them each alternative to come back to the desk.”
“They perceive exactly what the American place is, exactly what steps they will take to permit for peace, and we hope they accomplish that,” he mentioned.
Hegseth mentioned the scope of the U.S. assault — which struck three nuclear websites together with the uranium enrichment facility situated deep underground in Fordo — was “deliberately restricted” and never aimed toward “regime change.”
Trump ordered that the offensive “is most actually not open-ended,” Hegseth mentioned, calling the assault “a targeted, highly effective and clear mission on the destruction of Iranian nuclear capabilities.”
“These have been the targets. That is what was struck. That was overwhelming,” the protection secretary mentioned.
Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, informed reporters on the Pentagon on Sunday that the U.S. was ready for a possible response from Iran.
Caine mentioned “any Iranian retaliation or proxy assaults…can be an extremely poor alternative,” and Hegseth famous U.S. and allies’ property close to Iran.
The secretary mentioned the strikes — which included 14 huge ordnances flown by seven stealth bombers — “devastated” their targets and left Tehran’s nuclear ambitions “obliterated.”
Caine mentioned a harm evaluation was “way too early” to report, however mentioned the operation had “severely broken” the focused amenities.
The president prompt Saturday that Iranian retaliation would quantity to an escalation and would warrant U.S. assaults which might be “far worse” than the strikes on nuclear websites.
As a substitute, Trump, Vance, Rubio and Hegseth are signaling to Iran that it ought to return to the negotiating desk to debate Iran’s nuclear program.
The U.S. and Iran held 5 rounds of diplomatic talks — with a sixth spherical scheduled — earlier than Israel attacked Iran final week and the U.S. joined with strikes of its personal on Saturday.
“I believe it’s irrelevant to ask Iran to return to diplomacy as a result of we have been in the course of diplomacy,” Iranian Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned Sunday.
“We have been in the course of talks with america when [the] Israelis blew it up. And once more, we have been in the course of talks and negotiation with Europeans, [which] occurred solely two days in the past in Geneva, when this time People determined to blow it up,” he mentioned,– referencing his unexpectedly organized conferences with European leaders on Friday.
“So we have been in diplomacy. However we have been attacked,” he added.
Rubio, America’s high diplomat, characterised these talks as delaying ways by Tehran.
“They play too many video games,” he mentioned Sunday on Fox Information. “They use diplomacy to cover behind and obfuscate and assume they will purchase themselves time. They assume they’re cute, they are not cute, and so they’re not going to get away with these items, not underneath President Trump.”
Rubio mentioned repeatedly that regime change was not the target of the assaults, however he prompt a renewed Iranian nuclear buildup would change Washington’s calculus.
“If Iran is dedicated to turning into a nuclear-weapons energy, I do assume it places the regime in danger. I believe it could be the top of the regime in the event that they tried to do this,” he mentioned.
