US operation against Iran not aimed at regime change, Trump administration says

WASHINGTON: The US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites were not a preamble to regime change, senior officials from President Donald Trump's administration said on Sunday (Jun 22), as Washington pushed for Tehran to forgo a military response and negotiate.

Operation Midnight Hammer was known only to a small number of people in Washington and at the US military's headquarters for Middle East operations in Tampa, Florida.

Complete with deception, seven B-2 bombers flew for 18 hours from the United States into Iran to drop 14 bunker-buster bombs, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, told reporters.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Iran against following through with past threats of retaliation against the United States and said US forces would defend themselves.

"This mission was not and has not been about regime change," Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon.

Vice President JD Vance, in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" show, said the US was not at war with Iran but rather its nuclear program.

Caine said initial battle damage assessments indicated that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction, but he declined to speculate whether any Iranian nuclear capabilities might still be intact.

"I think that we have really pushed their program back by a very long time," Vance said, adding that the US "had no interest in boots on the ground."

In total, the US launched 75 precision-guided munitions, including more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles, and more than 125 military aircraft, in the operation against three nuclear sites, Caine said.

The operation 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.

DAMAGE TO FACILITIES

With the damage visible from space after 30,000-pound US bunker-buster bombs crashed into the mountain above Iran's Fordow nuclear site, experts and officials are closely watching how far the strikes might have set back Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Caine said initial battle damage assessments indicated that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction, but he declined to speculate whether any Iranian nuclear capabilities might still be intact.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi was more cautious, saying while it was clear that US airstrikes hit Iran's enrichment site at Fordow, it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground there.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow, the site producing the bulk of Iran's uranium refined to up to 60 percent, had been moved to an undisclosed location before the US attack there.

Tehran has vowed to defend itself and responded with a volley of missiles at Israel that wounded scores of people and destroyed buildings in its commercial hub Tel Aviv.

But, perhaps in an effort to avert all-out war with the superpower, it had yet to carry out its main threats of retaliation – to target US bases or choke off the quarter of the world's oil shipments that pass through its waters.

Caine said the US military had increased protection of troops in the region, including in Iraq and Syria.

"Our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which would be an incredibly poor choice," Caine said.

The United States already has a sizeable force in the Middle East, with nearly 40,000 troops in the region, including air defence systems, fighter aircraft and warships that can detect and shoot down enemy missiles.

Reuters reported last week that the Pentagon had already started to move some aircraft and ships from bases in the Middle East that may be vulnerable to any potential Iranian attack.

The US State Department on Sunday ordered the departure of family members and non-emergency US government personnel from Lebanon, citing the volatile security situation in the region.

Anti-war activists demonstrated on Sunday afternoon in some US cities, including New York City and Washington, to oppose US involvement in any war with Iran.

Protesters held banners that read "hands off Iran" and "Remember Iraq: no more wars based on lies," in reference to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that was launched citing the threat of weapons of mass destruction, though no such weapons were found.

NOT OPEN ENDED

With his unprecedented decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites, directly joining Israel’s air attack on its regional arch foe, Trump has done something he had long vowed to avoid – intervene militarily in a major foreign war.

It was unclear why Trump chose to act on Saturday.

At the press conference, Hegseth said there was a moment in time "where (Trump) realized that it had to be a certain action taken in order to minimize the threat to us and our troops."

After Trump disputed her original assessment, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday that the US had intelligence that should Iran decide to do so, it could build a nuclear weapon in weeks or months, an assessment disputed by some lawmakers and independent experts. US officials say they do not believe Iran had decided to make a bomb.

Trump, who insisted on Saturday that Iran must now make peace or face further attacks, could provoke Tehran into retaliating by closing the Strait of Hormuz, attacking US military bases and allies in the Middle East, and activating proxy groups against American and Israeli interests worldwide.

The Iranian parliament approved closing the Strait of Hormuz, a potential choke point for oil shipments, but the country's top security body is required to make a final decision, Iran's Press TV reported.

Hegseth, who said the Pentagon notified lawmakers about the operation after US aircraft were out of Iran, said the strikes against Iran were not open-ended.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS' "Face the Nation" that no more strikes were planned, unless Iran responded.

"We have other targets we can hit, but we achieved our objective. There are no planned military operations right now against Iran - unless they mess around," Rubio said.