Middle East on edge after US deploys bunker-busting bombs in Iran airstrikes
The US struck Iranian nuclear facilities in Iran, including the key Fordo site, in a tightly choreographed operation dubbed "Midnight Hammer."
The Pentagon on Sunday confirmed seven B-2 Spirit bombers flew non-stop from a US Air Force base in Missouri to launch the attacks before returning home.
Among the payload were 30,000-pound (13,600-kilo) "bunker-busting" warheads, thought to be the only weapon capable of penetrating deep below the surface to strike at Iran's subterranean nuclear facilities, and a key reason why the US entered into the conflict.
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The US struck Iranian nuclear facilities in Iran, including the key Fordo site, in a tightly choreographed operation dubbed "Midnight Hammer."
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said in comments Sunday that the US did not want a regime change in Tehran. US Vice President JD Vance also said the US was not at war with Iran but at "war with Iran's nuclear program."
Tehran stated that the attack would have "everlasting consequences" and reserved "all options" to defend itself.
Meanwhile, later in the day, Iran's envoy to the UN told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that it called after the US strikes that "Iran had repeatedly warned the warmongering US regime to refrain from stumbling into this quagmire."
Iran's response
The big question now is how Iran will respond.
In Germany, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he viewed the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities positively.
"The key thing, I believe, is first of all that a major threat has been eliminated," Pistorius said in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD.
He added that eliminating this threat was "good news for the Middle East and the Near East, but also for Europe."
The German government earlier called on Iran to "immediately enter negotiations" with Israel and the US and to reach a diplomatic solution.
'Dirty work'
In the same interview aired Sunday evening, Pistorius voiced support for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who drew criticism after saying that Israel was doing the Western world's "dirty work" by taking out the Iranian nuclear threat.
The German defence minister said his choice of words would have been different in that case.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has resumed its strikes on Iranian military targets.
"Approximately 20 fighter jets conducted intelligence-based strikes using over 30 munitions on military targets in Iran," the Israeli military posted on Telegram.
The attacks were carried out on "storage and missile launching infrastructure sites," as well as "military satellites and radar sites," it added.
The Israeli military had struck storage facilities in central Iran on Sunday.
Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at targets across Israel on Sunday morning, hours after Trump announced that the US military had struck three Iranian nuclear sites.
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