Within the hours after its navy strikes on Iranian nuclear websites, U.S. officers recommended 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 will likely be both peace or there will likely be tragedy for Iran far better than now we 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 navy 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 Pictures
Vance recommended the U.S. was not involved in a broader struggle or a battle past its strikes on the Iranian nuclear program.
“We’re not at struggle with Iran; we’re at struggle 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” navy 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’s the time to return 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 return 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 achieve this,” 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 geared toward “regime change.”
Trump ordered that the offensive “is most definitely not open-ended,” Hegseth mentioned, calling the assault “a targeted, highly effective and clear mission on the destruction of Iranian nuclear capabilities.”
“These had 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…could be an extremely poor alternative,” and Hegseth famous U.S. and allies’ belongings close to Iran.
The secretary mentioned the strikes — which included 14 large ordnances flown by seven stealth bombers — “devastated” their targets and left Tehran’s nuclear ambitions “obliterated.”
Caine mentioned a injury evaluation was “way too early” to report, however mentioned the operation had “severely broken” the focused amenities.
The president recommended 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 feel it’s irrelevant to ask Iran to return to diplomacy as a result of we had been in the midst of diplomacy,” Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned Sunday.
“We had been in the midst of talks with america when [the] Israelis blew it up. And once more, we had been in the midst of talks and negotiation with Europeans, [which] occurred solely two days in the past in Geneva, when this time Individuals determined to blow it up,” he mentioned,– referencing his rapidly organized conferences with European leaders on Friday.
“So we had been in diplomacy. However we had been attacked,” he added.
Rubio, America’s prime 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 suppose they will purchase themselves time. They suppose they’re cute, they are not cute, they usually’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 recommended a renewed Iranian nuclear buildup would change Washington’s calculus.
“If Iran is dedicated to turning into a nuclear-weapons energy, I do suppose it places the regime in danger. I feel it could be the top of the regime in the event that they tried to try this,” he mentioned.
