Iran Vows Revenge After US Bombs Its Key Nuclear Sites

Fears strikes could lead to drawn-out war Trump had promised to avoid

- Andrew Roth (Washington), William Christou (Jerusalem), Joseph Gedeon

Iran warned the US yesterday to brace for retaliation after Donald Trump's administration joined Israel in its war against Tehran, tearing up his isolationist foreign policy and launching the most consequential intervention in a conflict in a generation.

Almost a day after US strikes targeting three key Iranian nuclear sites, Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told Emmanuel Macron of France that "the Americans must receive a response to their aggression," signaling a potential Iranian reprisal that could drag the US into a new protracted conflict in the Middle East.

President Trump insisted that the airstrikes were a limited intervention, urging Tehran to negotiate an end to its attempts to build a nuclear weapon and warning that striking troops would lead to a brutal US military campaign.

But following one of the most fateful decisions of his second administration, the question of whether the US will become embroiled in a drawn-out war in the Middle East that he had promised to avoid now appears to be in the hands of senior officials in Tehran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

World leaders urged restraint from both sides and a return to diplomacy to prevent the conflict from spiralling out of control. Western governments called for a return to the negotiating table, while China and Russia condemned the strikes and said they undermined global security.

Israel continued to strike targets in Iran yesterday, claiming about 30 jets had flown sorties against dozens of military targets in Iran, including the first against a long-range missile site in the Yazd area.

Iranian officials signalled that they would consider disrupting maritime trade in the strait of Hormuz or strikes against one of dozens of US bases in the region, as its leadership seeks to project strength after an embarrassing series of raids by Israeli and now US warplanes that have operated over the country virtually unopposed.