World awaits Iran's response after US strikes on nuke sites

The world awaited Iran's response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.

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The US administration however, stressed that no order had been given for any wider war to overthrow the hardline clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979.

“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon.

“The president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear programme.”

US Vice President JD Vance said Washington was not at war with Iran but with its nuclear programme, adding this had been pushed back by a very long time due to the US intervention.

Speaking in Istanbul, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran would consider all possible responses.

There would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated, he said. “The US showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force,” he said.