World awaits Iran's response after Trump says US 'obliterates' nuclear sites

The world awaited Iran's response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the U.S. had “obliterated" Tehran's key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.With the damage visible from space after 30,000-pound U.S. bunker-buster bombs crashed into the mountain above Iran's Fordow nuclear site, Tehran vowed to defend itself at all costs. It fired another volley of missiles at Israel that wounded scores of people and flattened buildings in Tel Aviv.The Reuters Daily Brief-ing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.But perhaps in an effort to avert all-out war with the U.S. superpower, it had yet to follow through on its main threats of retaliation against the United States itself - either by targeting U.S. bases or trying to choke off global oil supplies.

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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 U.S. showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force," he said. Trump, announcing the strikes in a televised address, called them "a spectacular military success".

“Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier," he said.Still, his administration stressed that no order had been given for any wider war to overthrow the hardline Shi'ite Muslim clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979.