WASHINGTON / TEHERAN / ISTANBUL / BERLIN - US President Donald Trump said Saturday that Iran will face more military strikes if peace does not come quickly.
Addressing the nation Saturday evening, Trump said that Iran's key nuclear facilities had been "completely and totally obliterated," and that future attacks will be "far greater and a lot easier."
"If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes," he said.
Trump said that he decided a long time ago not to let Iran gain a nuclear weapon and that without peace, there will be "tragedy" for Iran that will far exceed what's taken place.
'Outrageous'
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities were "outrageous" and "will have everlasting consequences."
Teheran "reserves all options" to retaliate, said the minister.
"War starts right now," Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said after Trump's announcement of US successful attacks on three Iranian nuclear facilities of "Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan."
Iran had evacuated these three nuclear sites "a while ago," said Hassan Abedini, deputy political director of Iran's state broadcaster.
Appearing on state-run television, he said that Iran "didn't suffer a major blow because the materials had already been taken out."
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Iran's Atomic Energy Organization confirmed the US attacks, but said that its work will not be stopped.
"The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran assures the great Iranian nation that despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of thousands of its revolutionary and motivated scientists and experts, it will not allow the development of this national industry, which is the result of the blood of nuclear martyrs, to be stopped," the agency said in a statement issued after Trump's announcement of the US attacks.
There were also "no signs of contamination" at the three nuclear sites after US airstrikes, the Iranian state media reported, quoting a statement from the country's National Nuclear Safety System Center.
"There is no danger to the residents living around the aforementioned sites," the statement said.
In its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, the United States used the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, known as the "bunker buster," local media quoted two sources familiar with the operation.
B-2 bombers are the only aircraft capable of carrying the bombs, said the report.
Trump and his team were in touch with top congressional Republicans before the strikes, but did not brief top Democrats on his plans until after the bombs had been dropped, the report added.
The attacks marked a historic escalation in the Middle East. It may provoke retaliation from Teheran against US troops and military installations across the region, said the report.
A senior official from Yemen's Houthi group said in a social media post early Sunday that it would hold Trump responsible for the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.
"Trump must bear the consequences," Houthi political bureau member Hizam al-Assad posted on X.
Prior to the US attacks, the Houthi group said in a statement that it would target US ships if Washington attacks Iran.
"If America is involved in the attack and aggression against Iran ... the armed forces (Houthi forces) will target its ships and battleships in the Red Sea," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in the statement, aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on Sunday after the US attacks, calling it a "bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities."
Trump had created a "pivot of history," he added.
The US air raids on Iran came on the ninth day after Israel launched attacks on Iran on June 13.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Saturday that US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites are "a dangerous escalation" and "a direct threat to international peace and security."
"I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today. This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge -- and a direct threat to international peace and security," said Guterres in a statement.
There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control -- with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region and the world, he said.
Guterres called on UN member states to uphold their obligations under the UN Charter and other rules of international law.
"At this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace," he said.
Flight suspensions
Also on Saturday, Iran's Ministry of Roads and Urban Development also announced the suspension of flights to and from the country will be extended until 14:00 Sunday local time (1030 GMT), the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The restrictions on Iran's airspace would remain in place, to ensure the safety of passengers and flights, unless the country's conditions return to normal, Tasnim quoted the ministry's spokesman Majid Akhavan as saying.
Israeli airstrikes
In Berlin on Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that recent Israeli airstrikes on Iran have delayed Teheran's ability to develop nuclear weapons by at least two to three years.
"I believe it is a success -- we have achieved many results," Saar told German newspaper Bild in an interview conducted in Jerusalem and published on Saturday.
He called on Germany and other European countries to provide more political and military support for Israel.
IDF: 3 senior Iranian commanders killed
In Jerusalem, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in statements on Saturday that it had killed three senior commanders in Iran overnight.
One of them was Saeed Izadi, the commander of the Palestine Corps in the Quds Force, a branch of the IRGC, according to the IDF.
Izadi, a key coordinator between the Iran and Hamas, was killed in an air strike in Iran's Qom province, the IDF said.
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The IDF said in a separate statement that its air force also killed Behnam Shahriyari, commander of the Quds Force's weapons transfer unit in the IRGC, in western Iran.
The statement said that Shahriyari was responsible for "weapons transfers from Iran to its proxies" across the Middle East.
Earlier on Saturday, the IDF said that its air force had struck and killed Aminpour Joudaki in southwestern Iran. Joudaki was the commander of the second unmanned aerial vehicle brigade of the IRGC Air Force.
The statement claimed that as part of his role, he had advanced hundreds of drone attacks against Israeli territory from the area of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran.
The IDF also said that that it had completed a series of airstrikes in southwestern Iran on Saturday.
The statement said that approximately 30 Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck dozens of military targets, with over 50 munitions, in the area of Ahvaz.
