AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
With a post online and then an address to the nation, President Trump announced the United States attacked Iran's three most important nuclear sites overnight, marking a major escalation in the violence in the Middle East.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.
RASCOE: Iran is saying it will hit back at the U.S. now that America has fully entered its war with Israel. We're joined now by NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, international correspondent Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv and national security correspondent Greg Myre. Greg, let's begin with you. What do we know about the U.S. attack?
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: So the U.S. used B-2 stealth bombers and at least one submarine to carry out powerful attacks on these three Iranian sites - Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. They're all south of the capital, Tehran, about a hundred to 300 miles south. This took place early Sunday local time, Saturday night in the U.S. These planes flew 30 hours or more round-trip from Whiteman Air Force Base east of Kansas City. The planes used massive 30,000-pound bombs. This is the first time these bombs have been used in combat. The sub or possibly subs fire Tomahawk missiles. Now, Trump calls it a complete success, but it will take time to get a full assessment on the extent of the damage. You know, were these facilities completely destroyed? What happened to the highly enriched uranium? Was it inside? Was it moved elsewhere before the strikes? And how long does this set back Iran's nuclear program?
RASCOE: Tam, what's President Trump saying about his decision to hit Iran?
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: He justified the move by saying that Iran has been a long-time bad actor in the region, and he said the objective of the targeted strikes was to destroy Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and stop the nuclear threat posed by, quote, "the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terror." Not long ago, he was seriously talking about the prospects of a nuclear deal with Iran, but he complained that they just couldn't or wouldn't get it done, and now he's insisting that Iran come to the table and make peace.
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TRUMP: Cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left.
KEITH: And after his address to the nation, Trump added in an all-caps social media post, quote, "any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight. Thank you!"
RASCOE: Daniel, you're in Tel Aviv, and you've been to the site of a new Iranian missile strike. Tell us about that.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Well, Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel a few hours after the U.S. strike. Israeli paramedics are reporting at least several dozen people wounded, but no fatalities. I'm sitting now near the site of one of those missile impact sites. It's an affluent neighborhood of north Tel Aviv. I saw an entire residential apartment building gutted. Residents had gone down to the building's bomb shelter, and that saved them. But there was a really large blast radius in the neighborhood. There was an elderly people's home suffered some damage. They were being evacuated to a hotel. I met one Israeli woman whose apartment was damaged, who says she wants to escape Tel Aviv for now because she thinks the U.S. strikes will lead to an increase of Iranian attacks on the city. And indeed, immediately after the U.S. strikes, Israel anticipated big retaliation, and it has ordered schools and businesses to close.
RASCOE: And, Greg, what are we hearing from Tehran?
MYRE: Yeah, we haven't heard from Iran's supreme leader, who hasn't been in public in recent days, or any other top leaders. But the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is in Turkey, and he gave a press conference saying Iran has the right to respond. He said, Iran, quote, "reserves all options to defend its security" and "interests and people." He was asked if, because of this attack, now the prospect of holding peace negotiations is still possible. And he said, no, this is not the case right now. He didn't list Iran's options, but they could include missile or drone strikes at some 40,000 U.S. military personnel in the region or an attempted attack on U.S. embassies or American civilians. Now, these could be the most immediate threats in the near term. Iran may wait and try to hit back days, weeks, months from now. Remember, President Trump authorized a strike that killed Iran's most prominent military leader in 2020 during his first term. Trump said last year that Iran has plotted to kill him, though Iran denies this.
RASCOE: Tam, didn't Trump won - run on ending forever wars?
KEITH: Oh, he sure did. He called himself the candidate of peace. In his inaugural address just five months ago, he said that his proudest legacy in office would be that of a peacemaker and unifier. And he is constantly saying that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza wouldn't have happened if he were president. So leading up to this, Trump's political base was divided, with some prominent and loud voices in the MAGA movement quite critical of the idea of U.S. direct involvement. But even before Trump announced the strikes, you could see the wheels turning for his supporters to justify the apparent contradiction.
And Trump himself, by emphasizing that he wants peace with Iran and referencing the Soleimani strike from earlier - from his first term that Greg just mentioned, he's treating this like a one-off in line with his peace through strength messaging. And if somehow that's how this turns out, and the U.S. isn't drawn into a long-term commitment, and Americans aren't killed in retaliatory actions, maybe just maybe he can claim he's being consistent. But there are just a lot of variables he doesn't control at this point.
RASCOE: Daniel, how does a direct attack by the U.S. change the way Israelis look at the conflict with Iran?
ESTRIN: Many Israelis I've spoken to today are grateful to President Trump for carrying out the strike because the U.S. is the only country with the military equipment that can do the kind of significant damage the U.S. says took place at the heavily fortified nuclear sites in Iran. But other Israelis I spoke to, some of them whose apartments were damaged in the recent missile attack, were not supportive of the U.S. strikes and blamed Netanyahu for starting a war that would require the U.S. to finish, and that - fearing that it could only escalate and make diplomacy even harder. I spoke to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive, who is familiar with discussions among Israeli officials, who told me that officials here intend for these U.S. strikes to now try to help wrap up the Iran war. Listen to what Erez Savi (ph) told me today. His apartment was nearly destroyed in today's strike.
EREZ SAVI: I believe this is - was necessary to get to the final stage. The last stage is when Iran is coming to talk about - with the U.S. and close the - all nuclear program.
ESTRIN: I should note that military analysts in Israel see that the U.S. action carrying out what they believe will be a one-time operation, hopefully quickly moving to diplomacy, but that suggests that regime change in Iran is not a goal if Trump is offering to strike a deal with the current regime.
RASCOE: Tam, what about Capitol Hill?
KEITH: Yeah, I think Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin best summed up the GOP machinations on this, the effort to justify Trump's actions in light of his earlier rhetoric. Let me just read a bit of his tweet. He says, to those concerned about U.S. involvement, this isn't a forever war. In fact, it's ending one. POTUS was clear - Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. As for Democrats, their reactions range from outraged to very outraged. The president didn't seek authorization from Congress, which has allowed its constitutional role in authorizing military action to erode significantly in the 25 years since 9/11.
And the administration hasn't yet briefed Congress on the intelligence underlying this move. Democrats say he doesn't have a real plan for what happens next and is putting Americans at risk. New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said doing this without authorization was, quote, "a grave violation of the Constitution and congressional war powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations," and she concludes, "it is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment."
RASCOE: Daniel, what are you hearing about how significant this moment is?
ESTRIN: Well, in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it historic. He for decades has considered Iran and its nuclear ambitions to be his No. 1 concern. The Israeli and U.S. militaries say that they cooperated together on this operation, this U.S. strike. The big inflection point now is a big gamble. I spoke to Ilan Goldenberg. He's from the advocacy group J Street, and during the Obama administration, he was the man at the Pentagon in charge of following Israel-Iran tensions. And he believes the most likely scenario now is Iranian retaliation against U.S. military bases - an aggrieved Iran regime that could take greater risks in its strikes, which could lead to a perpetual kind of low grade air war between Iran and Israel for months, or, on the other hand, could be a turning point if Iran does agree to restraints on its nuclear program. But it really is a roll of the dice.
RASCOE: Greg, the region has been mired in fighting since Hamas attacked Israel. Can you talk about how we got from that moment to today?
MYRE: Yeah, that surprise Hamas attack 20 months ago set off a chain of events that leads directly to where we are today. You know, Israel was completely shocked by that attack, but they've responded by systematically taking down Iran's proxies. First, Hamas in Gaza, though that war is still grinding on with a terrible humanitarian crisis. Then the Israelis delivered this powerful blow to Hezbollah in Lebanon. And now Israel, along with the U.S., has been striking Iran's nuclear and military facilities. Ayesha, we're witnessing a dramatic remaking of the Middle East, though we still don't know how it will play out ultimately.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Greg Myre, along with Daniel Estrin and Tamara Keith. Thank you all.
DANIEL ESTRIN AND TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.
MYRE: Thank you.
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