Hegseth says Iran’s nuclear ambitions obliterated

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Sunday that “Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,” hours after the United States attacked three major nuclear nuclear enrichment facilities.

Hegseth, who praised President Donald Trump’s order as “focused, it was powerful, and it was clear,” said that the late-night mission was “not and has not been about regime change” in Iran.

“The president authorized a precision operation to neutralize the threats to our national interest posed by the Iranian nuclear program and the collective self-defense of our troops and our ally Israel,” he said during an early morning press conference.

Hegseth was echoing remarks made by Trump late Saturday following the attacks, when he hailed the “destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity.”

But the full extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear capabilities was not immediately clear.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said Sunday that there was “severe damage and destruction” to the facilities at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, but did not go so far as to say that Iran’s nuclear capacities had been “obliterated.”

“Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Tehran has all options to defend its sovereignty and people after the “outrageous” U.S. attacks.

Caine, speaking from the podium at the Pentagon, outlined a timeline of the strikes on Iran, an operation that has been called “Operation Midnight Hammer” by the Trump administration.

He said that some B-2 bombers that were launched from the U.S. overnight Friday were a decoy, while the others “proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications throughout the 18-hour flight.”

More than 125 aircrafts participated in the operation, including the stealth B2 bombers.

Caine said that the Pentagon was “unaware” of any shots fired at the bombers on their wait out of Iran.

“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission. We retained the element of surprise,” Caine said.

This is breaking news and will be updated.