(Headline USA) The Pentagon’s surprise attack on three of Iranian nuclear sites Saturday nights had apparently been in the works for about a year, with the U.S. and Israel having practiced the operation during the Biden administration.
“It was the first exercise that war-gamed an offensive strike against Iran’s nuclear program,” an anonymous source in Israel reportedly told ABC News.
“The exercise was planned and executed during the Biden administration, ‘But we did not think a year ago that this would happen now,’” the source reportedly said.
America and Israel’s militaries war-gamed tonight’s attack on Iran a year ago under Biden.
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/G8woVpUUh3
— AF Post (@AFpost) June 22, 2025
The mission, called “Operation Midnight Hammer,” involved decoys and deception, and was met with no Iranian resistance, Hegseth and Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon news conference.
Caine said the goal of the operation — destroying nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — had been achieved.
“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.
Vice President JD Vance said in a television interview that while he would not discuss “sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground,” he felt “very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon.”
Pressed further, he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “I think that we have really pushed their program back by a very long time. I think that it’s going to be many many years before the Iranians are able to develop a nuclear weapon.”
Much of the world is absorbing the consequences of the strikes and the risk that they could lead to more fighting across the Middle East after the United States inserted itself into the war between Israel and Iran. Airstrikes starting on June 12 by Israel that targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities and generals prompted retaliation from Iran.
While U.S. officials urged for caution and stressed that only nuclear sites were targeted by Washington, Iran criticized the actions as a violation of its sovereignty and international law.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Sunday that Washington was “fully responsible” for whatever actions Tehran may take in response.
“They crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities,” he said at a news conference in Turkey. “I don’t know how much room is left for diplomacy.”
Both Russia and China condemned the U.S. attack. Araghchi said he would travel to Moscow later Sunday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement warned about the risk of the conflict spreading beyond the Middle East to “a global level.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
