Iran’s president condemns US airstrikes, accuses Washington of backing Israeli aggression

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has made his first statement following US airstrikes on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities, strongly condemning Washington’s actions.

According to Pezeshkian, the US strikes revealed that Washington is the driving force behind Israel’s military campaign against Iran, Caliber.Az reports, citing Iranian media.

“This act of aggression demonstrated that America is the main force behind the hostile actions of the Zionist regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian leader stressed.

He also added that the US launched the strikes after realising “Israel’s clear inability” to achieve its stated objectives.

The already tense situation between Israel and Iran, which is in its 10th day on June 22, deteriorated even more as US President Donald Trump announced late on June 21 that American forces conducted airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The attacks, described by Trump as a “spectacular military success,” aimed to dismantle Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities, which the US and Israel claim pose a severe threat to global security.

The US operation involved B-2 Spirit stealth bombers deploying GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs), 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bombs designed to penetrate deeply buried targets. The primary target, Fordow, is a heavily fortified uranium enrichment facility located 300 feet beneath a mountain south of Tehran, making it one of Iran’s most secure nuclear sites. Six B-2 bombers dropped a dozen MOPs on Fordow, while US Navy submarines launched 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan, according to US officials. Trump claimed the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities.

By Khagan Isayev